Scratch Build – In Progress MiniMe - Smallest (ever?) Watercooled mITX PC - 22/03/2010 COMPLETE!

Diddly-dang, I'm loving this this idea! And quite the puzzling skills too, making sure everything fits in there, you Puzzle Sensei you!

I probably missed it while reading this project log, but how are you going to connect the CD-drive and both hard drives to the Zotac? I only saw 2 SATA connections on the board, so to me this only leaves an eSATA port. Or do you have cool trick up your MNPCtech shirt's sleave? Or, for all you DnD players out there, does the shirt give you a +1 bonus on SATA port checks?

 

You state a good point there. How will you do it?

 

Thanks for the comments!

@stonesurd: I have a laser cutter at my school, so after school i go in and can do whatever i want with it.

@dAr3nD, thanks for the kind comments! Yeh it is a bit of a puzzle!

For the 3 SATA port problem: A few updates back i posted a pick of an eSATA PCI backplate. I am taking the eSATA plug bit off the backplate and this will be attached to the back of the case. I will then connect the SATA end of that to the storage hard drive. Then i just get eSATA male cable and link the eSATA on the back of the mobo to the eSATA on the back of the case

 

Looks great! Btw, the G-E revision of the zotac ( 3 Sata ports) is out in November.

 

Update #11

My watercooling sponsorship arrived!



Thankyou so much to aquatuning! http://www.aquatuning.co.uk . Thanks especially to Pascal for putting up with me!



Here we go...



Black Ice GT120 lite with 45 degree compression fittings on. These things are so cool, they rotate!



More rad



Fractal Design 60mm fan



Cable ties + bases



Fillport with compression fitting



Low profile straight compression fittings



45 Degree rotary compression fittings



90 degree rotary compression fitting



Mah lovely black nickel plated compression fittings!



Bitspower T-block with compression fittings



Couple of tube clamps for the block



Momentary dot-illuminated vandal switch



Primochill UV Pink Dye Bomb



Distilled water



2 pairs of UV cathodes



Tygon 3/8" ID 1/2" OD tubing



Scythe S-Flex 1600rpm



Apogee drive top



3/8" barbs on the drive



This thing is so cool!



45 and 90 degree fittings on my custom 9300-itx waterblock



Shipment from Rapid is here, bringing with it a multitude of goodness in electronics!



Some cheap sleeve and heatshrink



500 resistors (i'm not joking!)



2 and 3 pin molex housings/headers



Transistor



Capacitor



MIC502 chip. These things are SO TINY!



No that is not a giant key!



Capacitors, diodes and potentiometers



Put some dye in my distilled water. ooooo!



Test fitted the top of the PC (fan grill, acrylic, rad, fan). The rad is literally just as far over as it can possibly go. Another 0.5mm and it would be out of the edge!



From the top



Layers



Fillport in place



Fan/rad assembly



Removed the 9300 heatsink from the motherboard. Messy thermal paste underneath!



Installed duniek's waterblock



Installed the Apogee Drive! It just fits!





How close the parts are!



And finally, PWM Controller V5! I think it is done! Wait, no, just seen a problem! Time for V6...

 

That's definitely a great use of the Apogee Drive. You've really got no room to spare... and I love it!

 

That's going to be a really tight fit lol.

 

Very well executed. You get rep + stars

 

Very very nice! It's coming together very nicely! The only bad thing is that barrage of closeups that was kinda hard on the eyes. (but the photography itself was good. i mean the pictures are well done, but too many closeups one after the other)

other than that small detail, great stuff! Very tight fit for your blocks, but this should prove very interesting

 

Thanks for the comments! I wiill try to take more wide-angle shots next time

 

nice. looks like it's gonna turn out really good

 

Congrats with the sponsoredgear. Certainly a nice bit of kit to get in the post

Looking good thus far.

 

lookin very nice

 

THanks for the comments!

 

Update #12



Marked out the PCBs on a blank PCB sheet



Cut out on the band saw



Printed the PCB layout onto some acetate sheet



This is the UV box. You put the acetate on the PCB (copper side) and stick it in there to cook for 4 minutes. The UV loosens the copper that you want to remove (i.e. the bits that aren't black on the acetate sheet)



After the UV box, you stick it in sodium hydroxide + water solution (10 parts water to 1 part sodium hydroxide). This removes some layer or something (i dont really know lol) but it is essential.



Bubble etch tank. This has ferric chloride in it and removes the copper. The ferric chloride is heated and bubbled.



Bam!



They both came out perfect first time! It's a miracle!



Drilling station



Was damn close to the edge of the board drilling those!



Two completed boards



And... Tada! Completed one of the boards



Lots of headers



Molex 4 pin connected and sleeved



Bottom side



Mah name



Attached the CD drive to its plate using flooring-grade double sided tape (i managed to stick my shoe to the floor with this stuff and couldnt get it off!)



Perfect fit!



Here is the assembled drive bay. My first time attempting capillary bonding!



Where the CD plate connects to the hard drive bay



Bottom-up



Perfect capillary bond



Screwed the two parts together!



More



The protective layer will be removed



Thanks for reading!

 

Dude, that's pretty slick!

 

Nice PCB.

 

awesome work!!

 

Nice build! Me wants...
Keep up the good work

 

Great job so far...