Small is Beautiful: 10 Years of Mini-ITX, Page 3
VIA
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Millennium Falcon PC
Modder: Russ Caslis
Country: USA
Date of Project: May 28th, 2003
VIA Board Used: VIA EPIA 5000
Inspiration: Star Wars Millennium Falcon
Purpose of Mod: Home PC
Link to Full Story: https://mods.xkill.net/
This next mod should come as no surprise to most of you. Russ Caslis’ “Falcon-ITX’ is one of the most recognizable mods of all time and has been a source of inspiration and the impetus for many to try their hand at a custom mod. Russ’s passion, fantastic attention to detail and technical skills shine through in his work. For this mod Russ had only a few minor requirements to meet:
Russ’s Requirements:
All components had to fit inside... all peripherals had to plug into the outside of the toy/model just like a real computer.
The basic toy/model had to be painted accurately, within reason. This meant researching the models used in the movies and making a "best guess" as to the colors and spacing of some parts.
The system must have a unique power light. This was accomplished via a special LED that flashes and fades through all the primary colors of light (red, green, and blue in a single LED).
Through one of the "holes" in the hull, you must be able to see the inner workings of a real hard drive, preferably accented with blue electrical "sparks" when there was drive activity.
It had to have hard drive activity lights placed into the front "headlights" of the Falcon.
Working engine lights ... need I say more?
It had to have adequate cooling.
Is that all? No problem!
After giving the toy a bath and new paint job, Russ got down to the intricate work of gutting the Falcon and installing all the components to meet his list of demands.
One of the most difficult things was to achieve the lighting effect on the hard drive. “You might have heard of crazy people who have actually opened their hard drives to install a see-through window. Yup, I'm one of them now.” Well it was certainly worth it. To check out some of his other great mod projects including his Chopper PC visit his website at: https://mods.xkill.net.
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Home Media Centres – with Pizzazz
Arriving at a time when many people were starting to digitize their music, photo, TV show, and movie collections, the Mini-ITX also set off a wave of Home Media Centre modding projects. Looking to enjoy and share their newly compiled digital collections in their living rooms, they needed something that wouldn’t stick out like a sore thumb but would rather blend into the room’s stylistic sensibilities or, more importantly, meet the approval of their wife or mother.
Close cousins of the Home PC projects, the Home Media Centre mods were designed to store a wealth of digital media files and play them back using either a PC monitor or TV. In many cases, the Home Media Centre mods were also hooked up to a home network, allowing access to the files from other devices throughout the home. Nowadays that is pretty commonplace, but ten years ago it was still quite a revolutionary concept.
Just like their Home PC counterparts, the Home Media Centre modding projects produced a veritable smorgasbord of creative designs, ranging from the stunning (and self-explanatory) Accordion-ITX, Jukebox ITX, and Encyclomedia to the classic art-deco style Ingraham. There was even another (mini) Falcon system, not to mention a number of even quirkier projects such as the Tortoise Beetle, Mini-Mesh, and EPIA Alloy mods.
Despite numerous industry efforts to promote the Home Media Centre/Home Server category, it has never really established itself as a large segment of the market, though much of its functionality was later incorporated into gaming systems such as the Xbox and PS3.
More recently we have begun to see growth in the Home Media Centre market as greater wireless bandwidth, improved streaming capabilities, and better software have been developed to truly satisfy this need.
The Mini-ITX Home Media Centre mods played an important role in demonstrating the feasibility of sharing media across multiple devices all those years ago. It just goes to show how long it can take for even the most innovative technologies to go into the mainstream.
Home Media Centre Modding Project-Creator
Accordian ITX -Lennie Moore & Jim Wiggins
Encyclomedia - Marco Venezia
EPIA Alloy Mod - Micke Gustaffson
GTA-PC - Mark Harris
Ingraham - Jeffrey Stephenson
Jukebox-ITX - Will Hatcher
Mini-Falcon - Sean Wachob
Mini-Mesh Box - Lincoln Stein
The Tortoise Beatle - Ran Diyer
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The “Accordian ITX”
Modder: Lennie Moore & Jim Wiggins
Country: USA
Date of Project: May 25th, 2005
VIA Board Used: VIA EPIA 800
Inspiration: Enrico Bertini accordion
Purpose of Mod: Home Media Centre
Link to Full Story: https://www.mini-itx.com/projects/accordion-itx/default.asp?page=3
Back in 2005 Lennie Moore and Jim Wiggins teamed up to create this beautiful mod of an old Enrico Bertini accordion.
They both loved the Mini-ITX form factor’s ability to fit into a whole lot of random enclosures. Jim had gotten hooked on doing mods early on and recounts: “When I used to build my own computers around 2003 I was a frequent customer at Fry's Electronics, where I could see all the latest motherboards laid out on display, and I remember thinking, wow! that little one there has *everything* on it! I have to have one!” He had already completed a few mods using a lunchbox and milk crate and lent his expertise to aid Lennie in the construction of a music server for his living room.
Wanting to fully disguise the computer inside of the accordion led them to some serious remodeling of the accordion’s interior and an amazing discovery that the back wooden plate was exactly the same dimensions of a 3U Rackmount case, making the mounting of the VIA EPIA 800 Mini-ITX board and other components a much simpler task.
