Mr. Fox

I can't identify any reason to use WinZip, much less pay for it. 7-zip is better as far as I am concerned, and being free is an added bonus.

They sell pre-packaged bad luck. It is like playing the lottery in reverse. You get to decide how bad the loss will be once you load your shopping cart.

Well, I did have the X299 Rampage motherboard that caught fire a while back, and then the Z490 Apex that failed and killed a 10900KF of excellent bin quality. But, nothing on the order of magnitude recently. It is pretty unbelievable. Between the money wasted on Ryzen trash and the recent series of unfortunate outcomes, I could have built a 12th Gen setup with the best motherboard and RAM available with money left over. Maybe God wants me to pay more attention to Him and more important matters, and less on this hobby. While I have had a string of very unfortunate circumstances with PC tech, the most recent was my own fault. There was a still small voice telling me not to spend money on Ryzen and I did it anyway. Things have been on a downhill spiral since then. But, there are millions of people in more severe life challenges than I have tolerated. If I keep things in perspective, I am still greatly blessed. I do believe that everything happens for a reason, not due to fate. But, I don't know what it is yet. Hopefully, someday I will. We commonly use the word "luck" to describe the occurrence of good or bad events in our lives, but I don't actually believe in luck in its strictest definition. There is just not a better word for it, so that is the word we use.

I guess my bad luck streak isn't over. 😞 That CPU died. I can't see anything wrong with it. After benching it earlier today, I set it back to 5.3GHz all core at 1.265V. I used the computer for several more hours, then I had dinner with two of my kids and their families. I came back a couple of hours later, set the BIOS to defaults and flashed the firmware on BIOS position #2 with v1.10 from EVGA. When it shut down after flashing it never booted again. It also won't boot in the Strix mobo. It shows a VGA error on the Strix (VGA red LED comes on). It goes through the normal series of codes on the LCDs and acts like it is going to POST and then stops with a Q-code 24 on the Z490 Dark. I cannot find any documentation on Q-code 24. So, I am back to using my SP81 10900K. It's not the firmware. I am using the BIOS I flashed with no issues. I am really super bummed out. I got to use it 3 days. I don't understand how/why it happened. Makes no sense. $400 down the toilet. I think it is time for me to give up for real.

Crysis is played in the name of Crysis. Nothing else is as worthy to be played.

Happy to share it. I added a link in the opening post of this thread.

I will make it really easy. I won't even consider it one time, LOL. Out of the question. My life is much better without Team Red garbage in it.

Oh man. That is going to be awesome. I hope you pick a winner on the CPU. Still working on finding the right voltage and v-droop setting for 5.7GHz validation. Getting closer, but not there yet.

Working on it... trying to find the minimum voltage needed for CPU-Z validation.

It is not as stressful on memory as mining but I don't have any mining software installed anymore to test with. The ultimate test will be how much colder chilled water can make it. I'll find that out a little bit later today.

Comparison of stock EVGA 3090 K|NGP|N backplate thermal pads vs. Fujipoly full PCB thermal pad (from OptimusPC) vs. Fujipoly full PCB pad plus MP5WORKS block. The test used was EVGA OC Scanner's Furmark Memory Burner test. The first two tests were run for 5 minutes each. After installing the MP5WORKS block I allowed it to run for 10 minutes. You will need to click on the second image 2 or 3 times to view it full size to easily read the text.

It's a way of spending time with my wife and doing something we both enjoy together rather than staying at the keyboard and ignoring her. It is generally about 2 hours a day, sometimes less but seldom more. Updated list.

That was definitely a good one. Totally forgot about it thanks for reminding me. For somebody that doesn't watch a lot of TV I've seen a lot of stuff LOL. Maybe I should qualify that by saying that it's less than most people.

