Mr. Fox

I have to figure out how I want to work it. I suppose I could compare it to my custom loop but that probably wouldn't be fair. I'm thinking maybe I should get a popular air cooler that the average gamer boy uses and run tests with that to establish a baseline on thermal atrocity, then switch to the AIO and repeat. Thank goodness I have invested in QDC fittings for everything. Makes something like this so less time consuming and inconvenient. I now have the male half on all the QDC settings installed directly on the CPU and GPU blocks on both systems to make it even more hassle-free. Moving components between systems couldn't be any easier because you don't have to worry about tubing being long enough, or too long, or having to drain and refill anything. Totally play and play. Did you get the RGB version or the Dark version? I'll have to wait until I see it to render a verdict, but I like the fact that they're using the short wire daisy chain approach on the fans now. Should make cable management a whole lot better with the single PMW connection. This approach is fast becoming the new normal and it's a good thing. This is one of the rare examples of where the old way sucked and the new way actually is better.

That makes me very happy for my friends (and one of my sons) that have chosen to take the red pill. I hope it works out really well and can run tight timings with low latency in quad-channel mode. My son that favors AMD is using his new 7700X system with the G.SKILL 6000 EXPO settings at the moment. Trying to push it harder for him was kind of frustrating. While he is content with it like it is, I am eager to see how it pans out. I might stil be able to make a crazy overclocker out of that boy.

I haven't used an AIO for at least 5 years, but it will be interesting to test the EKWB product I am receiving for review (arriving tomorrow). It will be a handy thing to have for available quick testing purposes. The EK-Nucleus AIO CR360 Dark is a performance-focused pitch-black cooler without any RGB. Sounds like a theme, doesn't it? Dark Base case, Dark motherboard, Dark AIO. Dark, dark and more dark, LOL. I'm not smart enough to have planned it that way, it just happened. I like everything dark, including my OS and forum color themes. Funny how sometimes things fall in place the way you like, but other times nothing works the way you want things to work and it is a struggle to have anything turn out right. I like the Z790 Apex, but the white PCB makes me kind of angry. How could ASUS do such a tacky thing? At least it is not as digusting as the Yeston anime and manga GPUs. That just makes me want to barf, LOL.

Seagate appropriately earned a bad reputation for past poor quality control and reliability. They have since corrected their issues and returned to producing good quality products that are durable. I don't remember now what company bought Seagate, but if I recall correctly that was at least partially responsible for making things right. They've had a hard time living down the bad reputation that they once deserved. They're probably the best mechanical hard drive manufacturer at this point. I never experienced any failures with their hard drives even during the time when they were deserving of a bad reputation. I did, however, have multiple Western Digital hard drive failures, several times on brand new drives that were DOA. Anything mechanical is going to tend toward having an abbreviated lifespan compared to something that is digital and has no moving parts. I usually do not pay close attention to brand when purchasing solid state drives. I think the price is more important than the brand. There are a limited number of NAND and controller manufacturers and I think the warranty, and the ease and speed of using it, is probably more important than brand.

Wonder that happened to Brother @tps3443? Too busy with life maybe? Brother @electrosoftI ordered one of those $410 13900K last night. Will be here tomorrow. Hopefully, it will be at least as good as the one that croaked. If so, I will return the 13700K for a refund. It runs too hot and uses too much voltage anyway. Glad I did not already delid it to fix the heat. The 13700K that has not been delidded doesn't seem to run any cooler than a 13900K that has not been delidded at the same vCore level. So, I don't think that running cooler is a legit argument for using the 13700K. It's actually a pretty decent sample from what I can tell, but coming up short on cores is a bad thing. I haven't checked the SP rating and probably won't. Once you get used to more, settling for less is too difficult. It's not satisfying having 8 fewer threads at your beck and call.

