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I had some time to play with the threadripper platform and tried a PBO with scalar 2x and -10 on all 96 cores, went from 119k to over 153k 😄 But the second try it shutdown 🤣 Still have the 1200w PSU 1U inside that the case came with so i think this is the weak link..i need to mode the case, cut it so i can add Bquiet 1200w ATX PSU titanium but dont have the time for the work right now

I used Asus Astral 5080 vBIOS before since it has a 450w limit on the MSI 5080 I had last year for a bit but all three fans worked. I'm going to end up flashing it again on the SFF OC like yours. That and Melon should open them up like a beast especially yours on water so a fan not working won't be an issue for you. I wonder if a different version might wake up the non working fan since there are three variants floating around for the Astral 5080 (Black, Noctua, White) The tight knit community is alive and well. Crazy how enhancements and QoL are being implemented Fast and Furious.....

Final (ish) analysis of the whole can't boot / memory problems: Motherboards: Asus X870E Crosshair Hero (still waiting for the Dark variant to be sent out) HP Omen 35L Prebuilt B850 tower (8400F, 5060, single Rage 6000 DDR5 stick, 512GB NVME) Asrock Phantom B850i Asrock B850M-C CPUs: 8400f 7500X3D 9800X3D Memory: Kingston Rage (Rage) DDR5 6000 1x16GB SR Teamgroup (TG) 8200 2x24GB Kingbank (KB) 8400 2x24GB Corsair Vengeance (CV) 9200 2x24GB --------------------------------------------------------------------- Rage memory boots and runs in every motherboard with every CPU TG, and CV boots and runs with every MB and CPU except the 7500X3D KB boots and runs in Hero and HP except with 7500X3D . Total no go in both AsRock boards. This is a two fold with conflation: KB known issue with Asrock boards so they're a no go atm....it was conflating an issue with the 7500X3D. 7500X3D has a dud IMC and can't handle 24GB sticks in single or double config. None of the 2x24GB sticks will post on Asrock boards in single or double sticks with the 7500X3D. They will post on HP and Hero but trying to get to desktop they keep getting BSODs and exception errors on the login screens over and over tested from 4800-6000 it doesn't matter. BSOD city on the MBs it can actually boot. It has no problem with a single stick of SR 16GB Rage memory. All MBs are functional. It was the KB issue and 7500X3D IMC being faulty causing all the problems. Returning the B850i Phantom (popping it in the mail tomorrow) and send the 7500X3D to AMD for an RMA or see if MC would allow a replacement but it will work itself out one way or the other. I plan on running the SFF with my 9800X3D now anyhow and put the 9850X3D delidded into the new Hero Dark when it arrives. In a "we're blessed" moment, Imagine not having a decent amount of hardware to swap and test to log data and diagnose problems all because of a flaky/dud IMC on the CPU and hidden but known compatibility issue with KB sticks with some AsRock MBs.....crazy. ------------------------------------------------- Smart play when you want a third decently powerful GPU in play since you run three rigs usually at all times. Odds of scoring a secondary 5090, unlike the 4090 days, for a somewhat sane price (less than $3k) have long flown the coop. $1100 is super close to MSRP. Did you snag a WF OC SFF or normal? Unlike some of the OCN forum members who continue to pick up new 5090s, that's too rich for me. I'm going to ride this Vanguard into the ground as my main rig gem. This. I'm more than content with my Vanguard since it is a 1.125v sample right out of the box, but the 5080 tops out at 1.040 so that is going to be major fun OCing the 5080 for funsies to see where it goes. Just hoping Jensen doesn't shoot us the bird right back and find a way to lock it out in a future driver revision. I can just imagine Jensen screaming, "THE MORE YOU SPEND THE MORE YOU BUY MOTHER%$*$)($S!!!" and smashing his keyboard against a bunch of GPU displays...... 🤣 ---------------------------------------------- Jensen right now watching everyone celebrating having control over our own hardware to push the voltage where we want:

I have had people (some not even noobs) argue with me and say things like "no, that's not the problem because my RAM is only reaching 65-70°C" and they often don't believe me that anything above about 40-45°C is "too hot" and will cause errors.

