Mac Mini By now, you've heard that Apple has decided to let anyone dual-boot an Intel mac with OSX and WinXP! Now I can finally get my hands on that mac hardware, and still be able to play the Win32 games I want. That means I could use a mac for multimedia creation, WinXP for games, and Ubuntu for everything else… Here's an idea for a SWEET triple-boot (as opposed to dual-boot) rig! (and yes, someone has already tried, and it looks do-able!) [link courtesy Atariboy]

I love the minimalist look. There's nothing better than a glass-tabled desk with a nice flat screen on it, and the proper cable management so it looks ultra-clean. This is a special project though, and deserves some extra attention.

I already have the desk.

Let's go for a good monitor. This is going to be an all-purpose rig with multimedia and gaming, so I need proper color rendering and a fast panel. I turn to my friends at Tom's Hardware for their as-usual scientific approach to hardware reviews, and they've got a spring 2006 post up for LCD's! I love these guys – they take 45 pages to review 11 screens, and it's exactly the way I'd do it, if I had the test equipment. Any less, and you're just parroting the company's marketing department. Looks like I'll be going with a 19" 2ms ViewSonic VX922. Happy to see ViewSonic doing so well, I've always loved the performance of ViewSonic. And yes! it's VESA wall-mount (100mm) compliant, so I can get a sweet wall-mounted arm to get the monitor off the desk completely. Atariboy has a review of a great one (the Ergotron LX) with some terrific cable management – now that is one clean setup!

Now, for the final touch, and I have to admit, this is a thing of beauty. The Mac will be a Dual Core Intel Mac Mini. Except it will be mounted to the back of the monitor. All the cabling will be fixed to the back of the monitor, and allowing for proper airflow. Also probably want to make sure the CD drive doesn't point up, otherwise dust will get in there. Sideways would be best to protect the back for the same reason. I might need to do a bit of ducting so the monitor with its built-in transformer doesn't cook th machine, but that's a simple small sheet aluminum as a heat shield.

The end result?

A wall-mount arm that keeps everything off of the desk, and no cables in sight, except for a gaming mouse and keyboard cabled to the wall-side of the arm. It doesn't even have to be an arm, either, just a fixed monitor mount offset enough for the mac mini and my duct-work.

Now I just need around $1200 for the monitor, mount, Mac and gaming mouse.

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