# New Hardware and Hacks

DevFeed: [New Hardware and Hacks](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/new-hardware-and-hacks-30826.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://hookrace.net/blog/new-hardware-hacks/>)

Published: 2016-07-02T22:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Dennis Felsing](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/dennis-felsing.md>)

Topics: [Hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/hardware.md>), [pc](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/pc.md>), [cpu](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/cpu.md>), [intel](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/intel.md>), [pcie](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/pcie.md>)

Tags: [article](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/article.md>), [cpu](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/cpu.md>), [hardware](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/hardware.md>), [intel](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/intel.md>), [noctua](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/noctua.md>), [pc](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/pc.md>), [pcie](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/pcie.md>)

## AI overview

A personal account of building a compact, quiet Mini-ITX PC with Intel Skylake hardware, including the In Win Chopin case, its integrated 150 W power supply, and a Noctua NH-L9i CPU cooler. The article explains the author's design choices and plans to measure CPU temperatures.

## Source excerpt

In my latest post I showed some examples of how I ran mostly the same PC hardware over a period of 8 years. Today I finally finished setting up my new PC hardware in my new home, so I can report about what I did differently, my thought process, and some problems I encountered and hacks I did to solve them. I'm not sure if this article is interesting for anyone, but I had some fun setting the new system up and felt like writing about it, so here we go: Case I wanted a smaller case since the old one was a huge ATX tower with way too many useless ports and fans. I still want a pretty performant system, so an Intel NUC is out of the question. I don't need a GPU, since the most challenging graphics I need is DDNet client, which easily runs at 400 fps at 1920x1080 and 130 fps at 3840x2160 on Intel's HD Graphics 530 IGP integrated on Skylake CPUs. But it's still nice to have a PCIe port in case you ever need it. So Mini-ITX it is. Unfortunately the Streacom DB4 is not available yet, as it would have made for a beautiful silent Mini-ITX cube. Instead I went with the In Win Chopin, which is even smaller, features no GPU port and has a small integrated PSU rated at 150 W. I was a bit worried about the PSU being strong enough, but you can read more about that later in this post. There really aren't that many good-looking and reasonable Mini-ITX cases. The idea of the In Win Chopin is to use the CPU fan as the only fan to cool the entire case, pulling air directly from the side, pushing it out of the top. That's a stark contrast to my old machine with a total of 9 fans whirring inside the case. CPU Cooler Of course that means I need a good CPU cooler for the small space. With just 43 mm space for the cooler my choice fell on the Noctua NH-L9i. Unfortunately the manufacturer claims a 91 W Skylake CPU barely runs with the NH-L9i. So let's check out the CPU and measure some actual temperatures. Even though I switched to a small form factor, another goal of mine is still to keep th