The PC as a train – A very special kind of mobile Computing with the Lian Li PC-CK101

1 - The train story begins 2 - Unboxing and Accessory 3 - Power Supply Unit 4 - Optical drive in the stomach 5 - How to implement a SSD? 6 - Playing with fans for the best airflow 7 - Mainboard and CPU maximized 8 - Mainboard in green mode for a HTPC 9 - First run and conclusion

Stage 1 – Exploring the feasibility and mainboard installation

Of course, I know that a Core i7-3770K is out of place in such a case. Without a separate graphics card, this is all rather pointless, admittedly. But of course it is tempting to first explore the theoretical maximum configuration. First of all, a Z77 mainboard from Zotac is used. With the H77 ITX WiFi, you also have (almost) everything on board that you need for life or think you need for it. The Z77 ITX WiFi from Zotac:

The WLAN module is included, so you don’t have to worry about these components as an external solution. However, the revision of the board we used only recognized the Core i7-3770K right away, the current Ivy Bridge Pentiums apparently bitch a bit without a BIOS update, so we refrained from a more detailed test with other Intel CPUs due to time constraints.

Unfortunately, there is not much room for a potent CPU cooler, and the motherboard’s form factor is also a bit of a hindrance. Let’s first look at the still empty wagon. It is better to remove the fan before installing the motherboard, if many connections are located exactly on this side, like on the Zotac board.

The ATX bezel sits very tight and requires a relatively large amount of force to insert.

The bezel offers decent resistance when inserted. The four spacers are already firmly pre-motivated and have cleanly cut threads in which the supplied screws very quickly find a hold.

The Big Scythe Shuriken Rev.2 we used is fully utilized with the Core i7 3770K under full load in the stress test, and you will hardly find any overclocking reserves, which is a clear limit of what is possible for us. The Noiseblocker from the eLoop range that we used provides measurable support for the CPU cooler and still allows an acceptable cooling of the CPU with a maximum of 72°C Tcore after 60 minutes of LinX at a room temperature of 22°C (original fan 74°C, without fan emergency shutdown) at a considerably lower noise level than the original. This is on the borderline, but acceptable. Unfortunately, this setup is also very loud, because the fan of the Big Shuriken is a real noisemaker of the very first order at full speed.

The CPU cooler dominates the interior, unfortunately also acoustically. So at this point, we’ll leave it for now with the delusions of grandeur and quickly think about what might be a better fit for a case of this size…

There really isn’t much room.  When using large CPU coolers, it can also quickly become a problem to connect the USB cable without stress, depending on the motherboard. Here, the manufacturer should better add 1-2 cm more.