1. This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies. Learn More.

Case Mod - In Progress Bid on a Black Mini - a modified black Mac Mini. For sale July 2010

Discussion in 'Project Logs' started by AT0MAC, 22 Jan 2010.

  1. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    INTERESTED IN BUYING THIS MAC?
    WATCH MY ADD AND FIND OUT MORE
    @YouTube



    I just bought the new Mac Mini Server 2010 and is now selling this unique piece of tech, a anodized and fully upgraded black Mac Mini.

    -------------------------------------------------

    Some time ago I started to mod my Mini.
    Have for some time now been posting updates to a Danish site and thought it was about time to share it with others.

    The result:

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]


    See much more pictures @Flickr (and without the watermark :hip: )



    So what do you think now?

    :worried:




    -----------------------------------------------------​

    The story:

    The whole idea started when I sold my DAC/Pre-Amp/Headamp - The Tianyun Zero DAC - because I wanted to try something new with my sound system.
    I have for the past 6 years mainly been listening to headphones when I'm on the computer and have upgraded the gear quite a bit since the start so my main headphone now is a Denon AH-D2000 - those 'cans' deserves some quality amplification and D/A conversion.
    I have had The Zero for about 2 years now, since I bought the Denon's, and it is about time for a change.
    As said, sold The Zero, kept the Denon's and started looking arround.

    What I found very pleasing in features, sound and price is the NAD C165BEE Pre-Amp:

    [​IMG]

    To connect that properly I would like to set a DAC in between my Mac and that, something like this came to mind:

    [​IMG]
    Cambridge DAC Magic​

    My main transport is my Mac Mini mid-2007 and don't want to change that, but what I do want to change is the appearance of it so it matches the whole system.
    So, gave it a couple of shots in Photoshop and SketchUp and came out with this:

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: 16 Jul 2010
  2. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    A couple of ideas for the mod are these:

    • Black anodized aluminum housing (original silver anodized housing)
    • Blue LED in front (original white LED)
    • My personal "logo" on top (orginal Apple logo)
    • Aluminum Hi-Fi feets below it (original flat rubber mat)
    • 500 GB harddrive for FLAC music files and other data (original 120 GB)
    • 3 GB RAM (original 2 GB)
    • 300 MBps build-in AirPort card (original 54 MBps)
    • Upgrade to SnowLeopard (original Leopard)

    First up was the easiest part, to get SnowLeopard:

    [​IMG]
     
  3. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    After almost two days and close to giving up I finally found some Hi-Fi looking feet for the build:

    [​IMG]

    They are normally used under a SilverStone TJ09 PC case.
    This part were ordered in UK (I live in DK, Denmark).

    Next research round gave me a even harder time.
    Looked around to find some that for an affordable price could turn my Mini housing top into black aluminium instead of plain white/silver.
    Found two places they were interested in my project, but taken into consideration that those guys have never tried anything like this before I did'nt wanted to take the risk.
    Looked some more and found a very pro computer modding company in the US, Computer Choppers.
    Came in contact with a great guy there and got this:

    [​IMG]

    Can tell it is NOT cheap to get that thing anodized in the US, but they have done it a couple of times before so I like to pay for something I can trust is just perfect.

    [​IMG]
     
  4. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    Next up, RAM upgrades.

    Were looking to find a nice set of 3 or 4 GB 667 Mhz DDR2 SO-DIMM 200 sticks to put in, the Mini 2007 only supports up to 3 GB officially but can benefit from the 2x2 GB as it is giving it DualChannel performance but with only 3.3 GB.
    For the price it was not really interesting to buy 2+1 GB sticks or 2+2 GB sets as new, so started to look alternative places like on eBay.co.uk and found these:

    [​IMG]

    Hynix have for a long time been one of the official suppliers for Apple so it is not a bad deal, I knew they would fit!

    Couple of days later they showed up:

    [​IMG]
     
  5. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    Arround the same time my case feet arrived from UK too:

    [​IMG]

    Was time for some more research, hard drives!
    I knew that the Mini will only take up to 500 GB from when I have looked around forums on the web earlier. I want to convert all my music to FLAC so I need the space, it is not only my music player but also main computer so there will be a lot of pictures and other data on it too.

    After reading a lot of reviews I came out with that Samsung should be a pretty nice manufacturer of 2.5" drives: Low power, high speed, low heat, high reliability, low cost.

    The drive I ended out buying is the Samsung HM500JI

    First package I got from my home country, Denmark:

    [​IMG]
     
  6. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    For some time I were a bit stuck, I wanted the LED diode in the front to be changed for a blue one instead of white, to match the DAC and pre-amp.
    But to change that LED I needed to figure out how to mount a SMD diode without burning it off, AND make sure it would use the same resistance as the white...
    A bit too complicated for me to be honest!

    After some serious thinking I found this on Amazon.co.uk:

    [​IMG]

    Blue cellophane!

    [​IMG]

    And yes, believe it or not, but the blue version is kind of impossible to fin in Denmark.

    [​IMG]

    Test fitted and it works like a charm!
     
  7. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    Can NOT recommend Vinz Decals

    One of the very hard parts have been to figure out how to do the decal/vinyl/sticker on the top so it will show something else than Apple logo.

