Three rules for a sleeve

The EliteDesk 800 Mini is a capable little PC in a closed box with one blower fan. Before drawing anything, we wrote down three rules.

Rule one: no new holes

Nothing gets drilled into the computer. That ruled out brackets screwed into the chassis and pointed toward something that wraps around the case instead: a sleeve.

Rule two: no glue

Adhesive pads loosen with heat and leave residue. The sleeve is made to measure instead, sliding forward over the lid and both sides from the rear. It starts tight on purpose; a little wiggle gets it going, and it slides more smoothly the further it goes.

Rule three: undo it in a minute

The EliteDesk already has a screw at the rear of its lid. The sleeve has a tab that lines up with it, so the same screw that held the lid now holds the sleeve. Taking it off is the installation in reverse.

Then, the fans

With the rules met, the fans could go where the air needs to be. The first version had a fixed layout: two 60 mm intakes at the front blowing down toward the NVMe drive heatsink and the blower fan, a 60 mm exhaust at the rear right lifting warm air from above the CPU heatsink, and a sideways 40 × 40 × 20 mm fan at the back helping to clear the stock exhaust grille. The fans move air through the lid’s perforations, which is why the sleeve fits only the perforated (vented) lid, not the solid one.

Then, a fifth fan

The back-left corner of that first sleeve was an open window. The current version turns it into a fourth 60 mm seat and gives every seat four corner screw holes. With four top seats, the layout is no longer ours to decide: two in and two out, three in and one out, all four in, or two fans now and more later. Each top fan can be an intake or an exhaust.