Yes sir. My first was a Liquid X and that mysteriously quit working just like the 13900K. The screen went black while the system was idling on the desktop while I was using my other computer at work. I saw it happen and assumed that I had somehow forgotten to disable the screen blanking in my Windows power profile, or that the power profile had somehow gotten switched. I jiggled the mouse and nothing happened. I pecked on the keyboard a few times and nothing happened. It never output a picture to the screen again after it went black. No idea what happened or why it died. Amazon refunded it. Suprim is, by far, the best option available to me here in the US (HOF not available and EVGA gone--both sad things). My second 4090 was a Strix. It was a piece of trash and I RMA'd it because it cost more and was grossly inferior to the Suprim. Besides looking kind of gawdy, it really sucked at overclocking. Memory overclock was pathetically unacceptable. I returned it to NewEgg for a refund and waited for the Suprim to come back into stock and bought my second that is currently working fine. I don't find a lot of difference between the 666W or 1000W since the GPU becomes voltage limited before it exhausts the power limit. I think I prefer the 1000W just as a matter of principle. Power should always be unlimited or have caps set way beyond what hardware is physically capable of utilizing. Power limits are just a control freak butthole thing for OEMs to feel important enough to make decisions about things they should butt out of and mind their own business.

Thanks. I may order it first before returning just to be safe. I received a tracking number from UPS for something close to 50 pounds with no information on what it is, so I am assuming it is the be quiet! case. It and an EK 360 AIO are supposed to be delivered tomorrow. Both products have the name "Dark" in them, so using the EVGA Dark motherboard for the review(s) seems logical, LoL As expected, it was hotter today. I burned my right hand on my steering wheel and my left elbow on my door arm rest. Not severely, but it was about 2 hours ago and I can still tell because my skin hasn't returned to its normal state.

Thanks for letting me know. I knew I was forgetting something.

Ah, it must have been the straight-on view that made it hard to identify the Revolt. Yeah, for $67 that Cougar case looks like a real value. The industrial look with the handles is nice. If it is as build-friendly as it seems on the surface it should be real sweet. Sometimes the best products don't get looked at as closely as they deserve to be. Edit: @electrosoftI just noticed the eBay listing on the Cougar case has a hilarious typo "dessert" instead of desert. 🤣

That's pretty cool looking. Would be nice to have something similar in a full tower E-ATX design. What is the black case with the silver handle sitting on your desk next to the GPU box? It looks like a chimney design case, unless it is not in its normal orientation. I wasn't able to zoom in on the photo for a closer look at it.

This ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Apex is in excellent condition. May have a little bit of dust on it, but otherwise look and functions like new. It was used in my work computer for a few months and functions perfectly. Includes original box with accessories, including the DIMM.2 card and PCIe 5.0 NVMe card. Included in the bundle is a TeamGroup Delta DDR5-7200 32GB Hynix A-die kit and an Aquacomputer Cuplex Kryos Next with Vision waterblock. It has a digital water temperature monitor and is phenomenal at cooling a 12th or 13th Gen i9 CPU. Temps are identical to my Optimus CPU block. I ran the memory at 6800 with tighter timings and lower voltage on this motherboard. Would consider a trade for a 13900K or 13900KS depending on the SP ratings. (I have no interest in poor silicon quality - please provide P and E core SP ratings) Price: $550.00 USD Reason for sale: Upgraded to Z790 Apex, bare die and DDR5-8000 (parts no longer needed) Payment: PayPal Friends/Family, or Zelle (if not F&F then buyer pays PayPal fees) Condition: Excellent - minor evidence of use (dust) functionally perfect and no cosmetic damage Shipping: Free - includes cost of shipping to US lower 48 (or actual cost to other destinations - not free outside US lower 48 states) International shipping: Only if buyer is established and trusted in this forum. Actual cost plus any taxes, duties, VAT, etc. I am unable to estimate these costs. Handling time: Next Business Day Feedback: eBay Profile; OC.net MarketPlace

NUC is still available.

Congrats on the GPU little brother. Be sure to investigate performance between OSes. For some reason that affects my 6900 XT a whole lot more, and in a more exaggerated manner, than it did the 3090 or than it does the 4090. GPU benchmarks scores across the board are more than a little bit lower on Windows 11 using the 6900 XT versus Windows 10. I am not sure why it is so different with the AMD GPU, but I wasted way too much time trying to figure it out. My 6900 XT hates Windows 11 as much as I do. https://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/30399242/fs/30391596/fs/30391578#

I do like some new things though. Sometimes the message matters more than anything else.

