—Trinity: The Build (CustoMac Mini 2011)

After making such a killing sniping great prices for parts, I was understandably eager to rip the cellophane and get to work. But actually, I was holding off because I intended to do the build with my little nephew. He… had other plans so I was on my own. As I mentioned previously, I was pretty much following the parts list provided in tonymacx86′s CustoMac Mini 2011 post with one small exception, the case.

MI-008

MI-100

MI-008 USB & Audio

MI-100 USB & Audio

He listed the Apex MI-008, but I chose the MI-100 instead. I stuck with the same manufacturer because I didn’t want any unforeseen fitting issues and their frames were pretty much identical. I really just found the face of the MI-100 to be more pleasing. The directions that came with the case weren’t exactly crystal clear, but after some trial and error I managed to put the right screws in the right places. I have to say, making all the connections to the motherboard was a little intimidating. Most of my experience so far was with laptops. But I knew enough to ground myself and avoid bending any of the pins on the processor (It seems now they have they pins on the motherboard instead). I also had Gigabyte’s instructions, which where a little easier to follow. The first thing I noticed

, besides the tight space, was the fact that the CPU fan cage bumped right up against the power supply. It also looked as though the power supply had a fan of its own, designed to pull hot air out of the case and keep the power supply temps within range. This might have been fine for a low powered HTPC, but this had a fully powered second generation intel core i3 which gives off quite a bit of heat of its own, hence the fairly sized stock CPU cooler. Early on I got the impression that airflow and temperature control might be a problem.

Everything fit snugly in the case. I fiddled between the two locations to mount the hard drive; the traditional 3.5 inch bay, and a second location mounted sideways next to the power supply. I finally settled on the 3.5 inch bay as it looked as though I could fit a 120mm fan in that second bay next to the power supply. If it didn’t cooperate I had my Dremel handy.

I got a Cooler Master SickleFlow green LED 120mm case fan on eBay. The price was a little high on Newegg at the time. As I was trying find a place to cram it into, I decided to cut off one of the plastic screw mounts with a hacksaw. Probably wasn’t necessary, and it also took away any chances of returning it. I found that it made a subtle rattling noise. To think Cooler Master had the gall to put silent in the description. I tried using a fan controller to lower the speed and thus the noise but that didn’t work. So I threw that fan aside and got another one from frozenCPU.com (a treasure). It’s a SilenX iXtrema Pro. With a name like that its gotta be well engineered right? That, and something about fluid dynamic bearings. Cooler Master may have had a cooler LED effect, but the SilenX (also with green LEDs) was far quieter. Ahh the sweet sound of silence…

• • •

The Parts List (current)

• CPU: Intel Core i3-2105 w/ Intel HD 3000 Integrated Graphics — $135 [newer model - i3-2125]
• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-H67N-USB3-B3 — $75 w/ rebate [sold out: here's an alternate - GA-H61N-USB3]
• RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3 12800) 8GB (2 x 4GB) — $40
• Case + Power Supply Unit: APEX MI-100 Mini-ITX w/ 250w PSU — $5 (w/ netflix trial eBay bucks redemption)
• Optical Drive: Sony Optiarc 24x w/ LightScribe AD-7261S-0B — $20
• Hard Drives:  Seagate Barracuda 1TB SATA 6Gb/s ST31000524AS (2) — $50 each
• Case Fans (2 – Green): SilenX iXtrema Pro LED Fan - 120x120x25mm (IXP-74-14G)  •  80x80x25mm (IXP-54-14G) — $20 & $14 respectively
• Fan Controller: Sunbeam Rheosmart PCI 20W PL-RS-PCI — $8.50
• Bluetooth Dongle: Belkin Mini Bluetooth Adapter v2.1 + EDR F8T016 — $14
• SD Card Reader/USB 2.0 Hub (for built-in mod): Cosmos®/(ChipsBnk?) — $8
• Internal USB Header Adapter Cable (for card reader): 2 ports — $4 Amazon
• 4-Pin Molex to Serial ATA Power Adapter Cable (for 2nd hard drive) — $1 Amazon
• SATA Cables: UV Green — $3 Amazon
• Thumb Screws (for ease of entry): Anodized (4) — $2 Amazon
  
• Keyboard: Dell QuietKey – D/PN L30U — $5
• Mouse: Logitech VX Nano Wireless (already owned) — Amazon
• Monitor: Samsung SyncMaster 27″ + HDTV 2770HD (already owned) — Amazon
• Graphics Card: MSI Radeon 5570 1GB 128-bit R5570-MD1G (discontinued) — $40 [alternates]
• SSD: OCZ Agility 4 256GB AGT4-25SAT3-256G — $189

Related articles

• —Trinity: One machine to rule them all… Mac… Windows… Linux (waypastwarranty.wordpress.com)
• my intel core i3 home theater pc (leosuarez.com)
• i3 530 / miniITX / Zotac — THE ITXERMINATOR!! (overclock.net)
• How to Prevent Your Computer from Overheating (and Why It’s Important) (lifehacker.com)
• —Followup: Trinity, 6 months in (CustoMac Mini 2011) (waypastwarranty.wordpress.com)