“Ever thought of walling up a computer behind the wall so that you can achieve a place in the pantheon of ultimate geekiness? Stop thinking because somebody have already beaten you to it. Lilmuckers of Caffeine-Junkies have put up a step-by-step guide of how he integrated his Mac mini into his kitchen wall, leaving nothing but its ports exposed and LEDs blinking,” UberGizmo reports.
There’s more in the full article, including a photo of the Mac mini embedded in the wall (looks like an outlet), and links to the step-by-step guide here.
MacDailyNews Take: Some think the Mac mini was Uncle Steve’s first shot at taking over the living room. Little did they know he wants the kitchen, too.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple Mac mini home theater dock concept and image posted online – February 16, 2005
Classic Restorations first to offer custom Apple Mac Mini auto installations – January 14, 2005
Apple introduces Mac mini, most affordable Mac ever starts at just $499 – January 11, 2005
why the kitchen? how about the living room…?
I think my favortie comment to this story was on SlashDot… “It’s a mac mini, how much space did you really save?”
I viewed the 21 photos last night. Yes it’s geekiness factor is high, but come on. Mount the Mac mini under the cabinet similar to the “space-saver” under the shelf cd players and appliances for kitchens. Run the cables neatly from the back and route them out of sight.
Results: A cleaner, less destructive* installation. And, a mac mini that can be upgraded or redeployed at will.
*If you haven’t seen how this mac mini was mutiliated, you should.
why not just buy an iMac? Isn’t that more or less the same thing as this setup, only without taking apart the kitchen?
Why???
Seriously… Why on earth do that?
Sure, mount a Mac mini in wall or cabinet, that’s cool… But, why nor mount a flat screen on (or in) the wall with the keyboard/mouse in a drawer?
This guy is clearly unmarried… My wife would love a Mac in the kitchen, but not on the counter!
1) Take chunk of wall out approx 7″ x 7″
2) Put mini in wall
Problem solved
What about a CD drive if you install it like that? Seems like a waste of a mini to me. I’m sure there are far better ways of this (like Saving Space mentioned — under the counter mounting). For being in the kitchen, I dunno if it would be worth it if you don’t have access to the optical drive.
Looks like he exceeded his bandwidth limit.
why not do it….if you want to do it…then go ahead and do it….its your kitchen
I have a Mac mini installed in the kitchen already. It sits behind a a flat screen TV with a VGA input, out of site in cabinet. It connects to my home network via Airport. With bluetooth keyboad and mouse, I can now sit at the kitchen table and read the morning news at my favorite web sites. The screen is used for television, such as the Food Network, and we can easily switch to food.com to pickup and view the recipe we just saw prepared on the TV. There are lots of reasons to have a mini in the kitchen. Having one in the living room should preclude one from taking advantage in other rooms as well.
Cheers!
Next project for this geek is to install a macmini up his a**…..
Actually, my roomate solves the of having a computer in the kitchen quite easily.
It’s called an iBook.
Are there actually people out there that don’t know that there is a new, super high-tech solution that allows you to have a computer anywhere you go? It’s called a “laptop”.
Seriously, I hardly ever use my desktop anymore. I just take my PB around the house wherever I want to use it. Wireless networking made desktops obsolete. Why would anyone go through this kind of effort?
I don’t care if they did it (they certainly have the right), I just don’t understand it.
I think 2polite gets my nomination for comment of the day.
Flayed on Slashdot: http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/07/31/1545237
According the story on caffeine-junkies, he used an external DVD-drive. It didn’t show the drive, but I’d guess it’s bigger than the Mac Mini.
Still seems like it defeats the purpose.
Personally, I always run all my cables and wires into and through the wall (avoiding paralleling any electrical wiring) or zip-tied under the back edge of the desk, nothing shows. Of course, that’s just my opinion. I prefer the clean look. Kind of matches the Apple look, clean and efficient.
I have a Powerbook in the space that used to be for a retracting cutting board, ( just 1:1/2” deep) in my kitchen. But then I also have a toaster in a small drawer, with the power cord totally hidden.
Sometimes I can’t find either of them!
I went to check out the guy’s site and his bandwidth limit has been exceeded. Bet he didn’t expect every mac geek in the world to stop by to check it out.
Why not just hang a G5 iMac on the wall? Why bother burying a Mac Mini in the wall then have an external monitor?
I’m not impressed with this installation (either the concept or execution) at all.
From the way the end product looks… I’d think he could have just.
A) Used an iMac.
B) Set the Mac Mini behind the monitor.
C) Glued the Mac Mini to the back of the monitor.
Again… Wow.