[Intel NUC] The microprocessor

Ace_finland · 13 Sep 2013 at 07:23

Hey guys,

For a long time i've been wanting to make a small pc for the tv so when i saw the announcement of the Intel NUC/Bit-tech competition i thought i would send in a design and see how it goes. Sadly I didn't get picked for the competition but in the true spirit of modding i bought all the parts instead so i can still make a case.

Background:
When i first saw the Intel NUC and its small size i knew it would be perfect for my needs. When thinking of a design for the competition i started looking at Intel's old microprocessors and what they meant for the general public back in the days. These nuc motherboards are a bit of the same in my mind seeing they are quite powerful for their very small form factor. Anyways, enough of that

This is the design i sent in for the competition. It has changed quite a bit but i don't have any better ones.

Decided on a different version (still an i3) but with an wired network and no thunderbolt as i have no need for thunderbolt as of now and it was a bit cheaper

Nuc, 8GB of vengence 1600 ram and a wireless & BT card from Intel

120GB Kingston SSD

Now that that is over lets start with the build pictures
200x200x20mm piece of aluminum cut with a circular saw, worked a lot better than i thought it would.

As i recently finished upgrading my homebuilt CNC mill/router i thought i would put it to the test during this build

The Mill

Took me a while with the electronics since im no electrician and don't have a lot of skills with it, luckily no smoke

A bit of roughing with a 6mm endmill

More pictures soon as i have gotten a bit further than this.

Hope you like it and please drop a comment

DJ_Bucho · 13 Sep 2013 at 07:50

Brilliant, I'm watching this with great interest. I love your design and I can't wait to see it start to come together. That homebuilt CNC mill/router is a monster, I'm well impressed with that. Keep up the great work

Ace_finland · 13 Sep 2013 at 08:04

DJ_Bucho said:
Brilliant, I'm watching this with great interest. I love your design and I can't wait to see it start to come together. That homebuilt CNC mill/router is a monster, I'm well impressed with that. Keep up the great work

Thx! hopefully i will have time to do another update tonight!

jonnyp1993 · 13 Sep 2013 at 08:08

This looks exciting

shadowscotland · 13 Sep 2013 at 09:14

Now that's what a call a project log OP - loving that home brew CNC as well

coolsurfer · 13 Sep 2013 at 10:12

Very nice! Looking forward to this

Telecaster · 13 Sep 2013 at 18:09

If it's only half as good as your mill/router setup then it will be awesome, can't wait to see it.

kaku · 13 Sep 2013 at 23:11

Whoa, that mill looks incredible! Super-jealous already.

Ace_finland · 15 Sep 2013 at 13:11

thx for all the comments guys!

Forgot to post this in the first post but this is from where i got the inspiration, its not to scale since that would have meant making it very long

Started with milling som slots for the air intake

The air intake is done, and lowerd the tabs for where the nuc will be seated

Bottom side, as you can see i left a few tabs so the piece wouldn't move while milling through the sheet. Just cleaned of the tabs with a file as they were only around 2mm thick

For some reason i'm missing a lot of photos from milling the slots and the holes for the legs. But here are the slots

Had to mill out a bit for some of the slots because they all connectors are not on the same line

As usual something is bound to go wrong and while milling the slots for the connectors i forgot to zero the mill bit so all connectors are 1mm off to one side. That's why up in the right corner i had to make an extension bit for the motherboard

Test fit of the powerhouse

As u might have noticed the air intake is on the bottom side, i didn't want to have an air intake in the lid and making it this way i can get airflow through all components before leaving the case.

Sneak preview of next update

more updates coming soon

Ace_finland · 23 Sep 2013 at 19:05

Seem to get less and less time with modding every week but got a lot done during the weekend

The acrylic, Not much about it yet but i still need to get the film of the die on it, but that will be in a later update. Not the greatest finish on it but needs to be as "frosty" as possible to spread the light evenly.

