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Project MiniMe - Smallest (ever?) Watercooled mITX PC
- Thread starter oliverw92
- Start date
MassiveOverkill
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Jul 8, 2005
- Messages
- 1,748
That's actually not bad. Shuttles are small enough, plus you're doing a cool theme with it. Anything Sugo/Micro Fly sized or larger wouldn't be acceptible IMO.
filthysanchez
2[H]4U
- Joined
- Jul 19, 2006
- Messages
- 2,669
Beats a stacker hands down for portability, and that's what really counts
Update #10
Left side acrylic panel cut and engraved! Aqua tuning sponsor's logo.
eBuyer logo etched out
Holes for the GPU fan. Around 180 holes!
More shots of the engraving
The entire left side panel. There is a version of this without the sponsorship logos so when the time comes i can submit it for MDPC (MDPC doesn't take PCs with sponsorship logos on).
CD drive base. This will be glued onto the cd drive (please don't kill me! I swear it is the only way for this to work!)
Right hand acrylic panel
Top acrylic panel with holes for rad and fillport.
Motherboard tray (i told you it was complicated!)
Here we have some orange UV anti kink coils. These things are great!
SATA laptop optical. This thing actually isn't the right cable, and it annoys me greatly, since it took 3 weeks to ship from hong kong! I have no idea what it is, but it isn't a normal sata optical.
4gb Crucial Ballistix Tracer 800mhz - £20 from someone on OCN!
It is finally here! My nickel-plated-custom-made-insanely-awesome 9300 chipset waterblock for the zotac 9300-itx wifi motherboard! Thanks Duniek! The craftsmanship is stunning...
Perfect base
Latching vandal switch (blue LED)
Pins for...
24 pin and 4 pin connector
Approves!
Some mesh from MNPCtech! Thanks Bill! http://www.mnpctech.com/moddersmesh.html
Hard drive bay. Not glued yet
Test fit of CD drive, cd drive base and hard drive bay
This is the design for the aluminium front surround. The 2 larger holes are the power switch and the light switch, the two smaller ones are fan controller potentiometers. The slot hole near the bottom is for the CD drive. Those funky designs wrap around the components
And finally, V4 of the fan controller! This now measures 83mm x 33mm and is gonna be awesome! I have ordered all the parts for it. I will start PCB manufacture maybe on friday.
Thanks for reading!
Left side acrylic panel cut and engraved! Aqua tuning sponsor's logo.
eBuyer logo etched out
Holes for the GPU fan. Around 180 holes!
More shots of the engraving
The entire left side panel. There is a version of this without the sponsorship logos so when the time comes i can submit it for MDPC (MDPC doesn't take PCs with sponsorship logos on).
CD drive base. This will be glued onto the cd drive (please don't kill me! I swear it is the only way for this to work!)
Right hand acrylic panel
Top acrylic panel with holes for rad and fillport.
Motherboard tray (i told you it was complicated!)
Here we have some orange UV anti kink coils. These things are great!
SATA laptop optical. This thing actually isn't the right cable, and it annoys me greatly, since it took 3 weeks to ship from hong kong! I have no idea what it is, but it isn't a normal sata optical.
4gb Crucial Ballistix Tracer 800mhz - £20 from someone on OCN!
It is finally here! My nickel-plated-custom-made-insanely-awesome 9300 chipset waterblock for the zotac 9300-itx wifi motherboard! Thanks Duniek! The craftsmanship is stunning...
Perfect base
Latching vandal switch (blue LED)
Pins for...
24 pin and 4 pin connector
Approves!
Some mesh from MNPCtech! Thanks Bill! http://www.mnpctech.com/moddersmesh.html
Hard drive bay. Not glued yet
Test fit of CD drive, cd drive base and hard drive bay
This is the design for the aluminium front surround. The 2 larger holes are the power switch and the light switch, the two smaller ones are fan controller potentiometers. The slot hole near the bottom is for the CD drive. Those funky designs wrap around the components
And finally, V4 of the fan controller! This now measures 83mm x 33mm and is gonna be awesome! I have ordered all the parts for it. I will start PCB manufacture maybe on friday.
Thanks for reading!
Ahh progress, looks great! That is a slimline sata cable. Were you expecting an adapter for a slimline IDE drive?
http://cgi.ebay.com/Laptop-Notebook...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item29ff2cfbf1
http://cgi.ebay.com/Laptop-Notebook...emQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item29ff2cfbf1
As an eBay Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
It looks like a normal slimline sata, but it is completely different to: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....803844&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT#ht_1330wt_856 <--- that one is the one i need. If you look closely in the picture, you can see there are 2 cuts near the middle of it. The cable i bought has them at the ends for some reason.
Yeh, i'm gonna get a refund and buy another.
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...
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...
