Fleur was our attempt to take the oldest idea we have and build it properly, and today we're retiring it.
If you've followed us for a while, you already know where the flowers come from; Sakura was the build that first put us on the map, and Fleur was us going back to that same pink-floral idea years later with everything we'd learned since. We built it in partnership with SSUPD, and it turned into one of the best floral machines we've ever made.
Down to the smallest details
The flowers work in a lot of different sizes all the way through the build instead of clustering in one corner, with floral contact paper on the frame to tie the whole thing together and rose gold foil-stamped Optimist accents on the GPU and the fans so even the small details match. We did a custom design for the TRYX Panorama screen, and our badge sits up toward the top of the case, peeking through the glass. It's genuinely one of the prettiest things we've released.
Fleur was us going back to that same pink-floral idea years later with everything we’d learned since.
So why let something this pretty go? A few reasons, and the honest one first: the partner we sourced these particular floral accents from no longer carries the assortment Fleur was built around, so we can't keep making it exactly the way it was meant to be. On top of that, Fleur has an unusual layout where the ports come out of the top of the case, and while we think it looks beautiful, a fair number of people found that setup awkward to live with. Functionality comes before looks for us, and we'd rather not ship something that adds friction to the setup or the long-term use of it. The build also fought us on higher-end GPUs; a bigger card starts crowding the floral assortment on the front, and past a certain point you're choosing between the hardware and the look, which isn't a choice we want to hand anyone.
We absolutely love this design. Retiring it doesn't mean we're done with the pink-floral look; if anything, it's the opposite. That look has roots going all the way back to the start of Optimist, and we already want to come back to it soon with a proper refresh. For now, it's back to the drawing board.