Sold to our beloved friend @Reciever

Speaking of PSUs, the Super Flower Combat 1000W SFX unit was delivered. I have never owned or even seen an SFX PSU except in pictures and videos. It is incredibly small, but unbelievably heavy. It seems like it weighs as much as an ATX PSU. Pictures and videos are usually lacking where perspective is concerned. But, yeah... it's soooo little. It is going to make building a SFF much easier.

Well priced too. I think I'll pick one up for a proper "just in case" scenario. I went back to running the Matrix vBIOS because it keeps my game clocks steady over 3200 everywhere. Fallout 76 is no problem. I can even run stock settings, but WoW will trip the WVP2 without adjustments with the 800w bios. On the flip side, my hot spot differential is ~12c with the stock factory application so I'm good atm on that front. No native 12vhpwr on PSU? 🤣 Nice on the warranty just in case. How did the A-die fare in the 5080 variant for comparison? Would it boot at 1050mv VSOC? Let us know how stability testing goes... let's see how this 9955X3D in the 5090 variant compares to the returned 5080... How are the noise levels between the two?

Got warranty activated today including the start date being adjusted to my purchase date so its a full three years. Swapped in A-die. It did not want to boot at 3000/3000/2000 with 1050mv VSOC. 1200mv worked but is probably too much. XMP 6000 C36 equivalent timings (and tREFI 16k) at 1200mv VDD/VDDQ/VDDIO but need to stability test.

Confirmed only blown fuses. GPU is totally fine. I bridged the F1 fuse solder pads with a wire for testing and it's good to go. Now I just need the fuses and we'll be back to normal +1 fuse for extra capacity.

I am actually kind of surprised they have not already blown the way I have pushed this GPU for benching. I've run way more than they should have allowed me to, but Steel Nomad is famous for the massive power spike in the first couple of seconds and I think that experimenting with the 2000W vBIOS together with the shunt modding was the straw that broke the camel's back for the fuses. I normally have used a 800W or 1000W BIOS.

Finally overclocking GPU is fun again.

This is with the Astral 5080 XOC vBIOS. It totally exhausts the 450W power limit (pegged to 450W on the WireView Pro). I've ordered a block for it and will shunt mod it. One fan does not run so it is getting too hot and thermal throttling, but the software works great for the tweaks.

The same DEV that created the original Melonvolt just released a separate tool for manually setting/overclocking the XBar without touching MSVDD at all! Just tested on my 5070 Ti and works flawlessly. Just set the offset, hit apply and bam. Amazing work. https://www.overclock.net/posts/29605861/ I guess both Devs are now sorta working together and will implement this Xbar offset tool into the Melonvolt tool so we don't have to use separate tools. Things are happening so fast lately with RTX 50 series. Getting wild. Jensen is having a bad week! Edit: Tool works great because you can add Xbar without needing to waste power or push voltage to get it to scale up. Saves if you're power limited and saves on wasted heat. Real world gaming in Battlefield 6 was about 2% on my 5070 test. But I'll take it. Added 500Mhz to my Xbar. In total about 13% over a stock card. Not bad at all..

HOLY CRAP! here i was, just about to start work in the office when i stumbled upon this, bam 45 min gone LOL. omg cant wait to check this out once i get home.... what a total middle finger to Nvidia, friggin hilarious! show them those melons, guys! 😄

This is awesome. I tested it on both of my 5080 GPUs and it definitely works. I will test it on the 5090 and see if it will allow me to remove the EVC2 mod without losing anything. I hope that Jensen is not happy. He doesn't deserve to have a happy life.

