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

A BIG issue I see about the audio board you found there is the influence in sound from the electromagnetic field created inside a computer case, mostly caused by the power supply (talking about the lack of any shielding around the digital/analogue opamps/dac's and gains).
I would think it would not sound as clean as a stand alone DAC would do...
Anyhow, the Denons are performing VERY well, I used to have both a HD-580 and HD-600 some years back when I started head-Fi, but there is just so much more punch in the Denons that I don't think I ever go back to Sennheiser.
Think about them as a comparison of analogue amplifiers (Sennheiser sound) and digital amplifiers (Denon sound), best way to describe it for short.

 

I have now been thinking and researching for the past 4 hours about how to optimize the cooling of my Mac since somebody mentioned heatpipes.

Heatpipes would be a great idea, to stick them in at the CPU heatsink and let them bend around the shell so it will release some of the heat - but then again the space is SO limited it would be an absolute hell to mount.
Also, am pretty sure now that I would need to get them custom made to fit the space I have - and I don't have unlimited money so better loose that idea before doing something stupid.

Instead I have been looking around for an alternative heatsink, the one factory fitted is just plain anodized aluminum, not the best heat conductor if you look up some numbers about alu.


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So, were to find a heatsink?
In specially one name came up a lot of times when I seached on Google: Cooljag.
But Cooljag (and the model JAC09FC) is impossible to find in this part of the world, why?! -because here the name is NeXus!

After I figured that out I first found the official page and then I found somebody willing to sell me one



So now it is for sure goodnight!

 

Should maybe mention I did NOT order any of the new pieces yet, have to go home and check if the holes are arranged in the same way as a usual socket 479 would be.
Also, is almost sure the height is too tall, so have to either saw off the rest or Dremel it off

 

That will defiantly be better than stock.

 

Definately a nice mod !

Endnu en K'benhavner der bygger , fedt nok !!

 

Takker
Teknisk set er jeg dog ikke Københavner, bor her bare, men lad nu det ligge

 

UPDATES

The weekend is over and time to show off what I did to the Mac over the past days.

First up I went to my parents place to help them with a couple of things - and to borrow their workshop for some drilling and a paint job (usually I live in a apartment in a four stories tall building in the capital of Denmark, not ideal for drilling and/or spray paint).

Lets start some drilling for holes to mount the feet in:

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Looking good:

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Done!

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Nej, der en pæn bid vej fra Ore til den store by.

Anyway...Looks good, even though it's not a proper PC.

 

Painting!

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A thing I did not think about is that black is maybe the most honest color of all (or lack of color?), it shows every tiny bump and scratch.
I don't have any plastic putty or something that alike so can't really do anything about it - but then again, it's in the bottom and when first the feet is placed nobody would ever turn it around to look for scratches.


Flat black:

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Four PCs that either broke down or made all kind of weird stunts was just too much for me - whenever you go Mac, you never go back
(and I hope the thing about whenever you go black you never go back be true too, thinking about my African little angel of a girlfriend)

Btw, Hi Boris - my Jedi master!

 

As we all know that for paint to dry the best temperature is normal living room temperature around 20-25 degree Celsius.
But... It's freezing cold were my parents live:

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Aaaaand - that's why they have a fireplace!

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The natural thing for me to do was then to make sure the paint would have ideal heat for drying before I had to pack the thing up and go home:

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I realized a new problem after the paint had dried up, that the supplied bolts for the feet did not match the thickness of the plastic buttom!!
They are simply too short...

Now what to do!


The solutions as with a lot of other stuff can be found at eBay.co.uk:

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Plastic bolts and nuts!
Because I can cut them down to the exact size I want, they are non electrical if they by any chance should hit the PCB inside and they are hard to screw back out without breaking them, as a kind of safety thing if somebody ever want to steal the feet(?)

 

After coming back from the trip I put it all back on the shelf next to the black top and it will be standing there until the AirPort card arrives from China and the plastic bolts and nuts arrive from the UK.

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As a different thing I called my "graphic assistant", at the company who I ordered a pro "sticker" to put on the top, to ask about the last couple of details.
I expect to receive that piece within this week or at the latest in the beginning of next week, depending how busy they else will be with the usual advertisement stickers and decals they make.

Btw, as some might have noticed I left the back of the unit white, so I still can see the small logoes at the ports and by that not mix up the mic in and the sound out, just to mention two that looks the same.

No other upgrades for now, I keep you guys posted.

 

True story from some old blogs on a Google search.

I was looking around to see if anybody else have ever done a heatsink replacement on a Mac Mini, and I think this comment is funny:

From dssw.co.uk

BUT!

YES, some guy have done it - ehm, but what do you think about HIS result @overclock.net


Wait till you see how I will do it
(and yes, I'm NOT in my "right mind" - can you be mod'er and be that?)

 

Just looking around as usual to get ideas - and found some different feet:

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Now I'm in doubt, 'caus I already have some nice casefeet hmm...

EDIT:
After some more surfing around I made up my mind and stick to the original plan, the feet I already got is more unique, these ones are pretty easy to get anywhere. Also, design-wise the feet I already got have a black trim at the mounting area that makes them blend better in with the now flat black bottom of the Mini

 

Meh, Minis are made to be modded... personally, you could probably water cool it, with a small corsair or coolit system, or do a diy kit with a small graphics piece. Just need to drill some holes for the tubes

 

I have thought about it, but can't find any neat solution for placing the pump, rad and res.
And yea, the tubes would make a mess in the design too, hard enough when I receive the AirPort card that I have to fill in three antennas (because it's 802.11n) were there is only ment to be one.

 

When we wait...

Not much happens at the moment, I'm kind of stuck here waiting for packages to arrive from different parts of the world.

In the meantime when I wait I'm loading the machine up to be the mini music beast it's supposed to be when it's done. Converting every CD I own to FLAC and 256kbps AAC for my iPod takes like forever...

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Another thing I have spend some time on is that in lack of a better Time Machine drive I have found my good old WD Blue series IDE hard drive. Put it in a frame of an old never finished mod project to keep an eye of the temps - and placed a fan on top, just to be sure not to fry my backups.
To connect it I'm using a simple USB to IDE converter and a 230-to-12 volt power adapter.

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I hate waiting so have to do stuff to keep me busy

 

Gad vide hvor mange moddere, vi er herovre på d-øen?