# [Intel NUC] The microprocessor



## Ace_finland (Sep 13, 2013)

*[Intel NUC] The microprocessor COMPLETED*

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


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## ne6togadno (Sep 13, 2013)

subed
and some questions about mill.
3 axes right? 
is it your design or you used premade plans.
how much does it cost you.


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## Ace_finland (Sep 13, 2013)

ne6togadno said:


> subed
> and some questions about mill.
> 3 axes right?
> is it your design or you used premade plans.
> how much does it cost you.



yeah, its my own design after looking at a lot of machines on the net  You can most likely fins someone elses machine lookin very similar  I watercut all the 20mm aluminum bits which was around 600€, all electronics and misc stuff was about 1200-2000, so all in all around 3000€ im guessing. Haven't really kept track of the cost


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## ne6togadno (Sep 13, 2013)

quite cheap for table with that size
usable space is about 400x400 right?
what control unit did you used?


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## Peter1986C (Sep 13, 2013)

subscribed


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## Wrigleyvillain (Sep 13, 2013)

Interesting and impressive set up there. What were the details of the contest exactly? Design a case?


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## Ace_finland (Sep 15, 2013)

ne6togadno said:


> quite cheap for table with that size
> usable space is about 400x400 right?
> what control unit did you used?



Yeah, its not too bad, this is the breakout board i used here
To control it i use mach3



Chevalr1c said:


> subscribed


thx!



Wrigleyvillain said:


> Interesting and impressive set up there. What were the details of the contest exactly? Design a case?


The contest was to design a case and send in the pictures/drawings of it and intel would pick 5 designs they liked and send them all the parts needed. And as long as you could finish it within the time limit u can keep all the parts 

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


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## Fourstaff (Sep 15, 2013)

This is some nicely milled aluminium


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## TheoneandonlyMrK (Sep 15, 2013)

Impressive  love the homemade miller


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## Ace_finland (Sep 16, 2013)

Fourstaff said:


> This is some nicely milled aluminium



Thx, the finish got a lot better after adding the mist cooling, probably the best upgrade i've done



theoneandonlymrk said:


> Impressive  love the homemade miller



thx!


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## Aquinus (Sep 16, 2013)

I can't wait to see the top part of the chassis. Very nice looking so far and as others have said, I really dig the miller.


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## Ace_finland (Sep 23, 2013)

thx Aquinus! The top will be in tomorrows update 


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


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## shovenose (Sep 23, 2013)

Nice job so far and on the machine thing  Look forward to seeing this done!


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## Peter1986C (Sep 23, 2013)

This NUC is going to be an amazingly good loooking little machine!


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## Fourstaff (Sep 23, 2013)

Can't wait to see this completed


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## Ace_finland (Sep 23, 2013)

Thx guys! I'm currently working on the "electrics" for it, not much left now


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## MightyMission (Sep 23, 2013)

I love this concept!!


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## Deleted member 24505 (Sep 23, 2013)

Nice piece of work, love the design too, a chip that's a PC with a chip in it.


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## Ace_finland (Sep 24, 2013)

MightyMission said:


> I love this concept!!



Thx!



tigger said:


> Nice piece of work, love the design too, a chip that's a PC with a chip in it.



lol, thx!

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
Diy cnc milling aluminum - YouTube

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!


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## Random Murderer (Sep 24, 2013)

/subbed
this is incredible DIY work.
Love the DIP chip theme. Reminds me of my first PC... had an intel 8088 in it


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## Ace_finland (Sep 25, 2013)

Random Murderer said:


> /subbed
> this is incredible DIY work.
> Love the DIP chip theme. Reminds me of my first PC... had an intel 8088 in it



Thx for the kind comment! Cool computer! A nice touch with 2 drives


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## micropage7 (Sep 25, 2013)

Ace_finland said:


> Thx!
> 
> 
> 
> ...



woow nice nice nice, i love the letters


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## AsRock (Sep 25, 2013)

Subbed,  Nice setup


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## Ace_finland (Sep 28, 2013)

micropage7 said:


> woow nice nice nice, i love the letters


Thx!


AsRock said:


> Subbed,  Nice setup


Thx!

Back with another update.  

Was thinking for a while on how to power the leds for the case. From experience in the last mod i did i saw better light spread with more leds and less intensity so i've decided to put quite a few leds in it and using a fan controller to adjust the intensity/brightness of them. I've seen others using the internal USB header but they won't supply enough power and the last thing i want to do is fry something.  After doing some measurements i found out that the internal and external power supply is linked together, meaning as soon as i plug in the external power supply there's a constant 19V dc. From here i will use an 7812 voltage regulator to get the voltage down to 12V which i will feed into the fan controller to be adjustable all the way down to 0V.

