Mr. Fox

I would expect nothing less. The target audience puts up with it. As always, we will have whatever the lowest common denominators are willing to tolerate. Laptops suck. That is never going to change. It is what it is. You shouldn't buy a laptop unless you absolutely have to have one. Even then it is a waste of money, just a necessary evil.

Yes, it would be great. The problem is I do not think anyone makes a bare die frame yet. I don't want to leave the CPU loose in the socket because the risk of bending pins is too great. And, I don't want to strap it down with Kapton tape. Even though that will work, I don't like the ghetto duct tape, bailing wire and chewing gum can fix anything approach. Based on how well the 10th Gen Supercool Computer bare die block worked I was excited about using it for 12th Gen, but the 12th Gen version of it sucked. Probably tried to repeat the design for 10th Gen on 12th Gen and it didn't cool the CPU worth a darn. OK, a bit of an update. I am learning to how overclock DDR5 on an ASUS mobo and that's not as user-friendly as MSI and EVGA. Work in process on that. I stayed up all night (haven't been to sleep since Thursday night (LOL) modifying everything. Almost there. I love how much room there is in the 5000D now. It should be large enough to have this much space loaded with dual 360 or dual 480 radiators in push/pull with two pumps and reservoirs. Small cases suck real bad. I know some people view the 5000D as "big" and they are entitled to have an opinion, but it is a mid-tower and they are never big enough. Nice case, but small enough to make it suck. I need to replace the tubing on the return line with something more rigid. The Corsair soft tubing is super soft, which is nice to work with. But, it is too soft and collapses on the return line with both D5 pumps running. I guess the flow is high enough that the tubing is too soft to hold its shape. Also, the way I was planning to power the external radiator pumps and fans didn't work. It couldn't handle the power draw needs. So, I am going to have to use a separate PSU like I did on the MO-RA setup. I ordered a cheap one on Amazon for that and should have it tomorrow. For now, I ran a spare SATA and molex cable from the internal PSU outside of the case for the pumps and fans and have the side panel off to accommodate that until I have the cheap PSU from Amazon. Here are some photos. Once I have everything the way I want it I will post more. The radiator will be behind the case instead of in front of it like it is at the moment. The 1080 Nova is a nice setup for the price. It lacks the quality of the MO-RA, but based on price I cannot complain. The housing is both good and bad. I am glad I bought it, but it's kind of rough around the edges (literally). The scratches showing on the desktop were cause by those sharp edges. You get what you pay for in terms of finish quality.

For the first time ever, for me, none that I can identify. I have always seen measurable benefits (10-20°C cooled in severe overclocks conditions) from it until now. I would love to think that it is because Intel finally mastered the soldering process and totally nailed it, but I'm not certain that there is a reason to believe that. It's very weird that it didn't change anything except avoiding my warranty and an IHS that got damaged (repairable) in the process. I would have been happy even if it were only 5°C cooler. The lack of change is weird and unexplainable. It was very beneficial on 12th Gen.

It looks good and I have no doubt it is going to be great. I won't know with 100% certainty until it is hooked up, but there is no reason to expect anything short of excellent. Getting ready to swap out the mobo now and pull the pumps and rads out of the 5000D.

Getting a little bit closer. Banshee isn't going to have to swim in his on own radiator farts too much longer.

FWIW I have always had better temps with the stock IHS than I have with the Rockitcool copper IHS. I have used them to avoid destroying the markings on the stock IHS, but the temps are usually a degree or two higher. I always looked at it like I already shaved 10-20°C off the load temps by delidding, so I can afford to take a step backwards 1 or 2°C for the purpose of keeping the stock IHS like new.

We'll talk about the people that told you that it fits right... How smart are they? Yeah you lost a little bit of money but I think it probably sucks more to be them. Did the delid tool bugger up your stock IHS like it did all of mine? It almost seems like Intel improved their soldering process because delidding helped my 12th Gen processors as much as it did all the prior generations.. Just put the stock IHS back on and be done with it.

Tiny, but measurable. https://www.3dmark.com/compare/spy/32438399/spy/32438674

The people that like SFF computers might appreciate this.

What makes it especially sad pathetic is that the CPU is only clocked at 4.7GHz.

My Strix Z690-E is supposed to be delivered today and I will use my spare 32GB of generic green M-die on that system with the 12900KS. I am debating whether to keep the 2080 Ti FTW3 or sell it. I don't need a third GPU. I shipped it for repair with the hybrid kit installed. Last night I decided to clean up the Vector block while waiting for the GPU to come back and when I got ready to take it apart I noticed a lot of hairline cracks in the plexi around the screws. It wasn't leaking and I doubt it would leak, but it looks like crap. I can't really sell it that way, and it doesn't make sense to buy another block for it. I'm thinking the smart thing would be to sell it and just keep the 3060 Ti. I've already done all the benching I would ever do with the 2080 Ti at this point, and the only reason to keep it would be sentimental, which is kind of silly. Maybe somebody would want to buy it as a complete package with the 12900K, RAM and D4 mobo.

