Mr. Fox

Now, more than ever before, it is important to not allow any firmware updates. There's no security risk or vulnerability severe enough to justify ruining the performance of your hardware and there's no bottom to how low they will go on gimping crap under false pretenses. I think treating OS updates the same way is equally wise, but you can always restore a Macrium image or nuke and reinstall the OS if you don't like the outcome. You know there's going to be lots of dumb dumbs that freak out about vulnerabilities and plenty of people that believe the fairy tale that newer is always better. Unless the update makes it run faster or fixes something that they screwed up real bad on the previous firmware there's no point in being a guinea pig. Let the stupid people do that for you. Watch and wait and make an informed decision to reject or accept the update. Best approach is to have open eyes and a closed mind when it comes to updates. Skepticism and doubt is strongly advised. ASUS is making autonomy and end-user control very difficult with firmware, so the only safe solution with their products is to simply refuse to update the firmware if your system is functioning correctly and you want it to continue to function correctly. While it is a fairly common malpractice on turdbooks, to the best of my knowledge, ASUS is the only company blocking firmware downgrades on their enthusiast motherboards. So, I determined that having my PC components inside of a box didn't accomplish what I expected it to in terms of dust control. That being the case, I have gone back to the glorious convenience of using an open bench. I am glad I did not sell it already. Sometimes convenience trumps everything else. For me it usually does.

If they are from ASUS they do. If it's not the hardware, then it is the software. Any way you slice it, they are a sucky company that sells products that suck in at least one (generally more than one) way. LOL, some of you will probably remember me saying this when I had a 10900K just die for no reason. Well, the title of Roman's latest video is almost a direct quote from comments I made, and for exactly the same reason I made them. Being deliberately dishonest is the only path to a satisfactory outcome dealing with CPU and motherboard manufacturers.

6800 benchable, 6400 stable. Basically, the Apex only netted me 400 MT/s which was a miniscule improvement and a waste of time and money. The difference between 6400 and 6800 isn't anything great enough to be excited about. Considering it is a four slot motherboard that's actually more impressive than the Apex. I wasn't able to run M-Die stable above 6800 in any system. It's just weird that both of the ASUS motherboards max out to roughly the same clock speed whether using M- or A-die. It is as if they are unable to benefit from A-die because the limits are the same. M-die can run tighter timings than A-die, but M-die needs more voltage. A - all S - solutions U - unequivocally S - suck

I have not experienced any audio issues for a couple of years at least. I don't know anything about PipeWire. Never heard of it before. The last time I had audio issues was on X299. Everything worked fine but the onboard Realtek audio only functioned in 2-channel stereo. The additional channels we're not even detected on my 5.1 audio setup. It was obviously a driver issue, and it never got fixed. I moved on and now X299 is a thing of the past. One of the many things that makes Linux better than Windows, at least historically, is the minimal change and an "if it ain't broke don't fix it" approach to things. It kind of pisses me off that they've made a change for the sake of change, switching from Pulse to PipeWire. There's no reason to change so they shouldn't unless there is one. Change should only occur as a matter of necessity, not stupidity, boredom or curiosity.

DDR5 thermals are also a problem on desktops. At high clock speeds, requiring high voltage to function, so was DDR4, but DDR5 took that to a higher level. When temps breach 45-50°C is where a stable memory overclock becomes unstable. Naked DDR4 and DDR5 are pretty easy to cool with a fan blowing on the chips, but the heating blankets they facetiously refer to as "heatsinks" hurt more than they help. I am water cooling my memory now. That works great. If I detach the water block and have no fan blowing on the memory and start a memory stress/stability test everything is as smooth as silk until it reaches that temperature range, then the errors begin to appear. A few a first, but more as the temperature increases. Hynix A-die generally uses less voltage and runs a few degrees cooler than M-die, but A-die can't handle some of the timings being as tight as M-die allows. What makes A-die good is the higher clock speed makes up for the looser timings and higher latency.

