Mr. Fox

Paying less and getting less is true most of the time. The bar is set low here and those that choose this path like it set low. Merchants like this group because it lets them make money selling garbage to people that embrace garbage because it is cheap. Fast food dollar menu, fat and happy. Their tummy is full of crap and it didn't cost much. They're not hungry and they'll come back for more crap very soon. Paying more and getting more is not guaranteed, but it should be. The group that chooses this path are often disappointed. Nobody likes getting screwed or being lied to. They expect their steak to be tender, juicy, delicious and cooked to order. That's what they paid for. If it is not, they reject what is on their plate. And, they should. They're a pain in the butt, and they should be. They will tell others what sucked and won't be polite about it.

I agree with that because it is a huge problem for the merchant and the honest customers. It sucks that it takes such a long time to process a refund, but (as usual) bad actors screw things up for everyone.

It's nice to see such a sense of urgency and emphasis on service from DHL. Puts them in the same League of Losers (LOL) bucket as USPS.

Amen. It is taken for granted that newer is going to be trash, and even in the rare circumstance it might have something better it comes with something worse. It is pretty sad how some people deliberately look for ME updates. I mean, they obviously don't understand things. There should be a public outcry against it, yet some of the sheeple purposefully update it as a standalone item even. Can't fix stupid. EVGA is was the only manufacturer that actually understood Intel ME is undesirable. Not only did they refuse to update it (appropriately) they provided a way to disable it with a simple firmware option. This should be standard on all motherboards (consumer, business or enthusiast). It offers nothing of value to anyone other than spying governments and hackers. It's designed solely for the purpose of remote access and created to be a backdoor access point. It makes sense that the CCP requires that motherboard manufacturers keep it updated.

I linked to it in the above post. But, here is a link to the file Safedisk put on his Google Drive. https://drive.google.com/file/d/12BvcW0xg68IQfGmv1K0-blIk6606YY1S/view That link above is for the white Apex. This link is for the Apex Encore https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SABixIb6seTaeyyPJNC9rISTGZ_IAtfc/view Both are version 9901. You can also tell by the file name. The Encore version has Encore in the file name.

Well, I returned the 14900KF turd to Amazon today. The previously returned 14900K from Amazon was received by them Monday of last week. They have it, haven't updated the order to show it received and still no refund. I spoke to their customer service twice and both reps confirmed they have it and I will just have to wait until they process the return. The garbage 14900K returned to NewEgg was refunded within 2 days of them receiving it. The SP102 (P114) 14900K coming from Germany is still in Germany sitting in a DHL shipping container for 4 days waiting to be put on a flight to the US with no date specified. Once it is received here by DHL it will be handed off to the goons at USPS for delivery via "Priority Mail" (LOL). So now it is a waiting game to get the one from Germany and get my $1200 back from Amazon. I am using the SP96 14900K purchased from @Talon in the white Apex. It is delidded and bare die now and overall a very respectable sample. It is very similar to my SP108 13900K installed in the Munchkin PC for P and E cores, but weaker on the IMC/memory overclocking. The memory controller SP was reported as kind of weak (MC78) on other BIOS versions and I could not get it stable past 8000 on the memory until I flashed test BIOS v9901 from Safedisk. That changed the MCSP to 82 and now it's stable at 8200 and running fine using the settings that were stable at 8000. This one from Brother @Talon is WAY BETTER than the trash bin crap samples sent back to NewEgg and Amazon. They must be saving all of the "average" 14900K to be rebranded as "KS" and leaving the trash for those that can't wait and don't want to pay extra for normal. I also flashed test BIOS v9901 for the Encore and it is very solid. It did not change any SP numbers on the SP117 13900K, but I was able to lower the VDIMM for 8600 from 1.650V to 1.600V without losing any stability. BIOS v9901 seems like the best for both versions of the Apex. An observation in comparing four 14900K/KF CPUs to four 13900KS CPUs (including the one the white Apex killed with TurboV Core) is that the 14th Gen seem slower at the same clocks than 13th Gen. Probably due to vulnerabilities mitigations. All of the 13900KS CPUs are 500-700 points higher in Cinebench R23 than the 14th Gen CPUs at P58x/E47x/C50x on both the Apex and Apex Encore. I'm really not identifying the 14th Gen CPUs as being a legitimate upgrade over 13900KS. Ignoring the SP ratings and VF curves and giving them what they need to run stable, the 14th Gen seem equal or worse depending on how much voltage is needed, but not demonstrably a better product in terms of performance or benchmark results when run at the same clock speeds. None of the samples I have so far will overclock higher, so kind of pointless product unless if you have a decent 13900KS. With the LLC tuned this 14900KS needs 1.280V for Cinebench R23 at P58x/E47x/C50x which is coincidentally identical to the SP108 13900KS (P120), but doesn't score as well. Temps and power draw are also the same. Pretty interesting. So, moral to the story is, don't pass up a nicely binned 13900KS in favor of a 14900K. You'll accomplish nothing. Thanks for killing my SP112 CPU ASUS. Your garbage motherboards have killed 3 so far (one 10th Gen and two 13th Gen). Good job, guys.