I have not tested it yet. If it is too loud, i will get another 60mm fan and stick it on it somewhere and remove the 40mm one. Either that or get a scythe mini-kaze 40mm and undervolt that.
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!
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!
marcoi
[H]ard|Gawd
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2009
- Messages
- 1,369
really cool design you got there. Can I have the system when your done? haha i wish. So what do you think the overall project is going to cost you?
Twizted did a video tutorial on how he makes custom pcb led boards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm79uwwnY-0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nm79uwwnY-0
Yes, he mentioned he has access to PCB printing in school during the thread.
Btw, love your work, oliver. I wish I had your talent in custom makes.
Thanks!
Update #13
So this week i have been perfecting the fan controller. I made another board because i screwed the first one up so much.
New board complete. This is CyberDruid's one (on OCN).
Much neater soldering
Oooo green!
Lots of LED headers
And some more
I went into school and lathed some motherboard tray standoffs. Tapped them and screwed onto the mobo tray
The rubber foot rests ontop of the PSU and is there to stop vibrations
The pillars use m3 screws to attach on
Tada! I had a play with the CNC milling machine and made one of the aluminium panels. It took ages though, and made such a mess! The edges are also a little rough. I am in discussion with some people about getting it all laser cut (the school laser cutter is only 30W so can't do metal)
It took about an hour to do just one panel and then an hour prepping and cleaning up.
Test fit!
It fitted perfectly, expect the standoffs were 12mm too tall, so i took them into school and cut and sanded them down and retapped them.
The GPU will have 1mm inbetween the fan and side panel
And finally i leave you with news that there will be a revised fan controller! This will be better suited to minime (in terms of dimensions) and also functionality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWt8wvORdvk
Oh and have a video about the fan controller
Update #13
So this week i have been perfecting the fan controller. I made another board because i screwed the first one up so much.
New board complete. This is CyberDruid's one (on OCN).
Much neater soldering
Oooo green!
Lots of LED headers
And some more
I went into school and lathed some motherboard tray standoffs. Tapped them and screwed onto the mobo tray
The rubber foot rests ontop of the PSU and is there to stop vibrations
The pillars use m3 screws to attach on
Tada! I had a play with the CNC milling machine and made one of the aluminium panels. It took ages though, and made such a mess! The edges are also a little rough. I am in discussion with some people about getting it all laser cut (the school laser cutter is only 30W so can't do metal)
It took about an hour to do just one panel and then an hour prepping and cleaning up.
Test fit!
It fitted perfectly, expect the standoffs were 12mm too tall, so i took them into school and cut and sanded them down and retapped them.
The GPU will have 1mm inbetween the fan and side panel
And finally i leave you with news that there will be a revised fan controller! This will be better suited to minime (in terms of dimensions) and also functionality.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWt8wvORdvk
Oh and have a video about the fan controller
Update #14
Got an overclock.net sticker from someone, stuck it on the inside of the case, it looks amazing when you hold it up to the light!
My button-head hex screws came from MDPC. Everything is now replaced with black-oxide goodness!
Sleeving from MDPC. I have already run out of black and i forgot to order white SATA sleeving so i will place another order
First i got some nice big scissors and cut through all the 24pin wires so they were the same length. I also couldn't get the pins out, even after making a tool with my dremel and an old screw driver. I think they were extra strength pins or something. I then crimped and soldered on new pins and sleeved the black first.
Tada! Sleeved with white too. You don't see the cables so much through the white after i closed the PSU up, after you pull the sleeving tight it closes the holes.
Er slight problem, it now won't fit!
Better picture showing how you can't actually see the wires in the white sleeving
Clamped up the top of the PSU and cut a hole. There was already most of that hole, it was an opening onto the top of the fan. I just extended it to the edge of the case.
Neatened up with the sanding stones on my dremel. I've straightened that closest edge since then. I plan to get this part powdercoated
More sleeving shots
Got it closed! It actually looks very neat, i thought it was going to look bodged
In this shot you can see the 24pin, 4pin and then my auxilliary lead going off. Beleive it or not, the only connectors i have on the psu are 24pin mobo, 4pin cpu, 2x sata and 1x molex. The molex goes to the custom PCB which inturn drives everything including cathodes, LEDs, pump and cd drive. It's all about space saving!
Final shot of the PSU.
Got an overclock.net sticker from someone, stuck it on the inside of the case, it looks amazing when you hold it up to the light!
My button-head hex screws came from MDPC. Everything is now replaced with black-oxide goodness!
Sleeving from MDPC. I have already run out of black and i forgot to order white SATA sleeving so i will place another order
First i got some nice big scissors and cut through all the 24pin wires so they were the same length. I also couldn't get the pins out, even after making a tool with my dremel and an old screw driver. I think they were extra strength pins or something. I then crimped and soldered on new pins and sleeved the black first.
