Mr. Fox

Off topic here, but possibly of interest. Outlook PRE. Check it out. I just discovered it totally by accident when messing with something else. For every good and nice thing there are at least several that are not. You guys know how I feel about ASUS garbage software. It's fancy, but extremely broken and will often not even function. This digital feces will install fairly consistently for me on an unmodded crash dummy OS. It is unfortunate that they have made it such a grotesquely bloated piece of trash. If it were not it would actually be nice. Look how much system resources this piece of crap uses just idle on the desktop. Un. godly. When I used Revo to uninstall it, last time it removed nearly 1500 registry keys. Isn't that just insane? Why can't they give us a good old win32 TurboV Core and bring back the old win32 Aura utility that just works without sucking the life out of everything it soils? They can. Maybe I should rephrase that and ask, why don't they want to give us software that just work? UWP filth sucks. Yes, that is a rhetorical question and we already know the answer is because they are idiots.

I haven't seen that issue before. Are you trying to use the latest but not greatest version of the turd OS? Maybe try an older version in the 21H2 family. 22H2 is poo-poo-caca. With all of the things the Redmond Reprobates are effing up left and right, once in a while there is a small glimmer of intelligence that emanates from the posterior orifice where there brains are stored. But, in order to be entitled in harshness, one has to give credit when credit is due. Otherwise, you will just be mistaken for someone that enjoys complaining. Here is something they just did that I really like. The Windows Mail app, which I haven't liked since they changed it from Outlook Express to Mail, has been revamped. Outlook PRE is what they call it, and it is very similar to the current version of Outlook (which is the only email app that I actually like). If you configure the Mail app and see the slider in the upper right corner to "Try Outlook" (or something similar) turn it on. Be happy. They actually did something good for the first time ina very long time. But, don't hold your breath or let them know you like it or they'll screw it up, too. @Papusan

I generally do not do anything that consumes 64GB of memory, and unless you exhaust the available physical memory, or approach that threshold, I do not believe it will measurably affect the computing experience. If you are doing things that consume all of your available memory and become dependent on a swap file, that is going to noticeably degrade performance. I am all for the idea of having a lot more than what is needed. Always better to have excess than not enough. That said, if the amount of RAM or the DIMM configuration impairs my memory overclocking, then I am not OK with it. So, I would not be OK with installing 64GB of RAM unless it overclocked equal to or better than 32GB or 48GB. But, that is because my main interest is overclocking. If my primary interest or business needs were content creation or something like that, I would likely feel differently about everything else being secondary to overclocking.

Missed you little brother/daddy. Thanks for stopping in to let us know that you're still kicking it. Hope all is well with fam.

Does your new AMD GPU have Windows 7 functionality? What is it like? Show Us Your Linux Desktop Linux Gaming Thread Start with something extra-easy. Zorin OS is probably the best for a Linux newcomer to dip their toe into the water and have an excellent experience. I would start there. Linux Mint with Cinnamon Desktop also closely resembles Windows appearance and functionality. It is also generally easy to install. Not as easy as Zorin, but also not hard. Many first-time Linux users start here and have a good experience. If you want something that is easy to use and install that DOES NOT resemble the look and feel of Windows, then the easiest is probably going to be POP!_OS. This OS is developed by System76. The are a Clevo reseller and build custom desktops that ship with their Linux distro. The distro is a rock-solid performer that is stable and reliable. It has to be for them to put their name on it and ship it with their new systems. But, I absolutely hate how the GUI looks. Not only does it look and feel nothing like Windows, the color schemes and wallpaper and what-not are about as ugly as they could get. I know some people like it, but some people liked Windows 8 and some like Windows 11, so I digress. Edit: You post right before I did, @ryan As you can see, Zorin was my top recommendation. When you run Zorin from USB in try-out mode you will be given the option to install it. When you start the installation it will detect Windows and give you the option to install it along side Windows. It should walk you through how much space you want to give Zorin, etc. It will resize your Windows partition according to the instructions you give it if you choose to install it on the same drive as Windows. It also has built-in NVIDIA and AMD GPU support and hybrid graphics support, so it should work fine for your laptop.

