Scratch Build – In Progress Project: Pico ITX

First of all, i need a name for this mod. Help me out guys

So, while trying to get my hands on one of VIA's Pico-ITX motherboards a few months ago, i received an email from one of VIA's reps offering me one for a project. How lucky is that! VIA offered to send me one of the boards for a mod project.

It just arrived earlier today. Here's the box:





What's inside? The board, some cables, and a driver CD:





The cables: DVI, USB, PS/2, Audio, ATX power adapter, COM port, IDE Cable.

And here's the little monster:











Compared to a full size ATX motherboard:





Compared to a notebook HDD:







As you can see, this thing is unbelievably tiny. I actually find it quite ridiculous how small it is. It's amazing

I've been lucky enough to be sponsored by another company for this project too. A great bunch over at Logic Supply. This US based company sells an amazing variety of tiny stuffs like the Pico board that i have here. Check them out

Anyway, Logic is hooking me up with a 160GB SATA notebook drive, 1GB of So-DIMM RAM, and a fantastic PSU, designed SPECIFICALLY for this motherboard. The PSU is the Serener 120W DC-DC Power Converter.





They're also sending me a power brick for the PSU.

So i'm pretty much sorted for hardware for this mod. There's just one or two last things i want for this project. I'd REALLY like to pair it up with a 7" touchscreen, and with a small little VFD, but i'll first do some more planning.

Big BIG thanks to my sponsors for this mod, i really appreciate it guys!







Okay, so now it's on to the planning. I plan on building something REALLY tiny. I started with some rough sketches last week but i wanted to wait for the PSU to arrive before making any solid plans. The package from Logic was only shipped today, so i still can't do any solid planning, but so far, i know that i want this machine as tiny as possible, without compromising size for quality. I don't want a mod that's REALLY small, but looks crap. If it needs to be a little bigger in order to look a lot better, i'm cool with that.

I was originally planning on removing the heatsink that's on the board and having the case cool the board, but after some consideration, i've come to the conclusion that it'll just not be worth it. I might earn 3mm at most by removing the heatsink. So the heatsink stays.

I want the case to look REALLY really good here. I'm going to see if i can have it CNCed out of a block of Alu and then have that alu anodized to a nice colour; just not black. Please. Not. Black.

So that's it so far. I'm almost done putting an unboxing video together, i'll upload that soon.

Thanks for reading. I hope you like where this is going as much as i do

 

looking forward to seeing this progress

 

Holy God...im subscribing. xD

 

Wow, so small its incredible. I'll be watching closely

 

Well that's my bad. Design pics should be up soon

 

Wow that a tiny board - I'm somewhat amazed.

Have you considered a car PC or maybe modding it into a household item, like a toasterPC for the kitchen or a coffee table PC for the lounge with a touch screen this would work well I think.

 

sub cribeeeeeed!!!!!!!!!!

 

It's Dae Ja Voo, I think the rules should be bent in this case.
That board is cute. (did I say cute?) I know what I'd do with it. I'd surround it with about an inch of scultped and layered plexi. -A computer that doubles as a paperweight.

 

zomg that board is so amazing, keeping an eye on this and waiting for the vid!

 

How about a cube the size of the mobo, but standing on one point, pointing 45 degrees out, on a pipe. add an aluminium base that fits your ports in the back and your done. I think.

 

Lunch box.

 

How about a small book?
Man that is small.
I've got load of ideas what I would do.
Put in in the hull of a klingon bird of pray model.

 

if your able to get more then one, say 4, you could build yourself a very nice farm.
(Sorry, dreaming out loud)

anyway, that's small, unbelievable, good luck with the project.

-subscribed-

 

i'm watching!

You should call this Project Behemoth or Project Titan or something like that
It would also be super-fun to see this thing sitting in an Antec P182 or another one of those huge cases

 

Looking good, Ettienne, can hardly wait for this to unfold.

Those Sereners are decent converters, I have the same on my Commell LV677 board - I use the Serener GS-L05 with passive heatpipe case, and the 120W DC-DC converter.

Do you think "Epicenter" might suit it?

Mmmm...I know I am not good at naming things

 

I'm looking forward to see what you make of this piece of kit, as I found it rather limited (esp. the lack of sound) and ended up using it as a (rather expensive) small home server before I sold it.
While I'm keen to see how your mod works out, I'm betting it'll be an improvement over my half-arsed attempt:

(not stealing your thunder in any way - just giving you some ideas)
P.S. someone labelled mine "TupperwarePC" due to the £1 case I bought from Rymans.

 

Hmm, I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do with one of these boards. I've had mine for several months now, and have found it to be amazingly capable for it's size. Good luck man!

 

I also have one of these little boards. You might be interested in my cooling solution. Good luck with this project!

Pico Bayard

 

Can't wait to see what you do with this Dae.