One of Lennie’s favorite parts of the whole project was “ … the 4 weeks staring at the gutted accordion and systematically sorting out how to best fit all the computer components into it. I really enjoyed solving this puzzle.”
After fitting everything neatly inside and closing it up, Jim programmed the user interface to work on any browser on Lennie’s home network and everything was good to go.
One of the coolest features of the completed mod is the cathode lighting installation in the place of the left hand buttons which are set to flicker to the amplitude of the music.
Lennie still derives great satisfaction when people tell him. “I didn’t know you could play the accordion.”
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The “Encyclomedia”
Modder: Marco Venezia
Country: Italy
Date of Project: July 7th, 2005
VIA Board Used: VIA EPIA M10000
Inspiration: Fake polystyrene books
Purpose of Mod: Home Media Server
Link to Full Story: https://www.mini-itx.com/projects/encyclomedia/
Back in 2005, 17 year old Marco Venezia of Italy was craving a PC to connect to his family’s living room TV to watch DVDs and DivX files but had one major obstacle to overcome. “The problem was my mother, she had some strict rules regarding the design of ‘HER’ living room, which was to say no computers allowed.”
One day, while at a local furniture shop, he came across a bookcase display with a series of fake books made of polystyrene. Whistles and bells starting ringing in his head and, after some serious prodding, the owner agreed to gift him a set.
Back home with his “mother’s living room approved books” and a VIA EPIA M10000 Mini-ITX mainboard featuring a 1GHz VIA C3 processor, Marco set to work.
Using wood, Velcro, paper, glue and some good old fashioned ingenuity, Marco built a sleek home media server controll
ed completely by remote - no mouse, no keyboard!
Those encyclopedias now contain a living library of digital data Marco can enjoy.
“I got my PC, and she kept her nice living room. I won!” No complaints from mom.
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EPIA Alloy Mod
Modder: Micke Gustafsson
Country: Sweden
Date of Project: May 16, 2006
VIA Board Used: VIA EPIA SP 13000
Inspiration: Swedish summertime car bling
Purpose of Mod: Home Media Server
Link to Full Story: https://www.bit-tech.net/modding/2006/05/16/epia_alloy_mod/
From one of the most prolific modders out there comes the EPIA Alloy mod by Sweden’s own Micke Gustafsson. No stranger to VIA, Micke had recently completed four commissioned engraved cases for VIA’s Home of Chrome, an eSports training facility that was the home of the Girlz of Destruction team, also based in Sweden. He had a VIA EPIA SP13000 Mini-ITX mainboard featuring a VIA C3 processor and some time to come up with a new mod to do. Inspired by his father’s passion for car modding he came up with the idea for this mod. “As the days grow longer and summer approaches, a lot of car-owning Swedes swap their winter wheels for some summertime ‘bling rims’. We can't run them all year round because of our harsh winter - the combination of snow and salt on the roads would ruin any decent set of alloys.”
Micke’s first mod utilized the rim of a 17” PLW alloy wheel which he had obtained from a friend and mounted the Mini-ITX board on a custom made aluminum shelf carefully encased within a Plexiglas cover.
He was happy with this and received approval from all who saw it but some gnawing deficiencies just wouldn’t go away and got him to thinking. After talking with Bit-tech Deputy Editor, Geoff Richards, he came up with a new strategy to overhaul his mod.
This time he wanted to mount a real world brake disc and complete it with a fitted tire.
Calling on his dad he obtained a front disc for an Audi A4 and set to work. Wanting to really bling it out, he modified the disc to match one from the top sports cars and racers with cross-drilled discs.
This proved to be a monumental task as the steel was much tougher to drill than anticipated but he came to a happy compromise by etching in his trademark GoTaLL at the top to reduce the number of holes.
The finished product neatly hid the computer behind and due to his painstaking attention to detail, from first glance one believes he has a sports car tire sitting in his living room.
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The “GTA-PC”
Modder: Mark Harris
Country: UK
Date of Project: May 22nd, 2008
VIA Board Used: VIA EPIA M-Series
Inspiration: GTA IV
Purpose of Mod: Home Media Server
Link to Full Story: https://www.mini-itx.com/projects/gta-pc/
Sometimes things just fall into place for you. This was the case for Mark Harris of the UK. Having missed the deadline for pre-ordering his copy of Grand Theft Auto IV he was forced to go for the special edition.
As fate would have it everything came packaged in a GTA IV black safety deposit box measuring 18cm wide, just big enough to fit a Mini-ITX mainboard inside.
“During a quiet period at work, with no stealing cars or gunning down innocent folks because they gave me a dodgy look, I had been playing with different operating systems on a Mini-ITX system. As one does, I took it apart and admired the size of it, or lack of. During a conversation about the versatility of the Mini-ITX breed and how they could perform as an HTPC yet look ugly in the off the shelf cases, the following dawned on me.” That was to convert this box into a stylish case for his personal home media server.
Using a VIA EPIA M-Series Mini-ITX mainboard with a 1GHz VIA C3 processor, Mark enlisted the help of a friend with the skills and tools to help him transform his case.