mmmm... ok. If you say so. 😉 I suspect the people that designed it think so, too. If not, then they're pretty sadistic. Any consideration for aesthetic preferences aside, their products are exceedingly horrible in terms of build quality and proprietary limitations at a component level. Limited options, built to fail, and availability at their discretion. In every way a fake enthusiast product designed for fake enthusiasts. I think it looks absolutely hideous, but that much is subjective. The Alienware R13 is easily the worst pre-built gaming PC we've ever reviewed. Dell manages to downclock an i9 to equal an i7 performance instead, yet charges $5000 for the PC. - GamersNexus

Should be fine. As you may recall from his videos, he always tests every repair by maxing stress with Furmark, then runs Heaven, Valley and Superposition before he calls it good. But, I will post if there is any issue. Well, this is cool. Getting things in order for selling the Strix Z690-A D4 and 12900K and RAM kit, and I found a couple of settings to get the ram stable at DDR4-4400 16-18-18-36 1T. I had to give the IMC and the DIMMs about 0.025mV more juice. I could only get it to boot at 4000 with the 12900K before. Runs great now. @electrosoft

I did not look outside of Amazon for that liquid metal. Thanks for the link.

It will either take photos or video when I investigate it further so you can take yours apart and do it right. With it not fitting right, you might be bending the CPU the same as the stock ILM, or worse. Hopefully, it will work correctly with a tiny bit of sanding on the wing tips. I may have to do some measuring with my digital calipers because the Rockitcool IHS and stock IHS look exactly the same eyeballing them.

That is a different liquid metal though. Specs are different. On the Rockitcool IHS, one more thing... What I need to investigate further is whether the side wings are thicker z-height than stock. If they are, then it is not going to work under any circumstances with the CPU frame. At least I am not willing to risk damage finding out.

I just saw if for the first time about an hour ago. I tried to find just the liquid metal and could not find it by itself.

LOL... I was LITERALLY logging in here to warn you. The Rockitcool IHS does NOT fit the contact frame. The wings on the side are different dimensionally than the stock IHS. I took the bare die frame and bare Rockitcool IHS and put them together and it rocks back and forth on opposite corners. Looking at the underside, it appears that if you sanded down the tips of the wings about 0.25-0.05mm each it would fit the same as stock and be fine. I will probably check that out tomorrow after work or this weekend. I ordered another Thermalright frame on Amazon that should be here tomorrow as well. The good news is the top of the IHS does fit inside of the opening the same as stock. I initially thought something was wrong with the IHS. I checked it on glass to confirm it was perfectly flat on the CPU PCB side, then after that is when I dug deeper and saw the wings were overlapping the edges where the frame is cut out for them to rest. If my theory is correct it will be super easy to correct with a bit of light sanding and a few minutes of elbow grease. Just to be certain, I plan to relid the CPU and test the fit a final time after sanding the wings down, because it could damage the CPU or the socket if you cinched it down without things fitting correctly. If it doesn't fit right I will use the stock ILM or go back to the stock IHS. Edit: What I need to investigate further is whether the side wings are thicker z-height than stock. If they are, then it is not going to work under any circumstances with the CPU frame. At least I am not willing to risk damage finding out.

Well, the 2080 Ti is repaired and will be on its way back to me tomorrow. The gentleman from Northwest Repair (Tony) is a standup dude. The one Samsung chip that MATS testing identified as bad was the only thing wrong with it. He had a new one in stock to replace it. Price was very reasonable, and I gave him a little extra because it is worth it to me to reward him for his talent. He recorded the repair. I hope he uploads a video of it.

Doesn't hardinfo (system profiler and benchmark) provide the info?

The same people have surprised looks on their faces when the turdbook they bought, that is as cute as a bug on a rug, overheats, thermal throttles, has lackluster performance, is difficult to service, dies prematurely and costs a fortune to repair because they have to buy a mobo, CPU and GPU even though only one of them is dead.

You can get a refund on a shipping label purchased that is not used.

Yes, you are exactly right. Goofball wusses and panty-waisted crybabies whining and moaning about things being "too thick" and "too heavy" ruined everything for everyone in the normal and enthusiast camps. And, they've gotten progressively worse, not better. I am so glad that I do not need to rely on a laptop any more. I would be extremely dissatisfied and unhappy with what is available, even if I hadn't already washed my hands and moved back to desktops.

"the political machinery in Arizona is determined to make the state business friendly." This is one of the big reasons I find it puzzling that Micro Center (or any other business) would avoid Arizona. Everything about the state is geared toward making things easy for business to thrive. Texas is very similar. Thriving business is good for companies, employees and consumers. Property values keep going up, taxes stay lower than normal, so the return on the investment is also better and comes easier than most (not all, but close,) of the states where they operate. In most cases, the exact opposite of all the above is true. I could speculate why the owners of the company deliberately choose to operate in places that are hostile toward business vibrance, free enterprise and capitalism, but we won't go there.