Mr. Fox

A mascot should be a reflection of the "team" it was selected by. So, what does their cartoon toy dragon tell you? Yeah, me too. Not good. They should have chosen a fear-invoking Viking style of dragon instead of a sissy-boy cartoon dragon.

I am not sure that I will ever purchase a 5090. Maybe a used one, if ever at all. I haven't heard anything nice or good about 50-series. Too many design defects and engineering flaws for something priced as though it were perfect, and I can't identify a good reason to spend more than the already-retarded prices I paid for 3090 Kingpin and 4090 video cards. I never enjoyed them at a level consistent with the purchase price and I think I would ultimately end up disappointed with the purchase. I think Jensen is too busy enjoying the investor circle-jerk and his gigantic salary and bonuses to give a rat's butt about the people NVIDIA is screwing, or the products he is selling them.

Well, I went ahead and pulled the trigger on the Montech AIR 903 MAX for the work PC build. It's not awesome like the Antec C8 or Lian Li Dynamix XL EVO, but for the price it's great. Very affordable. The 140mm fans (four included) are pushing more air than I imagined they would and run very quiet. The Montech Metal 120 fans I used to replace the EK AIO fans are also insane. They seem very well made, have solid performance specs. The only thing they lack is a unified design that connects them together. But, the RGB and fan cable are combined into one (very nice) and only split apart at the connector ends. Here are some pics. The one thing that Montech didn't do right is the same stupid issue most cases have. The space above and behind the motherboard needs to be greater. Above the motherboard there it only has enough room for thin radiators and push fans. No way you can install fat radiators and push/pull. That sucks, but I understand "normal" is their target market and gamerboy AIOs is what 99% of their customers are going to be installing. So, since I am using a gamerboy AIO for this application it's OK. It would NOT be OK with a custom loop. It feels like the entire PC industry is deliberately leaving overclocking enthusiasts up the creek with no paddle with fewer and fewer options to build something we can be proud of. Behind the motherboard tray it would be nice to have an extra 15-30mm of space. I got the cable management done without a bulge in the side panel, but man it sure was tight. The gamerboys get all hot and bothered by the case taking up too much space. I think (maybe) I have figured things out with the Gigabyte B850 board. Definitely seems like a firmware issue with voltage control. Setting manual voltage does not seem to function correctly and pushes way too much voltage to the CPU no matter what I set it for and regardless of the LLC settings. Even if I use maximum vdroop it goes up to 1.400V in Cinebench. I have to use "Auto" with a negative offset to pull it back down to a reasonable voltage level. At any rate, Cinebench scores are right up there with the Gene and Carbon at less than half the cost. And, I can use all three PCIe x16 slots without the GPU getting emasculated to PCIe 5.0 x8. And, this CPU is better than the one in the Gene. It can handle 2200 FCLK. The other 9950X won't boot at 2200. It caps out at 2175. I am going to have the check the SP rating and see how it works on an ASUS mobo that has better voltage control. That will have to wait for another day. I'll likely wait until the APEX drops and then delid it.

Agree. Using colored coolants is a great way to clog the loop, shorten pump life and forever stain acrylic. Using pastels is worse than clear. Three scoops of dirt in the loop versus one. This has been true for years. I used black once and it caused lasting issues. Now I use only distilled water and auto antifreeze. JayzTwoCents has many videos on this, but people make their own personal decisions. Logic often does not factor in when lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life are driving forces behind choices we make. Robots don't have this problem.

No support. No problem. If you actually care about that, just run a script to flip it to LTSC/IoT Enterprise permanently HWID activated in an instant. No reinstall necessary... easy 30 second fix. And, not getting the newer Winduhz sucky crap "features" that you don't want rammed up your tailpipe is also a win.

Scary realistic AI. This might not end well for any of us. These digital creatures are nice to look at, but this type of realism offers endless opportunities for nefarious and deceptive schemes to play out.

Scary realistic AI. This might not end well for any of us.

When most things are relatively equal or similar, it still holds true that clock is king. An efficient machine will quite often lose to an inefficient power pig that clocks higher. The product that runs faster and gets more work done wins

That is coming from the 12VHPWR cable. It's humming because it is overloaded. Because they sent a little boy to do a man's job. I did not really want to, but for lack of a better alternative I put the Apex back on pre-order. This inexpensive but handsome-looking motherboard is better than I expected it to be, but something about it does not handle manual high frequency overclocking like I enjoy doing. It works totally normal within PBO motherboard limits, but either it or the Gigabyte firmware does not appreciate it when I start pushing it to the limit. I think that kind of load line calibration was not necessary for the intended audience, which is obviously gamers that want to spend less and don't go nuts overclocking. If Gigabyte miraculously manages to release a BIOS update that magically changes that I will re-cancel the pre-oorder.

A 7 pound, 15 ounce baby monster will be headed your way tamale. Now I just need to sell the monitor. Those are hard to sell. Lots of people prefer to buy $100 trash displays from Target, Walmart and Amazon just because it is new and don't want to pay the same amount for something about 5 times better, LOL.

