Mod of the Month - November 2009

MiniMe

By oliverw92
Worklog: Here

Yet more scratch built goodness comes your way with oliverw92's MiniMe. When we first looked at Zotac's PCI-E graphics slot wielding mini-ITX motherboard we knew it was going to be a hit with the modding community and we've already seen it elsewhere.

The question of course is how to keep a Core 2 based mini-ITX motherboard cool in what will probably be a very small case. oliverw92's answer is to water-cool the CPU which is all good and well but the trick is working out how to mount all the cooling hardware which can be a bit tricky even in full size ATX cases.






Early renders show how this will all be possible with a scratch built cube case sporting an external radiator and cooling fan. the case itself looks quite mean with a black frame, side windows and black mesh. However, later renders show a slight redesign has allowed for smaller dimensions but also for the radiator to be mounted internally which is pretty impressive stuff.


Above we can see the Zotac's classic little mini-ITX board and also a custom designed circuit board which oliverw92 was able to make at his school which has PCB printing machines.


The circuit is that of a two channel fan controller and the hardware has already been soldered on ready to be hooked up with some fans. It certainly puts our soldering efforts to shame and it will be great to see it in action when the case is finished.


Finally here are some custom made cubes which oliverw92 made using a laser cutter. Each has a hole for a 3mm LED and will be mounted in the corners of the cube which should light things up very nicely indeed.

If you'd like to vote for oliverw92's latest creation, head over to our forum.