Scratch Build MiniMe - Smallest (ever?) Watercooled mITX PC - Update 9/9/09

[Redkachina]

Mechanically awesome LoL

[tominated]

very awesome. great sleeving and cnc work too!

[mnpctech]

Originally Posted by oliverw92

I have another 2 boxes full of machine screws and fittings

Grill looks great Oliver

[PureSilver]

This is wonderful in every way.

Can I have a very quick thread hijack to ask - what's the fastest/most powerful mITX 'board and processor combination around? All this SFF goodness has me daydreaming.

[EDIT]Basically I get booted out of my accommodation at the end of every term and have to slog my Lian Li all the way back to London. What I'm envisioning is a uni-proof little portable desktop with proper gaming power. Not Crysis, but certainly recent games at decent settings.[/EDIT]

[stoff3r]

Originally Posted by oliverw92

Update #15



I have another 2 boxes full of machine screws and fittings

Have you bought this as a kit, if so, where

[oliverw92]

Originally Posted by Redkachina

Mechanically awesome LoL

THankyou

Originally Posted by tominated

very awesome. great sleeving and cnc work too!

Thanks! Sleeving took ages but was so worth it!

Originally Posted by mnpctech

Grill looks great Oliver

Wait until they get the black button hex cap screws i just bought

Originally Posted by PureSilver

This is wonderful in every way.

Can I have a very quick thread hijack to ask - what's the fastest/most powerful mITX 'board and processor combination around? All this SFF goodness has me daydreaming.

[EDIT]Basically I get booted out of my accommodation at the end of every term and have to slog my Lian Li all the way back to London. What I'm envisioning is a uni-proof little portable desktop with proper gaming power. Not Crysis, but certainly recent games at decent settings.[/EDIT]

Most powerful mITX board is this board + a Q9650, or if you have shedloads of money, QX9770, but they cost like £1k lol.

Originally Posted by stoff3r

Have you bought this as a kit, if so, where

Nop, bought all the bits from all over the place and then bought boxes from Wicked for like £2 and put it in there


Thanks for the comments guys!

[jezmck]

Looks brilliant, keep it coming...

[azzybish]

Originally Posted by oliverw92

Most powerful mITX board is this board + a Q9650, or if you have shedloads of money, QX9770, but they cost like £1k lol.

Not quite right, this is the best board for a reasonable amount of money. There are ridiculously priced ones from Asus Gene, or DFI JR, but these are well into the £120 territory.

[PureSilver]

Originally Posted by azzybish

Not quite right, this is the best board for a reasonable amount of money. There are ridiculously priced ones from Asus Gene, or DFI JR, but these are well into the £120 territory.

Aren't the Gene and Jr's mATX, not mITX? Or am I looking in the wrong places?

Lastly - the last Bit-Tech advice I can find on Core 2 Quads recommend the Q6600; that's not really on sale anymore, is it? What does B-T recommend as the most cost effective of the currently available?

Answers on a PM, please - I have sworn this to be my last thread hijack and I'm going back to lurking.

[oliverw92]

Haha Will mITX not mATX Nublet Also, the Zotac costs about the same as the Maximus Gene

PureSilver no need to PM, i welcome the off topic, keeps the thread alive! You should see some of the logs overclock.net!

The best thing for you would be what i have; Zotac 9300-ITX with a Q9550. You can grab a Q9550 for about £160 i think. They OC well, although dont expect to get it over 3.8ghz with the Zotac board, it is not designed to OC very far.

[Dreaming]

This looks incredible! I wish I could do something like this myself :P

[oliverw92]

Thankyou very much Dreaming

[PureSilver]

Originally Posted by oliverw92

PureSilver no need to PM, i welcome the off topic, keeps the thread alive! You should see some of the logs overclock.net!.

Thanks! In the mean time, I wait for updates...

[oliverw92]

Update #16

So i haven't got much news really. Got my UV purple coolant, also got some UV blue o rings for my compression fittings (they are so funky lol). I was thinking what i could do for you guys who are avidly watching, and decided that a) video update and b) price list! So here we go!



Updated price list. This is actually pretty dam close to what it really costs, give or take a few capacitors from Maplins. I am on track to break the big £1k!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YG6lh...eature=related

Part one of the video. Features PSU, Fan Controller, PSU volume test, Drive Bay, Motherboard Tray.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUqZaR-WN8s

Part two. Side panel, Rad + Fan + Top Assembly, Completely System Test Fit, Photo Gallery (with good music!)


And finally, I would like to announce my latest sponsor, Enermax!



They will be sponsoring me with:



120mm Cluster Fan



Aurora Micro Wireless - Black anodized aluminium wireless keyboard! With multimedia keys, 'scissor' action mechanical keys, 2x USB ports built in and loads more!



120mm Apollish Silver Fan

Thankyou to Alexandra for helping me sort this!

Until next time...

[aglaser]

Quick question: you have two 120mm fans there. Obviously you don't have room in the case for both of them, so which one are you going to use, and why did you receive two?

Just read through this thread; looks great so far. Definitely subbed... eagerly awaiting more updates, hope to see the whole thing put together soon!

[Bad_cancer]

he has a point, you don't need one of them, and it just so happens that i need a good 120fan for my case so....

