Any Mini-Box M350 mods?

zovc

King of Cable Management
Original poster
Jan 5, 2017
852
603
Hey!

I got reminded of a stupid picture I took with a Mini-Box M350 I took forever ago and decided it might be a fun project to build with Raven Ridge to hold me over until I build a proper desktop. The basic idea I have is to cut a something like a ~140mm hole in the top of the case and use a "-to-90mm" adapter to force a bunch of air onto a CPU cooler, whether it's something like the Noctua NH-L9a or whatever else.

I'm wondering what other fun/obnoxious stuff I could do with the case while I'm at it...

Any ideas for what could be done to the front panel area of the case? Originally what enchanted me about the M350 was that it has that cavity in the front panel for USB devices. As I've looked more into this stuff, it wouldn't be all that hard to salvage that functionality with or without the stock PCB that has the USB ports and the power switch. It would definitely be a nice tactile upgrade to replace the stock power "button" mechanism.

Going WAY overboard (and probably with a different CPU), I'm considering bidding on an MXM video card I see online... any ideas on how I could help cool something like that in this case? (Edit: Dang, I bid on a MXM GTX 1070 that was at $420, but whoever wants it outbid my max of $500 and I don't want to pay more than that. I don't see any other deals out there.)

Assuming I'm not slotting an MXM GPU into the PCI-E slot of my board, do you have any ideas for PCIe devices that I could put in there instead? Ones that could either be maneuvered with a riser, or otherwise don't need I/O.
 
Last edited:

ryandvd

Caliper Novice
Sep 9, 2017
25
48
I modded my m350 years ago.. the only limiting factors is the cpu cooler which will not fit if you use 2.5 ssd. Used a8 7600 and noctua l9a and 120 coolermmaster fan on top.Also used bluetooth receiver and micro sdcard reader on front panel..ended up opening my 2.5 ssd in order to fit inside the case.


 

zovc

King of Cable Management
Original poster
Jan 5, 2017
852
603
Ooh! Nice work on that cutout. It looks very clean. Is that just a rubber grommet?

On a newer platform, I should be able to just use a M.2 SSD or two and not have to sweat the size of a 2.5" drive!
 

ryandvd

Caliper Novice
Sep 9, 2017
25
48
Yes.. used it to hide some edges.. not a perfect circle but you will not noticed once you placed the fan..Right now my brother uses this case for his portable pc, used an m.2ssd and much thinner 120mm fan..
 
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zovc

King of Cable Management
Original poster
Jan 5, 2017
852
603
Currently, what I'm looking at doing, is cutting the "bottom" side (parallel to the PCI-e slot of a mobo) open and seeing if I can install a low profile GTX 1050 Ti. It seems like that would work out, but I don't see how to make the case assemble in a way that's elegant at all.

One thought is to frankenstein the case a fair bit--basically opening up the bottom like I was saying, but also hacking the top panel and front panel to be a little roomier. Maybe have a custom 3D-printed front panel and use wood (what I'm most comfortable working) on top of the "top" of the case. Expanding the top panel would give me space to hopefully make the top fan mod look a little more discrete and integrated, and maybe create room for 2.5" drives without obstructing airflow.