Older is better... music, cars... lot's of things. Newer is always better newer.

Man, this Norwegian fellow has a fantastic voice. @Papusanhave you heard of him? Terje Harøy

If you don't like Windoze 10 or Winduhz 11, you have to resort to third-party stuff that the Redmond Reprobates try to interfere with. If you don't like your Linux desktop look and feel, you simply change it to something you do like. Imagine being able to run a command to change Windows 10 to Windows 7, or flip it back whenever you feel like it. Don't like Zorin OS desktop? Install Cinnamon. Don't like Cinnamon? Install Mate. Or something else. Or, just modify things yourself. It's easier to fix the garbage you don't like about Linux than it is to fix what you don't like about Winderz. ZorinOS default UI. Clean and pretty. ZorinOS after running the command to install Cinnamon... Clean and pretty. Nothing needs to be reinstalled. Want to go back? Click on the gear icon before entering your password on the login screen and select Zorin. Tomorrow, click the gear and go back to something else. Have it your way... like BK. Easy-peasy. It all works.

A world without Windoze awaits us all.

AMEN! It's true. The Redmond Mafia doesn't want anyone to know that. @ryanbesides all of the Crysis titles we love, this one also plays great. (So far almost everything does.)

You should still be. It's a crock and a hoax. Climate change is real, but man-made climate change is not. There was an ice age and there was a great flood. There used to be dinosaurs and now they're all dead. The planet changes and there is nothing we can do to change it. We shouldn't pollute the air we breathe or poop in the water we drink, but the earth is changing and there ain't a damn thing we are doing to cause it and nothing we can do to stop it. Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we will die.

After work today I jumped in my car to run to the convenience store. As I'm driving down the road and waiting for the AC to cool things down, I'm thinking to myself... my goodness it is so stinking hot. I looked at the thermometer and guess what? It is hot LOL.

I've played around with ChromeOS a bit just out curiosity and I can't identify a good reason to use it. I mean, if you had a Chromebook that is super anemic, like a smartphone, it might make sense on that kind of device. But, it offers nothing compelling or special. While it was an interesting experiment, in hindsight I wouldn't waste the time or disk space on it based on my previous tinkering. If you decide to go ahead play with it to satisfy your own curiosity, be sure you first physically remove all other drives and give ChromeOS full reign of the drive you plan to use it on. It installs many partitions and has potential to cause a plethora of issues with other OSes and their bootloaders if if you leave their drives installed when you install ChromeOS. It dees not play nice during installation on a multi-boot setup. I think you can reinstall the other drives after ChromeOS is installed. It is always best to use that approach on any multi-boot system. Install an OS on a drive with all other drives removed, make a Macrium Reflect image of it, take it out, install the next drive and OS, make a Macrium Reflect image, lather, rinse, repeat. Once you have finished installing OSes, go ahead and put all of the drives in the system and use the BIOS boot menu to select the one you want to run.

I can push the VRAM to +1650-1700 depending on the benchmark on my Suprim X. If a heavily ray-traced title +1650. @ryan - did you install Zorin? These (and many others) run fantastic on Linux with Steam using Proton Experimental.

Interesting.

If you mean web browsing, checking email, using Micro$lop Office, etc. Nope. If you mean gaming, I'm not sure. I've not bothered to check all that closely. Probably a little different, maybe more than a little, but you'd probably have to measure it deliberately to be massively aware of it. I know that if I play games on my turdbook and don't pay attention to anything else other than playing the game it doesn't seem remarkably different in most titles as long as the framerate stays high enough to keep everything feeling smooth and fluid. If I start measuring then it's definitely much slower. After measuring it also makes you feel disappointed. But, it feels OK while playing on the turdbook as long as you are not ruining it by measuring. (That's why consoles are successful, LOL.) If you mean overclocked benching, then hell yeah. Massive difference. And, because you are measuring, any kind of performance downgrade from what you have seen with better hardware is terribly disappointing.