Mr. Fox

I game so little that paying $15/month would be a waste of money. The $1 then cancel strategy would work for a lot of folks, but there would be more than a 50% chance that I wouldn't play any games during the introductory $1 month because I would be too busy doing other things. I also have to be in a certain mood for it. I typically play games on less than 30 days in an entire year. When I do it, I binge hard on it, then stop and don't play anything again for 60-90 days.

Until the end of the $1 first month, or past that?

It's on my list of games to buy when the price falls to $25 or less. Looks like a good one. The original titles in the STALKER franchise were great as well. Like a pre-runner to the more modern Metro games.

Funny story... The center fan on my 3090 Ti FTW3 came apart. The plastic retainer molded into the fan blade on the inside that snaps the fan blade onto the spindle shaft broke and the blade fell off. I put it back with SuperGlue yesterday. It is still holding and the fan is very quiet now. It had an odd click sound that was faint and I think it was the breaking plastic allowing the blade to not fit perfectly on the spindle and go slightly out of balance. I found a new center fan assembly for it this morning and ordered it from China. If it continues to work and the blade doesn't come off while I am waiting for the shipment from China I will be pretty amazed. I don't expect it to be a permanent fix.

I am super excited about how much fun you're going to get from these awesome parts.

Yeah, that's fantastic when it happens like that. Look at the post above (edited after your reply). That's really good for a default memory profile. I've never seen great results with applying an XMP profile with no manual tuning. My G.SKILL 8000 XMP modules that I was using before this arrived today were really slow and laggy until manually tuned. It will be interesting to see what tightening up the timings does. I guess this is an example of using the right tool for the job. Using XMP modules in an AMD system is probably like using a flat-blade screwdriver to remove Philips screws, LOL. My parts from der8auer are scheduled for delivery tomorrow... AM5 delid tool and Mycro Pro direct die block.

Well, more than their forum, I think everything about HWBOT and the sport of overclocking is being slowly killed by the hardware manufacturers that don't care or understand. And, the magnitude of apathy and ignorance on the consumer side of things will be what is ultimately responsible for things turning to dung in our hands. I think the new high clock DDR5 Neo (EXPO) from G.SKILL is new to market for the Zen 5 CPUs and the kit I pre-ordered at NewEgg shipped directly from the manufacturer. It was manufactured last week, LOL. Edit: Well... this 8000 EXPO kit works waaay better for tthe Zen 5 CPU than using manually tuned XMP modules. This is zero manual tuning. Just set the XMP profile and go, and the speeds and latency are very good for no manual tuning.

I don't think that's political at all. I think it's sinister and a very essential part of a massive and meticulously crafted conspiracy. That might have some political undertones to it, but I don't think it matters whether someone is left or right, red or blue, evil is just evil no matter what side of the fence you're standing on. Normal human beings with only a little bit more intelligence than a chimpanzee can see it for what it is. Sadly, there are many (too many) with less common sense and less capacity for logic or reason than a chimp. The more people get sick and stay sick, the easier it is to grease the palms of big pharma, which helps prop up a bloated government structure that adds little or no value.

You can get really good CPU samples in the overclock.net forum marketplace and sometimes at HWBOT forum marketplace. They come up for sale often and people usually respond to "Want to Buy" posts. In fact, that is how @tps3443 got his HEDT motherboard and CPU.

Never a shortage on stupid.

That's pretty sweet. You have that TEC included. Just the CPU of that bin quality is worth what you paid for everything. Hard to believe the same Intel that made that made Core Ultra wuss-boy CPUs. Oh wait... it's not the same Intel. They've lost their way and got distracted by stupid stuff... like focusing on being more "efficient" ...yeah, efficient... that's the ticket. Maybe they'll have a come to Jesus aha moment and get back on track on the next go-round. None of the people that buy their overclocking enthusiast stuff care about efficient. Come to think of it, neither do most of the gamerboyz.

I think we are always going to have one Intel or AMD CPU that shines in one area and stumbles in another depending on what the scenario is. The Core Ultra crap works really good for some things, but for most games that's not one of those things it excels at. Sadly, P-core overclocking is another thing Core Ultra sucks at, and it is the exact opposite of its predecessor. The X3D chips will be better at some things, but worse at others, etc. What the dual-CCD Ryzen chips need is for both CCDs to be equal bin quality (not one good CCD and one weaker trash bin CCD) and X3D CPUs need both CCDs usable for all things at all times. To be great, dual CCD Ryzen CPUs and the new Core Ultra CPUs need to function the same way a monolithic CPU functions. The hybrid nature of all of the new processors, including 12th, 13th and 14th Gen Intel and dual CCD Ryzen processors is their Achilles Heel. Both brands have too many areas where things have been compromised for one reason or another. Having one weak CCD is not remarkably different in practical application than having E-cores next to P-cores. The outcome is compromised in either scenario. Overall, I'm still favoring my LGA-1700 i9 processors for all-around use and general overclocking. But regardless of any of that, what I can say is that I am very pleased with the 9950X in general terms so far. It is a very solid, performant and dependable CPU that has none of unwelcomed misery-factor nonsense that only a fanboy could tolerate such as the case was with the 5950X abortion that ruined my day almost every day for months. Even if I don't end up liking the 9950X as much as 13900KS or 14900KF/KS I haven't encountered anything that would make me say bad things about it or recommend someone avoid buying it that is considering it. To be fair, I won't be able to render any verdict on which one I like best before the 9950X is delidded and bare die. To be transparent, I don't love any of my Intel CPUs that much until they have been subjected to the same kind of thermal remediation. Comparing a delidded and bare die 14900KF/KS to an unmodified 9950X is not a fair comparison and like comparing apples to oranges.

I just got a FedEx tracking number today from Thermal Grizzly, so I will likely do the delid within a week or so. It will be interesting to see what kind of difference it makes. Right now I have pushed it as far as I can on the 9950X overclock due to thermal issues. I left the window open all night with everything turned off in the office. It was 48°F in my office when I fired it up for that Cinebench run, so it could run a little bit higher turbo clock. What I don't know (yet) is whether 5.4GHz all-core is only thermally limited or if the CPU silicon quality is tapped out. The voltage under load isn't bad (like 1.225V) at 54x32 (equal on both CCDs) but the temps sure are. The 13900KS/14900KS/KF would be like 1.150V and 65-70°C at 54xP/45xE instead of 100°C. Ryzen is a very different critter. I am not sure why it runs as hot as it does at a comparatively low clock speed and voltage. Maybe it is because the CCDs and IHS are so small in comparison. I was surprised by how small the 9950X is comared to a 14900K. The thermal density is very compact, so the higher temperatures are possibly logical. Even idle temperatures seem higher. What is interesting, and very different, if the 9950X crashes in Cinebench R23 due to heat or voltage too low and I run it again it completes with like 50% of the normal score, but the clocks and voltage show the same. It doesn't throttle the clocks, but it is like there is an internal safety mechanism kicking in to throttle the performance to 50% of normal. Rebooting corrects it, but closing and reopening Cinebench does not. Not saying that is bad or good, just an interesting observation. Now @Reciever is the proud owner of that CPU.

I think they are the brand to watch now. I'd love to see them displace A$$zeus in the mobo, GPU and PSU space. They've come a very long way in the past 2 or 3 years. Winduhz 11 just cannot overtake Windoze 10. It's getting close, but it's not quite there. Nor shall it ever be.