So, I just bought a decent SP-rating 13900KS from a person on OC.net. Thanks @tps3443for calling my attention to it. I will be selling the Strix Z690-E and 13900KF and 32GB of Hynix M-die DDR5. If anyone is interested and wants first crack at the parts, drop me a PM. I will put them in the Marketplace unless someone snags it via PM.

A greedy joke. Those greedy jokers! 😆

Hope you get back to normal soon, bro. A desktop in a Pelican case.

There are some days that I feel like I should host a talk radio program for PC enthusiasts. https://www.overclock.net/threads/official-asus-strix-maximus-z690-owners-thread.1794802/post-29189297

Now that is the kind of thing we need more of, that the PC enthusiast space is sorely lacking.

https://www.overclock.net/threads/official-asus-strix-maximus-z690-owners-thread.1794802/post-29188897 It's never ideal when your find yourself dealing with a NewEgg or Amazon marketplace seller, but with certain brands that is the only option because there is no in-house "sold and shipped by" option to purchase the product. If that is what they require, ask for a special exception. Have them send you a new kit, take the good piece from the new kit, put the bad piece in the box and return it with everything new and untouched except for the bad RGB controller. If they don't get it back from you with 20 days, then they charge you full-bore for the second kit. They actually agreed to that when I purchased a CPU+mobo combo from them last year and the CPU was a trashy silicon sample. Because it was sold as a bundle they could not exchange the CPU for an acceptable silicon sample, but they let me do what I described above. It required approval from a manager. The CPU that came with the second bundle was acceptable (average or better).

It is very similar to Alienware. Once a great company that produced good products and focused on quality and customer experience. Now just selling lies and pawning their trash to anyone willing to buy it based on a reputation that was actually deserved once upon a time. It's a lot like having someone tell you about their big apple tree and bragging about the beautiful, sweet, juicy apples it produces. Then you get one of them that looks really fantastic on the outside, but when you bite into it you find that the inside is full of worms and skanky, rotting apple pulp. You start looking closer and discover it's not just that one that sucked, but the entire tree is full of wormy, rotting apples.

Moving is never fun until all of the work is over and you are able to enjoy the new home. Besides the packing and unpacking, there always seems to be a long list of honey-do items that need to be addressed before you can enjoy living in a new (hopefully better) place. Sounds like the custom loop was a wise upgrade in terms of thermal benefit, but that should come as no surprise. Did they take care of your RGB controller problem yet?

I am just happy you dodged a bullet and the parts that matter most are OK. There is one thing we can always trust about new tech... it's always newer.

I am not following what you are referring to, Brother @ryan. I'm loving the prospects for all of the rags coming unraveled on the mentally insane leftys. Besides chimo Brandon and his whoremongering loser druggy son getting their pants pulled down along with those who lied for them. Sleepy Joe's money-laundering family is probably starting to squirm. He's lucky to have dementia bad enough that he won't realize what is happening. It's also nice to see some possibility for accountability to be coming for the deception, lies and criminal activities that have taken place locally here in my home state.

Lots of riffs from some of my favorite metal bands... 11.5 minutes worth of sweet head-banging jams I think I like both of these remakes more than the originals... at least as much if not more.

No, when I experienced this randomly with both ASUS Z690 mobos there was no signs of life at all. Like the machine was unplugged from the wall. By unplugging it and then disconnecting the 24-pin cable, then connecting the 24-pin cable and reconnecting the power cable it did something to make it "wake up" kind of like that stupid Dell laptop power drain thing we sometimes had to do. What is weird about it is that on the Strix and the Apex it was always after something like RAM, CPU or GPU had been disturbed (unsocketed) that triggered it, even though the switch on the PSU had been turned off. Awesome. I am happy to know you have identified the issue. How odd that it only started misbehaving after you added the second PSU. Just coincidence? You were using it before you added the second PSU, and now it has a new problem with the iCUE Com PRO box? Or, you had not ever tried using it before and did not know the iCUE Com Pro had a problem?

