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Here is the Mac mini sitting on top of what is left of the heatsink.
Backplate was cut out using a dremel and the Mac mini is being fitted for alignment. The power and two coaxial connectors are also fitted in.
Handle still works!
DVD drive being test fitted inside the cage. I temporarily used PCI brackets to hold it up and measure out how high it needed to be.
Initially, I wanted to keep the original spot for the touch sensitive electrode, but I quickly found out that the electrode is pretty much null as soon as you put it inside...the metal Cube pretty much eliminated the electrical field. Props to Apple for creating the original one! I ended up having to wire up the metal piece that lies outside the acrylic case to be the electrode.
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Top view of the inner cage. The top led is wired to the Mac mini's original led so it will pulsate when asleep. On the right is the wire that makes contact to the electrode on the acrylic. I also decided to stick a small fan in the center that is rigged at 7 volts to get some air flow. The hdd also sits in the original location.
I ended up rerouting the bluetooth to get a better signal because the metal Cube made it useless when it was in it's original spot. Down to the bottom it goes and now no more problems.
The touch sensitive circuit tucked away.
Here is the airport module rerouted to the bottom corner...now it gets a full signal. You can also see the ide adapter for the DVD drive.
Now here was the craziest mod I did! After many trials and tribulations I decided to go with a Zalman VGA cooler for the cpu since the original mini fan was unable to push enough air at low rpms, and at high rpms it was just too loud. The Zalman pushes a lot more air and it's barely audible. I had to remove quite a few fins to make room for the IDE adapter, but overall, I am much more satisfied than with the original fan. Idle is 30-40C and load is 60-70C. The fan pulls power from the Mac mini's SATA power so it turns off when the machine is asleep or off. This was actually my third design to get cooler temps and have it quiet!
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