Mac Mini-Intel DH61AG

[Gus]

Mac Mini Case Project

24/07/12
For no reason other than fun. I am going to (try and) install an Intel DH61AG into a Mac Mini 2011 Case.

Goals:
Install the motherboard with the CPU facing up.
Cool the CPU using a block of metal, which will transfer heat to the aluminium case.
Form a rear I/O to match the curvature of the mini's housing.
Install a fan. (Only if necessary)
Have fully functional IR and Sleep light on the front of the case.
Have fully functional and internal Bluetooth and WiFi with external Apple antennas. WiFi, Bluetooth

Parts:
Intel DH61AG Low Profile Mini ITX Desktop Board
http://www.intel.com/content/...
Intel Core i3-2105 Desktop Processor
http://ark.intel.com/products/55448/...
MyDigitalSSD SMART SATA III (6G) SandForce mSATA Solid State Drive 256GB
http://www.mydigitalssd.com/msata-ssd...
IPX / u.fl to MCX male pigtail cable x1
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/...
MCX female straight to U.FL/IPX Pigtail x2
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/...
PowerMac G5 External Bluetooth Antenna x1
http://thebookyard.com/product...
PowerMac G5 External Airport Antenna x2
http://thebookyard.com/product...
Mac Mini Infrared Board
http://www.thebookyard.com/product...
Mac Mini Hard Drive carrier with Grommets
http://www.thebookyard.com/product...
Macbook Pro Infra-Red Board - Apple Model No.922-7195
Macbook Bluetooth Board - Macbook A1181, Late 2007, Early 2008
HP Broadcom BCM94312HMGB Half Wireless Mini PCI-E WiFi Card+ Bluetooth 2.1
DELL Inspiron N5010 R15 Broadcom BCM94313HMG2L WiFi WLAN Half Mini Card‏

Plan:
Glue 4 bolts to the top of the Mini case corresponding to the holes around the CPU. This will hold the motherboard suspended to avoid shorting and also create pressure for the cooler. The block shall just be placed on top of the CPU until it is mounted. Then once in the case the pressure will be applied to achieve good thermal transfer.
Use the IR "eye" on the Mini's board, that fits perfectly in the case, and use it as the "eye" for the Macbook Pro's board. I have to do this as the Mini's IR board does not have the logic controller on the board.
Cut the front HDD carrier so it takes minimal space whilst still being used to mount the IR/Sleep light board.
All boards, ie Bluetooth, Wireless, IR to be mounted directly to the motherboard.



If anyone could trace the rear I/O shields for this board I would be extremely grateful. I have an OEM board so no shields came with it.
As always, comments and recommendations are welcome.

 

[minihack]

Re: Cubes and Minis...What first?

Hi Gus,

Well, what you do first sort of is up to what you want to get out of it I guess.....

I think if you do go for the Mini then you really will need to do it with the Intel board (or another "thin" Mini-itx board when someone else gets around to releasing one) as I am pretty sure you will not get a standard Mini-Itx in there without serious issues. The Intel is as close to the ideal as you can get right now for that conversion because of the built in psu and the fact that the RAM is laptop ram on its side.

Whatever you go for first though you can be sure we'll all chip in with our thoughts.

Good luck with your decision.

By the way - nice wound!

 

[Gus]

Re: Cubes and Minis...What first?

Yeah think I will do the mini first. As you stated, I already have the some of the parts to get going. However, until this heals I am out the game.
I'm getting a sata power cable for the dh61 sent to me too, it was an oem version i bought so it didnt have anything with it.

Gus

 

[eelhead]

Re: Cubes and Minis...What first?

You know my thoughts

Mini it up!
That's my next after the Cube is done.

 

[DonutHands]

Re: Cubes and Minis...What first?

2011 mac mini cases? how much did they cost you? where did you get them from?

There is not much room for anything in those cases. Do you have the rear IO plate?

 

[Gus]

Re: Cubes and Minis...What first?

2011 mac mini cases? how much did they cost you? where did you get them from?

There is not much room for anything in those cases. Do you have the rear IO plate?

I got them from a very nice man in China. They are either 2010 server cases or 2011 normal or sever cases, i.e no dvd drive slot. Which is what I wanted.
They where $56 dollars a case and shipping was by the kilo so I bought three.(the second kilo was cheaper, hence the third case)

Your right! Hardly any. CPU cooler height is going to be the killer. The link to IM shows a GPU cooler being applied, however, if the i3-2105 produces 35W heat then I could use the HFX Borg Micro. This would create a few options, but that does not mean they will be useful options.
Is the TDP, being 65W for this i3 as well as the 2125, the heat in Watts?

The board roughly sits between the four curves, so if you drew a square on top linking all the corners, the small curve is the space I have, on the front and both sides. I envision a mass of cables going in there!

I do not have a rear I/O.
Again, IM link has some impressive CAD drawings going on. I may ask if I can pinch it and contact some local machine/plastic shops. Just a quick thought, could I take a mini back plate and cut out the center? That way, it would have the clips on the sides to hold it on and all I would need to do was bend a piece of plastic/metal to match the curvature and then cut it. I shall investigate that!

But as always, money is the main issue.(not to mention being a full time student living away from home)

You know my thoughts

Mini it up!
That's my next after the Cube is done.