Tada! Sleeved with white too. You don't see the cables so much through the white after i closed the PSU up, after you pull the sleeving tight it closes the holes.
Er slight problem, it now won't fit!
Better picture showing how you can't actually see the wires in the white sleeving
Clamped up the top of the PSU and cut a hole. There was already most of that hole, it was an opening onto the top of the fan. I just extended it to the edge of the case.
Neatened up with the sanding stones on my dremel. I've straightened that closest edge since then. I plan to get this part powdercoated
More sleeving shots
Got it closed! It actually looks very neat, i thought it was going to look bodged
In this shot you can see the 24pin, 4pin and then my auxilliary lead going off. Beleive it or not, the only connectors i have on the psu are 24pin mobo, 4pin cpu, 2x sata and 1x molex. The molex goes to the custom PCB which inturn drives everything including cathodes, LEDs, pump and cd drive. It's all about space saving!
Final shot of the PSU.
Update #15
Few things arrived from modelfixings.co.uk, my source of fixings. UK guys, check them out they have every single kind of nut and bolt, including all the rare black oxide ones: button, cap, countersunk etc all in hex fittings. They have a really resistant oxide coating too and very reasonable.
6/32 tap. It has taken me 2 months to track one of these down in the UK for a price less than £20. In the US you can buy them off the shelf in any major store, in here it is like a needle in a haystack! 2.8mm drill bit to accompany it.
Tapping the motherboard for mobo standoffs
Screwed in. The tap is amazingly well made, it works perfectly and the holes are excellent.
More things from modelfixings. 20mm M4 Button Hex Black Oxide Machine Screw! Long enough name?
10mm M3 Button Hex Black Oxide Machine Screw
20mm M3 Cap Hex Black Oxide Machi.... *yawn*
Replaced the silver phillips screws with black ones. I plan to have all the screws in the case black.
Replaced the block ones. I will do the ones holding the block together one i get the right size hex caps.
Motherboard test mount! Absolutely spot on. Very pleased with my CNC work!
Perfect distance back from the edge to allow PCI-E cards to fit properly
I have another 2 boxes full of machine screws and fittings
The fugly silver screws will be replaced, but i thought i would show how it fits and how close the rad is to the side!
The other side, showing the fan, rad, top and grill.
Test fitted PSU. Looks absolutely amazing in person! You can see the GPU, RAM and chipset block there too.
CPU 4pin connector.
Another shot of the 24pin connector and RAM.
Lastly i would like to introduce another sponsor, WatercoolingUK!
They will be providing me with metal laser cutting and powdercoating services! Massive props to marcus for putting up with me!
Few things arrived from modelfixings.co.uk, my source of fixings. UK guys, check them out they have every single kind of nut and bolt, including all the rare black oxide ones: button, cap, countersunk etc all in hex fittings. They have a really resistant oxide coating too and very reasonable.
6/32 tap. It has taken me 2 months to track one of these down in the UK for a price less than £20. In the US you can buy them off the shelf in any major store, in here it is like a needle in a haystack! 2.8mm drill bit to accompany it.
Tapping the motherboard for mobo standoffs
Screwed in. The tap is amazingly well made, it works perfectly and the holes are excellent.
More things from modelfixings. 20mm M4 Button Hex Black Oxide Machine Screw! Long enough name?
10mm M3 Button Hex Black Oxide Machine Screw
20mm M3 Cap Hex Black Oxide Machi.... *yawn*
Replaced the silver phillips screws with black ones. I plan to have all the screws in the case black.
Replaced the block ones. I will do the ones holding the block together one i get the right size hex caps.
Motherboard test mount! Absolutely spot on. Very pleased with my CNC work!
Perfect distance back from the edge to allow PCI-E cards to fit properly
I have another 2 boxes full of machine screws and fittings
The fugly silver screws will be replaced, but i thought i would show how it fits and how close the rad is to the side!
The other side, showing the fan, rad, top and grill.
Test fitted PSU. Looks absolutely amazing in person! You can see the GPU, RAM and chipset block there too.
CPU 4pin connector.
Another shot of the 24pin connector and RAM.
Lastly i would like to introduce another sponsor, WatercoolingUK!
They will be providing me with metal laser cutting and powdercoating services! Massive props to marcus for putting up with me!
FrEaKy
[H] Movie and TV Show Review Guy
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2003
- Messages
- 14,115
Grats on the new sponsor bro.... Keep up the good work, its turning out very nice.
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=YG6lhhTOA1U&feature=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...
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=YG6lhhTOA1U&feature=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...
FrEaKy
[H] Movie and TV Show Review Guy
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2003
- Messages
- 14,115
looken better everytime I see it bro. Very nice.