Windows 7 has worked flawlessly for me, in a few cases with modded drivers being required, up to the following points: Intel Z690 and AMD X570 Intel i225V LAN RTX 3090 RX 6900/6950 XT Intel 7265 WiFi Newer graphics, LAN and WiFi have no working driver support. I don't know what generation Intel HD graphics lost support, but I don't care because I have never used an iGPU for anything. I am not sure at what point mobile graphics lose support with driver mods. There is a possibility Z790 might work using the same drivers as Z690. I haven't tested it. There is not only a lack of driver support, but most of the OEMs are moving to the UWP Gonorrhea distribution model, so there are some things that don't work when software is required. (Armory Crate is one example of that. It does not work with older versions of Windows 10 either. Bastards.) Linux has never been more important than it is now. The mentally handicapped Nazis that have always hated Linux are doing things that will only further its adoption by people who are unwilling to bow down and worship at their altar of filth. You can use the nowat hack to eliiminate the need for Windows 7 activation. It just removes Windows Activation Technology (thus the name "no wat") from the OS, LOL. Works great.

Exactly. I run 6 different versions of Windows, plus Linux. It is like having a different wrench for each size of bolt. Using a pair of pliers or a crescent wrench doesn't work as well, and it messes up the bolts when your tool slips. And, when I say I like one version more than another, there is a reason for it. It's not just me throwing rocks at the newer garbage. It is because newer IS GARBAGE. My installed operating systems, listed in order of preference from greatest to least preferred: KDE Linux with Plasma (1TB NVMe on Sabrent Card) Windows 10 LTSC 2019 (50% of 1TB NVMe on Sabrent Card) Windows 10 LTSC 2021 (50% of 1TB NVMe on Sabrent Card) Windows 11 Pro Lite Plus (1TB NVMe on Sabrent Card) Windows 11 Pro Ghost Spectre (1TB NVMe on Sabrent Card) Windows 11 Pro - Full Cancer Version (512GB NVMe on DIMM.2_1) < Crash Dummy OS* Windows 11 Pro - Full Cancer for Work (512GB NVMe on DIMM.2_2) < Crash Dummy OS* *has ASUS Armory Crate and all the UWP/update filth the Redmond Reprobates vomit onto it Additional Drives: Crucial T700 2TB NVMe - Benchmarks (M.2_1 on mobo by GPU) Crucial T700 2TB NVMe - Game Drive (M.2_2 on mobo by PCIe x16_2) Intel 660P 2TB NVMe - Game Overflow (on PCIe x1 card under GPU) Samsung 840 EV0 1TB SSD - for Macrium Images (SATA) Hitachi 4TB HDD - for Data Files (SATA) ASUS DVD-RW - for Windows 7 install with 6900 XT and whatever uses optical discs (SATA) All of the OSes, including Linux, are installed on this single-NVMe card first, set aside while the next OS is installed, and then later all are installed in their respective places. This way each OS has its own boot loader and does not rely on a boot loader resident on another volume. Any can be removed at any time without affecting another OS. I then use EasyBCD to the first drive in my BIOS boot priority to "link" all of the other bootable OSes. Linux (GrubEFI) adds all of them automatically, so if I boot the Linux drive I can load any version of Windows or Linux from the Grub Boot menu.