Brother @Reciever I just sold the tower without the 3090 Ti FTW3 and Predator 1440p 165Hz IPS monitor. He already had an identical 3090 Ti FTW3 and already bought a monitor. If you are interested in either one or both drop me a PM.

Well it looks like Safedisk got handed another extraordinary silicon sample, as usual. I wonder how many ASUS had to bin and cull to find this one. Unless you have one this good I don't think it's possible to find much benefit in owning an X870E Apex if you have an average 9950X/X3D sample. $800 is too costly to justify with an average CPU. The Gene gave me no real benefit over the Cabron other than the crappy gamerboy MSI firmware that is missing important settings. https://www.overclock.net/posts/29442873/ About 2,000 points higher than my best. Speaking of bin quality, I need to do more testing to confirm it, but I think my second 9950X might be a lot better than the first one installed in the Gene.

Need to know what size, but you can get them on Amazon. Probably M2 or M2.5 but you need to measure the diameter and length to be certain. There is a wild variance in screw length that varies with PCB thickness and air space between the PCB and back plate. I also HIGHLY recommend going with stainless steel. I won't use anything else for this. Stainless is harder metal and won't strip out as easily. If you go with Allen or Torx head that will be even better to avoid stripping, and they look nice. That is where I generally purchase mine. The soft black steel screws used to assemble most GPUs are just trash. I have stripped the heads out many times before with the perfect screwdriver size. The metal is just too soft to not be damaged. If the screws are super tight the screw metal is too soft to loosen them. It is extremely annoying because there is nothing you can do to prevent it. Stainless screws are best for everything unless you need to reach a tight spot with a long magnetized screwdriver. They are not very magnetic and won't stay attached. Otherwise, use nothing else IMHO. I also used to replace all of my laptop screws with stainless for the same reason. Yeah, I am probably still going with that one. Best bang for the buck, I think. Hopefully I will get one without the mesh grill bent. For some reason that seems like a common issue. Cooler Master HAF 500 is comparable but flimsy in comparison according to reviews. I think I will go with MONTECH Metal Pro fans to replace those on my EK 360 AIO. I don't care about LED colors, but I want white light from the fans. They have very high static pressure. Not quite as high as P12 Max that I bought, but much better than most and very close to the static pressure at lower RPM. (The lower RPM is probably what accounts for the modest difference. The P12 Max spins faster and consequently louder.) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0DJ4MWMPY?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&th=1

Yes. Pretty respectable at 4K and with RT on as well. Something AMD has always struggled with. This GPU was less than half the price of my "inexpensive" Gigabyte 4090. Although 4090 is clearly better, it is not scaling with price and is not giving double the performance. It's roughly one-third the price of what I paid for the 4090 Suprim. It's nice you can finally run ray tracing on a red card without it collapsing into a nasty-looking slide show.

Here you go. Nothing optimized, just running with other programs and things active during work. For some reason I could not get the upload to associate with my UL account. It appears to be associated with no one. I tried to upload it again and it got rejected as a duplicate. https://www.3dmark.com/compare/spy/36499097/spy/54229331/spy/40812238#

Soon. I haven't had time, Just barely had enough time to get everything ready for work today. (I only got 2.5 hours sleep trying to have everything ready for work this morning.)

https://www.3dmark.com/compare/sn/971066/sn/4521744/sn/60378#

I am going to, but have not purchased one yet.

I sure will. I agree. I kind of hate to part with it, but that's a sickness I am trying to cure myself of. Trying to decide what case to use now. I've got in on the open bench until I decide. Probably going to go with a Montech AIR 903 MAX, but I don't want to make a snap decision. I don't want to spend a lot. I don't want something too small or something too large. I really wish the ASUS Prime A21 would fit an ATX mobo. It's perfect otherwise. Clean, classic plain aesthetics and well built. I probably won't find a better alternative than the AIR 903 at that price point. The B850 AORUS Elite booted my TeamGroup XTREEM 8200 memory XMP without any hiccup. So far it seems to perform the same as the Gene. That's why I changed my mind on the X870E Apex. I am using dual NVMe cards in BOTH of the extra PCIe x16 slots and the GPU is still running PCIe 5.0 @ x16. If anyone remembers me commenting about my 4K ASUS 144Hz monitor having issues booting with the Apex / 4090, it is definitely something weird with that monitor. The 9070 XT would not boot connected to it. I had to use HDMI on a 1080p display when I initially set it up. It boots fine connected to my new Predator dual 4K 160Hz monitors. What is weird is the 4090 and 9070XT will boot from it fine after connecting the display in Windows, until I clear the CMOS and then it hangs during boot on both systems. That's just weird. I don't know if it is an EDID problem or what. It's annoying to have to fart around with that. I'll probably get rid of it and replace it with a Predator display like the two I purchased. I haven't done any testing with it yet, but this AORUS Elite 9070 XT GPU is built like a brick house. The GPU support bracket bolts to the chassis (motherboard tray I think, but I haven't studied it closely enough) and then bolts onto threaded inserts in the end of the fan shroud. And, this sucker is really heavy. I'm both shocked and impressed by the build quality. It's actually made better than the Gigabyte 4090.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1XZy7xt3LH/ https://imgur.com/a/jZYQXiC I did not post it in the marketplace here because I do not know anyone in this community that lives here, and would prefer to not ship it. If anyone here wants to come for a visit and take it home, my door is always open.

