Flightline
I have posted completed projects here before but never a project log. I typically post in only three forums. One in North America, one in Australia and one in Europe. Forgive my lack of speaking Swedish. I hope to learn some of the language. I am of Swedish decent on my mother's side.
Some of you may already be familiar with my work. slipperyskip.com
Introducing my new project based on the thin mini-ITX form factor. Intel developed this thin version to support the AIO (All In One) PC market. It was in response to the popularity of the iMac which bundles the monitor and system into a single thin chassis.
I have other ideas for it.
After a 20-hour work marathon I put together this chassis. Wood of course. It is the medium I work in.
18 pieces of wood assembled onto a 1/16" sheet of birch plywood. The wood is all basswood (AKA lacewood) except the darker center piece. That is 1/4" thick maple.
Many of the boards, including the maple, are simply to stiffen the structure. 1/16" (1.6mm) plywood is easy to work with and keeps the project thin but needs a little help to prevent flexing.
Gigabyte offers three thin mini-ITX models This is the high-end H77 chipset version.
One of the tricks in keeping the board thin is use of laptop-style SODIMM memory
The thin mini-ITX I/O shield is exactly 1/2 the height of a standard ATX standard I/O shield. Some board makers include a full height shield to use in a standard chassis.
If you installed a "normal" heatsink onto a thin mini-ITX board it would no longer be thin. Intel makes this heatsink and AFAIK it is the only such product on the market.
The heatsink uses a blower instead of a more common axial fan. Blowers are typically noisier and less efficient but Intel spent some serious R&D on this bad boy. This is the first blower I have ever worked with that allows air intake from both sides simultaneously. Testing will be done.
Thanks for looking!
