Clamibot

Yeah, the guide I wrote is more for maxing out gaming performance than benchmarking. It'll be really useful when I eventually get a 480 Hz monitor. I really like how these new ultra high refresh rate monitors look so lifelike in terms of motion clarity. One of my good buddies has joked on multiple occasions that Icarus keeps flying higher (referring to me) whenever I get a new even higher refresh rate monitor.

I don't have any SLI capable motherboards, but I can offer you an alternative if you can't get SLI working. You can use Lossless Scaling instead to achieve pseudo SLI with much better scaling in the worst case. I posted some instructions on how to set this up a while back on this thread. You can even use a heterogeneous GPU setup for this and it works great!

Looks like the 9070 XT is a really good card. It's super enticing since its MSRP is only $20 more expensive than what I paid for my 6950 XT about 2 years ago, and it's a big upgrade over the 6950 XT. I know this is FOMO, but I think I'd like to get 2 of these before tariffs hit and relive the days of Crossfire, but with near perfect scaling through Lossless Scaling. I'd be set for a very long time with 2 of those cards giving me a worst case scaling of +80% in any game. I have come to like AMD graphics cards very much after getting used to their idiosyncrasies and learning how to work around those, and I plan on only buying AMD graphics cards in the future. They are a better value than Nvidia and offer superior performance vs their Nvidia equivalents at all performance tiers, at least in the games I play. They work pretty well in applications I use for work too. Usually I do upgrades mid generation and do so once every 3 GPU generations at least, but I may make an exception this time if prices on everything are going to skyrocket. Makes me wonder if the tariffs are just a ploy to jump start the economy by inducing FOMO in everyone to buy stuff up now, therefore drastically increasing consumer spending. I hope this is the case but am prepared for the worst. I'm no stranger to holding onto hardware for a long time as that is already my habit, but it's rare for me to upgrade so quickly, and it kinda feels like a waste of money if I don't need it. However, I also don't want to pay more later, so it may be better to just eat the cost now.

The most powerful CPU supported by this laptop is an i9 10900K. Depending on your workload, it may be worth upgrading to as the 10900K is a 10 core CPU vs the 8 cores in a 10700K. That's a 25% increase in core count, so a 25% increase in theoretical multicore performance. The RTX 3080 is the most poweful GPU that can be installed in this laptop. Unfortunately, Clevo abandoned this model really quick and never made any further upgrades available. That's really sad as I got this laptop specifically for its upgradeability. Given the cost for a GPu upgrade (since a new heatsink is also required), it may not even be worth upgrading this laptop (not that I need one right now, but still). You can overclock the 2080 Super fine in this laptop. I can do a 10% overclock, which is the max I can do without the GPU drivers crashing, and the heatsink is able to adequately cool the GPU. As for the CPU side, it is possible to run a 10900K full bore at 5.3 GHz all core depending on workload. I can run that speed while playing Jedi Fallen Order, which becomes a very CPU intensive game when you have insanely high frmereate requirements like me. I have about a 200 watt power budget for the CPU side before it starts thermal throttling. A few things to note about my CPU side cooling in this laptop: I got the laptop from zTecpc, so it was already modded from the factory. I also use a Rockitcool full copper IHS, which is flatter and has 15% extra surface area over the stock IHS, allowing for improved heat transfer. I also use liquid metal on the CPU, both between the CPU die and IHS, and also between the IHS and heatsink, so basically a liquid metal sandwich. Also, this laptop does have a USB-C port with DP support, that one is right next to the USB-A port on the right side of the laptop. You should see a strange looking D above it.

I'm sorry to hear you got hurt but am glad you're ok. I wish you a speedy recovery! Like me, you are still very young so you will most likely make a quick full recovery along with some physical therapy. Scratch that, you WILL fully recover. Mind over matter. A positive attitude makes a world of difference. Although you don't know any of us here on the forums in real life, we're still here for you and care about you. Good luck in life brother!

Anyone want a robot dog? https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805736266551.html?src=google&pdp_npi=4%40dis!USD!475.88!433.05!!!!!%40!12000035049332711!ppc!!!&gatewayAdapt=glo2usa

Well that woud explain why I can't get wifi working with my Asus Maximus Z790 Apex Encore no matter what I do. That's been making me feel like an idiot, but that would make total sense as the reason why it isn't working for me. Fortunately that is also the only component that doesn't work, and I have a few USB wifi adapters laying around, so I'm just using my wireless AC one. It works well enough.

Clevo is going back to making modular laptops again? Awesome! Or is that a Tongfang model? Laptops just keep pulling me back in. I can't get away from them because the allure of portability is impossible to resist. Having said that, I also don't have a tolerance for laptops that are not modular, so I wouldn't buy such machines anyway. It takes something special like this to pique my interest, and it piques my interest HARD! Let's hope we get a proper 18-19 inch DTR with that modularity + external water cooling. That'll be fun for benchmarks and awesome for max performance in an ultraportable form factor (yes I consider 18 inch laptops ultraportable). Speaking of which, I'll need that special water cooling heatsink for my X170 to perform an upgrade to the RTX 3080. That should be interesting.

I would say if you're going to replace the Flex ATX PSU with a Pico PSU, then being able to house 2 of those HDPlex 500W PicoSPUs would be awesome as that would allow for very high power builds using a dual PSU config.

If the 5070 truly shifted performance up by 2 performance classes vs the previous generation, then the pricing seems a bit better to swallow, but I'm still not going to allow them to condition me to higher prices. A 70 class card should still not be that expensive, but I digress. I'm conditioned to Pascal era prices.

Now just gotta wait for the Clevo X580 reveal, whenever that is.

Happy new year my friends!

Looks like Clevo is starting to pull their heads out of their butts. Still soldered crap, but it's a massive upgrade over the X370 abomination that is completely undeserving of the Xx70 moniker: https://videocardz.com/newz/clevos-x580-next-gen-laptop-specs-leaked-arrow-lake-hx-cpu-and-geforce-rtx-50-gpu This is a nice 18 inch Clevo DTR, so it's good to see them starting to go back to what they once made. It doesn't have an upgradable CPU or GPU, but they increased the drive slots from 3 back to 4 and also increased the RAM slots back to 4. Gives me hope that Clevo may return to full socketed models one day.

Merry Christmas everyone! This is my most favorite holiday of the year! Bummer it only lasts one day, but we still have about a good 6 hours left (at least where I'm at)!

I just swapped my 144 Hz screen on my X170SM-G with a 300 Hz one. It was a pain in the butt to find the display cable for it, but it was worth it. I ended up finding the part on Aliexpress and then waited around for the cable to arrive. I just did the panel and cable swap today. I also modded the screen to make it glossy. It looks amazing! I have a nice glossy 300 Hz screen for my X170SM-G now! The colors are better than on the 144 Hz screen and everything looks so much smoother on the 300 Hz screen (as it should). I think I'm going to keep going higher and higher with my screen refresh rates as time goes by. My ultimate goal regarding screens is to acquire one where motion on it looks like real life (super duper ultra smooth). The 220 Hz screen I have for my desktop pushed me to get this 300 Hz one for my laptop. I'm very happy I got it!