Will be great to see what you can do with one! How are the cubes coming along?

Gus

 

[minihack]

Re: Cubes and Minis...What first?

The board roughly sits between the four curves, so if you drew a square on top linking all the corners, the small curve is the space I have, on the front and both sides. I envision a mass of cables going in there!

Cables? With the Intel board, if you have no dvd player and use one of the onboard mini PCI-e slots for an onboard storage module you could conceivably have a board with no cables at all......that'd be the best solution.

Even on a Cube (which is enormous compared to the new mini!) a cable which is a few inches longer than it needs to be is a real pain in the bum. I have been revising my test build shortening every cable I can. Unfortunately though as a diy project we don't have the luxury of exactly correct fit custom cables that Apple have, so even one very slightly over length cable in your mini case could be big trouble - there's no room in there to take up the slack.

For the heat issue I am not even convinced that the Borg HFX micro is the solution. If I was doing it, I think I would probably see if i could link the CPU directly to the aluminium case top. Do you have a picture of the internals of the aluminium top of the case - I am wondering if you might be able to put a copper block between the CPU and the case and use some sort of suspension system to get exactly the right pressure contact between the two - like I am doing on my Cube build.

BTW, on my Cube I will post more soonish, but I have changed the whole way in which the heatsink and the case and the CPU interact by making a adjustable linkage to get the right contact between the massive heatsink and the processor without the CPU having to take the weight and without having to get a precisely sized contact block.

Good luck on your build.

 

[Gus]

Re: Cubes and Minis...What first?

Well using the micro I could attach the secondary blocks to the mini case. But I have a 1u blower cooler, which may just fit with the fan removed and possibly some modding.
As for the copper block, that would mean mounting the board "upwards", whereas, just now I was thinking inverted, allowing easier access to headers, ect. Couple questions though,
1) Do you think the case would get too hot? Would this increase the inner case temps more than using a dedicated cooler? I don't think so, since it is such a small case.
2) Where do you get a copper block?
3) Could it be a solid block, with the mounts to the motherboard milled/cut from it. And then the motherboard mounts would push the top of the block against the top of the case? Once I take some pictures you will see where the black apple sign is on top of the case, there is a piece of aluminium tape. I haven't taken one off yet. It may not even be above the cpu but we shall we.


As for the hdd/sdd in the mini pci express. Would it boot? I thought I read that mac osx doesnt support msata? (Am I being silly, is the msata different from the mini pci express?)
I know it's the same connector but...

I planned to use a smasung 2.5inch ssd I have, which will probably be removed from the housing.

Gus

 

[minihack]

Re: Cubes and Minis...What first?

Yeah, I was just thinking though that those secondary blocks on the HFX just might not have enough room to fit. If you mount the board upside down (good thought), what clearance do you have around the board? Because the blocks take up basically 4cm wall space with them holding four 6mm heatpipes so it may be just a little too tight with routing stuff around.

I think that using the case as a heatsink would work for a low power processor and at least will radiate heat out from the case instead of trapping it inside (in theory). A 1U heatsink in there without a fan is in my opinion probably going to run everything toasty. But this is new territory so always worth trying out the options.

Only reason i said copper is that this is the best way to get heat transferred efficiently, Aluminium is easier to come by and cheaper and in any case is what HFX uses - and it's working okay on my Cube. I have ordered some copper though and will also run some back to back tests on that to see if there is any practical difference worth doing it for.

To mount a block of copper or aluminium in there I would choose a block that had a reasonable thickness to it that when in place has just a few mm clearance between it and the inside roof of the case. I'd mount the block to the CPU in effectively the same way as HFX - using some screws, spacers and a piece of acrylic as a contact spring. I'd then with a thin mobo tray under the board find a practical way of progressively closing the few mm gap between board and Mac mini case to bring the copper/ali block into contact with the case. If there are any mounting points inside the Mac Mini case then I'd investigate whether any of those will help out in getting it done. It is just an idea and may not be the best, but for a case where there is very limited airflow I'd want to get the heat away from the board as quickly as possible by conduction and then if you can get a little convection inside the case with a small fan things will be as cool as you can get them.

And no I don't think the case would get too hot. With mobile type processors I recall that the old Macbooks were hot enough on the outside to almost burn your lap, while inside they were cool "enough". The Mini is a desktop so your lap should be safe.

On the question of booting from mSata I hadn't heard about the OSX issues with it. Stands to reason though I guess. Still, if you need to put an HD in there then I guess that makes things even more critical on space, airflow etc.

 

[Gus]

Re: Cubes and Minis...What first?

So your idea of copper I think is a better idea. Getting the heat to dissipate externally through the case, rather than internally into the case.
Using the hardware pictured above, or otherwise, could i posistion them so that I used a normal cpu backplate to pull the board towards the top of the case? It would hold the entire wait of the board though. Unless I pushed some support rubber into the side area? Kind of what is used under the powermac g5 front panel, a lump of rubber. This would also help with insulating the motherboard from the case.

If its 4cm wall space then there is no way they would simply push against the wall of the mini, they would need to be cut. And it would be a very fiddly job to get some sort of thermal paste or thermal sticker in there too!

Keep the ideas coming!
Gus