Mr. Fox

I came very close to buying an MSI 4080 today for under $800 brand new. I decided not to, but I think that is a very good deal. NewEgg offers trade-ins now and that was after applying a $400 trade-in value for the 6900 XT. I also came very close to grabbing a Sparkle A770 for under $300, but changed my mind on that, too. I looked for a waterblock for the A770 and could not find one. I'm not interested in operating an air-cooled GPU even if it runs as cool as the Sparkle A770 is reported to (~60°C under full load). I am really interested in seeing how Battlemage fares against the 4080 and 7900 XTX.

They have Windows users (private and business) over a barrel and some literally cannot switch to another platform. And, they use force and manipulation to coerce the adoption of their newer data-harvesting OS and Office "as a service" cancer. They shamelessly exploit the users of their operating system and I hope it eventually bites them in the butt. I would love to see them decimated by legal battles and their finances nuked by enormous legal/defense costs. That's what they deserve. So does crApple. Any degree of misfortune or harm that comes to either of them will have been earned and should be deemed fitting for their abuses, high crimes and misdemeanors.

Yes that is correct. A thermal pad on the underside of a M.2 drive that has no components serves no purpose. Likewise, having it there causes no harm. You only need the thermal pad on the side(s) with memory chips and the controller, between those components and the heat sink. Depending on the latching mechanism design, the M.2 might still be somewhat loose after the retaining screw is tightened. Placing a thermal pad under the M.2 drive may keep it from being loose or sloppy. Sometimes the standoff that the retaining screw threads into does not have a ridge that fits snugly into the notch on the end of the M.2, so it not clamp or pinch the M.2 drive in place securely. This will allow it to have some wiggle room after the screw is tightened.

Yeah, that would be a devastating loss for anyone that works hard for their money like most of us do. That kind of risk-taking is only smart for the wealthy people that have tons of disposable income.

I did not notice that info about no warranty. In that case I would not purchase it unless the price was about half what he wants for it. With no warranty, might as well buy a new cheap 4090 and do the Elmor voltage mods. The attraction to the Galax HOF is you don't need to do those warranty-voiding mods. You get to have the cake and eat it, too. Absent that attraction there is no incentive to purchase it.

$2800 for the GPU and PSU is a fair deal and it is clearly a good sample. I don't think paying a lot more for a good sample is intelligent or wise, but it does avoid the tragedy of getting screwed with trash silicon quality. I wouldn't want to pay much more than new retail price for a used part even if it is an excellent silicon sample. It's a used part and that makes it worth substantially less. At $2800 it is like getting the PSU for free if you are measuring based on new retail prices rather than used part prices. I would be interested in buy it from him if I can come up with the cash before it is gone, but I would also first want to check the Galax warranty policy. If it only extends to the original purchaser then I would likely pass and buy a new GPU direct from Galax instead. If memory serves me correctly, Galax is one of the dirty rotten stinkers when it comes to warranty support.

Mr. Potty Mouth is ripping the mobo OEMs a new one.

Great GPU but not $3800 worth of good. How 'bout no. Let someone more foolish than I (which is very foolish, LOL) blow an extra grand on it. I might have been born at night, but it wasn't last night. I won't pay a 1/3 to 1/2 premium for a golden CPU and I won't for a GPU either. Just not worth if for something that will be replaced by something stronger and faster in a short period of time. I might if I could enjoy playing king of the hill for 2 or 3 years.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III Campaign (Early Access). Absolutely awesome. Thanks @ryan

I tested stock driver and same driver with NVCleanStall removing all the filth on Windows 10 22H2 Pro and then repeated with the same stock and NVCleanStall mod on Windows 11 22H2. So, both drivers and both OSes. Unrelated topic... but, also relating to black screen issues. If you or anyone you encounter is having random black screen issues with a 4090, don't automatically blame the GPU. I had this annoying issue with the Strix and MSI Suprim on the Dark mobo and the problem followed it to the Apex mobo. It might be fine for days and then suddenly everything stays black and I had to reboot, sometimes more than once, to get the screen to light up. This was with my 165 Hz 1440p screen and my 144Hz 4K. I was using an expensive DP 1.4 cable that I had been using for a few years. Out of curiosity and frustration I started playing around with cheap HDMI cables and the screen would never go black using HDMI. Everything worked fine. But, I could only run the displays at 60 Hz with the cheap HDMI cable. So, I bought a more expensive DP 2.0 cable. Same issue. Didn't help. Cheap HDMI was fine, but expensive DP cable had random black screen issues. The DP 2.0 cable I purchased had an issue with the housing at the end falling apart where it plugs into the monitor. I could not press the button to release the hooks because the housing was getting loose. So much for the idea of getting what you paid for. But, lucky for me it was junk because that helped me identify the issue was, in fact, the cable being used and not the GPU. So, I purchased an even more expensive DP 2.1 cable rated for 8K @ 120Hz and 80 Gbps bandwidth. Problem solved. No more random black screens. Works flawelessly now. I installed this cable on October 5 and haven't had a single black screen issue even once.

