Mr. Fox

Here is another amazing value on M-die modules. I really prefer buying non-RGB without heating blankets. They run much cooler totally naked due to the utterly worthless crap the OEMs use to smother them, and it makes adding actually functional aftermarket heatsinks or water cooling jackets so much less complicated. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09P3SF82F I want some A-die, but I think it is severly overpriced and overrated like everything else is, especially when it is new. I am not willing to pay double, or triple, for it though. It provides too little benefit for the added premium. I suspect the price will come down to reason, just as it did with M-die, once the new wears off.

Well, 36 years ago today I tied the knot with Mrs. Fox. Doesn't seem possible it was that long ago. A lot has changed. A lot has not changed. I have made a lot of stupid mistakes in those 36 years. Marrying her was the smartest thing I think I have ever done. I'd be lost without her.

It could be z690 won't take you as far as z790, but it can also be the CPU. You can have a great silicon sample that doesn't have a great memory controller, or vice versa. The difference between M-die and A-die is silicon revision, and there is variance among samples in both revisions. Anything stable above 7000 is something special. It is easy to misidentify exceptions and anomalies as normal when you want luck to grant you the privilege to own a silicon sample that is exceptional. But, look at where we were a few months ago. Even normal and below average is a big upgrade.

Tell him to send $2500 direct deposit to your checking account using Zelle and you will ship it next business day air for free.

I like to boil things down to the simplest terms and not muddy the waters with philosophical drama. Bottom line is, he is asking you to do him a favor that he is willing to pay for. You did not seek him out offering to sell a golden chip. He's either serious about it or not. If he is not willing to pay an idiotic price for it, then he is not serious. And, unless you can fetch an idiotic price for it, why sell it? There is no incentive for you to want to sell it unless there is something major to be gained from the sale. You certainly don't owe him (a total stranger) any favors. And, just because he is famous within his elite overclocking clique doesn't mean you need to give his request any special thought. If the tables were turned he wouldn't likely be offering any favors to a total stranger, especially a stranger that lives on the opposite side of the planet and is not part of his special interest PC overclocking group of influence.

I don't know. Haven't checked yet. Thanks.

I will obey, but it's not politics IMHO. It is repudiation of evil foreign governments that do not allow politics. Nothing political about that. It's actually anti-political in their world of rule by dictatorship.

Yes, that China. The COVID-developing one that Uyghurs and the people of Ukraine love so much. The one in partnership with Russia that wants to eliminate freedom, democracy, free-will, free-speech, capitalism and religious expression in the rest of the world. Isn't it interesting how things work in countries where the government is a fiat that is not a true reflection of the people it seeks to serve rule?

It only applies to submissions that use Benchmate, and it still supports Windows 7. I don't understand what they mean by update the benching OSes, other than only use the latest version of Benchmate. Updating a benching OS is a great way to lose since updated OSes generally perform poorly compared to those that are not updated. Using benchmate is not required for all benchmarks. There are plenty that do not (and cannot) use it. I really don't like it. It is convenient in some ways, but it's just an extra piece of bloatware gumming up the works.

Since you are into low power consumption and gaming more than competitive benching it would be silly not to take it. You can live with whatever you get as a replacement if that is how you use your systems. K or KF... whatever... as long as it is not a defective sample that sucks. Of course you can respond with "I am not sure if that is enough. Let me sleep on it and get back to you, because I am amazed at how good it is." He may bid against himself, or he may patiently wait.

GPU standing at attention now, LOL...

@electrosoftnow I am running the G.SKILL DDR4 in the Strix at 4600 CL17-18-18-32 1T using the 12900KS. I had to add a powerful fan to keep it cool enough to pass TM5 testing. It starts to error out around 45°C (as expected).

You could try to guess, but it would be pure luck if you guess right. It could be the memory, the motherboard, or the CPU. Only way to know for sure is start replacing parts and see which one it is. Two previous 12900K could not run the DDR4 I had used for a couple of years across multiple ASUS and EVGA mobos before at 4500. I assumed it was the Strix mobo. Well, I was surprised that the 13900K and 12900KS are both able to run it totally stable at 4400 (because 4500 is apparently not valid on Z690-???). So, now I am running 4400 CL16-18-18-36-1T. The two 12900K CPUs I ran with it before had good SP ratings and overclocked DDR5 just fine, but they both totally sucked with DDR4 and couldn't handle more than 4000 stable. No idea why.

I don't know I've never tried that. I don't think my m-die is capable of it. I posted this once before. Luumi might have some useful info in his video.

yes

The same memory that I always ran at 4000+ or other modules? The XMP profile doesn't work as a starting point?

My independent experience is reliable enough for me. 100% of my expensive enthusiast ASUS motherboards have experienced catastrophic failures under warranty, including a fire and one that killed the best binned 10900KF I have ever seen when it failed. In every case it took those losers more than a month to replace it. The CPU "wasn't their problem" so that was an even more expensive motherboard when that loss is counted. Coincidentally, I have replaced every ASUS motherboard that failed with an EVGA motherboard that never failed. The closest thing I could identify as an EVGA motherboard failure is the Q-code LED burning out on the Z590 Dark, which was a common issue. EVGA replaced it under warranty swiftly, with no hassles, questions or insinuations that I did something that caused it (like ASUS). I dialed their phone number, spoke to a person (a Californian with English as his native language) and explained the situation, and had an RMA number and pre-paid shipping label the same day. I sold it because it was worthless for Windows 7 (ACPI incompatibilities). Good luck getting anything that remotely resembles acceptable customer service from another brand. I will say that my inexpensive ASUS gamerboy motherboards (Prime and Strix) have been reliable. Only their enthusiast-grade products have been unreliable, which seems totally counter-intuitive. Other than functional limitations for severe overclocking, which they are not intended for, I have had a great experience with those less expensive mid-range products. My Z690 Dark was $399. I didn't buy it when it was new to market. Early adopters always pay more than things are worth. That applies to products at each price point. EVGA has great sales. My 3060 Ti FTW3 was $200 less from them than I could buy it anywhere else. I do hope the rumors that they are going out of business are false because they are the only brand I have confidence in. I was sad they stopped building GPUs for selfish reasons. I have purchased their GPUs almost exclusively, and now I will have to settle for something inferior with another brand. I do not believe anything Jensen has to say on the subject is accurate because he lies about everything. I am glad they stopped building GPUs for the reasons EVGA stated they have, and I would believe them before I believed anything Jensen would say. He is going to say whatever he thinks make him and NVIDIA look better, and that's his job. He probably wouldn't keep his job if he were completely honest.

