Mr. Fox

As long as the "open box" is fully functional (always had good luck with that from NewEgg) I will be OK with it. If all of the accessories are included, I will be stealing the GPU support bracket for the Encore since ASUS cheaped out and did not include one like they do with the white Apex. I like that type (attached to motherboard standoffs) as opposed to other types that work like a kickstand. I think my 7200 G.SKILL Trident Z5 kit is 16GBx2 if I remember correctly. I will use that and downclock it to whatever clock speed is stable. What is sad is the fact that it will still overclock the RAM as well as the sucky crap Z690 Apex 2-DIMM motherboard abortion did. For $112 if everything works it will be hard to find fault with things, especially considering the features it does have (buttons, debug LCD, generous rear I/O, onboard clock generator to overclock locked CPUs, etc). Not sure why they didn't give it dual BIOS though. I might play with the 12th Gen Celeron I have that is locked and see if I can overclock that wimpy thing. I got it for flashing newer BIOS on older boards (Z690) that would not boot with 13th Gen.

Fun fact for those that didn't already know. The "dead girl" in the video is his wife. She appears in many of his videos and movies.

This is the motherboard going into the Dark Base Pro 901 that I sold the guy from Intel. https://www.supermicro.com/en/products/motherboard/x12spa-tf He is using this 38 core Xeon and installing 4TB of RAM. https://www.itosolutions.net/Intel-Xeon-W-3300-W-3375-Octatriaconta-core-38-p/cd8068904691401.htm I know it is going to suck at memory overclocking, but I wanted the cheapest Z690/Z790 board I could get my hands on to put on the test bench and this was it. Not really looking for the RAM overclocking capabilities as I intend to use it. Got it for $112 on NewEgg. Will be here on Friday. Will see if my opinion of ASRock motherboards is better than my first, last and only impression with the Z370 Taichi Chai Tea. I was surprised to find something with onboard power and reset buttons, debug LCD, active VRM cooling and this many power phases at this price. The was selling for about $500 when it originally launched. I see Brother @Talon either has or did have one of these. (Spotted his YouTube video.) https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813162025

I have always loved those cases. They are excellent, but I have never been willing to pay what they want for them. Same was true of Caselabs cases. Amazing products but totally unacceptable pricing. It looks like the Thermaltake prices have come down from where they were. About half what they used to be. Still very expensive but not as outlandishly overpriced. Maybe because the niche market interested in them is small. They probably have not produced a large number of them because they are not as tacky and garish as they need to appeal to gamers that need rainbow vomit, a small footprint and other worthless gimmicks to feel special. It would not surprise me, for that reason, if they have lowered prices to move stock that is hard to sell due to the limited market. Other than my SFF with the direct die AIO, my other system all have external components. The only things related to the loop inside of my cases are the tubing/fittings and waterblocks. Radiators and pumps (and the chiller on the one that has it) are all external components. Defintely the best approach IMHO.

@ryan it is very difficult to make money on YouTube. They changed the rules to make it harder after I started. That is why those that do actually make money have started putting in affiliate links and other things associated with their videos. I don't even try anymore. Too much effort for too little reward. And, if you say or do something that rub them the wrong way or doesn't fit with their perspective on things they will demonitize your channel and won't give you any way to appeal their decision. The only money I have made (and very little at that) by publishing content on YouTube is through the PayPal donation link I add to my videos description section. I think I have received like maybe $10 in as many years.

Funny you mention that. Harrowdale was my favorite track because it was more like metal. I agree about Tom. Speaking of Rob Zombie, here is one of my Zombie favorites.

I have two of these. I think this would work for you. Put the chiller on the bottom and computer on top, the put the reservoir on the desk. That's how I did it on the one system. The other has the computer on the bottom and the radiator and pumps on top. You want the heavier assembly on the bottom. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09SCYSFP9?th=1 The one without the chiller is "portable" (everything on the cart) so I can use it anywhere around the house. Like in the living room connected to the TV when I have been in my dungeon for too many hours. Then I can wheel it back into the office when I am done.

