1610ftw

Yes it is a good start and at least it also gives the customer more options as one can combine multiple main boards and GPU boards allowing customers to finally be able to combine AMD with Nvidia even in the top tier or also maybe let the customer optimze for a more workstation like use with an Intel CPU and a 5070 but with the option to have up to 128GB of memory. A big upside is that contrary to most MXM slot designs this does not make the laptop thicker which apparently is very important to everybody and one of the reasons we do not get socketed CPUs any more. Overall a very smart concept and hopefully it will show good reliability. Maybe then we will see 18" next year.

That is really cool about your grand daughters - it is always rewarding to bring family and sometimes friends to another level and it is quite interesting how cheap the hardware can be that brings about the improvement. You must also be one of the coolest grandfathers around with your knowledge of everything PC! The Titan was a fantastic card in its time and it goes to show how good we have it today where mere budget cards mop the floor with it. I would sell that 4090 because you got all that you wanted out of it and if you are tempted to buy again it will be good to have sold it in time. From what I can see the 5080 will be the sweet spot with the price differential to the 5090 being a lot bigger than the performance differential which is quite the departure from last gen but if there is a KINGPIN 5090 you probably won't be able to resist 😄 And yes, I vote for keeping that 1080 after you have kitted it out - it will be a nice backup card and it won't be losing hundreds of dollars in value if you let it sit for a while. PTM7950 is in all my laptops recently when I have to repaste, it is just so good and stable for a very long time and it works very well with CPUs and GPUs.

Congratulations - it is good that nobody tried to "improve" it before so you basically got a pristine card that is unlikely to have seen any abuse. As you mainly like benchmarking you can do it with this card, too - (almost) the same fun but for a much lower price 👍

Some of the old modular laptop crew may like this: It is an interesting concept to say the least and probably what he had hinted at in a previous video. Of course it is a bit of a bad joke that this unique watercooled more modular laptop that also sports a good keyboard layout is limited to 16" and rather basic memory and drive options.

Do you have a reliable source for TC-5960? Also do you have a low cost recommendation for a thermal paste that maybe is a few degrees worse than the best but stable for a couple of years in a laptop that can stand 95 to 100C and is relatively easy to apply? When I apply thermal paste to a low end jokebook longevity is a lot more important than to achieve 2 degree better cooling on that 2 Core CPU, especially when the "intelligent" fans only turn up as much as needed to permanently keep the jokebook CPU at ca. 95C 😄 From what I can see Noctua used to have such a good low cost paste that @kojack is using but not any more as reportedly it has gotten quite bad when it comes to longevity.

Maybe MSI thinks that two of the new 64GB CSODIMM will be good enough as they will allow for 128GB from just two memory modules: https://videocardz.com/newz/crucial-intros-ddr5-cudimm-memory-up-to-6400-mt-s-64gb-modules-coming-2025

Just look at last year pricing for the Titan 18 top model with the 4090 and you have a good ballpark. I have not heard about availability but I would guess February or March.

Put a PCIe 3 SSD in that PCIe 4 slot and try again and if that does not help I would go for 3 drives in only the three PCIe 3.0 slots on the side and then maybe the latest bios and try the 4th slot again. I never liked those 11th gen LGA CPUs as they dropped 2 cores at the top and therefore I do not have any experience with them and never used the regular 4th SSD slot. FWIW the highest Samsung I used in there was a 970 Evo, but I successfully used the WD SN850X.

No problem here with 4 drives (3 regular ones and one 2230 2TB in the Wifi slot) and at least two of them were 4 TB or bigger and total storage was between 11 and 16TB. This was with a 10th gen CPU, 128GB memory, 10G ethernet via Thunderbolt and driving 3 displays at the same time. I have also been using the latest XMG bios on it and it was really stable. As you want to put in 4 SSDs I assume that you use an 11th gen CPU, correct? Do you have the latest Clevo or XMG bios on it? Does one of the two drives that are already in the laptop use the PCIe 4.0 slot and is it a PCIe 4.0 SSD?

The Gigabyte indeed looks quite thick for a device that is planned to come in at under 3kg - if it does that will probably mean that some corners have been cut or that they used a lot of plastic and/or magnesium. Time will tell and I am very tempted to get one for testing. That being said I still hope that MSI will have the balls to go socketed again but from what I gather they fear the backlash of all the morons complaining about the laptops getting taller and a bit heavier because of it. As we are talking about maybe 4 mm height increase at most and considering that laptops can be wedge shaped i do not see much of an issue here so maybe they will come around for a kind of ultimate model in the future. And of course the other hope is TongFang / Uniwill where @Prema continues to do great work for his partners but they better start offering a true 18" DTR chassis, especially now that they even have separate CPU and GPU boards that could be the beginning of something big if they play their cards right and it seems that this is also how they will acheive both AMD and Intel support in their new 16" top of the line chassis: Sadly Tom from Schenker / XMG also writes this:

For socketed laptops they could make an exception and cut the tariffs in half (CPU AND GPU) 😄

Middle aged woman? That is unusual for an HTPC! But it could be something harmless and she is selling it for a friend of family.

Used in an HTPC is perfect - not pushed and usually very little runtime!

And here is another dark horse: This one also looks very interesting: 4 fans 4 Dimm slots 3 SSD slots with one Gen. 5 QHD+ 240Hz mini LED display with Dolby Vision 270W TDP Vapor Chamber 5 USB A/C/TB4 and TB5 connectors on the sides for easier access 400W power adapter 99Wh battery VERY impressive to see this from Gigabyte!

There should be a list of laptop keyboard types from best to worst. MSI is a bad offender even in their high end machines that have riveted keyboards except for the ones with the cherry keyboards. Even then you have to work your way all through the laptop to replace or clean the keyboard which is a huge annoyance and there is basically zero documentation on how to do that. The other end of the spectrum would be companies like Clevo, Dell and HP who often allow for keyboards to be replaced from the palm rest side with a comparatively small effort.