The 7812 Voltage controller. Now i realize this photo wasn't the best for scale 





Was so into the electronics i forgot to take more photos. But here its all done, tried to do some sleeving on it but was quite tricky when everything is soldered together.  And the legs are painted  had to leave the last bit of the led connection un-sleeved so it would flex enough
The metal plate which has a bit of copper on it is the wireless antennas i took from the original nuc case, did not want to ruin them before i have tested that everything works





The nuc installed





On the left side you can see the 7812 Voltage regulator and kinda get a size on it, its tiny!





Plugged in but not powered on, testing that everything works, no smoke!





Added some leds to the lid, first thought was to glue them in the bottom of the case but seemed a lot easier to put them in the lid





Soldering together all the strips





more coming soon!


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## TRWOV (Sep 28, 2013)

wow! speechless. 

subd


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## Morgoth (Sep 28, 2013)

man i love ur work keep it up


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## gdubc (Sep 28, 2013)

Subbed....beautiful work...just beautiful!


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## Ace_finland (Sep 30, 2013)

TRWOV said:


> wow! speechless.
> 
> subd



Thx!



Morgoth said:


> man i love ur work keep it up



Thx, hopefully i will get some final shots tomorrow if i get it all together!



gdubc said:


> Subbed....beautiful work...just beautiful!



Cheers!


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## GreiverBlade (Sep 30, 2013)

Deep breath......

1



2                 





3!

Mother of g.o.d!!!!!

a.k.a : Sub'D


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## ste2425 (Oct 2, 2013)

Dam that's fantastic pal, love watching logs of mods like this. We used to have a fantastic guy called MKmods who used to do great mods to the same quality as this. Try searching for him if TPU keeps posts from that far back.


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## Sasqui (Oct 2, 2013)

ste2425 said:


> We used to have a fantastic guy called MKmods who used to great mods to the same quality as this.



He was just plain awesome.  This build is one hell of an original, sublime execution... and if anyone has any connections at intel, they should see this!!!


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## AsRock (Oct 2, 2013)

ste2425 said:


> Dam that's fantastic pal, love watching logs of mods like this. We used to have a fantastic guy called MKmods who used to do great mods to the same quality as this. Try searching for him if TPU keeps posts from that far back.



Yes, so every so often things on here remind me of that nice guy who was around..  Funny he was thee only one who used to agree with me about a PSU should be at the top of a PC case lol..



Anyways Great job there and thanks for sharing.


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## Ace_finland (Oct 3, 2013)

GreiverBlade said:


> Deep breath......
> 
> 1
> 
> ...



Thx!!



ste2425 said:


> Dam that's fantastic pal, love watching logs of mods like this. We used to have a fantastic guy called MKmods who used to do great mods to the same quality as this. Try searching for him if TPU keeps posts from that far back.


Thx for the very kind words! I will have a look for him!



Sasqui said:


> He was just plain awesome.  This build is one hell of an original, sublime execution... and if anyone has any connections at intel, they should see this!!!


THX!! Maybe i should spam them 



AsRock said:


> Yes, so every so often things on here remind me of that nice guy who was around..  Funny he was thee only one who used to agree with me about a PSU should be at the top of a PC case lol..
> 
> Anyways Great job there and thanks for sharing.



Lol, thx!


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## Ace_finland (Oct 3, 2013)

Final update!

Was thinking a while how the easiest way to get a film on the acrylic, after some searching i found some transparent acetate film with an adhesive backing on ebay. Ordered a glossy version made for inkjets. Printed out to test it and it looked alright, but def not as glossy as i imagined. For some reason it would not stick well to the transparency film either. So fixing to problems at one go i decided to try and spray it with a clear coat and using sticky tape over the color. In the end the sticky tape had as even surface as the clear coat and no dust in it. So decided with sticky tape.






The result 





And now for some final pictures  For some reason the acrylic ain't as glossy as real life but i can't use any other functions than auto on this camera

































Hope you like it


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## Crap Daddy (Oct 3, 2013)

Fantastic!


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## Random Murderer (Oct 3, 2013)

Incredible work! I absolutely love the light shining through the acrylic 

What's next?


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## Ace_finland (Oct 3, 2013)

Crap Daddy said:


> Fantastic!



Thx Crap Daddy!



Random Murderer said:


> Incredible work! I absolutely love the light shining through the acrylic
> 
> What's next?



