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hamsher · Oct 30, 2005, 01:57 PM

Hi all. Im new here but I thought I would let you all in on my current little project. I know that this has probably been done before but I wanted to give it a go myself. Anyways it is a work in progress and parts are on order. Any comments and criticisms welcome.

Click my sig!!!

M_a_c_X · Oct 30, 2005, 03:53 PM

that sounds Great

Sell it on ebay after

Lateralus · Oct 30, 2005, 04:13 PM

Sounds awesome.

One thing though; You're not going to be able to put a 250GB drive in since the Mac Mini uses notebook drives, which only go to 120GBs.

Tenacious Dyl · Oct 30, 2005, 09:38 PM

He could... tap into the firewire port (making the outside firewire port un-usable, and yet "open" to appearances.

Then get a FW-to-ATA or even FW-to-SATA adapter, or just buy a FW-HD case and remove the good bits inside. This would allow much larger than a 250 GB drive if the chipset in the case/adapter was good (I think... maybe up to 500 gbs?)

The power he could route through his existing power, and if needed step it down, or wire out a second power cord, etc.

It really is possible if it is what he wants / needs.

Edit: After all... with an LCD inside of there instead of a CRT there will be a lot of extra room, this would fit great!

hamsher · Oct 31, 2005, 04:07 AM

Cheers. I imagine it will go up for auction once I finish it. And I wasnt going to replace the HD like-for-like its going to be a little more complex than that.

esXXI · Oct 31, 2005, 04:25 AM

Should be a cool when finished. Be sure to give us plenty of snaps.

bad_quote · Nov 1, 2005, 08:06 PM

Yeha, looks cool!

Arclite · Nov 1, 2005, 08:28 PM

One thing: Don't get rid of the old logo and put that crappy gray one in its place. The entire point to a conversion like this is to keep the old charm, right?

Brien · Nov 1, 2005, 08:46 PM

Repainting it a glossy-white would look nice, though.

And when you do put in the LCD screen, You might want to shave the inside bevels so that the corners aren't covered by it.

hamsher · Nov 2, 2005, 09:38 AM

Yeah the screen at the moment has quite a large bevel on it so I will have to modify the case so the the LCD fits flush. And I have been in two minds about the Apple. The original idea was to have the look modernised so glossy white with the gray Apple like on the new Macs but I have not made my mind up.

brokenjago · Nov 2, 2005, 02:41 PM

I think you should keep the old look, and modify nothing except the floppy drive. All you need to do with that is make it thinner, and wider so you can fit CDs inside. That would be quite hawt.

Waragainstsleep · Nov 5, 2005, 11:57 AM

If you're going to take the Mac Mini out of box, you can use any desktop drive you like up to 500GB. And you need only take the top case off. You might even get more than one in there. I don't know if the HD and optical have a separate ATA channel each or not. If they do, you can put three desktop HDs in there. You might need to find more power for them though.

Personally, I like the idea of updating the look of the case. The white mock-up you have looks good to me. Better than the original. Which is most likely a nice, yellowed-beige by now.

brokenjago · Nov 13, 2005, 01:20 AM

But it's all about the yellowed beige!

Classic Macintosh!

waffffffle · Nov 22, 2005, 04:18 PM

Hmm. This seems like an interesting idea. i have a Mac plus that I gutted to turn into a Macquarium but never finished. I also have a Mac mini. It would be cool to put it inside. At my old job I used to have access to this old tiny black and white CRT that would probably fit inside nicely but I don't work there anymore. I wonder where you can get an LCD to fit inside.

far200 · Dec 18, 2005, 06:18 PM

looks like a good little project you have on the go..... keep us posted and keep the pics up on your progress..... I've been looking at some type of project with a mac mini but I don't know what yet....... maybe something in my car.....