That's OK. At least you admitted it. 🧡 Lots of people are wrong about Windows 11 being good/better than a previous OS, just as lots or them were about Windows 10 and Windows 8 being better, yet they refuse to admit it. Maybe because they enjoy the feces-flavored Kool-Aid freebie filth from the App Store. And, look at the part of the score where Windows 10 rips off Windows 11's head and poops down its neck... CPU. For some idiotic reason, the losers at Micro$lop can't figure out how to not ruin CPU performance. They get worse with time, not better. Maybe it is intentional. It is hard to fathom that it could just be morbid stupidity, but it could be. It doesn't help when their minions like UL/Futuremark don't give equal credit for CPU performance. All part of the smoke screen. Code the outcome to communicate what you want the sheeple to believe. Like Brother @Papusansays... lipstick on a pig.

There is little to be gained in terms of benchmark scores. But, there is a little bit. Winduhz 11 will still suck no matter what you do to it. But, there is some satisfaction to be had is tearing up their crap OS and removing garbage that benefits no end user, even if it doesn't improve performance. As long as it doesn't hurt performance, I am all for destroying the cancer cells in their disgusting abortion OS. Stock, it's a barrel full of feces. I like it when OS modders find ways of surgically removing garbage that benefit only the Redmond Mafia, with the only qualifier being that it is stable and does not hurt performance. I don't care if it is less secure. That has never been important to me. I would still be using Windows 7 as my daily driver OS but for the lack of working drivers for my current hardware. I think CableMod have been very honorable. Far more honorable than almost any other company that serves gamers and performance PC enthusiasts, probably second only to the soon-to-be extinct EVGA (broken heart). They have repaired and replaced many graphics cards that burned with one of their adapters connected to it. NVIDIA, ASUS, Gigabutt and MSI have basically told customers to pound sand when their products fail due to engineering defects. CableMod could have done the same thing and gotten away with blaming it on the end user. The burden of proving the fault falls on the accuser. And, they are under no obligation to disclose any technical details, and I do not blame them for not doing so. The world we live in is filled with dishonest people looking to make money by abusing the civil court system and the less a business discloses about its products the safer they are. I don't blame them for not divulging information. Very smart on their part.

I am not familiar with Revios. Oprekin is my preferred modded Winduhz option because it does away with everything that is worthless and cuts the waste of system resources and needless overhead by about 60-70%. Ghost Spectre has a very nice feature set and looks good, but poor CPU performance on W11. It is still too bloated, with too many garbage services running that should not even exist. It's barely an improvement over a stock Windows install in terms of wasted system resources. I am getting less and less tolerant of Windows. The less benching I do, the less reason there is for me to have a platform that runs Windows. As long as I am still working I will need Windows to do my job. I have too many things that I do daily that are reliant on Windows. When I eventually retire, there really won't be anything that I need Windows for any more. Just benching. The more I use Linux, the more I like it. In most ways it is more desirable, more satisfying to use and a more elegant solution. The more Winduhz de-evolves, the less likable it becomes. At this point I view Windoze and crApple OSes as being nothing more than dumbed-down data collection kiosk OSes for tech-illiterate zombies.

100%. I don't like SFF desktops at all, but even a SFF desktop like what Brothers @electrosoftand @Custom90gthave put together are miles ahead of turdbooks. I'd choose that over a turdbook any day of the week.

Nope. We do most of the things you have tried. Nothing special. Just better hardware. That's why I want nothing to do with turdbooks any more. I invented the moniker "turdbook" because they are turds and the sheeple are obsessed with the unnecessary portability of "_books" and smartphones.

It will depend on what you are scoring. If you are using something that favors Windows 11 your scores will be lower. If you look closely, as long as things are configured correctly your CPU benchmarks scores will be higher with Windows 10. The graphics scores higher with Windows 11. It is basically selecting the better tool for the job. Neither one of them are the absolute best for CPU and memory performance, but they are the hand we have been dealt. The only great OSes are Windows 7 and Linux. They (Redmond Retards) don't make any money from the use of Windows 7 and Linux, so they are working extra hard on forcing everyone into using their data harvesting mind-control garbage OSes that allow them to profit. Are you ready to begin "renting" Winduhz for a monthly fee? Get ready. It's coming. Now we have a clearer picture of why installing Windows 11 is free and can be activated using command line scripts. They don't care if anyone pays for it or not. Giving it away for free will soon pay for itself. And, we all know what the zombie sheeple will do, right? They'll fall in line. After all, they passed the COVID-19 obedience test experiment with flying colors (and fancy face masks, LOL).