Sold the Dark Base Pro 901 within like 2 days on Facepoot Marketplace for more than enough to cover the C8 purchase. An Intel Engineer from their Phoenix campus bought it for a Xeon E-ATX build. He has worked for Intel for 20 years and will be cut from staff soon with the reduction in workforce. Nice guy. He said while he is kind of bummed out, he is getting a decent severance package so it's not as painful as it could have been. He was impressed with my three desktops, especially the chiller and 5-gallon reservoir.

I am pretty sure that even if they did, at this point, I would no longer care. I honestly don't care about turdbooks anymore. Nothing good or bad they do to them matters to me as long as the same idiots that screwed them up don't screw up my desktops. Laptops are the equivalent of toilet paper or feminine hygiene products. When you need them they are important, but you don't think of those things except when you need them. I certainly do not view them as being special purchases or objects of desire.

Thank you. I really like it.

Fixed. The lights are all white now, so it's all right now.

I have all of my desktops and network printer using wired LAN. I really do not care for using WiFi for computing and only use it when I have no other option. Otherwise, I only use WiFi for my cell phone and TV streaming. I seldom use my laptop.

I am not sure. I'm really not digging the idea of purchasing less than 32 thread CPUs with no hyperthreading, so I might not even participate in next gen. I'm going to take my usual wait and see approach. From that list I would choose Unify-X or Tachyon. I don't like most of the BIOSes. I liked EVGA BIOS best, ASUS next. MSI and Gigabyte BIOS are very "meh" and I cannot remember much detail about the BIOS in the one ASRock motherboard I owned. It was a Taichi Chai Tea and it was pretty crappy. I didn't keep it long at all because it sucked.

There should be NO SUCH THING as a 4-DIMM DDR5 enthusiast motherboard. That is an oxymoron. All brands should stop manufacturing them. They can make them for the content creators that think they need them, but it's trash for overclocking and gaming enthusiasts.

They've never been consistently good. Very hit or miss. It's no secret that I haven't liked the ASUS brand for a long time and they haven't changed my mind so far. It's not their products that suck as much as their process and approach to things, and poor QC. I am not planning any upgrades anytime soon, but when that day comes, if possible, my next purchase will be a different brand unless the different brand doesn't offer anything desirable. So, my next motherboard will most likely be from Gigabyte, ASRock or MSI. I can't say that I like any of them to be honest. They all have have issues to some degree. EVGA was the only brand that I can say that I actually liked and we see how that turned out. Being the best takes a back seat to popularity, and being popular doesn't require being good or great. Until 2-DIMM motherboards become the norm, the acceptable options that can be counted will be few and far between.

Man, that looks awesome. I wish it was black though. I am really not a fan of white computer parts, even though I own one. Otherwise, it looks like it might be THE Z890 motherboard to buy for anyone that plans to buy. It looks like something worthy of being purchased. So, I am thinking ASUS did nothing to the Encore. The paperwork says they reflashed the BIOS to fix the no display problem. I had already done that. And, whatever they flashed screwed things up. SP ratings were all jacked up and VF curve/VID tables were goofed up real bad (mostly zeros). I ended up flashing both BIOS chips again myself. They wasted a lot of my time and I wasted $60 on the cost to send it to them. At least I got it back undamaged and it's working, but not connected to the 4K display. I think the 4K 144Hz ASUS monitor might be the issue I was having. I use it every day, all day, but it doesn't play nice with my computers during POST. Once POST passes everything is normal. It's like the BIOS freaks out connected to it for some reason. MUCH WORSE on the Encore than the white Apex. Never happens with my dual 1440P Predator screens or on HDMI.

The Antec C8 is a nice case. I like that it is made of heavy steel instead of aluminum. It's a tad smaller than I would have liked, but otherwise no complaint. The size is between the O11 EVO and O11 EVO XL. The build quality is very good. Two of my fans are getting worn out and need to be replaced (behind the distribution manifold). On those two the LED also looks green instead of white. Just got it back together and getting the air worked out of the loop. Replacements should be here tomorrow. I went ahead and replaced the crappy stock PCH thermal pad and swapped out the G.SKILL for that second kit of TG Xtreem 8200 that I bought from @chibi on overclock.net.