And, the good part is that you don''t even have to install LTSC/ioT Enterprise. (I hate how that sounds so stupid... LTSC was a more intelligent name, but we're talking about the Redmond Retards, so I digress.) Just convert to LTSC/ioT Enterprise with a PowerShell script and you're good to go. https://massgrave.dev/#Method_1_-_PowerShell Awesome stuff, brother. Is the 3D printing less expensive? See below It's everything relating to tech now, but GPUs are the worst example of it. I am about fed up now. Very seriously considering selling off the Z790 Apex build entirely, including the MO-RA radiator/pumps assembly, 5 gallon reservoir and water chiller. I know if I do it will be a massive loss. I can't ship all this stuff because it is all too huge and extremely heavy. Someone will have to drive here and take it away. I spent all day yesterday getting my work PC ready to sell (the Edge build with the direct die EK AIO) and assembling my new "work PC" to replace it. I got a cheap B850 AORUS Elite and 9950X to go with the 9070 XT. I feel very fortunate to have purchased the GPU at the appropriate price and the mobo dirt cheap. More to follow once I get done and ready for work tomorrow. Still have to finish setting up the new work PC and clean up the mess before tomorrow. I am also seriously considering putting the air coolers back on both 4090s and using a cheap AIO. If it doesn't cool well enough I will just run stock or at a lower overclock. I cancelled the X870E Apex pre-order. I got to thinking about it and it's kind of pointless with a Ryzen CPU. Judging between the Gene and the cheap B850 AORUS Elite, there is really no difference to speak of because AMD has limited overclocking capacity either deliberately or the architecture itself is limited. Why pay $800 for an awesome board if the outcome is going to be the same as a POS motherboard?

MSI has no plans to release any Radeon RDNA 4 graphics cards. Maybe the more realistic and acceptable pricing thresholds for Radeon cards doesn't offer enough profit margin or a large enough cushion for compulsive overpricing to fit MSIs need for greed. There is also the possibility that too many people buying AMD video cards are inclined to be self-governed based on a realistic value proposition rather than driven by irrational passion. Scalping AMD cards is likely less of a succesful endeaver for the same reason. Whether the GPUs are better or worse holds less meaning than offering an acceptable price-to-performance value proposition. https://overclock3d.net/news/gpu-displays/msi-is-skipping-amds-radeon-rx-9070-series/ AMD’s Radeon RX 9070 series has been released, and it has been a highly successful launch for AMD. However, one brand was notably missing from AMD’s RX 9070 series lineup. Where is MSI? Will there ever be MSI RX 9070 series GPUs? In a statement to Tom’s Hardware, MSI has reconfirmed that they will not be making any AMD RDNA 4 graphics cards. When it comes to GPUs, MSI’s focus is on Nvidia and its GeForce RTX series GPUs. MSI will remain an AMD partner, but that partnership doesn’t currently extend to AMD’s Radeon GPU lineup.

This is the world we live in now. It has been this way for a few years now, but progressively getting worse. This is one of the reasons EVGA told NVIDIA to kiss their butt. It sucks that my/our interest in overclocking is being systematically killed by idiocy like this. They are making it all about them and no longer a mutually amicable relationship. Charging extremely high prices for basically crippled products with manufacturer-controlled results is an unforgivable sin and treachery. This deals a death blow to the overclocking sport. That death blow reciprocates by way of me no longer having a desire to purchase their functionally-limited products. Having my results (or lack thereof) predetermined and metered to the level of their choosing is unacceptable. Bestowing special privileges to a select small group of individuals and excluding all others based on an arbitrary decision by NVIDIA and/or their AIB cartel partners generates great malice, an enormous sense of contempt and an overall lack of respect or regard for the well-being and financial solvency of their companies. If I cannot benefit from their existence on my terms, their existence no longer matters to me and my preference would be that they cease to exist. Sometimes. Not always, and almost never when the leak is still relevant or useful. Usually when nobody cares anymore and only when peasants are excited about owning obsolete products. More and more it is gravitating toward never. You have the AIBs playing favorites as well as their tiny group of predestined beneficiaries that want to insultate themselves from having to compete with aspiring overclockers. This is organized cheating and deceptive orchestration of publicity stunts. I hate to say it, but what we see on HWBOT is all staged and rigged results that are achieved only by select individuals. Legitimate competition is generally absent and not even possible now. It makes it difficult to even care at this point.

I am not sure of the venue where you sold it, but if it was overclock.net marketplace I could see people being wary of scammers because there were some hacked accounts where scammers were coming out of the woodwork recently. I remember one guy whose account got hacked had 4 or 5 RTX 4090 being offered for a suspiciously low price. It is generally a very trustworthy group of people to trade with apart from those examples.