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

Thanks for the info on the flexi riser, i have considered these, but in all honesty i cant think of a better place to put it within the constraints of my box.

I have nearly finished my new sketchup model, so an update will come soon! The tubing on this thing is going to be immense...

 

The riser-cards actually don't help that much asura. Either you need to put the GFX-card above your CPU or underneath the motherboard.

There's a reason, why the GFX-cards have their socket and their "to-be-cooled" parts on the side of the PCB that faces away from the CPU-socket.

It's a thermic issue.

 

depending on your electrical knowledge - build your own psu?

 

Nah it's fine iv fitted that seasonic 1u psu into the model! I am just trying to do some tubing in sketchup. Talk about dam hard to route...

 

Take a breath and look around. We have a tubing tutorial for sketckup here on B-T. Modding? Take a quick look around.

john

 

Yeh im following that tutorial. Working well. It just takes a while to get the tubing right. Moving paths once they have been made is annoying.

 

Never done any PC graphics of any kind. I just figure out what I think I want and try about XX times to get it right. I sketch with lab notebook and Kodak digital camera method.

I watch

 

I'll be watching too, I would love to get a gaming rig set up at this size. LANs would be easy as hell.

 

I do not see where it says that this power supply is limited to that power output...

 

Perhaps my maths are wrong but I thought 12v x 12 amps = 144 watts max and 12v x 13.5 amps = 162 watts peak. I was under the impression this was the correct way to calculate watts. Please tell me if no, my understanding of the principles of electricity is limited. I am assuming that the 12v represents a lion's share of the power draw.

 

I'm not a huge fan of SFF cases but this case might be changing my mind

 

I hope i have the ability to do that The_Beast!

Morning guys, gonna finish the tubing today then you can all have a peak at my sketchup model.

 

Update #6 - 30/08/09

The final sketchup model is finished! I spent ages on this. It is EXACTLY how it will be, everything is perfectly to scale. By doing it like this i have actually solved loads of problems i would have come across later when i had got items laser cut etc.



Front



Right side



Top with 120mm rad and fillport



Without the outer shell and cubes



Back view without shell



Back



Left hand side with GPU. Will actually be nVidia but never mind...



Profile shot of the right hand side.



The loop! Yes i am now cooling the 9300 chipset. One of the problems i discovered by doing the accurate sketchup is that the apogee drive would hit the heatsink on the chipset. So duniek at OCN is making be a custom block that looks very similar to the one above (i.e. barb positioning is the same). Yes there is some VERY tight tubing to be done. But hey! I'm up for a challenge!



The back of the loop. 45 degree fittings will save this project! Most of the models in the sketchup are downloaded, however i made the apogee drive and several other parts. It is precisely to scale from the swiftech site. Very pleased with it!



Bottom compartment. The cd drive rests on an acrylic plate that is glued to the HDD bay. There is a 60mm fan at the back blowing across the hdds. This will be mounted to the base using a bracket, rather than mounted to the grill.



HDD Bay



Empty shell. The whole thign is held together with 10mm acrylic cubes. There will be purple LEDs mounted in them which will shine out of the corners displayed by the rounded corners of the aluminium frame.



Moneyshot



So what do you think guys? I managed to get the 250W psu in, which i am very pleased about. I need to order things like the PSU, switch, CD drive and hdd before i can start milling out the aluminium.

 

Looks pretty dam good.

I MIGHT try to add some sort of plate for the power switch though, and have an USB connector or two in there. (I know how small that is, so it isn't really a project to go around and stick the thumb drive to the rear usbs, but what can I say, I'm just that lazy)

 

I was considering this. Does anyone know of any small front I/O plates you can buy?

 

Have a look here: http://www.frontx.com/order1.html

Looks great! That tubing must have taken ages. Make sure that you build so it can be taken apart easily if you need to change something. Also have a look at Mashie's anemone mod, particularly how he did his sandwich construction.

 

No way! Thanks for that! You have found me my eSata backplate too! I was going to have to buy a pci backplate esata thing and mod it, but now i can buy one of those! If this forum had reputation thingy you would be getting epic amounts of it...

 

Have you thought about a half-height gfx card?

 

There are no half height graphics cards that have the same amount of power and are still powerful. And even if i got a half height one, i would still have to have the case this size. I mean look at it... it isn't roomy Thanks for the input though.

 

Brilliant, can't wait to see this being built! Looking good man!