Awesome. Thank you. I have always removed Defender garbage from Windoze so I don't have to worry about Micro$lop's ever-growing database of false positive file flags or bogus blacklists nonsense.

https://www.overclock.net/posts/29605610/ Defender throws up false virus readings. So had to disable to get it. 1150mV limits by default. 1250mv with XOC button. XBar scales with MSVDD. By default Nvidia made it so you can’t scale MSVDD beyond NVVDD default baked in. But now that we can raise NVVDD, you can push MSVDD higher and therefore XBar.

Now with Melon Volt 0.2 you can punch the voltage on that 5080, on both the NVVDD and MSVDD. No longer voltage limited on 5070, 5070 Ti, 5080, or 5090s on default vBIOS. Now just power limits until shunt that is. Overclock.net forum going wild with new version that lets us unleash the cards! Jensen is not going to be happy about this lol.

xx60 class card above $800. Hmmmm. Nope. No thanks. Hell freze first. Madness is the correct word for this. GeForce RTX 5060 Ti 16GB pricing hits $800+ in the US as memory crisis takes hold NVIDIA raises RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell price to $16,000, now 87% above original MSRP

Yep, RAM is very temperature sensitive. The upstairs A/C in my house broke recently and we had to get it repaired. While I personally didn't mind the 10-15°F higher ambient temperatures, that destabilized the memory overclock on my desktop. At first, I thought something was horrifically wrong as the machine would just keep freezing and BSODing after over a year and a half of working great. Nope, it was just the higher ambient temps causing RAM instability. Whew. I wanted my 2.5% overclock though! Grr... performance being left on the table I couldn't access.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jXNs3Hrgpg Given the price mark up on Broadwell GPUs, you are going to see a lot more 4090s and 5090s get memory upgrades.

you win some, you lose some: GPU cable keeping steady, still at +/-10% max. current imbalance, roughly equating to 1-1.3A, very happy with that. but now suddenly my machine kept crashing during RE9 Requiem gameplay, sudden black screen followed by a reboot, not BSOD, no warning, no freezing, nothing, just instant reboot. had a hunch so i ran TM5 and voila: the RAM started getting unstable! currently retuning the timings while keeping the speed at 7600. not sure if this is silicon degradation or rather the current heatwave. ambient temps are reaching 28-30C in my little gaming corner in the living room, thus pushing the RAM to the upper 50s during gameplay (remember: this is with RGB switched off and a 140mm fan pointing directly towards them). in any case, back to RAM tuning ugh....altho not much in the mood, crazily enjoying my gaming phase 😄 ill just do it on the side, one timing a day i guess.... 😛 at least i found the culprit quickly and can go back to stable gaming without reboots 🙂

Hey @Mr. Fox I would buy your parts, but I actually bought my 9950X3D2 and Dark Hero and Ram with the BestBuy 0% store Credit Card. So, if I were to return it all, it just goes back to the card. I used the card because I was not sure if I was going to even like or keep the setup. So it was a way for me to give it a good run in and test it daily. It seems pretty solid, other than being a weaker sample. And, I still might return it all. If I do, I’ll maybe be going for a 270K Plus. But I have really Moved away from overclocking and XOC. I just play games when I have time. I’m so busy with buying junk cars these days. I pretty much just keep it simple man! Congrats on the binned 270K plus purchase! That is a very nice chip! This is a picture of my yard full of cars from a days work. 😂

Id love to splurge on this. Great deal! But, I have to be smart. I don’t have a job anymore, so I’m completely self sufficient these days since May 2026. Things are going well, but I feel like bad luck can happen at any moment. So I have to be smart.

I made @tps3443 a crazy low offer on the 9950X3D2, X870E Apex, IceMan Direct Die block, G.SKILL 6000 CL26 RAM and Supercool Direct Touch RAM cooler. That CPU is a WHOLE lot better than the one he has. So is the motherboard and RAM for that matter. If he doesn't want it, if anyone here is interested I will let it go for the same utterly insane low price as a complete package. Ready to use, turnkey. Speaking of 6000 CL26, this is the best that the garbage V-Color dual rank trash kit is capable of doing. I spent about 5 hours yesterday with it installed in the SFF build and it just doesn't have much to offer. As the low clock speeds it is capable of it performs actually quite well, it just can't hit any clock speeds that are worth a darn. It is not even bootable at 6400 in 1:1... debug code 00 on every attempt. Great example why one should never judge a book by its cover. With EXPO specs like this kit has one would think it is a fantastic memory kit, but it really sucks unless you run it close to stock. As sucky as it is, it will be good enough for the SFF build since it is not going to get put through the benching meat grinder. It will have a mundane existence that is limited to the mediocrity of web browsing and 3D gaming.