I have been using it for years. Bitsum is one of those rare companies with ethics. They do not "rent" their software or expect their customers to repeatedly buy the same product over and over. Buy once, use it forever, with free updates for life. As it should be. I also use ParkControl (from the same company) and consider it essential because Windoze (especially Winduhz XI) has a very nasty fetish for parking cores to save power and prioritizing low power consumption over performance. The OS is a real piece of crap that is built to treat everything like a turdbook, tablet or smartphone.

A lot of it is conditioning and habitual in nature. I find I love Linux more as I care less about the things I enjoy doing on Winduhz. If I use Linux as a replacement, rather than a temporary substitute for Windoze, I like it more. If I try to use Linux for some things it wasn't intended for it can sometimes be frustrating. Gaming is surprisingly good, even on games that are supposedly not compatible with Linux. That means I either need to dual boot and use Windoes for the activities I haven't given up, or find something better to do with my time. But, no matter what Linux is better and Micro$lop sucks. I think everything they do now sucks, not just the OS. They're a sucky company, just like Apple. Not as bad, but still sucky. Only icky words come to mind when I think about them, so I try to avoid thinking about them.

I don't have anything, Brother @Vasudev. I am just using the junk provided by my ISP because it doesn't cost me anything and I have my wired devices connected to a TP-Link switch that has no GUI because... well... it's just a switch.

So, when the motherboard is returned I am going to rebuild in an Antec C8 case. I absolutely love the Lian Li O11 Dynamic XL EVO case and the Antec C8 is extremely close to the same design and size. It is like one inch shorter and the front I/O in a different position, but the basic design and size is like a knock-off in many respects. The C8 doesn't have as many features for configuration options, but the standard build configuration is remarkably similar. I almost ordered another Lian Li case, but the C8 was like $108 versus $235 for another black O11 XL EVO. The be quiet! Dark Base Pro 901 is an amazing case by every measurement, but it takes up more space and I prefer the dual chamber design over the PSU basement design. Wider versus taller and all the crap hidden in back is just a better approach. I am sure I can sell the Dark Base Pro 901 locally for enough to cover the cost of the C8. Grabbing the O11 Dynamic XL EVO to flip it over and lay it on its back to work on it is easy, but the Dark Base Pro is so tall and heavy you need a lot of extra space to do that. It is like making a U-turn in a long wheelbase crew cab pickup versus a regular cab short bed. Part of me wants to go back to the Praxis Wetbench. I love the open bench the most, but it's such a dust magnet in comparison that I am always reluctant when I start remembering how hard it was to keep clean looking. Horizonal motherboard orientation is just way better than vertical. The dust here in the desert is actually very fine sand, so it is extremely abrasive and gritty and keeping as much of that off the motherboard and GPU as possible is preferred. It scratches finishes and gets into every crack and crevice. (You do not want a dark colored vehicle here for that reason. It ends up looking very haggard and dull due to fine sand scratches when it is still relatively new.) https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CP3MZXVH?th=1 To save space I use two carts like this now. The white Apex with the chiller is on this cart. The other has the tower on the bottom and the radiator and pumps on top. However, the Dark Base Pro is so tall it almost touches the adjustable shelf on top where the radiator is sitting. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B09SCYSFP9?th=1

Yeah, that's really sad. The focus has been gravitating toward single core performance for a while now and I truly don't care about that. It is just so dumbed down and pathetic. Oh wait... that's actually the goal now. When I see talk about it I am like yeah, whatever... you guys are stupid and that's not my problem. Show me software and games that I use every day all day that run well (if at all) and only use just one core and then maybe I will pay attention for more than 30 seconds. But, the sheeple love it I guess. Sucks to be them. Not sure what the delay is with ASUS. The shipping label for returning my motherboard was created after the repair was finished on 9/13 and they gave me the tracking number, but FedEx still doesn't have possession of it and there is no ETA, just "label created" for the status.

Funny how many overclocking enthusiasts started out as gamers and then became so engaged in overclocking that they didn't really care that much about gaming anymore. Vince is example of that along with me and probably a ton of other people. From the sounds of it, he prefers the same game genre that I do as well.