Yeah, their brand is a joke. It's weird that I have had few issues with their cheaper products. Only their most expensive products have been a problem. But, all of their motherboard support software is broken now. Their win32 Aura and TurboV Core software won't work on newer versions of Windows and Armory Crate is UWP trash that is extremely bloated filth that consumes gobs of system resources, adds 1200+ keys worth of trash to the registry, and won't even function more than half the time. I think it's time for them to die and spend the rest of eternity in hell, where they deserve to be since that's what they put their customers through on earth.

I have only disconnected the 24-pin cable at the motherboard, not where it connects to the PSU. It is like it gets a random bad connection when the motherboard gets disturbed. Whether it is the pins in the cable or the socket on the motherboard is unclear, but it is worth noting that it did it with the EVGA 850W PSU and the Corsair 1200W PSU, so I do not believe it is the cable. Probably something to do with the "cutting edge" robot soldering process ASUS likes to brag about. I have always unplugged the power from the wall first and reconnected it last.

I was having this issue on my Apex the other day and the Strix mobo has also done it a few times in the past. It is always after doing some kind of work on the system. It did it to me the other day after removing and reinstalling RAM modules. Try disconnecting the power coming to the PSU from the wall and the 24-pin motherboard cable and reconnect it (at the motherboard, not the PSU) first, then reconnect the cord from the wall. I don't know why this happens randomly. I have never experienced it with an EVGA or MSI motherboard, only ASUS. Coincidental comment? I think not. Started this video at the key moment for Jay's comment, too. They are part of the trash masters of the universe club. Is it worth it to buy their garbage for an SP rating? How 'bout no. And, clipped from a previous recent video... Saved the closing comments from Steve for future reference, too.

It's real sad that we can't trust agencies that were created to protect us and uphold justice. They do the exact opposite now. But, it looks like Twitter is shaping up to be the answer to big media brainwashing and fake journalist gaslighting tactics... Now that Tucker no longer has to kiss Rupert Murdock's hind end and can freely disclose all of the information with accurate details and no hidden agenda, things are going to get interesting. It will be interesting to see how open-minded people of ordinary intelligence will react to enlightenment when they are so accustomed to big media gaslighting and a constant flow of half-truths, bull crap and rectal smoke recipiency from the left (mostly left) and right sides of the aisle.

To be more precise...

Silverstone products are generally decent. It may not be adequate for a GPU of that caliber. Unless you downgrade the GPU you will probably need three of these. The info in the description seems to conflict with the chart. It has either one or two.

Probably would be harder to get rid of than unwanted exercise equipment. Disposing of two sumo wrestlers worth of e-waste (750+ pounds, LOL) might get very expensive. These are the things scummy people drop off at Salvation Army or Goodwill after hours so they can't say no to the donation. 😆

100% spot on! We (the world) are in a pandemic of corruption and reaping a harvest of the things that have been sown. There are many (millions, if not billions) that are twisted, reprobate and unable to discern between right and wrong. Under incompetent, feckless and unvenerable federal "leadership" it looks like the US Government is deliberately attempting to assume a lead role in the de-evolution of society, starting with mass destruction at home. The nonsense we see taking place with severe overpricing of PC components coupled with products of low quality and riddled with engineering defects is merely one of many symptoms of a much larger problem. The accelerating cacophony of lies, distortions, foolishness and idiocy that is spewed and skewed in nearly every "news" broadcast by almost every media outlet is a harbinger of darkness and destruction if things continue on their current path. Those elected to promote a better America are doing the exact opposite. Here's something extra special stupid and extraordinarily frivolous for the "haves" to waste their money on, while the rest of us peasants worry about mundane first-world issues such as the rising cost of housing, utilities, groceries, fuel, shrinking retirement investments, rising interest rates, increasing taxes, open borders and unsafe neighborhoods. https://www.pcmag.com/news/inside-cooler-masters-15k-orb-x-pod-for-gamers-and-open-office-haters