Mac Pro Mini mod is almost the midrange tower Mac you've always wanted

Sure, we think the iMac is a nice machine, but sometimes you want to add a PCI card or six, and when the cheapest beslotted Mac starts at a whopping $2,799, mods like Hideo Takano's Mac Pro Mini just make you wonder what could have been. Of course, there are no slots in this bad boy either since it's based around a stock Mac mini with a 2.33GHz processor upgrade, but it is a mighty impressive effort -- actually, check out Hideo's whole Mac Mod Lab site for even more sick Mini mods.

[Via Unplgged]

[Greg @ Mar 13th 2008 9:39PM]

Wow, that's a pretty sweet mod.

[imacmatt09 @ Mar 13th 2008 10:43PM]

Since when is there a 2.33 GHz Mini? Is it overclocked?

[Nipponese @ Mar 13th 2008 11:11PM]

@imacmatt09

No, he swapped the cpu.

[Jeff @ Mar 14th 2008 11:55AM]

hahaha it's so cute!

[Juaquin @ Mar 13th 2008 9:44PM]

Awesome. 6 months from now, when Apple thinks people have forgotten this, they will release a similar mid-tower and call it revolutionary and original. Just wait.

[tyler @ Mar 13th 2008 9:47PM]

... and our friends here at Engadget will have all the coverage!

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 13th 2008 9:52PM]

"Mac Pro mini! The wave of the future!"

What's next, the macbook pro air mini modular awesomness mini? :P

[TedB @ Mar 13th 2008 9:45PM]

I searched the website, but could not find if the moder posted any CAD files for this. Has anyone found any inventor/solidworks/autocad/step/iges/ or anything type CAD files for this?

[StrangeBum @ Mar 13th 2008 10:12PM]

I have not, but I'm curious why you would want them.

Plan on starting up a CNC or waterjet and cutting out your own case and implementing the mod yourself?

[TedB @ Mar 13th 2008 10:34PM]

I work at Trumpf, one of the worlds largest manufacturing companies. So I could easily get access to a laser/punch/sheet metal bender and cut the parts for it. Even if I did not plan on making it, it would be cool to just see how the moder did it in cad form. No need to CNC any or that from what I can tell from the pictures, a laser, sheet metal bender, and welder would do the trick.

Of course I would not take the credit, or make them for profit. But it would be an awesome case mod of the moder made the directions available.

[jethro @ Mar 14th 2008 4:26AM]

I don't know if you even looked at the site, but it's plastic.

[TedB @ Mar 14th 2008 7:03AM]

@ jethro "I don't know if you even looked at the site, but it's plastic."

So you are saying because he used plastic, that means I would not be able to use sheet metal and he would not have any CAD files?

Material in this case does not matter at all, at long as you know how to use them.
And anyone making any project should use CAD, just to make sure you don't do anything wrong. It is a very very common thing for someone to CAD a plastic part.. like a mold for example, to make sure it is made correctly. ( there are programs in most cad programs that deal with only plastic.

And as for the first part of your assumption on materials.. lets take a look at the first 4 words in my post.. "I searched the website". By reading that, it is pretty obvious that I looked the website.

[Flashpoint @ Mar 13th 2008 9:47PM]

I run a maclab with 32 emac G4's (the old CRT ones) and the main desktop is a Aluminum cased G5 with 512 MB of ram.

I recently upgraded to Leopard (if you wanna call it an upgrade) and half the programs I used stopped working properly such as Remote Desktop and Workgroup Server.

Apparently with Leopard Server, RD and WS have been combined into a single program...its not likely that updates will be available for these older programs since Apple doesn't mind leaving you hangin'.

The case for my computer is the taller case and I have to admit, its really cool. I wouldn't mind having a case of this quality for a PC though...especially one that can run CRYSIS.

[daliminator2000 @ Mar 13th 2008 10:23PM]

Ummm...yeah...

::nod nod::

Oh look, a birdie!

[ethana2 @ Mar 14th 2008 2:27AM]

I'm my family's system administrator; we have 3 machines. One of them is a laptop with virtualization acceleration and a windows XP vm and another is a dual seat desktop with two virtual sound sinks piping sound from the two simultaneous users to their respective speaker of my stereo speaker set.

No one in my family ever has or ever will purchase an apple product. All machines are running Ubuntu. And /that/ is why I'm telling you instead of the dude that writes these engadget posts. Do I mind? Meh. Apple does something innovative quite often. This isn't that, so I really don't care. Sometimes the comments manage to be interesting anyway.

[Joe @ Mar 14th 2008 5:14AM]

Maybe if you'd bother reading instructions? Remote Desktop 3 is the only Remote Desktop that works with Leopard. It has special installation instructions, and an update upon installation that is required. Don't blame an operating system for your own shortcomings.

[Licotto @ Mar 14th 2008 9:49AM]

@ethana2

Wow, that was a whole lot talk for a whole lot of nothing.

If you don't like Apple, don't read it. If you do read it for the comments, don't be surprised that there would be pro-Apple comments...

Nobody cares that your family has a SysAdmin, which seems a little odd for you to admit to anyway, and it didn't have any bearing on ANY part of discussions.

[Tim @ Mar 13th 2008 9:47PM]

The iMac is great and all but sometimes you want to add a PCI card, which this bad boy doesn't offer...

