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Mac mini Built Into Wall
Lilmuckers writes "I have just completed a project to build a Mac mini into the wall of my kitchen. It is hidden and everything works perfectly."
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This reminds me of an old story at the Univeristy of Iowa where they moved a computer department into a new building wherein years later they are trying to find a server. It is still serving packets and no one can seem to find it. Suddenly someone realize that it was probably left at the other building years before when they moved. They go over there and are looking around when someone says 'well the server would have been right here where this wall was. On a hunch, they rip open the wall and sure enough, there is the server still serving packets... 4 years later!
This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
I just bought this monitor a few days ago and finally hooked it up last night. It works great with my powerbook, and the picture is fantastic.
If you are going to use it with the mac mini, you might consider attaching the mac mini itself to the back of the display. If you use a wall bracket to mount the display to the wall, there would be sufficient space. You can bolt a piece of metal between the monitor and the mounting bracket to serve as a mounting plate for the mac mini.
Incidentally, as far as choice of computer goes.. the mac mini will drive the display fine at native resolution (so long as you use the DVI 1 input) and is a fairly cheap alternative way to watch DVD at 1080p, as an external scaler capable of doing this runs about $2000. It also makes a great display for photo slideshows as the resolution is fantastic.
It's also worth noting that the display itself has a pretty decent scaler in it as well. If you attach a decent progressive scan player to the screen via component, the picture you get will be very good - I found it's at least as good as the picture from the powerbook playing a DVD.
The one drawback for using a mac mini on this display is that you won't have anywhere close to the horsepower needed to play any HD content. I doubt the mini is capable of playing 1080i MPEG2 TS much less H.264 at 720p or 1080p. My powerbook is a 1.4ghz G4 like the mini though, and I have an HDV camcorder that I can get 1080i MPEG2 TS from, so if you want to know the results of my testing on the mac's ability to do MPEG2 HD, drop me a line.
Didn't the current iMac design appear before or at the same time as the mini? Seems like that's exactly what he was looking for.
He could have taped one of the firewire TV tuners to the back of it for the TV function (or streamed it over the LAN from some location with better reception than the kitchen).
I more or less view it as the internet workstation. It can sit in mothers room, and have a nice LCD flat screen monitor and be small and out of the way. The traditional computer desk with its bulk and size needs not be. It can easily fit on the side end table by the couch with its wireless keyboard and mouse.
pickup a big enough LCD monitor and it could easily be your wireless multimedia center for TV, dvd movies, and internet surfing in the living room.
Did it mention the power consumption of the entire unit is less than what the average intel cpu alone uses?
And why did he (skillfully!) black out the photos on the wall? I wonder what they could have contained that he didn't want the world to see?
Best Buy can have you arrested
unless I'm missing something, this seems worse than an iMac in every way.