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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

Using CPU-bound settings, the 270K Plus holds its own against the 9950X3D2 in this benchmark. This is a run by Zero989 at oc.net and a run with my 5080 system using the same settings against his X3D build. I actually played the game last night for about an hour and it was extremely boring. (I have never cared for this genre, so that comes as no real surprise.) I should have just stuck with the free demo. It was a waste of money for me, but it was super cheap so no great loss. What you see in the benchmark is the closest you will get to experiencing something mildly stimulating when playing the game. 9950X3D2 270K Plus

This is the state of my setup right now. I'm excited to test the 6800c34 ram for sure!

I returned all of my stuff to BestBuy a few days ago, I came home spent a couple days browsing and I decided to try some different parts instead. More or less the same setup. (1) 9950X3D2 (Really love this CPU I bought it again could not resist) (2) Asus X870E Strix E-E (This one has Debug LED, does not have a quick release PCIe though and these can damage GPU's with improper removal apparently? (3) Gskill DDR5 2x16GB 6800C34 (This was the same cost as my Corsair kit) Hopefully this setup can hit the measly DDR5 8000. 💀 Almost went 270K Plus route, but I found my self splurging much more on Z890 motherboard cost and Z890 ram cost, which easily bridged the gap from 270KP to 9950X3D2 cost. So the savings of 270KP were just getting stuffed in to fancier board and ram to run the 270KP. I really liked the 9950X3D2!! I ran it for a solid 2 months. Gaming performance with 5090 Astral OC was excellent, it really impressed me so much. I just wasn't happy with my combination of parts, or quality of parts, so it all went back. My original open box X870 Dark Hero was questionable, my CPU bin was questionable, and even my Hynix A-Die SR ram was very questionable. Would like to play around with 8000-8200 Gear 2. Or daily 6400 Gear 1. 😁

I had a dickens of a time figuring out where I could mount the WireView Pro 2 Wired version in this small case. It does not look nearly as clean as it would attached to the GPU and I am not "thrilled" with the mounting location. But, I think it is better to have it than to not have it. Maybe in a week or two when I am bored and want something pointless to do I will route the EPDM tubing a slightly different way so it looks less "busy" than it does now. At least it is easily viewed in the current location. Looks like the shunt mod is working, so that's good. MrFox's 3DMark - Steel Nomad DX12 Score 10202 marks with GeForce RTX 5080 @ 3435.00/2250 MHz

5090 is fixed. Got the new fuses from Mouser today and installed them after work. My SMD soldering is ghetto-looking because I am scared of exploding caps and blowing small parts off their pads with my hot air station and always use an iron. Using the hot plate to preheat the GPU to 110°C helped a ton using the iron. (I should buy a dead mobo or GPU on eBay super cheap and use it for practice to get over my fear of messing things up with the hot air.) But, hey, it works now. Powered through an 800W run of Steel Nomad to confirm it. I had ordered new thermal pads for the block and they got delayed from Amazon, so I will have to take it apart again tomorrow after work to replace the thermal poop with liquid metail and install the new pads. (Assuming they are actually delivered tomorrow.)

Happy birthday @Papusan! Hopefully it is a good one and shout out to Mrs Papusan! -------------------------------------------------------------- 4k only WoW testing to see if I wanted to upgrade/switch the wife's SP109 14900KS + 4000 Bdie tuned at 4000 vs 270k + KB 8400 tuned at 8400 (both passed TM5 Extreme). Tuned up the 270k at 5.6ghz with the KingBank 8400 sticks ran some vs tests with the same settings as the wife's 14900ks DDR4 tuned system and the 270k officially equals the 14900ks at 4k with the exact same CPU bound results even with a 9070xt in areas (fixed spots out in the world devoid of player data, namely Eversong Woods) dropping to 91-93% whereas the 9800X3D can lock it down to 100% on those same 9070xt cards. This is setting up two platforms and the 270k running the Powercolor 9070xt Red Devil and hers running the Gigabyte OC Gaming 9070xt. Swapped cards back and forth, basically the same results. In same scenarios, Red Devil runs 3200+, while the Gigabyte runs 3100+. Red Devil pulls ~18w more stock for stock too. Gigabyte = SK Hynix Red Devil = Samsung Overall, even in raids, scary just how powerful the 5090 is and how much Blizzard has improved their optimizations for GPUs but they really do need to to where I can cap out the 9070xt easily in raids on X3D at 4k and even push the 5090 close to cap out many times even with all the FX going on and seeing 70-98% utilization depending on encounter and situation. I must reiterate how much the Intel anything + 9070xt is dogwater for Fallout 76. Running the 270k + 9070xt again is just the worst...... ------------------------------------------------------------------- Couldn't resist and picked up an open box Asus G16 9955HX3D + 5070ti for $1800 from Amazon Warehouse to do some testing especially in Fallout 76 since the Alienware 275hx + 5070ti was grossly underfeeding the 5070ti in spots in QHD most likely due to the architecture and inability to tune memory / support much higher speeds. Need to see if the 9955HX3D caps it out properly at QHD and at what fps. Pros: The Asus bios for AMD supports full Overclocking options for AMD versus the Intel counterpart. This model is known to run dead silent on light/ no load for desktop use Actually has a lower sound profile under load than the Alienware Cons: No out of box BIOS level memory tuning for the 32GB of DDR5 5600 memory (2x16GB). If the 9955HX3D caps out the 5070ti in Fallout 76 in QHD, which I expect it to do considering a 9800X3D caps out a desktop 5070 in QHD, it gives more weight to a potential 9955HX3D+5090 laptop. @win32asmguy how goes the Raider tuning and testing? ------------------------------------------------------------------- Still waiting on Asus to send the X870e Dark Hero so I can set up a test bench with it with the delidded 9850X3D and collect more WoW/Fallout 76 data testing all my cards: 5060, 9070xt x 2, 5080, 5090, 6000. It's the linchpin to start moving other parts around and get the SFF going too. ------------------------------------------------------------------- @tps3443 Titan Rig has a nice open box sale on an Astral GPU block if you want to block your beast: https://www.titanrig.com/openbox-alphacool-core-geforce-rtx-5090-rog-astral-gpu-water-block-with-backplate.html