Probably paying attention to things that matter and are of importance. Windows 11 is not important and it doesn't matter. It is stupid and irrelevant.

I haven't heard anything of late. I certainly hope that it's still going to happen.

They have done away with some of the fancy schmancy trim that makes things look special even if they are not. That may account for part of the cost reduction as well.

I might have to try to get one of these for testing in my Munchkin PC.

AI is just a highly automated version of GIGO on steroids. It reflects the views (right, wrong or indifferent) of the minority programming it, not the masses that they claim will benefit from it. It will never be good as long as idiots are providing the logic it runs on. Looks like Google is having a Bud Light moment. GIGO is a problem. It always will be. We've known this for decades, but the agenda was business, not social re-engineering and computer-assisted brainwashing. That part is new. So is the programming being orchestrated by agenda-driven goofballs.

I love the messaging in just about everything he does. All of his songs cut to the quick and call out the insanity of the left and woke. I like this metal version of Funky Cold Medina.

I'm surprised you are running all of the pumps and external things off the system PSU. On both of my larger desktops the radiator fans and pumps run off of an inexpensive PSU with a jumper on the 24-pin motherboard cable. They do not connect to the system PSU at all. For one thing they are too far away from the computer. I'd need too many long SATA and Molex extensions. Plus it would seem kind of messy having the extensions strung across several feet.

Looks like MSI is making a comeback of the affordable MPower mobos focused on overclocking memory and CPU. Would be nice if they can get Apex or Dark performance out the door for $199. https://videocardz.com/newz/msi-mpower-series-return-with-new-z790-overclocking-board-ddr5-8000-memory-support-at-199-usd AND, Tachyon is back in stock again. I would have purchased this instead of the Encore, but none were available anywhere. @tps3443 https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16813145490?Item=N82E16813145490&Source=socialshare&cm_mmc=snc-social-_-sr-_-13-145-490-_-02262024

Interesting on the GPU having no thermal paste. I would love to know the whole story behind that. Hopefully, the owner picked it up cheap from someone that thought it was broken. Not much I have for comment on the Dell other than better than a Mac. But, that's not saying much. Any number multiplied by zero is zero. Isn't it interesting how it is so easy to tell lies for marketing purposes. It seems like it is becoming the new normal.

Nice. Here is an interesting look at the GPU performance stack. https://www.3dmark.com/compare/sw/568282/sw/1256256/sw/239604/sw/726068/sw/115478/sw/1065449/sw/920239

I have two RM1200x SHIFT and they are very good. So many people in a hurry to fix things that are not broken...

I am not disagreeing and find it objectionable to be denied the ability to do whatever I want to. But, the example of the one-off weird things that happened with Clevo and Alienware laptops does not seem to be what the people complaining are complaining about. The way I read it they were bent out of shape that MSI was not going to release firmware updates. I will go back and read it again in case I skimmed too much and they actually had a legitimate reason of some kind to worked up over it. My point was, and still is, if the monitor works correctly I don't care if MSI, LG, Sony, Dell, AOC or any other monitor manufacturer ever releases a firmware update for it even once. I would not look for a firmware update and if I became aware of one I would not flash it if my monitor was working correctly. Edit: Yeah, they expect MSI to release firmware UPDATES for the monitors. That's just stupid. That's a problem that isn't a problem. They just want something to mitch and boan about. Nothing is mentioned about being unable to re-flash the original firmware, only that MSI is not offering any "updates" or "limited" updates, LOL. MSI does not need to provide a mechanism for consumers to flash monitor firmware that doesn't belong on their monitors. Not providing an easy or convenient way for it to be done is not the same as interfering with it. Interfering or blocking it is evil. They're not doing that based on the article. The only reasons we were able to fix our Clevo and Alienware monitors was through unorthodox means. It wasn't because Clevo and Alienware were trying to prevent it, it was because they didn't have a fix for it.