The 5090 is a beast compared to the second and the (3rd) last.

Wow, by far the easiest delid I have ever done using the Thermal Grizzly Delid Die Mate and the Die Mate heater. Removing the residual solder from the die after delid was also much easier because there was less of it. Most of it stayed on the IHS and hardly any left on the CPU die. And, as always massive thermal benefit to bare die. The temps are fantastic. Cooler temps = less voltage and power, higher clocks... profit by every measurement. I am pretty sure I could use the heater to delid a Ryzen CPU with 75% less time and effort if I were to use dental floss to cut the glued spots.

Yeah MSI really came through as I was not sure if I would get any kind of extended warranty given that it was an open box model. Not that there was a choice because they discontinued the config with 9955HX3D and 5090 instead of just modifying it to have 2x16GB RAM. Ended up having to dial it back to C38 and tREFI 11677. I only ever used the stock 2x16GB Hynix in the 5080 variant. These have factory seals and I was hesitant on keeping that 5080 due to price so I never opened it up. The 5080 variant however definitely could do 3000:3000:2000 with 1000mv VSOC stable. The OEM memory had locked PMIC so 1100mv VDD/VDDQ pretty much. Fan noise was essentially the same, very good. Its one of the few that can have good performance, good noise and just warm palm rests. Not X170 levels of palm rest temps which could stay at ambient temp but the chassis is simply too thin to ever really be that good. This has much better fans than the old 2024 7945HX3D. Maybe it is better with heat dissipation. They use PTM7958SP from the factory so if the old model was using a paste this might be part of the difference too.

Hard to keep up these days, so many changes. mVolt 0.33+ add many new features, including fan controls, new System Clock and Video Clock Offsets. No idea what they are for. Also have a new Xbar Ratio that allows even higher Xbar according to some. https://github.com/b00nz/mVolt/ @Mr. Fox Sorry to hear about your fuses, but glad it was just that and you'll have them fixed up with higher amp versions soon.

https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/274990/274990 https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/273887/gigabyte-rtx5080-16384-250110-2 This should work. 450w from Aorus, should make all fans work and has a higher default boost. If not maybe Gaming OC, same 450w but lower boost by default. https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/273730/gigabyte-rtx5080-16384-250108

Maybe another variant would wake up the non-functional fan. This is the XOC 450W vBIOS I use on the Prime 5080 and all three fans work. The one not working is near the I/O so that is a more critical fan being close to the die and VRM. But, it certainly will not matter when blocked. Absolutely. I have hated having to use the EVC2 for voltage control. It is a cool mod from a hardware geek perspective, but a real pain in the butt to have to implement, and we should not have to. All GPUs should function like a K|NGP|N or HOF GPU. I'd love it if we could get the power limits unlocked (adjustable) or simply removed (increased to something more than the GPU can ever pull, like 5000W) using software to avoid having to shunt mod. The risk involved with that kind of geeky fun (and loss of warranty) loses appeal when GPUs cost two to five times what they are actually worth. If it is done with software, there is no way to prove or enforce a warranty that excludes overclocked hardware that fails for reasons that have nothing to do with overclocking.

Thanks. Nice. All rolled into one now. No need to use a separate tool for crossbar. I love it.