What game(s) do these screenshots correspond with? Nothing identifies the title in the screenshots that I can see.

Is it summer yet? Yup.

Probably would work right. Looks like the price is sweet for $99 from Amazon. You could always grab them and if the are not great RMA them. They may be SK Hynix. But, if they run 6000 stable and do not have any issues with the A6 hang and perform well, it probably doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Almost everything I have purchased in the TeamGroup brand has been good quality. I did have a memory kit that wasn't as good as some of the others (silicon lottery) from TeamGroup, but even that one was better than the G.SKUNK crap I returned. I have numerous SSDs, NVMe and USB flash drives from them and they have also been excellent.

That would work. But, you will need to research to see if they have EXPO profiles though. I have no idea if they do. If not, you would be looking at manual memory tuning if the Intel XMP profile won't work on AMD. Edit: Looks like they do, but they are very specific about which ones support AMD EXPO. White: https://www.amazon.com/TEAMGROUP-T-Force-6000MHz-Optimized-FF8D532G6000HC38ADC01/dp/B0BRQ2NZTJ Black: https://www.amazon.com/TEAMGROUP-T-Force-6000MHz-Optimized-FF8D532G6000HC38ADC01/dp/B0BRQ21XK1?th=1 NewEgg: https://www.newegg.com/team-32gb/p/N82E16820331989 The AMD EXPO product is called "Alpha" by TeamGroup. https://www.teamgroupinc.com/en/product/delta-alpha-ddr5 On the AMD EXPO modules they don't specifically say they are SK Hynix. They say... They have Delta (RGB) and Vulcan (non-RGB) Alpha options. https://www.teamgroupinc.com/en/products/compare/result/

I do not believe there is a Microcenter in Boise, ID. So, Brother @Raiderman is in the same unfortunately situation I am in. No Microcenter in Phoenix, and none within even a slightly absurd drive distance. Closest locations to me are Tustin, CA and Dallas, TX. Another good option (perhaps the BEST option) is to order naked green Hynix A-die sticks from AliExpress for less than half the cost of a retail kit, install aftermarket heat sinks (even a water block if you want to) and enjoy having some money left over, along with nearly guaranteed good overclocking sticks. The only potential downside is if you were hoping to take the lazy route and just set an XMP or EXPO profile and move on. That's not possible and performance tuning is manual. The flip side of having no XMP or EXPO profiles is a proper Hynix A-die stick is already clocked to 5600 by default. You can add a little bit of voltage and push it to 6000 stable without touching any of the timings and leaving SPD default timings. So far that has worked for me consistently. Adding an extra 400-600 MT/s to the memory clock has been effortless with A-die, with no need to unlock the PMIC for more voltage. From there all you need to do is make minor adjustments in small increments to timings, a few at a time, until you find where it becomes unstable, then back off a notch or two. Side benefit here is you get memory that runs cooler without the trashy stock heating blankets, and no RGB software garbage to deal with if you're not content with looking at a never-ending rainbow puke light show. I don't know why it is so hard to find non-RGB memory kits. It seems like there are lots of people expressing their general displeasure with the rainbow puke, as it is a relatively common complaint among enthusiasts. @Custom90gtdid you get your naked greens? How are they clocking for you, bro? If you are limiting memory clock to 6000 you can go a whole lot tighter on some of the timings, and run very low voltage, with Micron, Samsung or Hynix modules. I could run less than 300 tRFC with M-die clocked into the 6200-6400 range, but you need to be in the 400's with M-die and tRFC in the 600's and higher with A-die once you start pushing into the 7200 and higher speed realm.