OK, here is Windows 11 Ghost. Again, no meaningful change using cancer versus NVCleanStall modding. Windows 11 0.1% lows are lower than Windows 10, but not enough to really matter. Still over 100 FPS. NVIDIA CLeanStall Modded 546.01 01-11-2023, 22:48:26 q2rtx.exe benchmark completed, 75010 frames rendered in 316.078 s Average framerate : 237.3 FPS Minimum framerate : 139.4 FPS Maximum framerate : 246.6 FPS 1% low framerate : 214.6 FPS 0.1% low framerate : 112.4 FPS NVIDIA Unmodded *All Cancer* 546.01 02-11-2023, 00:20:03 q2rtx.exe benchmark completed, 51628 frames rendered in 215.281 s Average framerate : 239.8 FPS Minimum framerate : 157.9 FPS Maximum framerate : 246.3 FPS 1% low framerate : 214.9 FPS 0.1% low framerate : 102.9 FPS

I know I have already mentioned this before, but this has been a real game-changer, especially on the upload side of things. I had decent-enough internet before, but this is so much better... and, cheaper. Plus, no data limits my old ISP used as a lame excuse to milk more money from customers.

Depends on if ECC is enabled or disabled. Scores are higher with that disabled, but HWBOT requires it be enabled for 3DMark. The chance of getting a higher than normal or inflated benchmark score due to bugs and glitches is more likely with ECC disabled and very unlikely with it enabled. ECC Enabled: 28654 https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/94304340 | https://hwbot.org/submission/5276039_mr._fox_3dmark___port_royal_geforce_rtx_4090_28654_marks The score goes up about 1,000 points with ECC disabled. That guy you mentioned on Facebook ran his samples with ECC disabled, so can't really compare. He must not be into competitive benching or else it would have been disabled or run both ways. You can tell looking in the benchmark details on 3DMark or by looking at the available VRAM value in GPU-Z. ECC enabled reduces the available VRAM to 23552MB. I am seriously thinking about moving my 4090 back to the case with the Dark and making the Apex my "work computer" motherboard. I spent some time with the Z690 Dark today. I put the 13900KS that used to be in the Apex before I purchased the one with higher E-core SP ratings and I am seeing what I thought I remembered seeing before. The inferior 13900KS installed in the Z690 Dark overclocks better, with less voltage, runs about 8°C cooler, has better Cinebench scores and better memory latency scores in AIDA64 than the Apex. I am going to do more testing to confirm this is accurate and if it is true I will swap places on the desk with the entire case and swap the GPUs then put the better 13900KS in the Dark mobo. That will be easier than moving the motherboards and redoing all of the cooling lines, etc.

OK I did this test using the latest driver 546.01 and found no meaningful difference in performance with my desktop 4090. If you are experiencing the same issue with 546.01 then maybe there is something different in the laptop drivers or something specific to the INF parameters the OEM specified for your specific laptop. I know Dell/Alienware used to make certain specifications for their laptops. Below are the results with MSI Afterburner Benchmark Utility for Quake II RTX. This was tested using W10 22H2 with Atlas OS mods. NVIDIA Unmodded *All Cancer* 546.01 01-11-2023, 18:28:39 q2rtx.exe benchmark completed, 25829 frames rendered in 111.750 s Average framerate : 231.1 FPS Minimum framerate : 220.4 FPS Maximum framerate : 239.3 FPS 1% low framerate : 215.6 FPS 0.1% low framerate : 209.6 FPS NVIDIA CLeanStall Modded 546.01 01-11-2023, 18:07:56 q2rtx.exe benchmark completed, 31472 frames rendered in 135.359 s Average framerate : 232.5 FPS Minimum framerate : 221.5 FPS Maximum framerate : 240.2 FPS 1% low framerate : 218.4 FPS 0.1% low framerate : 160.9 FPS

If all goes as planned I am going to look into this today. On which version and release of Windows are you having this occur?

Yeah, but if I recall correctly it was broken/non-functional and the guy would not communicate. I think that he ended up getting a refund and still has the broken chiller.

I bought it from Performance-PCs. They have 3 in stock. I know @Rage Sethas been wanting to snag one. Good price as well. https://www.performance-pcs.com/water-cooling/water-chillers/hailea-ultra-titan-hc-500a-110v-1-2hp-790watt-cooling-capacity-waterchiller.html This is the exact one I have, but it is a newer version that has a titanium water tank instead of the crappy plastic tank that cracked on me and had to be repaired. If I had $600 to blow, I would grab one of the three so I could have two.

I really like using the LMG as my primary weapon. I wish I had one in my home arsenal.