The lid itself is just hollowed out on the inside, did a quick test fit to see if everything lines up. The lexan is slightly bigger than the aluminum. This might be because i removed the inner part first and then milled the outer profile, just give it a good sanding and it will be alright

The second mystery hole is for a fan controller to adjust the brightness of the leds (so u know cheapskate

)

Time to give the case some legs

, decided to go with m3 socket head screws so milled some 2,5mm holes

Milling a few legs at a time, didn't wanna mill all in one go in the event none of them would fit.

After finishing the leg cut outs i was thinking a while how i could chamfer the other side without using a file. So i milled out a pocket of the lexan where the legs fitted perfectly and then just jammed them in there with a plastic hammer and started chamfering. Worked a lot better than i thought it would

The three stages of the legs and the final color i picked. Did not expect the gold color looking so good. usually u need to try all brands before finding a good one.

All 12 legs milled and chamfered. Threading was a pain but eventually i got them all done. Had to use a normal one to get the start and made a custom flat end one to get it all the way to the bottom

quick test fit to see how it looks.

Next update coming tomorrow!
The color i chose, same as the test bench i made last year. It's called fine black, a very light texture which makes it look very "oem". Def my favorite black. Looks very bumpy but it's due to the ridiculous cropping i did to not show the hole thing

Roalith · 23 Sep 2013 at 19:35

Looking like an awesome build - subbed!

scotsdragon · 23 Sep 2013 at 21:09

Nice going keep up the good work

Biohazard · 23 Sep 2013 at 21:57

Ace_finland · 24 Sep 2013 at 16:54

Thx guys!

Time for another update,

The lid painted

Need to practice on taking photos, they all are the same color but look different in every photo

Quick assembly to see what it looks like

From the oven straight back to the mill

First youtube video! Milling with a 1mm end mill to get as sharp edges as possible. The sound might be a bit loud so be prepared

All done, Decided that the old intel logo would fit the build better than the new one. The first plan was just to do a slight pocket and paint it. After finishing the pocket i realized that it would not look like i wanted it to.

So i came up with this, took a 2mm aluminum sheet, milled 1mm, chamfered all the edges and milled through the rest. As the pocket is 1mm deep and logo is 2mm thick it will be about 1mm above the lid. Also makes painting it a lot easier

Some of the edges needs a clean up but it will fit after some convincing.

Some paint after sanding and cleaning up the edges

Gave the on/off button some paint at the same time

Screws for the case

Just had to try it, still needs a bit of fiddling but very happy i went down this road

More updates coming soon!

DJ_Bucho · 24 Sep 2013 at 17:06

WOW

This is looking even better in the metal than in the CAD drawings, and those legs/Chip Pins look absolutely superb. What paint did the paint the surface of the actual chip with (the black) as the texture and finish looks spot on

I can't wait to see all the legs painted gold and it fully assembled. Outstanding work

Ace_finland · 24 Sep 2013 at 18:20

DJ_Bucho said:
WOW This is looking even better in the metal than in the CAD drawings, and those legs/Chip Pins look absolutely superb. What paint did the paint the surface of the actual chip with (the black) as the texture and finish looks spot on

I can't wait to see all the legs painted gold and it fully assembled. Outstanding work

Thx DJ! more updates coming very soon
I used a powder coat called fine black, i buy it from here

Nevakonaza · 24 Sep 2013 at 18:59

Looking great,Awesome that you have your own Mill too!

Buck890 · 24 Sep 2013 at 20:30

top job.

Ace_finland · 25 Sep 2013 at 07:46

Nevakonaza said:
Looking great,Awesome that you have your own Mill too!

Thx, it is great, took a lot of patience but its worth it

Buck890 said:
top job.

Thx!

shadowscotland · 25 Sep 2013 at 09:18

keep up the good work - completely agree with the decision on the intel logo - old style, material and insert.
Shows off your milling skills and looks the business.

I think I'd have gone with bottom right and say 10-20% smaller.
The first image has it taking up ~25% of the length (now its more like 33%)
But I'm not really into text on builds, so very bias. (and over critical

)

That said I'm really enjoying the build so keep the pic's and narrative coming.