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 Dark Hero fan works amazingly well. I ran it full blast on my test bench. I'm going to miss that feature. I noticed the fan would blow air strongest at a certain point on the fan, and I rotated the fan in the orientation where the ram sticks were getting hit with the best breeze. PS: For some reason BestBuy sent me (2) 9950X3D2's. 💀 I guess it's meant for me to find a 2,200FCLK unit! 😂 Still waiting on motherboard.

Thanks brother. It is true PC hardware is an absolute mess right now, but that is why I went with the slightly older stuff. The problem is that the average PC buyer still thinks we are back in last 2024/early 2025. They still have that 60 to 70% off mentality. They argue that the PC isn't worth 1200 to 1300, even though the PCs I have built outclass anything selling new in that price range. The 4070 Ti is still going for 500 to 600 used and I won't even get into SSD/RAM pricing. However, I will always stand my ground. We shall see how it goes. I am happy to see you're enjoying your return to Intel. Next gen should be very interesting and I think Intel will give AMD a run for its money, as long as Intel keeps pricing reasonable. But only time will tell.

If you get a good setup, like what I sold to @Reciever and offered to you, the 9950X3D2 will be great. I do not know why, but is seems like with the X3D chips (all of them) it is harder to find one that has an IMC strong enough to handle 8000 and 2200 FCLK. I had the Strix X870E-E motherboard for a good while and it was a very good motherboard. I think you will like it. It overclocked the memory as well as the X870E Apex does with a good CPU. Ran it 8000-8200 daily. No issues.

That was quick delivery. Are they available stateside for the wired version? Do you happen to have your best AM5 6000 2x24GB zentimings tune on hand? I'm in the process of tuning the Vengeance 9200 2x24GB sticks at 6000 now so I want to see how they stack up while dialing them in. I'll then take a small break to benchmark the 9070xt's and 5080 for comparison to the 14900KS / 270k data I've collected in WoW and FO76. Then head on to 2133/6400 and 8000 after. My ETA for actual Hero to Dark Hero swap is probably a week to ten days from now.

So far testing this 9850X3D, it is a slightly better sample than my 9800X3D. 9800X3D can do 2133/6400 but at 1.29 VSOC while the 9850X3D does it on auto no problem. 9850X3D can boot 6600 but fails TM5 even at 1.30v. 9800X3D isn't booting 6600 no matter what. 6600+ stable (let alone booting) is unicorn territory. 9850X3D can do 8200 on auto no problem but eventually fails at 8400. 8400+ is unicorn status so I wasn't expecting it to pass if it even managed to boot. 9800X3D can do 8000 but fails 8200. 8400 won't boot at all. 9800X3D = SP113 (solidly average) 9850X3D = SP120 (slightly above average) I'll end up tuning 2000/6000, 2133/6400 and the as always in sync 8000. I've never fully tuned all three sets of DDR5 around AM5 so this should be fun! Might do a 8200 profile since this chip can fully support it. ------------------------------------- Out of the box quick benching, it is literally identical to the 9800X3D running CB23 but we'll see where that goes down the road after I wrap up memory testing and lock down all three sets of DDR5 to really dial it in and as always do a static vs test for shiggles. I haven't done any game benching/testing yet. That will be in a few days once I get at least 2000/6000 locked down on the 9850X3D. Realistically I expect the CV 9200 sticks to reign supreme as they did testing on the 265k/270k but those are slated for Nova Lake later this year so I'll want to make sure to have the KingBank or TeamGroup on standby 🙂

https://hwbot.org/benchmarks/3dmark_-_port_royal/submissions/6063003 https://hwbot.org/benchmarks/3dmark_-_time_spy/submissions/6062987

Man that is purdy. I said it before and I'll say it again. That industrial blue and off white with the black and just that TINGE of red from the Q-Code display always has that blend of blade runner meets Neuromancer. I might have to go with some Noctua or Arctic 140mm aRGB fans ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No surprise here.....bots be botting trying to scarf up any type of hardware deal possible to regurgitate it back on the market at higher prices....#winning ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cancer meet cancer. What can go wrong? 😀 Microsoft blames RGB peripherals for crashing Windows 11 — RGB software is causing blue screens, crashes, and game freezes

Instead of watching paint dry..... Gonna hit up that area with Fitz one more time.... Like IT and The Shining, I need the SHINE.... Watched a good Stock vs Expo vs ULL vs tuned DDR5 shoot out. instead.... As always, tuning your own ram rules the roost: I like this guy a lot. He's really passionate and grinds out a lot of good data.

