Ten years since Taipei 101
Built for the overclocker who couldn't check a bag. Adopted by labs, universities and reviewers who just wanted a bench that didn't get in the way. This is the edition we built to mark ten years of both.
Reserve the 10Y EditionIt started with a meeting, at the base of a very tall building
It started during Computex, in a meeting at Taipei 101. Someone from HWBOT, someone from OverClocking-TV, and someone from Streacom shared the same grievance: every open-air test bench was way too heavy and cumbersome to pack and set up, especially for people traveling overseas to overclocking competitions who needed something quick and compact.
So the brief wrote itself, more or less. Light enough for a suitcase. No tools required beyond your hands. Strong enough that a graphics card wouldn't feel like a liability sitting on it. At the time, nothing like that existed — open-air test benches were either large and cumbersome, or simply a cardboard box. We had to rethink the category before we could build the bench.
Prototypes got tested at HWBOT World Tour events in 2015. The first shipping version, the Community Edition, launched in 2016. V2 followed in 2021 with significant improvements.
We built it for one traveler. Everyone else showed up anyway
We designed the OBT for a very specific person: an overclocker flying to a competition with a bench in their carry-on. That person exists, and they're still out there. But most of the benches we've shipped never leave a building.
They sit in university labs. They're in R&D labs at the biggest AI companies. They're the thing a reviewer sets a card on for the fortieth time this month, because it's fast to mount and doesn't wobble on camera. None of them are packing for an airport. They just wanted something compact, stable, and easy to set up — which happens to be exactly what we built for someone else entirely.
What stayed the same while everything else changed
The journey to lightweight
Every generation has shaved weight without giving up the rigidity flagship hardware demands. Here's how the 10Y compares.
The version we wanted to make ten years ago
The Open Benchtable design was always a manufacturing cost compromise. We know how to make it lighter and easier to travel with — but doing so increases the manufacturing cost. So we cost-optimized, more people could afford the OBT design, and judging by the reviews and the number of units shipped, that was the right call.
The 10Y Anniversary Edition doesn't have to make that trade-off. Same 6063 aluminum as V1/V2, same footprint — but on a production run this small, it finally gets the extra machining pass that was shelved back then: 2mm removed from each internal face, 8mm external and 4mm internal instead of a flat 8mm throughout. The result is 1.21kg, down from V1/V2's 1.82kg. Nothing exotic — just material taken off where the structure can spare it. It costs more to machine. On this run, for once, that's fine.
101, for the building where the partnership started. We're not printing more if they sell out, and we're not calling it "limited" while quietly restocking later. 101 units per finish, and then it's done.
Three finishes. 101 units each. A box that matches.
Every 10Y ships in a premium black box, not the standard OBT packaging. It's the kind of detail you only get to do on a run this small.
We're not going to pretend this is cheap to make
The 10Y Anniversary Edition is $299, versus $199 for the standard edition — the difference accounts for the additional machining cost, nothing more. Whether you're an enthusiast who saved up for one or a lab running twenty of them, this community is the only reason there's a tenth year to celebrate. Pricing it like a collector's item would say otherwise.
If you were there in 2016
You bought a Community Edition when the Open Benchtable was still an idea more than a product. Before the 10Y goes on general sale, it's yours first.
Thanks for ten years of showing up
We'll let you know the day early access opens.
Notify Me at Launch