What a lame article.

Great mod, lame write-up.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 13th 2008 9:53PM]

does that USB slot in the front work? Because I know he pretty much slid the mini through the back facing front, meaning all those ports are on the back.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 13th 2008 9:54PM]

I have just realized I answered my own question...

[loffel @ Mar 14th 2008 7:46AM]

It has one port on the front.
see here: http://hanabusa1.blog29.fc2.com/blog-entry-79.html
or: http://blog29.fc2.com/h/hanabusa1/file/Mac-Pro-Mini-005.jpg
or just look at the pic in the post.

[ReggieXuk @ Mar 13th 2008 9:58PM]

LEEERROOOYYY MMMJJEEEENKERRNS!!!!!!

[Carl Vitullo @ Mar 13th 2008 10:03PM]

what?

i don't understand....

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 13th 2008 10:17PM]

He means Leroy Jenkins. Popular WoW and internet phenomenon. Look it up on wikipedia

[Carl Vitullo @ Mar 13th 2008 11:04PM]

no, no, i know that, but how is it relevant?

[Zeus.:God @ Mar 13th 2008 11:18PM]

LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY- jenkem.

[z3r0D @ Mar 13th 2008 11:20PM]

It's always relevant.

Fuck the RIAA

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 14th 2008 12:03AM]

Us gamers like to yell WoW phenomenons once in a while :)

[John @ Mar 16th 2008 8:00PM]

Fuck yea, leroy jenkins!

[Chris @ Mar 13th 2008 10:04PM]

That looks good, almost like he stole it from an apple design studio. I want one!

[Carl Vitullo @ Mar 13th 2008 10:04PM]

so wait, that's just a mini shoved into a little case?
so that's only like, 8 inches tall, total?

[Timmay @ Mar 14th 2008 10:12AM]

He also added a 3.5 inch hard drive, upgraded the CPU, and did a wicked nice mod.

It's more then just sticking a mini in a new case. He'd have to get a new power supply for the HDD or jump off the mini's power some how.

Timmay

[Chris @ Mar 13th 2008 10:07PM]

If you're gonna bring up Crysis at least do it in a PC comment not a mac one.

[diulei @ Mar 13th 2008 10:13PM]

The Cube mod on his site is pretty sweet looking also.

[diulei @ Mar 13th 2008 10:14PM]

The Cube mod on his site is pretty sweet looking also.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Mar 13th 2008 10:18PM]

oooo! Double post! The Big brother is watching you

:P

[thebendds @ Mar 13th 2008 10:22PM]

Well actually...

You can configure the Mac Pro with a single quad-core processor for $2299. Still a good chunk of change? You bet. But that is the actual starting price for a Mac Pro.

[NeoDarkSaver @ Mar 13th 2008 10:24PM]

It would be nice if it's a Pro. but it's a mini :(

[Darryl @ Mar 13th 2008 10:27PM]

Heh.

[Darryl @ Mar 13th 2008 10:27PM]

Looks sharp too. Good work.

[Brandon @ Mar 13th 2008 10:38PM]

I personally find it pretty ugly... not "polished" nearly enough.

[rlynd3 @ Mar 14th 2008 3:02AM]

^^so's your face.^^






Sorry i couldn't resist. Just finished a Scrubs marathon. :)

[Gibran Aslam @ Mar 14th 2008 8:21AM]

dont listen to him, hes drunk on cheese!

[Barry @ Mar 13th 2008 10:40PM]

I have a mac mini. It doesn't have a graphics card. OS X relies heavily on hardware acceleration. Intel's craptacular GMA integrated "graphics" processor is craptacular. In the future, Apple, don't do this. The form factor is great, but no. Just don't.

[OziD @ Mar 14th 2008 4:03AM]

GMA 950 is great for integrated graphics. OS X doesn't pull it off as nicely as Windows does, but it's a solid card for casual computing. the X3100 is sex compared to it, but the GM945 was a huge leap in performance for laptop chipsets.

just sayin'.

[Julio @ Mar 13th 2008 11:00PM]

And BTW the Mac Pro starts at $2,300 if you only want the Quad core. And it's even cheaper at Mac mall.

[ethana2 @ Mar 14th 2008 2:32AM]

If you must run OSX, I recommend getting a pegasosppc machine or patching your kernel and buying an ubuntu dell and triple booting it.

Don't give those stuck up control freaks any more of your money than you have to to feel good about yourself.

[Evan @ Mar 14th 2008 8:34AM]

@ethana2
What did Apple do to you to get your panties in a knot? No matter what you buy, some of your money goes to a big stuck-up corporation, be it Apple, Microsoft, or Dell! They're all bad in some way, so how can you hate one while supporting another?

As for buying an Ubuntu Dell... Dell offers sales on some configurations of Windows PCs for less than the Ubuntu equivalent. Dell is charging MORE for a FREE operating system, and pocketing your money!

[Reader @ Mar 13th 2008 11:06PM]

Even though I don't have any Macs that is still realllly cool. It could be refined in certain aspects, but besides that pretty sweet.

[The Angry Intern @ Mar 13th 2008 11:10PM]

meh, i'm not that impressed. All he did was create an aluminum case to put around the stock mini case. not that difficult or impressive.