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BrandonMiMini -Custom ITX PC
MiMini

I've always admired the Apple Mac Mini, a full featured computer in the palm of your hand. But the $600 price tag (before tax) made it unrealistic. I happened to be on eBay and found a barebones clone made by AOpen and did a lot of research before bidding, and then the auction disappeared (I hate eBay). By this point I was pretty excited and decided to make my own system and hopefully save some money by using parts I already had.

-AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Black Edition
I got this a few years ago when I got a 2GB RAM kit and needed a new motherboard the RAM and this CPU where in a combo deal, so the new motherboard I got was for this CPU and not my older Core 2 Duo. Then when I upgraded to a quad core this CPU got left on a shelf and was there until it was time for this project. Cost: $0 (as far as this project is concerned)

-512MB+256MB DDR2 533 RAM
Not the fastest or the highest capacity RAM but it came in a lot of parts I got from EBay, and for the goals of this project will be just fine. Cost: $0

-250GB Toshiba 2.5" Hard Drive
My Gateway laptop/netbook came with this drive and when I got my SSD the drive was sitting in a bag waiting for this project. Cost: $0

-Acrylic Case
This was the most important part to my build and the first part I actually got just for this project, I found it on EBay from a seller in Hong Kong who listed their AIM screen name, so I waited and IMed them for more details. They seemed legit and I ordered the case, within two weeks it was at mouse house and looks pretty good. Cost: $75

-Zotac GF6100-E-E Motherboard
After the case the motherboard was the next important part, because in the case there is no room for expansion so whatever ports the motherboard has is what I get. This motherboard retails for $45 and has 2 RAM slots, a PCIe x1 slot, 4 USB, 3 audio, a VGA, and 2 PS/2 ports, with nVIDIA 6150SE graphics. Not perfect, as I would have liked nVidia 8200 or 9300/9400 graphics, 6 audio ports, DVI, and eSATA, but at $45 I was really considering it. Then Newegg had it on sale for $40 one weekend and it was too good a deal for me to resist. Cost: $40

-SILVERSTONE NT07-AM2 Heatsink
My Athlon didn't come with a heatsink, and the one I got with it was sold when I sold the quad core that replaced it. Besides that, the case was too short and based off my rough estimates I needed a 1U or 1.5U heatsink. I ordered this one when I got my motherboard so that I could actually test it, and because it was pretty cheap AND it uses an 80mm fan so there are tons of aftermarket fans I could rig onto it. Cost: $23

-120W Pico PSU and AC/DC Adapter
The case was set up to use one and all the cool ITX mods on-line use one, so I decided to conform. I used short-circuit.com to order both Items as a combo. The only issue I had was that it doesn't have a 2x2 aux power connector for the motherboard so I had to craftily hook up a Molex to PCI-E power cable and it works fine. Cost: $70

-5 Light LED Kit
What good is an acrylic case without lights? Cost: $8

-SATA Slot Loading DVD
I still haven't got one, but once I get $42, I'll be ordering one :P

-Linux Mint and WinXP Pro
Mint is Ubuntu based, just better out of the box and the XP License is and old one I've had. Cost: $0

-Total Cost
CPU: $0
RAM: $0
HDD: $0
Case: $75
Motherboard: $40
Heatsink: $23
Pico: $70
LEDs: $8
OS: $0
Total: $216
Total with DVD: $258

I don't think I did too bad, at less than half the price. Sure, my size is a little more, but I can carry it in one hand just fine and the lights attract the ladies.
I did find that under Windows I can use a over/underclocking program to scale the processor, and after my customizations, I measure idle draw to be ~19watts, good enough to be on 24/7. Now for the pictures:


What it looks like :P

With keyboard and mouse with the Blog open in Firefox.

Basic CD for Size comparison.

Side view.

The rear IO ports.

With the lights on.

A bottom shot, you can see the laptop HDD toward the back behind the vents.		2010-06-039:06 PM
DickRe:MiMini -Custom ITX PC
Looks pretty nice.  Do you have a specific purpose for it?  From time to time, I think about setting up something small like that with low heat output and power consumption for various experimental things.		2010-06-051:07 AM
BrandonRe:MiMini -Custom ITX PC
I'll use it to play older games that don't get along with Win7, as well as to watch DVDs (once I get an optical drive). I am also thinking that I'll do some BASIC development on it, but I'm not sure. Really If someone wanted to buy about 20-30 computers I'd sell most that I have, and the only "modern" desktop I'd keep would be it, because I really like the low noise output.		2010-06-059:17 AM
HorvatMRe:MiMini -Custom ITX PC
I'll use it to play older games that don't get along with Win7 [...] I am also thinking that I'll do some BASIC development on it, but I'm not sure.

Well it hasn't got any serial or parallel ports, so it won't be exactly the most compatible DOS machine.		2010-06-0510:33 AM
BrandonRe:MiMini -Custom ITX PC
You don't need serial or parallel ports to write QB code. Besides QB is not my goals for this machine, they are far from it. I just said that I might use it for QB a little because it is so quiet.		2010-06-0511:59 AM

Hardware

2021 Brandon Cornell