Easy enough to understand. One retard begats another. When the vast majority of the people buying your products are as stupid as a box of rocks, you can get away with a lot of unacceptable behavior and you don't have to be the sharpest tool in the shed to know that they're not about to go an extra mile for anyone. The modern approach is to do just barely enough to be acceptable, then back the dial up one notch short of success. But, call it a success because the sheeple will believe you.

No, not really compared to other equivalent product. EVGA is actually not only better, but more affordable than the top end MSI and ASUS motherboards, that are grossly overpriced and very unreliable. You can't compare apples to oranges. I'm just not OK with paying $700+ for a motherboard that takes 4 to 6 weeks (or longer) to get replaced under warranty when it fails. Companies that handle things that way suck more than words can say. The only EVGA product that I never liked was the Z590 Dark. It was also the only EVGA product I ever owned that had issues. On the basis that your most recent experience was with Z590 I would have to agree. Z590 was kind of an abortion for Intel in general.

I loved the MSI Unify-X. But, I sold it to you and kept the EVGA board. I guess that tells you which one I think is better of the two. The trouble with ASUS and MSI (most of the others, too) is their products are only good when they work. When they stop working, you regret having given them your money. They'll treat you like a pile of dung. No worries with EVGA. A great product backed by a not-great company gives me pause. Unify-X is a great product. I do not think of MSI as being a great company.

I have owned one A$$Rock mobo and one Gigabutt mobo, and that was enough to cure me of wanting anything to do with either of the brands. Maybe that is too harsh and throwing the baby out with the bath water, but I work hard for my money and purchasing high-end products always represents a personal sacrifice. I don't appreciate it when I discover that I spent my money on a piece of trash, and I am generally reluctant to forgive it and allow for second chances. Sometimes I do, but it is because there is something compelling about the item that makes giving a second chance something that might benefit me, not because I am an overall nice guy and want to give them another chance to earn my trust. I am a super nice guy that extends forgiveness too easily when it comes to relationship with individuals, but I harbor resentment a long time when the other party is a business. Probably because I know they don't actually give a damn about me. That being the case, they don't deserve the second chance. They're not worthy of me or my money.

I agree with that part. It's not the brand, it is the silicon that makes them special. And, the fact that A-die is overpriced and uncommon also makes them special. At some point in the near future it may become very ordinary like Samsung B-die was. B-die was and still is special to the extent it was better than all other DDR4 options, but not special in terms of being rare or unique among enthusiasts. I will grab some A-die Hynix later on, after the cost:benefit ratio makes more sense. I definitely want it, but right now I would view it as being a frivolous purchase compared to M-die I already have that overclocks almost as well, but not quite. If I didn't already own M-die then it would make sense to pay extra for A-die.

I have the same issues with DDR4, but they are less obvious running at roughly half the clock speed. It takes more stress to overheat the DDR4, but it still happens. A lot of people don't believe me when I tell them their memory is overheating at 45-50°C and that is why their system is unstable, not because the memory is defective. At such a low temperature it seems hard to believe, but it is totally accurate. TeamGroup Delta memory was really good, but because I decided to go with aftermarket heat sinks and water cooling having anything with RGB makes no sense. The RGB LEDs also do not help matters. They generate heat of their own that contributes to the thermal management problem, and if I am going to cover up the LEDs with thick aluminum plates there is no point in having it. Given that I don't need or use XMP profiles, going with generic naked green PCB was the most intelligent move, and it costs less. If you decide to remove the heatsinks on the memory you have, let me know and I will explain the super-easy way how to get them off without causing any damage. If you try to peel them off chances are very good you will destroy the memory. I know two people who tore memory chips off their PCB because the adhesives they use to attach them are stronger than the components they are attached to.

If you find you do not need a fan it will be an exception to the norm. There is nothing special about the modules or their beauty covers. As I said, I have had three Delta kits and they all suffer from the same thing that their competitors do: a crappy heating blanket they call a heat sink. They run hotter with the "heatsink" than they do with nothing. The extra space between the sticks didn't change the temperatures for me. Temperatures were exactly the same in either mobo. With a fan blowing on them they run cool (32-35°C running memory stress tests). If I turned the fan off they couldn't finish a TM5 test without errors. @johnksssand I were talking one day and he wasn't sure the fan was making a difference for his G.SKILL modules. He turned the fan off while we wre talking and his memory overheated and Windows crashed.

Yeah that's typical with the fan blowing on them. That does wonders. It helps that you're on an open bench as well because the fans are pushing cooler air over them. If I take the side panels off of my case they run even cooler than they do with it closed up in a hot air accumulator. Take the fan away and cover them with the towel so that there's no cool air around them and watch what happens LOL. I've had three of those kits and they are exactly the same as the other brands. The heatsinks that the manufacturers put on them are absolute joke. They are actually nothing more than beautification covers that trap heat. "Pigs in the blanket" is what I call it. Removing the beauty covers helps as well.