Diplodocus CustoMac Mini: GA-H87N-WIFI - i5-4440 - E-MINI series Q6i

[Diplodocus]

[SUCCES] Diplodocus CustoMac Mini: GA-H87N-WIFI - i5-4440 - E-MINI series Q6i

Diplodocus' CustoMac Mini: GA-H87N-WIFI - i5-4440 - HD 4600 - E-MINI series Q6i



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Components

Gigabyte GA-H87N-WIFI Motherboard
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D94X4DO/

Intel Core i5-4440 Haswell Processor
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EUUIWZ6/

Raelan E-MINI series Q6i, Brushed Aluminium, 120W, ITX-mini case
http://www.itx.bg/en/e-mini-q6i-gray-brushed-aluminium-120w-dc-dc-12v-5a-adapter-mini-itx.html

Crucial Ballistix Sport LP 8GB 1600MHz DDR3 (4x2)
http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B00A14ZT6U/

Samsung 840 EVO 6Gb/s SATA 250GB SSD
http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B00E3W1726/

Noctua NH-L9I CPU cooling fan/heatsink
http://www.amazon.com/noctua-NH-L9I-NH-L9i-Cooling-Heatsink/dp/B009VY1PMI

Already Owned
24 inch BenQ LCD Monitor Full HD HDMI Port - G2420HD (Black)
[AMAZON-uk]http://www.amazon.co.uk/BenQ-G2420HD-Widescreen-Response-1920x1080/dp/B002M1FH2Q/[/AMAZON-uk]

Apple Keyboard

Mouse


Comments

This is my first Customac build. My aim was to build a very small yet powerful computer, without added graphics, for under 500€. Extra shipping costs (I live in India) and the necessity to buy a new CPU fan brought the total to about 554€.

The build and installation went without major problems. I used the MultiBeast settings from the CustoMac Mini golden build: here. The installation only worked in safe mode until I changed the bios settings (disable Vt-d and a few other things I don't remember. I will look them up). Then everything worked fine.

All components just fit into the case, although there is no space for the SSD bracket. The drive now just floats in the case, which is fine to me.

Cooling was a real issue with this case. First of all, the stock fan is too high for the case. I looked hard to find the most quiet, best performing low profile fan. This led me to the Noctua NH-L9I. Here it is installed:

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The case is so low that even the Noctua blows only blows hot air straight onto the lid. In this setup idle temperatures quickly rose to 54 C, then I decided to drill holes in the lid. This started out very neatly:

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But as I don't have a drill press, my handheld drill started going places, leading to this result:

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Hmm. Not a very pretty or elegant solution, but it works. Idle temperature now stays around 30 C. This is what it looks like from the back:

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After I realized I had a problem with cooling, I looked a lot a passive cases such as the Streacom FC8 EVO and the HDPLEX H.1S. Unfortunately I had already ordered the processor, as these cases really work best with low powered CPU's, such as Intel's T-series. Too bad, maybe I'll change it later.

I ran some benchmarks and I'm not at all dissatisfied with the results:

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I just ran a Prime95 stress test. After about 30 minutes, temperatures had gone up to about 70 C, which I though was OK. But then the system spontaneously restarted. Not sure why?

Outstanding issues:
- The bottom HDMI port stops working when booting into OSX 10.9.2. After the white Apple screen the screen goes black. The other port and DVI are working fine. Any ideas?
- FIXED (connector was not plugged in properly) ->The front audio port is not working. Don't know why.

 

[Stork]

Please add a short description of your installation; e.g., BIOS setup/changes and a MultiBeast configuration screen snapshot. You can use your Profile Albums to upload your pictures and screen snaphots and use the simple link references for your build description; be sure to make your Album(s) Public (not Private) to ensure being seen by the Forum's members.

 

[Diplodocus]

I've updated my build page with photos of the real build, multibeast settings and benchmark results. Looking forward to hearing what you what you think about my build!

 

[Petronius]

I've updated my build page with photos of the real build, multibeast settings and benchmark results. Looking forward to hearing what you what you think about my build!

How cool is your system inside?