Yup, works like a champ on my 5090, too. I'll do some testing and if it does as good or better I will remove the EVC2 mod and just use this instead. Then I won't have to care about the WireView Pro I2C conflicts because there will no longer be one without the EVC2. The MSVDD did goose my crossbar clock a bit on all three GPUs. I think this could end up being the world's most loved utility. I haven't even used it for an hour yet and I love it. It gives us all what we deserved to get from NVIDIA, but they're just too scummy to give us everything they owed us for buying their absurdly overpriced gimped GPU crap.

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/161882960 Good enough for #13 Bartlett Lake is the CPU that could have been. This chip with 8400-8800MTs would have been elite.

I think I forgot to mention... Given the unsavory trajectory of GPU pricing, I grabbed another 5080 on sale from Microcenter last week for $1100 and snagged the last one available. I put the Prime 5080 in the SFF living room build because the Gigabyte Windforce OC I snagged has a higher core voltage and crossbar clock and I want it in one of my preferred builds. That's still more than a 5080 should cost, but about $400 less than the asinine price most are selling for and it's not going to get better anytime soon. I rationalized spending less on something that I don't need right now versus paying an undetermined amount more later when I do need it. I also think it might be easier to source a waterblock for the Windforce that isn't selling for an idiotic price. I could only find one option for the Prime, and the price was totally unacceptable. Paying current 5090 prices is a fool's errand and I will have no part of it. Utterly insane and absolutely not worth it, even by a long stretch of the imagination. The price-to-performance math and logic simply does not work for 5090 at current prices.

I am returning the Gigabyte Z890 AORUS Elite Duo X. It arrived today after a 5-day slow ride from Amazon in Baltimore and I have spent about 8 or 9 hours fighting it. Super nice motherboard, but something is bugged with the hardware or the firmware. When I first installed it, could not get it to POST normally with two RAM sticks. It would POST, restart and then hang with the DRAM debug LED illuminated. So, I swapped in another memory kit. Same thing. Cleared CMOS several times and nothing. I then got it to boot with one RAM stick, but Windows would freeze while loading. I tried to reflash the BIOS using the EZ-Flash button after renaming the BIOS file GIGABYTE.bin but the button would not do anything. Totally unresponsive. I finally got into the BIOS and the file was seen as "invalid ROM" by the BIOS. I moved the memory stick to the other slot and tried again, then it worked and I flashed the BIOS. After that it booted with both RAM sticks. Both memory kits booted fine. I turned it off, unplugged it, then plugged it in again. This time the EZ-Flash button worked and it seemed all good. Easily hit 8800 stable. I thought "OK, that was weird, but everything is fine now." NOT! I began working on tuning the CPU, but any change made to the D2D clock ratio other than leaving it set to "Auto" it would only boot to BIOS Safe Mode with the message that the BIOS settings were unstable. Another issue I encountered, even though it is a 2-DIMM board, the memory slots are spaced several millimeters further apart than the Apex and the Supercool direct touch RAM block would not work with it. I considered getting an ASROCK Taichi OCF, but don't really like the brand or how it looks. (I have hated all three ASROCK mobos I have owned in the past.) Ordered another Z890 Apex for $25 less than the OCF. It was $100 more than the Duo X, but I don't need any more drama. It will be worth the extra to keep my sanity. No more likely to drip on the GPU than the CPU block. I've never had a memory water block that leaked before. This story made the thought of getting the Taichi OCF an even more unattractive option. That, plus the fact that I have never actually cared for any ASROCK motherboard previously, including a Z370 Taichi and X870E Taichi.

Not so exciting hardware but you still need it. The new A$us mesh set. Damn expensive. For the pict lover. Can you see them? The black ones😀 Have never bought expensive wifi routers before. I have usually bought them all on the used market. But they often lack support and always near EOL date. Hope this one will last me a while. I've always had problems with the wifi coverage around in the house and outside in the garden. Hope this one can improve that. ASUS ZenWiFi BQ16 review: Quad Band Mesh with Wi-Fi 7 guru3d.com

The pleasure is mutual, brother. I am super excited for you and I can hardly wait for you to get the stuff in your hands. Having everything under water is going to be a real game-changer. I think my next purchase may need to be a block for the 5080 Prime if I can find one that isn't absurdly overpriced. I do not like anything being air cooled if I can avoid it and GPUs put off a ton of heat into a chassis.