Thx! I love working with acrylic and lights  What is next u ask? Well i entered in the cooler master mod competition but i don't even have a design yet. But i do have an idea and it will be called Project Duplex  I will make a build log here as soon as i have the design done


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## theonedub (Oct 3, 2013)

I went and looked at the designs that were picked over you for the Intel NUC/Bit-tech competition, and I have to say that only one or two of them are in the same league as this. 

Have you submitted pics on Bit-tech so they can see what they are missing?


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## xvi (Oct 3, 2013)

Don't forget to post pictures over at that Intel NUC/Bit-tech competition you mentioned in first post. Let 'em know what they missed out on. 

Looks awesome!


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## theonedub (Oct 3, 2013)

^ Get out of my head


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## Ace_finland (Oct 3, 2013)

theonedub said:


> I went and looked at the designs that were picked over you for the Intel NUC/Bit-tech competition, and I have to say that only one or two of them are in the same league as this.
> 
> Have you submitted pics on Bit-tech so they can see what they are missing?



Thx for the kind words! I like the builds that are there and there were a lot of entries so i can imagine they had a hard time choosing which ones to send parts to.
I have a build log over there as well so they know what i've been doing. Think i will send some pics to Intel as well 



xvi said:


> Don't forget to post pictures over at that Intel NUC/Bit-tech competition you mentioned in first post. Let 'em know what they missed out on.
> 
> Looks awesome!



I have 



theonedub said:


> ^ Get out of my head



haha, great minds think alike


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## Ja.KooLit (Oct 3, 2013)

OOhhh La La...... nice one..... 

really looks good....


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## ne6togadno (Oct 4, 2013)

fantastic


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## puma99dk| (Oct 4, 2013)

the output looks awesome, nice little maskine


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## HammerON (Oct 4, 2013)

Excellent mod
Your skills are very impressive


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## GreiverBlade (Oct 4, 2013)

BIS REPETITAM *enhanced dubstep remix limited edition*



MOTHER OF F***ING G.O.D(forgive me, for i had to)

i love the disclaimer in the initial post wich say you dont have much electronic skill for your custom mill... modesty anyone? 

also if you thanks people it would also be appreciated to thank them via the thank button but your thank in a post  and finished work is just so awesome that i fail to see any point in what i wrote just now ... just plain AWESOMNESS!

im tempted to "try" to begin a same kind of mod (but for REAL CPU in AMD style, DONT HIT ME IM JOKING   ) for my Zotac ZboX HD AD01 and also fail... hard


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## lemonadesoda (Oct 4, 2013)

Top dog!


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## xBruce88x (Oct 4, 2013)

simply amazing


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## GreiverBlade (Oct 4, 2013)

xBruce88x said:


> simply amazing



amazing? wait you think of "AMAZING!" steve jobs style? nahhhh its WAY MORE THAN THAT! even APPLE cant come with a designe like that and if they do for the mac mini then Ace_Finland can SUE them HARD!!!! (note to Ace .... PATENT IT!) wheel of fate reversal !


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## Ace_finland (Oct 5, 2013)

night.fox said:


> OOhhh La La...... nice one.....
> 
> really looks good....


Thx!


ne6togadno said:


> fantastic


Thx!


puma99dk| said:


> the output looks awesome, nice little maskine


Thx!


HammerON said:


> Excellent mod
> Your skills are very impressive


Cheers! 


GreiverBlade said:


> BIS REPETITAM *enhanced dubstep remix limited edition*
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Thx for the thanks button, in other forums i have gotten warning for using them  But now i know  Do it! i would love to see that! Regarding the mill it took me a long time to figure out the electronics 


lemonadesoda said:


> Top dog!



Thx!



xBruce88x said:


> simply amazing


Thx!



GreiverBlade said:


> amazing? wait you think of "AMAZING!" steve jobs style? nahhhh its WAY MORE THAN THAT! even APPLE cant come with a designe like that and if they do for the mac mini then Ace_Finland can SUE them HARD!!!! (note to Ace .... PATENT IT!) wheel of fate reversal !



Thx! your comments are heartwarming


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## Ace_finland (Dec 27, 2013)

Hey guys! The Microprocessor have been nominated for Mod Of The Year over at Bit-tech. If you liked the build and want to help me out go vote for it in the article section at bit-tech forum or through their facebook page.

Bit-tech http://forums.bit-tech.net/showthread.php?t=266110
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bittech/app_1446528955569090

Ace


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## theonedub (Dec 27, 2013)

Add links, please. It will make it a lot easier for ppl to vote for


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## Ace_finland (Dec 27, 2013)

Thx theonedub, added links


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## Jetster (Dec 27, 2013)

Done


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## Ace_finland (Dec 27, 2013)

Thx Jester!


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