Mr. Fox

That really needs to happen. I hope it continues and accelerates faster than expected. Nadella has been a terrible business leader and he should have been let go a long time ago. There are not many reasons for consumers and fewer than there used to be for business users to avoid Linux and continue using Winduhz at this point. Ignorance isn't a good excuse. That can be fixed easier than fixing Windoze.

Wow, that is a really good deal.

I got a notification that mine has shipped. Oh, by the way. ASUS has released a USB firmware update since the one we discussed recently. Same two device updates, (ASUS_4242_and_PD-GX_Firmware_Windows_Update_Tool) but a newer version.

That used to bother me, but now I don't care anymore. I honestly do not believe that anyone (even me) is capable of building a laptop that I would be satisfied with no matter how much effort or cost went into creating it. It would always be compromised in multiple ways, so my focus has shifted to minimizing cost as much as possible and purchasing no more than the bare minimum that is necessary to perform limited purpose tasks just enough to get me by until I can use something better. I plan to use the turdbook I own now until it fails and can't be inexpensively repaired, and if I ever have to replace it then it will be replaced with something similar. Big screen, big keyboard and as inexpensive as possible. Something used for only a small fraction of what it sold for new. (Same way I buy cars now.) I have found that I don't hate it as much when my expectations are low and it didn't cost me much. Same to you, brother.

That's where I landed almost 10 years ago, and they were nowhere nearly as sucky back then as they are today. I can no longer take laptops seriously. At best, I view them as a necessary evil and a tool to be used to perform a job when mobility is an inescapable requirement. I doubt I will ever view them as being an acceptable product for pleasure or entertainment purposes like I used to. The only reason I own one is for the rare circumstance that I need to use a computer outside of my home office. If I had to find something nice to say, I guess it would be "It's better than trying to use a tablet or smartphone." I suspect that the combination of worry and curiosity may help to create problems for some people. I think disturbing the connection just to "check on it" when there is not a good reason to disturb it is a bad idea that increases the chances of failure due to poor contact and high resistance. Kind of like the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" concept. If it is working right, just leave it alone.

My primary interest in the product is to monitor what is happening with my GPU. I have a thermal sensor inserted into the cable and the temperatures have always remained low enough to not be a concern. But, I am not convinced that the readings are 100% reliable or indicative of what is happening at the individual pin level. My hope is that if there is ever a failure it will occur between the PSU and the WireView and the GPU will be spared. So, I am thinking (hoping) there is a chance that the WireView II Pro will serve as the sacrificial component if disaster strikes, while giving me a better understanding of what is happening that cannot be seen or felt without it.

They would be crazy to provide any kind of warranty for using a system outside of OEM specs. Failure of the 12V-2x6/12VHPWR is likely even when the GPUs using that connectors are utilized at or below the OEM specifications. I would even question the intelligence of providing a warranty for those that are used within OEM specs. Thermal Grizzly is assuming an unreasonable risk that that NVIDIA created when it made this engineering abortion a standard and it would not surprise me to see Thermal Grizzly stop providing a warranty on new WireView II Pro sales at some point in the near future.

The problem is laptops are built with a obsessive degree of focus on embracing compromise. They are compromised in every possible measurement, sacrificing performance and giving the greatest levels of priority to: Form factor Weight Power consumption Battery run time Noise Aesthetics Performance is always a secondary consideration and less important. The only way to truly appreciate a turdbook is to value those other things more than one values performance. They are built to be disposable, limited use products... limited in lifespan, service, repairability, upgradability and performance.

Looks like a great product. I look forward to receiving mine. The WireView is definitely merely a band-aid solution to a genuinely defective product. Nothing will ever fix the underlying engineering defects and nothing can make it a good, reliable or safe connector. I am honestly shocked that none of the GPU manufacturers have chosen to disregard the rules and go back to using legacy 8-pin PCIe connectors.

On the topic of WireView Pro II...

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone.