Always a pleasure buying from you @Mr. Fox. Personally it's much less stress buying from you since you know what's under the hood and no post-sale shenanigans from me. Here's hoping your next project will scratch that itch just as mine will for me! A bit of a laugh but I actually tried to get a second opinion from my good friend Hiew to talk me out of reaching out to Brother Fox. He just straight up told me I was buying it before I even said anything. He's been so happy with the previous bundle I bought from Fox so that it comes up semi-regularly the performance compared to the 5800X3D for anything he does. From time to time he's downloading at 5Gbps and just giggles as the cpu gets to work. 5800X3D pretty much took care of all my needs but I did like the idea of the 9950x3d2. I have been too busy with work to know Mr Fox even had this chip but more than happy to buy it from him. Outside of our circle I probably wouldn't even consider it. Time to pick up a waterblock for the 9070 XT everything on my pc will be under water now. I may take some time off from work to get everything set up.

It never ceases to amaze me how much better temperatures are bare die.

Just saw you grabbed that SP98! I honestly debated grabbing it too. But this SP97 is so good already, I have no complaints with it. I'm able to game at 5.8Ghz P and 5.3Ghz E on this beast. @electrosoft 5.85Ghz P passed gaming for the short bit I tested, but got angry in geekbench of all things. This was all with no manual core voltage tuning though, just auto scaling. Percentage wise for gaming, over my SP89, it's about 5% faster in some tests for gaming. Nothing amazing, but what you'd expect from the clock speed bumps.

I sent him a PM asking for his PayPal. If he has not quietly sold it already I will buy it. Probably not a smart move, but most things we are passionate about produce behaviors that are not very intelligent. Too bad I already sent the delidder tool and heater back. This will drive me to sell the parts I had offered to @tps3443 to pay for it and fund the replacement motherboard, etc. I honestly have not had time to put either the delidded 270K or delidded 9950X3D2 through their paces to say definitive gains in performance were achieved, but the massive thermal improvements alone made it worth the effort in both cases. I've had too many competing interests consuming my time. I'm going to expect decent performance gains on the 270K. I'd not expect as much from AMD simply because things are so limited by design by AMD. But I would delid them both again in a heartbeat just for the thermal gains even if nothing changed on either one in terms of performance. Bare die is the only way to fly. I need you to build a custom loop and stop settling for an AIO, brother. Since he spent more than I am offering to sell him the parts for he could come out ahead moneywise and with a better and stronger system if he were to return what he bought and use the money to pay for it. But, maybe the return window already closed. No matter the situation, I respect the decision to say no for the reasons that he did. Priorities are always God, family, work, play... in that order... and the first two are hard to separate. If the last two get out of order everything falls apart.

SP97 with just Noctua AIO. Was around 300w and 70c for a single run. Crazy good silicon.

Seems to have passed for now. ill try to keep an eye on it

Yeah my Astral wasn’t even that great of a deal either lol. At the time they were brand new for $4,329.99 + tax and they had a single open box for like $3,779 or $3,889 + tax in the Best Buy store, I’m forgetting exactly how much it was. The box was kind of ripped a little, coil whine is not as quiet as my 5090 FE was (That one had a tiny bit, but you had to like put your ear against it to hear it, 1.2KW per limit certainly amplified it just a little bit) But the quietest GPU I ever owned was probably the 5080 Astral OC, it did not make any sound under load, even with your ear right against it lol. The 5090 Astral isn’t bad at all though but it makes a deep buzz if you lean in and try to listen to it. You won’t hear it in a closed case or anything though. Not a squeal or anything annoying at all which Is perfectly fine for me. I think most high end GPU’s will make a buzz under heavy load if you lean in close and listen to them. Too many check boxes these days to be super picky on GPU’s. Max Voltage, core overclocking ability, are 1% lows impacted with +3,000 memory OC, coil whine?, are the core and memory chips actually soldered on the board? lol, does it even work? lol. 😂 Unless something is making a high pitch squeal noise, I don’t care! Two prior products come to mind where I did care!!!. My Z590 Dark Kingpin motherboard, and EVGA power supplies lol. But yeah the Astral overclocks really well, and that’s what made me love it and decide to keep it. Excellent GPU. I’d probably long return my 9950X3D2 and Dark Hero X870 before that 5090 Astral goes anywhere!! Speaking of which that return period is coming up FAST on the AMD chip!! I may swap it out.