    Had something like this in mind:

    [​IMG]

    We don't really have such kind of printers in Denmark than can do that, either only business orders or normal stickers/vinyls like those for cars or those for putting on books and so...
    Have been speaking with a lot of places, around 10 I think untill I gave up and ordered from Vinz Decals in US - why them?
    Because they were cheap :p

    but...
    There were a reason why...
    They delivered Very bad quality!
    I can NOT recommend Vinz Decals.

    [​IMG]
     
  8. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    After that disappointment I kind of worked around the issue and started focus on something else until I got an idea (we get to that later).

    I started searching for a new AirPort card, one that can do 802.11n standart like every other new Mac have it!

    Found this on eBay in China:

    [​IMG]

    I expect to get it sometime before the 14th of next month, take like 3 weeks to get those things to Denmark from that place :(
     
  9. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    I already have the hard disc, RAM and SnowLeopard and is not the best person when it comes to have to wait for things to happen.
    So I started to disassemble the Mac and install what I had, but for that job you need the right tool:

    [​IMG]

    And a good deal of working space:

    [​IMG]
     
  10. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    Half way:

    [​IMG]

    Spare housing for the bottom (bought a long time ago for another project trough eBay US):

    [​IMG]

    New hard disc installed:

    [​IMG]
     
  11. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    New RAM installed:

    [​IMG]

    Finally, time to install the new OS:

    [​IMG]

    Took around 1 hour to take it all apart, put in the new things and put it back together - not that bad a time line I think.

    After install, looks like everything is working, now my Mini has more RAM and a lot more hard drive space:

    [​IMG]

    :thumb:
     
  12. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    Why do I have two bottom housings in play with this mod?
    Because I'm going to put feet under and by that raise the possibility for people looking in under the Mini and see it is still white/grey there.
    I don't want that when I can do better!

    So off the rubber plate underneath have to go - but that is a lot easier said than actually done!
    It's not just glued to the bottom, it's also stuck to it with some kind of rubber hooks into the plastic!

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    :sigh:
     
  13. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    2 hours later...

    I'm NOT kidding, I spend around 2 hours in total by just rubbing rubber off and sanding it down with wet sanding paper, very fine grained.

    Now it looks like this (sorry about the bad quality, my fingers were a bit crushed after all that rubbing):

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    :rock:
     
  14. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    Bottom getting ready for it's paintjob:

    [​IMG]

    Picking the right color out of the bunch I have in my personal stock, found a mat black:

    [​IMG]
     
  15. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    Speaking about mat black I got my package from US the other day - black anodized alu frame for Mac Mini!

    [​IMG]

    Yes I know it was expensive, but damn it looks awesome (IMO)!
    (What do you think?)

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]
     
  16. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    I'm now again working on the idea about getting a vinyl done for putting on top of the mini, because black with white top does not really look that nice...

    This is more like it:

    [​IMG]

    Finally I found a guy who usually deals with businesses but was curious enough to ask what I needed it for and thought it sounds exiting to try out.
    His company is pro in marketing decals so they have tried a lot of things like this before, but never really this exact thing, the price too is not that bad - and he is in my country, wuhuu..!

    -------

    Beside all the computer stuff I got something the other day for the Hi-Fi part of this project:

    [​IMG]

    No, it is NOT an UFO :p
    It's an infrared signal to radio frequency device and back again, some sort of converter thingy.
    What it does is that it allows me to replace a battery in the remote with a rechargeable adapter/converter that will send all the ir signals to the Pre-Amp as radio waves so I don't have to point directly ad it!
    Even smarter is it that the Pre-Amp have ir in/out on the back, so I dont even need a ir eye in the front of the pre-amp, I just need a cable and plug the "UFO" in to it instead:

    [​IMG]
     
  17. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    As a last piece for now I got something to put in the bottom below the mainboard in the Mini, helping it keeping cool by connecting the metal cover inside the bottom to the PCB - there is usually a gap of air in between that heats up over time, not that clever in such a crammed space.

    I got this:

    [​IMG]

    Some special di-electric rubber compound with same advantages as cooling paste for CPU's, normally used around hard drives when mounting water cooling frames were there is small gaps of air in between the cooling unit and the drive.

    Read a bit more about it here: Koolance HDC-P02 Solidifying Thermal Compound
     
  18. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

    Joined:
    8 Jun 2008
    Posts:
    857
    Likes Received:
    30
    Status right now

    • Waiting for my AirPort 802.11n card from China
    • Need to make a picturefile the printer can print on vinyl for me
    • Need to drill holes in the bottom of my Mini for placing feet under it
    • Need to paint the bottom
    • Mount feet
    • Encode all my music to FLAC
    • Receive the NAD C165
    • Get some cables for the Hi-Fi
    • Maybe get a new rack I can put the whole system on
    • Get some comments on the work so far ;)

    Later on the DAC will come, but that's a thing I dont have money for right now, the mod is in primary focus untill done. :dremel:
    (well, thats not entirely true, I do have the most amazing girlfriend who is much more important than this - so she is always my primary focus)

    Have a nice weekend.
     
    Last edited: 23 Jan 2010
  19. Snaek

    Snaek What's a Dremel?

    Joined:
    10 Jan 2004
    Posts:
    204
    Likes Received:
    9
    That thing looks great in black! Hopefully this decal company works out for you.
     
  20. bigkingfun

    bigkingfun Tinkering addict

    Joined:
    27 Jul 2008
    Posts:
    988
    Likes Received:
    59
    Took me two weeks, every evening but it was worth it.

    Nice design. Keep up the good work :thumb:
     

Share This Page