I really like the GPU anti-sag bracket Lian Li provided with the O11D XL EVO. It's designed perfectly and much better than the way most add-on supports are designed. @Rage Setand @Raidermanand @cylixdo you guys use it with your Lian Li cases? (I am assuming it is not a new product or unique to the accessories included with this case.) I almost did not install it, but I changed my mind and figured I could get rid of it if I didn't like it. It doesn't get in the way of anything and I am so glad I went ahead and tried it out. Same here. Need to be able to move things around also for cleaning. In the Arizona blast furnace, the dirt devils and dust bunnies infest every nook and cranny. No need to disconnect lines if you have plenty of slack. I do not run my chiller all of the time. When I do, I like to pull it out from under the desk (I have it on a wheeled dolly), point the exhaust toward my office door and set a box fan behind it to push the hot air outside of my office. The stupid PVC tubing that I use for the extra long run is from Home Depot. It is for construction/industrial use and it is not as flexible and soft as the stuff we normally use for PC cooling. It tries to coil up and never straightens out, so when I wheel it back under the desk it coils up by itself. Under any other circumstances that would be very undesirable, but it works well in that scenario. That tubing is also relatively hard and the compression fittings are difficult to install (or remove) because the tubing is so hard. It doesn't easily compress like the soft tubing designed for PC cooling. It also doesn't kink in a tight bend. That's very cool.

I want one, and got a PSU with dual 12VHPWR cables in case I do end up with one. The vBIOS doesn't have any special unlocks on my MSI GPU, but the 1000W power limit eliminates that as becoming an impediment.. Wiith only 1.100V available, any 4090 is going to be hobbled.

Ok, now it is done. Soaking them in lacquer thinner makes it easy if you can stand the fumes. Once you get the heating blankets off you have to wash them several times to get all of the gummy crap adhesive off of the modules. I had screws that would work for the missing backplate. I can't believe that clown took so long to send the backplate (almost a month) and did not send the screws that I mentioned at least 3 times. Protected SMDs with Kapton tape. Had to trim a small amount of material off of the black plastic CPU block bezel in order for it to clear the memory. The water block on the memory was making contact with it and could not be properly installed until I trimmed it back a tiny bit. I removed about 2mm to give it ample room.

I watched all of the reviews on YouTube and I knew I would like it, but I did not expect to be as impressed with it as I have been. It is a serious piece of chassis engineering. It's not quite on the same level of design elegance and elaborate finesse as the be quiet! Dark Base Pro 901, but it is built like a brick house and it is easier to build in. And, it is geared for performance applications. I am very pleased with it. After building that smaller O11 clone for my son, I like white more than I expected I would. It looks gorgeous, especially with the lighting set to all white. While I think the Apex would look exquisete in a white version of the O11D XL EVO, I still think it would have been a mistake I would regret. If not sooner, at the time I decide to upgrade the mobo, I would be wishing I had ordered black instead. But in an inexpensive clone, like the one I am reviewing, I think it would make perfect sense. If the new of having a white case wore off (as I believe it would) or it turned out not to be ideally suited for housing the components of my next build, then it could be treated as a give-away item or sold for whatever price it would fetch, it would be easier to view it as a temporary solution or disposable component.

So, basically building one system three ways and running test results for each (product review items - case, two air cooler, AIO - using one of my son's gaming PC guts) then followed by totally rebuild my system over from scratch in the O11 Dynamic XL EVO, my butt is dragging, LOL. I am totally beat. Just finished cleaning up the mess from the work, dusting, vacuuming and Swiffer-mopping the floor. Below is the build. I am still waiting for three more fans to go in the roof of the case, but otherwise totally done. The O11 Dynamic XL EVO is crazy nice. It's not as massive externally as the EVGA case that I loved, but internally it is more massive and probably the easiest case to build in ever. My son's system that I rebuilt (below) using the product review items turned out awesome. I will hold back any comments until the reviews are completed and the product embargo lifts, so I won't even say what brand this stuff is for now. My son is thrilled with it. While he had an AM5/7700X/DDR5 setup, it was air cooled and inside of an antique NZXT Phantom case. This works and looks so much better. Now I need to get him to stop buying Gigabyte garbage (mobo and GPU). His wife is an AMD fangirl and the mobo and CPU were a birthday gift for him in June. He was gaming on an AM3 setup with a Athlon CPU and DDR3 that were new when the case was new. The case was cooking his Ryzen CPU. This case will actually just about fit inside of the O11 XL, but it has plenty of room for his ATX mobo and AIO. The appendage on the backplate of his GPU is a huge heat sink. When I got finished with his build and started testing, I noticed the Gigabutt 3060 was burning up (105°C hotspot and 95°C core). I used 18 w/mK thermal pads and Honeywell phase change paste and it was still crazy hot (85°C core and 95°C hotspot). The backplate is plastic. So, I added thermal pads and mounted the big heat sink on back to give the heat another place to go. Plastic isn't a good thermal conductor, but it managed to take the temps down further in spite of the plastic backplate. Still hotter than it would be if it had been a product made by another company that actually knows a little bit about what they're doing, but a 15°C reduction from where it started. A weird observation about the AM5 CPU. Of course it runs stupid hot and we all knew that. AMD even said it is supposed to run 95°C, which seems crazy and extremely undesirable. As I switched among the coolers tested, they all had the same peak temperature, but the better cooling solutions allowed higher turbo speeds. It seems like AMD deliberately made 95°C the target temperature.