I am making a little more progress. This dual v-cache CPU doesn't like being rag-dolled like my other CPUs. It is more sensitive. That's not a good thing, but it is good I am starting to better understand what it can tolerate, and when I treat it kinder and gentler it performs better.

So, I used the Thermal Grizzly Intel socket 1851 Delid Die Mate heater that I used to delid my 270K Plus to delid my 9950X3D2. It worked flawlessly and effortlessly. It was more work threading dental floss behind the IHS "legs" to cut through the rubber glue pads than it was to delid. As soon as the heater hit 165°C and flashed ready I simply lifted the CPU off the IHS as if it were never attached. As an added bonus, most of the factory solder stays on the IHS so cleaning up the dies after delid is way lots easier. (Same was true for the 270K Plus. Very little solder left to clean off the dies.) I am going to do all delids this way from now on. Much better than working up a case of carpal tunnel moving the AM5 IHS back and forth 100 times until it falls off. Major thermal improvement (about 15-18°C) in Cinebench, exactly as expected.

OK, I have the EVC 2.0 working again. Between the python scripts and helpful suggestions @Day/drifter provided and using AI/search I am back in business on Windoze 10 and Winduhz 11. In case it saves anyone else the heartache, the instructions are posted below. Since it fixed the software not detecting the device in both OSes, it seems to be the remedy. I think the WireView Pro 2 installation and firmware updates to it may have been what triggered the malfunction because it is also an I2C programmer. Ensure the device is running the latest firmware (0009 or later), as older versions like L4 may require specific driver configurations. The WinUSB driver is not installed correctly. To resolve this, manually configure the Windows registry: Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\usbflags\048357400200. Set the osvc value to 01 50. Create a new DWORD named NewInterfaceUsage. Do not change the values. Create a new BINARY named SkipContainerIDQuery with value 01 00. Uninstall the device in Device Manager, but do not scan for hardware changes. Unplug the EVC 2.0 USB cable, and plug it back in. Launch the EVC2 Software in Admin Mode. EVC 2.0 Fix.zip

Here are the photos. Everything is working well. If the 9950X3D2 is a keeper I will move the 4585PX from the Apex to this system and keep the 9950X as a backup/spare CPU. Or, I may just leave it with the 9950X, put the crappy VColor 6000 C26 dual rank kit on this board and put the Kingbank 8400 kit back into my surplus stash along with the 9950X. Everything was tight, but nothing had to be forced or modified to fit. I even found a spot for the remote debug LED, power/reset panel. (I love that feature and it was a deciding factor in purchasing it. I do not like motherboard that are missing debug LED, power and reset buttons.) When I say "tight" there is about 3-5mm of clearance between the PSU AC power connector and the front AIO fan above it. Lian Li/Dan clearly put a lot of effort into designing something where things that are supposed to fit actually do. It was like putting together a jigsaw puzzle. I could still fit a 5080 or 5090 in place of the 3070 FTW3 if I needed to. I remembered that I had a couple of old Scythe low profile 120mm fans, so I managed to fit one of them in the floor at the rear to help cool the dual NVMe PCIe card I have in the bottom 4X slout under the GPU.

Saw that too. The IMC has me saying nah lol. Besides my current chip has been flawless at 5.7Ghz P, maybe that chip could do 5.8? Maybe. The thing about SP, is that the number doesn't always tell the full story. Sometimes chips just fail to scale with the voltage headroom they should have left.