The 12V-2x6 / 12VHPWR petite arson cable is just a ludicrous scam. NVIDIA (and Jensen) need to burn for introducing this stupid POS. I'd love to see NVIDIA financially obliterated by the largest-ever award of damages in a class action lawsuit. A just award would be that everyone that can provide proof of original purchase of a brand new GPU made with this connector gets a full refund of their original invoice amount, non-transferable unconditional lifetime warranty on the GPU connector and PSU and keeps the GPU. The tech space is just overrun with garbage now. Bad enough that almost everything new is trash, but it adds insult to injury when the trash is overpriced by double or triple what a person of average intelligence would be willing to pay for it. Speaking of trash, I found one less excuse for running Windoze. One of the things that has always been an impediment is needing to use Micro$lop Office for work. Linux doesn't have any 100% fully-compatible and truly acceptable substitute. Well, no longer an issue. I even got PowerBI to run on Linux now.

First batch. My last update was December 9 and their projection was January 21, 2026 delivery. I think the 5070 Ti is a better value (bang for buck) than a 5080. The 5080 is better but the price gap doesn't scale with performance well enough to make it worth paying more. The 4070 Ti is also a good GPU. I'd buy it if I were not unemployed. It would be perfect in a Phanteks MT X3 build.

Mine still shows "in process" and I ordered/paid on 10/30.

Seems a little bit inconsistent between runs for some reason. Not sure if the 3D-Vcache is helping the EPYC or what. The clocks and power limits are the same as the 9950X, but it scores higher.

Nice. Thanks, bro. They finally gave it a new program icon so you can tell at a glance which Cinebench version the shortcut is for.

We already knew Winduhz 11 is lousy, but it is nice to see so many people figuring it out for themselves. Starting from conclusions (feel free to watch the whole thing)... I do not agree with his rationale for accepting Winduhz 11 at the end. Better to have no support from Micro$lop than tolerate a sucky OS.

Just fill the space around the die with low melt solder to protect the SMDs from liquid metal. 🤣

No thanks Brother @Papusan. I have no space in my life and no desire at all to waste money on mobile computing garbage. I hate turdbook filth more than I ever have. Just the thought of it makes me feel sick.

Interesting... Setting tRDPRE and tRWPRE from "Auto" (4) to 3 in the BIOS seemed to have made a minor improvement in performance and equalized my tPHYRDL. It certainly is stupid that motherboard OEMs are not using common nomenclature for all BIOS menu verbiage as we are on the verge of entering 2026. In their infinite wisdom A$$zeus has decided to refer to these settings as "Read Preamble P0" and "Write Preamble P0" for some idiotic reason. Why not just tRDPRE and tRWPRE? Keep it simple and speak the same language... dumb-dumbs.

That looks totally awesome, brother. I love it. To protect the GPU SMDs around the core you can use clear nail polish, the red Thermal Grizzly conformal coating (or other conformal coating) and the Thermal Grizzly GPU Guard gasket. I use clear nail polish covered by the GPU Guard, so double-protection. My recommendation would be doing that. You not only protect the SMD components, but everything else beyond them. The gasket also minimizes exposure to air, so the liquid metal should be less likely to oxidize. https://www.titanrig.com/thermal-grizzly-tg-gpu-guard-nvidia-gpu-set.html

If the Unify is a 2-DIMMer like the Unify-X of the past you probably should, even though it is an MSI. It probably won't match an Apex, but I think it would still be better than a 4-DIMM option. One of the best things (other than the BIOS) about the Apex is the DIMM.2 feature. I really like the convenience of being able to access all of the M.2 slots that I am willing to use without having to remove the GPU. (I will not use the M.2 slots that castrate the GPU bandwidth to X8 under any circumstances.) It is unfortunate that most motherboards made for Intel and AMD are still sucky 4-DIMM garbage. It should be an exception and 4-DIMM boards should be limited to a few isolated creator-focused options where maxing out RAM capacity is more important than performance. It's comical that some people still view that as a future "upgrade" path, but understandable to the extent that the average gamerboy is somewhat fightened about entering the BIOS to apply an XMP/EXPO profile. On another note... my God, how did so many people get so stupid so suddenly... rampant idiocy is the new normal where technology is concerned.

It will be interesting to hear what his conclusions are after 30 days. I can't say that I like either one now. I can identify things that I dislike about both brands, but I try not to dwell on those things because it can get pretty depressing when you begin compiling a list of the things that suck.