Once it was returned to him, all holes pre-cut, he was ready to mount everything inside.
With room to spare he turned it on and whallah all guns were blazing.
No moving parts inside and the bonus of the carry handle on the front made for easy transportation.
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Ingraham
Modder: Jeffrey Stephenson
Country: USA
Date of Project: December 2nd, 2008
VIA Board Used: VIA VB8001
Inspiration: Ingraham’s 1946 Carlson Model 1110H radio
Purpose of Mod: Home Media Server
Awards: 2009 Extremetech Case Mod Contest, 2009 Bit-tech Mod of the Year - Nominee (Ingraham)
Link to Full Story: https://slipperyskip.com/page26.html
Jeffrey Stephenson is well known in the modding community for his Art Deco inspired wood carved mods. His fine craftsmanship and attention to detail really make his case mods standout as pieces of art. His beautiful creations become showpieces in a room, elegantly hiding the computer components.
For his Ingraham mod which he finished in December of 2008, Jeffrey drew inspiration from the Ingraham Cabinet Company, who designed and built many of his favorite cabinets in the 30’s and 40’s. The Ingraham Company, traditionally a clock maker, was contracted by many prominent radio manufacturers to furnish wooden enclosures. This particular mod is his tribute to the 1946 Stromberg Carlson model 1110H.
For this mod Jeffrey utilized a VIA VB8001 Mini-ITX mainboard featuring a 1.6GHz VIA Nano processor. The images below detail the elaborate process of the case construction.
Using a Silvertone LC06 LaScala aluminum case as the donor case he painstakingly constructed the exterior out of basswood with walnut veneering for a beautiful finish.
The crowning glory was a chrome-plated, billet aluminum, knurled-edge, baby moon-style gas cap for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. (Say that three times fast!)
The finished product all fit neatly inside, including a 64 GB SSD drive, making this an extremely quiet, low power home media server that satisfies both form and function to the utmost.
Jeffrey Stephenson is one of the most respected and celebrated modders and has been an active member of the modding community dating back to 2002. His beautiful wood carved mods have been showcased at Computex, the Consumer Electronics Show (CES Las Vegas), Quakecon, Newegg’s, Lanfest Pasadena and the San Francisco Exploratorium as well as garnering numerous accolades and awards. Some of his other notable Home Media Server Mods include: The Skyscraper, a PC/Digital Photo frame constructed in 2007, and the Pico Bayard, another hybrid PC/Digital photo frame from 2008. To view his full collection please visit: https://slipperyskip.com/index.html
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Jukebox-ITX
Modder: Will Hatcher
Country: USA
Date of Project: June 17th, 2004
VIA Board Used: VIA EPIA Series Mini-ITX
Inspiration: Ingraham’s 1946 Carlson Model 1110H radio
Purpose of Mod: Home Media Server
Link to Full Story: https://www.mini-itx.com/projects/jukebox/
Times change but some things just don’t go away. Back in the late 80’s and early 90‘s, CD player/radio combos disguised as 50’s style mini jukeboxes were a popular fad. Almost obsolete only a decade later as more and more people were making the switch to digital multimedia libraries, it looked like these too were destined to fade away into a nostalgic past. Then along came Will Hatcher, looking for something cool to be a dedicated music server for the living room, he was inspired by the small form factor of the Mini-ITX and decided to give his hand at case modding a go.
Obtaining his jukebox online for only $70 US and his VIA EPIA Series Mini-ITX with a VIA C3 E-Series processor, a fourth incarnation of the jukebox started to come to life.
After opening up the back and gutting the unnecessary parts, Will found that there was more than enough space to fit in his Mini-ITX board, hard drive and other components.
The toughest part of this mod was the lighting for the front of the case. “I later remo
ved all the wiring to the lights inside because it was a series of incandescent bulbs in series and I didn't care to try to wire that into the power supply nor did I want to deal with one of them burning out.”
Instead he opted for high-intensity LEDs and glow wire which gave it a nice neon effect.
Another stumbling point was that the box was about 2cm too shallow to have the motherboard’s ports face the back of the box, so he vertically mounted the VIA EPIA Mini-ITX board on the back panel and cut a slightly larger hole to access the ports.
It took a few attempts at finding the right hard drive and power unit that were quiet enough for his liking, and the inclusion of a SoundBlaster USB with optical-out to hook up to his surround sound system. Will then installed Media Monkey and connected the finished mod to his TV. He added a wireless mouse and keyboard as well as a Streamzap PC remote for multimedia use.
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Mini Falcon
Modder: Sean Wachob
Country: California, USA
Date of Project: May 15th, 2005
VIA Board Used: VIA EPIA M-Series
Inspiration: Russ Caslis’s Millennium Falcon
Purpose of Mod: Home Media Server
Link to Full Story: https://www.mini-itx.com/projects/minifalcon/
Sean Wachob was searching around the web one day in 2005 when he came across a new Playskool version of the Millennium Falcon. “I instantly thought, the original Falcon mod (by Russ Caslis) had a lot of empty space, I bet you could fit everything you need in here.”
