"enclosing" the mac mini

Hi Robert - welcome to the discussions

Your Mini will be fine in the space that you have described as the cooling system will not be affected at all. The Mini draws air in through the vents around the perimeter of the bottom lip, therefore if the mini fits in the gap, the air flow restrictions are not affected as the lid on top of the mini serves no purpose to the cooling of the overall computer. The Mini also disperses processor heat throughout the bottom of the chassis via a clever heat sink and heat dispersal design and therefore only needs that very small clearance between a firm surface and the bottom of the mini in order to optimally draw air through the vents and into the computer before expelling it out of the rear vents. You have also made it clear that the sides and the rear are open, therefore the mini will cool just as well as it would in an open environment.

Just make sure that there are no large clumps of dust laying in the gap that my block the vents or clog the internal fan.

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A friendly tip: - enter the preferences section of your account on this user forum and under the "computer" tab, insert a brief description about your minis configuration, for example:

1.42G4 | 512MB RAM | 80GB HDD | OS X 10.3.9

this will allow people to help you out with your troubles without the need to ask questions on the spec of your computer should you need help in the future. It saves time and makes helping one another far easier and more efficient.

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Happy to be of help
-Pos

Hi again

The spec looks great, you will realy enjoy using your new system when you get it. You would also benefit with a bluetooth keyboard and mouse kit to get that real minimalistic pure feeling however, the only down side is that you will have to change the batteries occasionally and they are more expensive as well as loosing the extra two USB ports that come on the Apple Pro Keyboard (standard Keyboard). You may also want to hold off buying a wireless keyboard and mouse for a short while just in case Apple release a wireless Mighty Mouse which you would most probably prefer if you are coming straight from a pc.

Everything is purely down to you. No matter what you purchase from Apple at the moment, you will surely not be dissatisfied.

Have a great time configuring and building your Mac and I hope everything works out well for you.

A bit of buying advice - It is always best to purchase Apple products directly from the Apple store, unless of course you have a major discount. The official store holds the latest stock and surprisingly Apple is normally cheaper than Apple retailers such as PC world etc. You can be sure to have great service as well as the latest and greatest product, as opposed to the slightly curdled over stock that most retailers hold.

-Pos

Keep in mind that you should have a little bit of space above the Mac mini to allow for the AirPort and Bluetooth signals:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300577

-Doug

I would have thought that airport extreme will work okay, perhaps not just as strong a signal strength.

The only down side the two USB ports on the back of the wired keyboard is that they may at times draw too much power from your system. I use it to backup data and work onto my flash drive. On occasions it will say that "the usb port is drawing too much power and will therefore be closed", stopping you from using it until the time you next re boot.

This is not a major problem as one single usb port on the back of he computer is trying to send and receive digital signals as well as powering a keyboard and an optical mouse whilst also transferring data files back and forth from a flash drive so you can understand why it may be strained.

I would strongly reccomend buying a USB hub with some source of external power in, or maybe just an extension cable from the back of the system to the front, if you cant get the flash drive into the back so easily.

-Pos

Great, well at least everything is going to work out.
Just bet you can't wait to press the "confirm order" button for your new mac!

The day that it arrives you will have the best computer at your fingertips. You simply just have to plug in your DVI screen or user the VGA to DVI adapter if you are using a typical VGA screen. put batteries in your keyboard and mouse, plug in the power cord and press the button.

Your mac will then see the the bluetooth devices instantly so that you can put in a few personal details, set a password and off you go!
You shouldn't even have to setup airport, so you can go straight to your email or take a look at the Apple site for great little accessories to make the experience even better.

-Pos

You shouldn't even have to setup airport

Unless you have a WEP or even better WPA protection enabled, and when you enter the passkey just put a $ sign before the WEP key (dunno about WPA since I - unfortunately - have to use a less secure WEP key because my Mini is the only computer in my household supporting WPA) otherwise the utility will not recognize it as a valid key ...

I have mine under a monitor stand with the same clearances and have no problems with wireless or bluetooth. Im typing on the bluetooth keyboard/mouse right now actually.

The question of what may or may not interfere with Airport and Bluetooth signals isn't so much about how close an object is to the top of the mini, but what that object is.

The higher the frequency of the radio transmission, the shorter the transmission range tends to be, the easier it is to absorb its energy in less and less dense structures, and the more prone to interference it will tend to be.

The more dense the object in close proximity to the mini's top panel, the more likely it is to absorb the RF energy. If it contains electronics components or metal, the more likely it is to interfere with Airport or Bluetooth signals. However, since Airport and Bluetooth operate at 2.4GHz, the wavelength is short, even small movements of the transmitter or receiver can make significant differences to quality of reception, particularly in situations where there is interference to the signal rather than absorbtion of it.