Mac mini Concept

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Mac mini concept.

On June 22, 2020 Apple announced its in-house developed computer processors, called Apple Silicon. This new type of processor family could help the company to give even better products to it’s users and it has the potential to revolutionize the whole personal computer industry.

These low-powered and high performance chips would be the key for brand new designs, which could be perfect for a new and really small Mac mini.

On the one hand, with the idea of redesigning the Mac mini I let my imagination flow, on the other hand I wanted to make it look a lot like an actual purchasable product. Whenever I design a computer, even if it is only conceptual, I love to design it with all the interior parts. With this methodology I can achieve a beautiful design with real functionality, not just an empty imaginary “shell”.

Design

Internals

The design is built around a unibody structure, which is milled out of a single piece of extruded aluminum. Pillar shaped spacers are screwed and glued inside. These pillars give connection points for the internal parts and they have a key role in holding the structure, while the machine can maintain it’s airflow. I wanted to make the Mac mini as symmetrical as possible, even on the inside.

The internals are separated into six main sections, which are connected together with a special uniform connector that can transfer data and power, as well. The Apple logo at the top is part of the wireless module. On the back side there is a port module, which houses all the necessary ports and connectors. The power supply is separated into 3 modules and the two on the sides also house the speakers. All these parts are connected together by the motherboard, which contains the Brand new Apple Silicon, memory and storage. The cooling uses a single fan, and the generated heat is transferred to the heatsink with a pair of heat pipes. The whole structure is creating for good airflow, cool air pulled from the edge of the bottom plate, then the air goes through the internals and sucked into the fan, where it is pushed through the heat pipes. Then the hot air is exhausted on the back of the device.