It used to be that any tiny system was too underpowered to be a real workstation. Mini-ITX systems with Atom processors and integrated graphics are no good for gaming or HD, let alone having enough horsepower to run professional applications.





Over the past year, many manufacturers have put out Socket 1156 (Intel Core-i3/i5/i7 compatible) Mini-ITX motherboards, completely changing the custom mini-build landscape. Now one can build a tiny powerhouse capable of running a full-sized graphics card, and a modern quad-core CPU. Now one can build a tiny powerhouse capable of running a full-sized graphics card, and a modern quad-core CPU.





The transition to 1156 has also altered people's ideas of an HTPC, as now your television can be the centerpiece of a very fast, and quiet computer build. We've put together the following spec build based on a rig that was contributed to the site earlier this year. It's meant to be a jumping off point for further customization, but if purchased verbatim would work 100% with audio + video through HDMI . This system is fully supported by iBoot + MultiBeast .





CustoMac Mini

Core i3-540 - Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 - NVIDIA GT 240 1GB - 4GB DDR3 RAM

$616.96









Optional Accessories



Targus USB Bluetooth Adapter $22.98 NOTE: Only MODEL NO: ACB10us v1.0 will wake from sleep.









Optional Upgrades