Thin Mini ITX Tester: 150W External PSU - i3-3225 - GA-B75TN

[tonymacx86]

​

I got the GA-B75TN for testing- Thin Mini ITX!

150W External PSU, thin as all getout. The cool thing about these boards is that they take a real Ivy Bridge Desktop CPU. Picked up the i3-3225, 8gb sodimm, short cooler, external psu and thin case. I'll post details here.

CustoMac Thin Mini​

	CPU	Intel Core i3-3225	Amazon US (CAN UK DE ES FR IT)	Newegg
	Motherboard	Gigabyte GA-B75TN Thin Mini-ITX		Newegg
	RAM	8GB 1600Mhz DDR3 SO-DIMM		Newegg
	Case	M350 Universal Mini-ITX PC enclosure	Amazon US
	Storage	30GB mSATA SSD
	Power Supply	FSP Group: FSP 150-ABAN1 External Brick
	Wifi Card	2006 MacBook mini-PCIe
	CPU Cooler	Dynatron T459 Low Profile	Amazon US

The big issue is finding a PSU that's actually compatible, however MM found this one that looks like a Dell laptop adapter that would work.
http://www.amazon.com/PA-7E-Dell-DELL/dp/B0045XLZ3E (source for that came from http://communities.intel.com/thread/31437)







Vanilla DSDT: View attachment GA-B75TN.zip

Original Announcement
http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-hardware-discussion/88971-new-thin-gigabyte-mini-itx-boards.html

My CustoMac Mini in Apex Case next to the new thin one:



Here are some shots of the enclosure next to a core solo mac mini:



Here are some standard pics/info on Thin Mini- ITX from Intel's PDF:
http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/sb/thinminiitxcomponentcatalog.pdf





Eelhead also is testing a Gigabyte GA-H77TN Thin Mini itx here- using a Playstation One case:

Playstation One Case Mod [Work Log in Progress]
http://www.tonymacx86.com/others/96516-playstation-one-case-mod-work-log-progress.html

 

[tonymacx86]

Thin Mini-ITX Tester: GA-B75TN

Unfortunately it seems as if the UEFI/BIOS is some kind of generic laptop AMI, I had to use Patched Intel CPU Powermanagement from MultiBeast, but after that all is working. Got KP on it without. :

 

[SJ_UnderWater]

Thin Mini-ITX Tester: GA-B75TN

just wanted to note that this BIOS is patchable by PMPatch. Unpack the exe with Unarchiver, then unzip the zip. There are two .F1 files, but the .BAT you're asked to run only uses B75TN.F1.

PMPatch 0.5.11
PowerManagement modules not found.
Trying to apply patch #1
Nested PowerManagement module at 003E7F0C patched.
Gap module inserted after repacked module.
AMI nest module at 00050048 patched.
Phoenix nest modules not found.
CpuPei module at 0029E830 not patched: Patch pattern not found.
Output file generated.

--edit
Could you try flashing it with flashrom? If it's successful I'd say it's no big deal, users just point DPCIManager to the appropriate unpatched ROM and it will take care of the rest.

 

[SJ_UnderWater]

Thin Mini-ITX Tester: GA-B75TN

as for AC Adapters, I had good luck finding an HP 180W with the correct plug for my DQ77 on both amazon and ebay, cost me only $30. Technically ~150-160W is fine, but i wanted some extra room in case I reused the board.

 

[tonymacx86]

Thin Mini-ITX Tester: GA-B75TN

Thanks SJ- I will try that today- doing a few more tests. I'm hoping that the F2 might not have the PM issue.

 

[SJ_UnderWater]

Thin Mini-ITX Tester: GA-B75TN

at this point I doubt they will change the ROM's underpinnings, but I suppose it's possible. I know you're set against flashing, but with the help CodeRush and I are trying to build, it should make some of the easier cases "safe". A user downloads the ROM they want from the manufacturer and chooses Patch & Flash, the app does the rest.
Things are almost always "risky" or "not for newbies" until support is built around an issue, and that's what I'm trying to do. The only more that could be done at this point is sending more qualified C programmers over to the flashrom project to help out, or submitting more DPCI reports for them to examine.

 

[tonymacx86]

Thin Mini-ITX Tester: GA-B75TN

A little more progress this past few days- toleda was kind enough to take a look at the DSDT. Seems that this particular board needs a Capri framebuffer patch in order to enable HDMI or DP audio. For my own reference I've attached all here:

Framebuffer edit required. The Capri/0A frame buffer has HDMI on port 0x7. The B75N needs the HDMI port on 0x5. Attached are the instructions for the edit; hex editor or terminal.

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x05\x00\x00\x00\x04\x00\x00\x07\x01\x00\x00|\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x05\x00\x00\x00\x08\x00\x00\x06\x00\x00\x00|g' /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext/Contents//MacOS/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri

nuc_capri_edits
10.8.2 AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext+v8.0.61

Native:
0A 00 66 01 00 02 03 02 00 00 00 02
00 00 00 01 00 00 00 20 10 07 00 00
10 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
02 05 00 00 00 04 00 00 07 01 00 00
03 04 00 00 00 04 00 00 07 01 00 00
04 06 00 00 00 08 00 00 06 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00 40 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 02 00 00 00 00 00

port 0x5 DP>HDMI
Find:
02 05 00 00 00 04 00 00 07 01 00 00
Replace
02 05 00 00 00 08 00 00 06 00 00 00

Applications/Utilities/Terminal
Copy each command and paste command into Terminal and press Enter.
Note. a blank line separates each command, enter password when requested.

sudo cp -r /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext Desktop

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x05\x00\x00\x00\x04\x00\x00\x07\x01\x00\x00|\x00\x00\x00\x00\x00\x02\x05\x00\x00\x00\x08\x00\x00\x06\x00\x00\x00|g' /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext/Contents//MacOS/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri

sudo chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext

sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelFramebufferCapri.kext

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

 

[SJ_UnderWater]

Thin Mini-ITX Tester: GA-B75TN

for required binary edits, I created Patcho. On request I created an optional embedded mode where the default syntax is in the binary itself, so it can be run by inexperienced users. This particular one is the Capri 0x6 patch, which will run if the user simply types `sudo ./capri06patch` in Terminal. Even with the embed it can be used like a normal copy of Patcho and accept arguments to edit other files, but the default can prevent typos.

http://www.tonymacx86.com/general-help/86205-patcho-simple-hex-binary-patcher.html#post538616

 

[MacMan]

Thin Mini-ITX Tester: GA-B75TN

I will be adding these patches in next MultiBeast.

 

[SJ_UnderWater]

Thin Mini-ITX Tester: GA-B75TN

to make things even easier, the newest Patcho can `sudo` itself in most cases, so given a builder who has posted a zipped Patcho with an embedded patch (zipping will preserve the execute flag), all they have to do is double-click the file, which should open in Terminal and execute. If sudo is necessary it will be launched, requiring the user's password, but that should be all. Additionally, the program now announces its embedded syntax so it will be a more transparent process.