|  | September 05, 2017 Choosing the right DC-DC PSU August 27, 2015 AMD's Project Quantum August 13, 2015 The Redstone PC is the ultimate Mini-ITX Minecraft Machine October 09, 2014 The "Restomod TV" April 09, 2013 Installing NAS4Free February 28, 2013 Building an XBMC 12 Home Theatre PC January 25, 2011 XBMC Guide updated to version 10.0 August 06, 2010 Building a Green PC February 15, 2010 Building an ION powered HTPC with XBMC October 10, 2008 The "Cambridge Autonomous Underwater Vehicle 2008" |
|  | | | September 12, 2008 "Florian", the DVD burning robot September 05, 2008 The "i-EPIA" May 22, 2008 The "GTA-PC" April 14, 2007 The "Digg" Case January 19, 2007 The "ITX-Laptop" December 07, 2006 The "Tortoise Beetle" October 02, 2006 The "DOS Head Unit" August 31, 2006 The "Janus Project" August 05, 2006 The "Leela PC" June 26, 2006 Nano-ITX in a Football May 17, 2006 The "EPIA Alloy Mod" April 11, 2006 Neatorama's Collection of Case Mods February 18, 2006 The "Rundfunker" October 24, 2005 The "ITX TV" October 06, 2005 The K'nex-ITX August 05, 2005 The "Waffle Iron PC" July 21, 2005 The "Supra-Server" July 18, 2005 The "Mega-ITX" July 07, 2005 The "Encyclomedia" May 25, 2005 The "Accordion ITX" |
|  | | | May 16, 2005 The "FileServerRouterSwitch" May 15, 2005 The "Mini Falcon" May 13, 2005 The "Bender PC" May 11, 2005 The "BBC ITX B" May 10, 2005 The "Frame" April 20, 2005 The "Jeannie" March 09, 2005 The "Cool Cube" January 30, 2005 First Nano-ITX Project? January 17, 2005 The "iGrill" January 15, 2005 The "Gumball PC" December 15, 2004 The "Deco Box" December 03, 2004 The "TERA-ITX" October 06, 2004 The "Coealacanth-PC" September 17, 2004 The "Gramaphone-ITX-HD" August 26, 2004 The "C1541 Disk Drive ITX" August 25, 2004 The "SEGA-ITX" August 13, 2004 The "Quiet Cubid" August 06, 2004 The "BMWPC" July 14, 2004 The "Moo Cow Moo" July 02, 2004 The "Mini Mesh Box" Full alphabetical archive on right hand side of page... |
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"Project NFF - Nano Form Factor"
By Jeffrey L Stephenson -
Posted on 9 November 2003
Introduction
Even though I have several projects in the works, this is the one I
couldn't leave alone. It took on a life of its own after a while. I had
just received a package from Kontron that contained a 100mm x 140mm 3.5" form factor
mainboard called a J-Rex AND a multimedia daughterboard called a J-Flex.
The two pieces combined results in what the manufacturer calls "the highest
feature density" mainboard in the world. I felt obligated to convert these
pieces of industrial equipment into something cool and fun.
The specs:
600MHz VIA Eden CPU (fanless)
512MB PC-133 SDRAM
32 MB on-board 4x AGP video, DVI,
S-Video,
Firewire,
USB,
Optical SPDIF out,
Line-in, Line-out, Mic, and amplified Audio-out
I decided to go with an MP3 player. That way, I have an excuse to re-rip my
CD collection that I screwed up years ago.
For a case I decided to go with a 4-bay 5.25" format drive cage
from an old ATX tower case. I drilled out four rivets to free it. The
drives have steel rails attached to each side. These rails match up with
guides in the cage. The unit slides in and snaps into place. Serious
over-engineering. I painted the piece teal as a primer coat. It shows up
well in this picture.
My idea was to build/purchase 5.25" modules and use the rails
to attach them to the cage. First up is the drive bay. These units are
designed for rack-mount server cases to save space. It contains a slim-line
CD burner, floppy and hard drives in the space of a full size CD drive. On
top of the drive bay I mounted the J-Rex board. Here is the cage, painted
black and sporting wood accent pieces, next to the drive/mainboard unit.
Finished case. Yes, this is a computer case. It came out of
an Enlight I believe.
Backside shot. I wanted the case to be open and "airy" because
the CPU is air-cooled.
Another backside shot. The three wood panels are all the exact
same size. It would be very easy to build your own customized panels.
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