I've never seen such an issue on a desktop monitor, and there was always something goofy or stupid going on with Alienware and Clevo. The only reason the Clevos that we owned did not suck is because of @Prema. And, other than the goofy stuff we saw with those laptops, I have never seen anything like it before or after. If I remember correctly, this was a defect with the design of the laptops, not their screens. (The screens were damaged because the laptops were made in a defective manner that allowed the EDID to be corrupted by the laptop.) I also remember that the screens still worked with corrupted EDID EXCEPT FOR the laptops could not output to them because the laptops relied on the EDID and could not identify the screens after the EDID was changed (again a defect in laptop design).

I agree with that based on principle. But, I read the article and did not see anything about that. The people that are whining are having a come undone (from what I can see) that MSI is not going to update the firmware. Maybe I skimmed too much and missed the complaint was relating to the denial of their autonomy to flash modded or foreign firmware if they feel like doing that. Looks like a lot of people are asking the same question I did in the comments. (That being, who cares? Why does it matter? It's a monitor.) If it works as advertised end of discussion. No reason to update the firmware. If MSI is blocking modded firmware updates to their monitors, I don't like that conceptually and feel it is none of their business. They could deny warranty if someone bricked it, so it should not matter to MSI. But my question and opinion are the same. Who cares, and why? It's a monitor.

That's just absurd, LOL. Why would they even care? I do not think that I have ever updated firmware on a monitor once in my entire life, and if the monitor is working correctly I cannot identify a reason anyone would lose any sleep over something so dumb. I mean, what is broken that they are hoping to fix? Nothing? OK then, no reason for them to ever update the firmware. Ever. Stupid.

I bought a Thermaltake Toughpower 1650W PSU that has dual 12VHPWR connections. So far it has been awesome. Yes. That worked. Thankfully.

I think you missed my question/problem. I want to disable the on-screen prompts that tell me things like you just said "Alt+R" for overlay. I DO NOT want to see those things appear on my screen when launching a game... ever. If I care about something like Ansel or ShadowPlay I will memorize the hotkeys for that and don't want to be nagged by crap appearing on my screen. But, I think I found a way to disable it in the settings. I need to test it to see if it killed that annoyance. The ability to turn off data collection is disabled, but I think I got everything else turned off. This is a very childish Windows 10/11 "feature" that I disable in Windows as well. Toast notifications of any kind (like those in Windows Action Center) bug the ever-loving crap out of me. I already use NVIDIA Profile Inspector more often than NVIDIA Control Panel just because I always want the same settings and never want to change anything, so I apply an export of my Global profile after all of my customizations are applied and just apply that with Profile Inspector with a couple of mouse clicks. That's how I define easy. Much better than a gamer-centric bloated app that does things I don't care about. I'm pretty sure this is also going to end up being chintzy UWP trash from Micro$lop Store once it is out of beta, just as they did with NVCP. It looks and feels like Windows Store trash already. I wish all of the regressions in PC tech would stop. All they do is look for ways screw things up. It makes the point-and-click kiddos and Windoze 10/11 smartphone OS Kool-Aid drinkers happy.

I haven't gone deep into the performance impact evaluation, but I have this installed on my disposable Windows 11 crash dummy OS and trying to keep an open mind. But, I am trying to identify something about it that I like and so far I find more things about it annoying than useful. I am not sure I am going to make it long enough to even bother with the performance impact evaluation stage. I played several games today after installing it, and there were several things that I found obnoxious and unwelcomed. It has some features that remind me of some of the things I despised about AMD's driver control panel. How do you (or can you) get the overlay to show more than a smidgen of useful info? I see nothing available for CPU that is meaningful and nothing for system memory, just a few basic GPU-related stats and CPU utilization. I don't understand why the overlay shows on the desktop unless you disable it. That is super annoying. It there a way to shut off the stupid feature toast notifications when launching a game, like how to enable Ansel and reminders for key combos like pressing Alt+Z? Intel has idiotic stuff like that in their Arc drivers, but it is very easy to find them and kill them. As it stands right now, I am praying this crappy app does not become a total replacement for NVIDIA Control Panel. They could/should make it optional for the people that like it, but if I have to use this to do what I use NVIDIA Control Panel for now, I am not going to be very happy about that.

I agree with you. MSI is going to be the new substitute for EVGA I think. I've never owned an MSI product that I can remember thinking was a piece of garbage. I hope Vince ends up going to work for them and they release Kingpin branded enthusiast components.