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Smallest mac mini: mini itx in mac mini case?

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Hi Guys

Following the lead in this post, I have built my smallest Mac using the Antec ISK110 VESA Mini ITX Case, and the powerful Ivy Bridge i7 3770K cpu!

check out the specs and the pics. it's quite impressive and everything works with the exception of the WIFI which in my case is not big deal.

what is amazing, is that the whole is running on only 110Watt of power, and generating almost no heat, even when playing blue-ray movies etc. etc.

Specs:-
Intel Core i7-3770K Quad-Core Processor 3.5 GHz 8 MB Cache LGA 1155 $329.95
Gigabyte LGA 1155 DDR3 1600 Intel H77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Mini ITX Motherboard GA-H77N-WIFI $124.99
16GB Corsair 1600Mhz DDR3
LiteOn SSD 120 Gigs
Seagate Standard SATA2 500 Gigs
Geekbench 13,960

Last but not least, I wanted to thank Tony and Macman for their impressive and generous work that enables this little technological miracles to take place. I will be making another donation to the site! :)

Cheers all

Ed
 

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wow! that's exciting ... I have just ordered one and hopefully will get to Melbourne quickly!

Much appreciated!

Cheers
 
edwardo: Love the build, looking to build one thats almost identical. Only difference is one Samsung 830 128GB SSD.

For the power supply, did you use the included 90W power brick? It seems like this would be a bit of a stretch with a processor TDP of 77W, the SSD takes not too much, but the motherboard definitely draws some power...

Thanks for your help.
 
Hi mate,

yes I used the external 90Watt power supply, which is great as it takes the heat of the traditional internal power supply right out of the case. My system is working beautifully, and the only fan inside the box is the original Intel CPU fan which pushes the air straight up through the perforated side panel if the ANtec case. IT"S ALL SO QUIET I cannot hear the machine when it is turned on.

I am currently running two hard disks (one SSD and one SATA2 Seagate 500gigs spinning) and when I throttle the cpu to the max there are no issues with lack of power.

A 2.5 inch laptop hard disk typically uses around 1 to 3 watts, and if the CPU takes 78 watts then there are are almost 10 watts to spare. In a way I have already exceeded the available power by using two hard disks! What can I say ... it works!

Personally, I don't think the Motherboard would use more power than a hard disk, as it has no moveable parts. However, I am NOT using wifi at this stage, but I will once I receive the purchased Atheros wifi card from eBay. I will let you know if it works then (wifi will consume some power).

Actually, I need to also consider the fct that the Integrated AMD4000 graphics definitively would use some power too, and that would depend on what it does at the time!

One more thing, I wonder if power supplies are over engineered to give some extra watts above the stated wattage! I might contact Antec SUpport and ask them.

Cheers
 
hello,

is the driver for this wifi card in MultiBeast or native in Mountain Lion?

thank you
 
HELLO,

thanks for the recommendation , the ATHEROS card works perfectly with native Mountain Lion drivers.

Cheers
 
Edwardo.

Can you please recommend what external supply did you use for this rig. Also did you use the Mini-Box picoPSU-160-XT High Power 24 Pin Mini-ITX Power Supply for the power cables for MB and SSDs?

Can you also confirm if your rig plays well with .mkv files?


Thanks,
John
 
Hackbook Pro 14
Other |  i3 2130 |  HD 3000
Hello Edwardo,
Once you fixed the wifi issue, did you still get the bluetooth working ? Or no bluetooth at all from the very start ?
Can your build support a 1 Tb hard disk ?
Thanks in advance for your help.
Fil
 
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