Yes, totally agree with Brother @Rage Set (quoted below). Unless you are one of the "Chosen Ones" with sponsors that give them cherry-picked hardware to play with, nobody makes money or gets famous doing this. It is all for fun and fellowship. We learn stuff from one another and find things in common. So, anything you want to bench and share with us. To name just a few, randomly and from the top of my head, some of the more entertaining benchmarks are: Catzilla https://www.catzilla.com/ Unigine Sanctuary https://benchmark.unigine.com/sanctuary Unigine Tropics https://benchmark.unigine.com/tropics Unigine Valley https://benchmark.unigine.com/valley Unigine Heaven https://benchmark.unigine.com/heaven Unigine SuperPosition https://benchmark.unigine.com/superposition Metro and Metro Last Light Benchmarks (included with games) Gears of War Benchmarks (included with games) Deus Ex Benchmarks (included with games) Just Cause Benchmarks (included with games) Far Cry Benchmarks (included with games) Dirt and Dirt 2 Benchmarks (included with games) Adrenaline Action Benchmark Suite* (Supports: Bioshock Infinite, Tomb Raider, Hitman: Absolution, Sleepings Dogs) Aliens v. Predator Benchmark* Sniper and SniperElite V2 Benchmarks* Crysis and Crysis 2 Benchmark Tools* Streetfighter Benchmark* Monster Hunter Online Benchmark* Final Fantasy Benchmarks (there are many to choose from) * Some of these are old and hard to find. I downloaded them when they were still available from the originating author web pages, but you can skip surfing shady web sites packing malware and grab them from my Google Drive >> LINK << Thank you. I know you and a number of others were affected by it and it is nice to be part of a group of people that care about each other even though we have never met one another face-to-face. It means a lot to me, brother. That is a really tough call. All good boards, but given all of them are insanely expensive (save for maybe the Strix) I would probably go with the Dark mobo. Amen to that. Brother @johnksss disappeared on us again. Things must have gotten really busy at work, but that is a good problem to have.

Thank you. It is an excellent silicon sample. Not as good as the one I had purchased from Brother @Talonthat an unfortunate accident destroyed (still heartbroken over that). I am going to see if chilled water will let me break the 5.7GHz barrier this weekend.

Speaking of "butt" I wonder if my post over here brought any clarity to the situation.

Double-taxation is a growing issue that reflects the high degree of immorality that exists in government; especially so when dimwitted progressive socialism gets its hooks in a country's butt. Sales tax was already paid. Charging it a second time is inappropriate. Income tax was paid. Selling stuff one purchased with after-tax income doesn't produce income. It produces loss. Time to clean house in city, state and Federal governments... long overdue for taking out the trash. Government needs to stick with law enforcement, national security, and border security and butt the hell out of everything else in our lives.

Project for the weekend...

OK, got the new CPU all reset with bare die. Temps fell right in line where they should be on ambient water cooling. Core max under 65°C on CBR20. I dropped it in the Strix for a few minutes to check the ASIC. SP92.

So, I moved the 10900K I was running in my benching monster to my work system. Nice upgrade for it, too. More than enough juice for my workhorse.

As much as I love EVGA and their products, I just can't see it being worth that much. Although, my second choice would be an Apex and it's nearly as much. For $100 extra, I would have to think about it. Paying $100 more for something I would prefer rather than settling for something less bears some level of consideration, but prices of anything worth considering is just off-the-rails extremely stupid overpriced right now. Everything is a very poor value.

Well, isn't that precious... Saving the planet one e-core at a time. Bless their heart. Tree-hugging stupidity is becoming more popular now that it is chic to say whatever you decide you want to believe is based on "science" even when it isn't.

IMC is stronger, too. I moved my RAM clock from 4500 to 4600 without adjusting timings or voltage.

Hmm... what, did I get lucky? Dang, I might finally have a reason to be happy about something tech related, LOL. This is liable to be too much fun with bare die on chilled water. Non-AVX mode... AVX mode...

Woo, this is going to be fun on chilled water. Passed 53x all core with 1.275V in my hot office without a hiccup.