[woody_294]

Isn't one for the front and one for the rad??

*Edit* Nice bits of kit there

[oliverw92]

Thanks very much guys Yeah i already have a Scythe S-Flex, but it is a bit noisy and has a 'whine'. I am getting two from them Enermax and i will decide which one i like best, most likely sending the other one back. There is 1x 120mm on the rad and 1x 60mm infront of the hdds

[vils]

Nice project.
I would not however call scissor switches mechanical, the scissor is a mechanical add-on to a standard rubber dome key board.

[oliverw92]

Update #17



Box of goodies from Enermax! Thankyou to Alexandra, my contact there



Talk about epic freebies!



Anyone know what it means?



Crazy card holders for things like SD and XD cards



There are more freebies than actual sponsorship things!



Onto the proper stuff! Aurora Micro Wireless keyboard, Silver Apollish 120mm fan, White Cluster 120mm fan. I am going to test both fans and decide which is most appropriate for my project in terms of looks and performance.



Very simplistic packaging, came with plenty of padding to stop the keyboard getting damaged. No silly plastic bits making it environmentally friendly.



Nice simple product guide, not sure why it needs to be in a bag??! I like this type of guide though, don't need to read through a gazillion different language sections and a billion different health and safety warnings.



The keyboard in all its aluminium glory! It has a really solid feel to it. It must be at least 5mm thick aluminium on the top. The base is plastic, but it still feels well built. The simplistic styling of the keyboard is really nice, i.e. the curving hand rest part of the aluminium. It is actually really comfy.



Here you can see the integrated mouse ball. This is a genius idea. However Enermax have not only come up with a good idea, they have implemented it perfectly. With most other good ideas like this, the outcome is normally not well thought out. The concept may be good, but it doesn't actually function very well. This is not the case with the mouse ball. It barely took any time to get used to and is really nice if you dont want to have to sit right up to your desk. It is also a perfect addition for a media pc sitting next to your TV - you do not need a separate mouse.



Here you can see the mouse buttons and scroll wheel. At first you think 'how on earth is that going to work' but it really does. The buttons feel like proper mouse buttons, along with the scroll wheel.



Here you can see the media keys at the top. The music keys only work with wmp due to the protocol the keyboard uses. However i was surprised to find they work perfectly with my iMac. You may also notice the DPI Fn keys there. A really nice touch. The on the fly sensitive works really well, particularly if you have a small/large screen.



Battery power indicator.



Here is the back of the keyboard. There are no sharp edges to catch on clothing, everything is smoothed out so it sits nicely wherever you position it. The rubber feet are also rock solid on a flat surface. The keyboard runs off 2x AA batteries.



Here is the bluetooth connector. Nice and small, but not so small that you can lose it. The connection system is very simple: plug it in, and it works instantly! No drivers are required, even for all the media keys. I think it would have been nice, however, if they could have developed software to allow for proper integration with more programs such as itunes and winamp.



Here is the Apollish fan. I was a little dubious about this fan at first when Alexandra suggested it. I was unsure about the quality of the finish, in some of the photos it looked a little 'cheap' and 'tacky'. However as soon as i opened the box i was amazed! The finish is stunning!



Incorporated is a switch for the LEDs, a temperature probe to allow automatic control of the fan and a 3 pin power connector.



It's so shiny!



A sticker that is actually properly centred on the fan, unlike alot of others.



Here you can see the unique LED design. The fan uses SMD LEDs and resistors around the edge of the fan. I will get some pictures of this in action as soon as i can.



Here is the other fan, the Cluster. I have always had a softspot for this one! With the white LEDs it looks stunning.



The observant among you may notice something is missing! The aluminium ring around the outside has been removed and sent off for powdercoating (yes i am that picky!)



It was very easy to remove the middle bit, just had to unclip the top of the fan and twist the ring out.



Now onto some actual modding! Here are the new cubes for the corners of the case. I first of all cut the cubes on the laser cutter, but this time did not try and laser any holes. The issue with lasering the holes was that the plastic would reform straight after, meaning there was no hole basically. When i tried to drill it out, the bit would skid in the hole, ending up with a wonky screw! This time i made a jig on the laser cutter that held the cube perfectly straight. IN the bottom of the jig was a hole. I lined up the drill bit with this hole and clamped the jig down. This meant that the cubes were drilled perfectly straight.



The missing corner is intentional. This is for a 3mm LED to go into. To do the holes, i clamped the cube in a vice on its corners and drilled straight down.



Here is what the cube looks like with an LED in.



So that is the end of the update really. Now for what is currently happening and will be shown in a few weeks time!

Progress is happening with the laser cutting and powdercoating. Marcus should be lasering the mesh front and back this week, hopefully powdercoating them by the end of the week. I have sent him the top of the psu, the case feet, fan grill, motherboard i/o backplate, GPU backplate and fan ring for powdercoating. The mesh + these things will be done in:



(image courtesy of marcus)



Everything else is going to be done in this one! (i.e. the aluminium/steel frame). This is called Blue Ice explosion and should be with marcus next weekend so in 2 weeks we should have all the lasering and powdercoating done!

You can see more pics of this finish here: http://www.powderbuythepound.com/cat...oducts_id=1976


Until next time!