I am surprised the Asus bios has support for any overclocking options. Granted the last Asus I tried was that Strix Scar 17 which was quite some time ago. I have currently the 5600 Kingston CL40 2x16GB kit at stock timings other than tREFI 24k. This lets VSOC set at 900mv which is great for balanced mode where the chip is limited to 55W in combined loads. Supposedly memory heatsinks from Aliexpress can help keep bumping VDD/VDDQ from pushing temps as high, so thats the next thing to try with memory overclocking. I can tame the RGB by setting keyboard brightness to zero via the toggle FN-F8 key (EC can remember this setting unlike anything configured in Steelseries) then unplug the front lightbar and the lid logo RGB is gone courtesy of the Vector A18 lid. I think the Asus could be a good alternative if the bios is not limiting and you get full support using the G-helper tool instead of Armory Crate. 9955HX3D is definitely outperforming 14900HX running around in the new content zones and raiding activities. I have heard that Nova Lake HX will not have a bLLC variant, so I guess 9955HX3D will be it for another year. Who knows if there will be any mobile GPU refresh. Probably not when the AI craze still drives the market.

Frank and Dusty are jamming together in paradise now. Billy is no spring chicken, so he may join them soon. ZZ Top was one of my favorite Southern Rock bands of all time. True icons that produced some legendary and timeless music hits. The entertainment industry just does not make music like they did any more. I had the privilege of seeing them live, in concert, at the Arizona State Fair in November of 2005.

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.

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.

OK... The decapitation was painless and the thermal improvement was even greater than my other 270K Plus (which was about 15°C). Using the same BIOS settings, more than 20°C cooler in Cinebench R23 versus stock solder and IHS. The IPC uplift with 270K Plus over 14th Gen Intel and AMD's finest is pretty insane. (Captured in the CPU-Z benchmark.)

You misspelled "God Mode".... 😂 Does 1.25 make it completely stable or is 6000 still problematic? Really looks like that 9955HX3D wants to settle in at 5800. Not the end of the world, but meh.....I know the 7945HX3D had no problems with 6000 in a similar dual die setup. It was a straight full assembly swap and not a panel only swap? Makes it much easier for warranty claims in the future to swap back easily but that is a strange bug too. I like the eventual @Mr. Fox drift to a new primary platform. Whenever you have two chips of the same ilk, that is the dominant platform. 270k has finally supplanted AM5, so it now rules the HenHouse. 🙂 Eventually AM6 and/or Nova will slowly move in and either AM6 will replace thje Epyc and/or Nova will replace the lesser 270k..... Yeah, I thank the stars daily for pulling the trigger when I did on various items especially memory. The upper tier stuff is disappearing completely or becoming bonkers expensive. I see you're well enough to lift those abominations into the box for a photo shoot @Papusan 🤣

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.

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

So Asus is sending me an Asus X870E Crosshair Dark Hero all shiny new to evaluate and add to my collection which is nice. I'm going to hold off on putting the 9850X3D delidded combo in the current MB in LM form and do it all up with the revamped edition. Glad I found out before I tore down my current system to install it. Still might pop it in but with just paste for now because that's quick and easy to collect some baseline data. Wonder if I can get sent one of their newer AIOs that interface directly to the MB connectors? 🤪 My original Crosshair Hero is solid but the LCD is flickering a little (common problem) so I could RMA it for a new one or at least a repaired one to then sell off with the 9800X3D. I could also just switch the wifey to AM5 and sell off the 14900KS SP109, much needed to be retired Asus Strix-A Z690 (loose USB ports in the rear) and B-die 2x16 G.Skill 4000 sticks. Does anyone in this thread still run a 13900k/14900k besides @Talon and I? -------------------------------------------------------- I saw that over there, congrats brother! Definitely looking forward to the lid and delid results! It's a top notch sample and best way, just like @Talon, to get the most out of it. I'm working on it, lol. I think I want my ram water cooled equally as much as the CPU at this point. Even with a fan, temps are an issue 8000+. I suspect they could even provide a little bit of help on the low end too. Still being able to game at 5.8 is damn nice and that is with just auto scaling and no fine tuning. Power and thermal reductions must be nice too. With credit flexibility, why not return it all and give a 270k a whirl to compare and contrast? Worse case, you return it and pick up another AM5. 270k would definitely be cheaper. At the very least, return the 9950X3D2 and try another one. Sorry the job situation hasn't resolved itself yet but at least you have a good side job that seems to be paying dividends atm. Man, that's a lot of cars lol. What do you do with them exactly?

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