You can usually tell by the part number on G.SKILL, but the speed is also a dead give-away in most cases. The rated XMP speed is a reflection of the capability of the memory IC. So, you won't see Micron or Samsung memory kits above 6000-6200 because that exceeds their normal functional capabilities. It is almost guaranteed that above 6200 is SK Hynix M-die or A-die. Anything in the 6400-6800 range is SK Hynix, usually M-die up to 6400. Above 6400 usually Hynix A-die. Samsung can generally be speed rated up to about 6000. Below 6000 it could be anything and it really doesn't matter what it is because you're shopping for cheap parts and don't care about overclocking or performance tuning in the low-budget product category. There is that point of possible overlap in the 6000 realm. TeamGroup Delta is SK Hynix and they advertise that is the ony IC they utilize.

If maxing out the frequency is not the objective or the platform prevents it, M-die is actually better because you can run it with tighter timings than what is possible with A-die. Especially tRFC (in the low and mid 400's) and tCKE (in low single digits, like 5 or 6).

I am not 100% positive, but I do not believe that EXPO has anything to do with the brand of the IC. I believe it is an AMD standard like XMP is for Intel. If I am not mistaken, EXPO means it has an "AMD XMP profile" available in the SPD that is optimized for AMD. I think you might find memory modules with an EXPO profile using Micron, Samsung or SK Hynix ICs on them. Samsung B-die DDR5 performs well and is stable up to around 6000-6200, maybe even 6400 with golden sample memory chips. SK Hynix is preferred due to the much higher memory overclocking capacity, like 7200 and higher, that it offers.

When the reviewers are all calling foul it is definitely a time you want to pause and pay close attention. It is either true and the product is garbage that should be avoided; or, they are all part of a very carefully orchestrated conspiracy intended to cause harm to the subject under review, or its manufacturer. This is highly unlikely in the context of a product review. If that many say it is no good, or a poor value, then it is probably true. They have a lot to risk personally by presenting the unvarnished truth. Probably to an even greater degree with what they present in a negative light because--whether it is true or not--they want to portray an image of unbiased professionalism. Without that they have nothing to offer anyone. In a political or social popularity scenario where we find self-anointed thought police with an agenda, the latter is entirely possible or maybe even highly likely, because success of the agenda itself, not public opinion about the messenger, is the end game.

The markets, and those competing in them, continue to shrink. That unfavorable condition relieves the players of the need for need for urgency or feeling of obligation to produce something better or of more excellent quality than their competitors. This is especially problematic when they have no competitor. It's not really a monopoly. It is merely a situation where nobody else is interested in participating. That is sad and scary for anyone buying the product. I consider most reviews (written or video) to be largely entertainment content, not entirely different than the talking heads that like to think of themselves as journalists and news casters. I accept the entertainment on face value and decide what, if any, of the information contained in the review is worth being noted or counting as fact. More often than not the "news" or "review" is a presentation of personal bias surrounded by bits of information carefully assembled in such a manner as to manipulate the opinions of those attempting to digest what they have just read, watched or heard. The information I value the most is the negative or obscure details that are conveniently omitted by the mainstream because they would adversely impact the agenda they are peddling. We see this constantly in the technology realm, as much or maybe even more than the political and social realms. Professional reviewers do not want to have to find a new way to make money or receive free products that somebody might like to have. They're smart enough to know they won't be asked to review more products if they expose all of the flaws or take a critical view of the products they are provided for review. That's why I don't do beta product testing for Dell/Alienware any more. They wanted validation more than objective criticism and attention drawn to defects. They never said that, but it was obvious when the products stopped coming when the defects were identified, called out as such, and well documented. Probably selling at a loss, and writing off the loss on taxes, to eliminate the liability of having products rot on warehouse or store shelves. The longer the inventory stales, the lower its value falls. Taking a small loss now is better than a large loss later. Or, perhaps an inaccurate representation of profit margin being smaller than it actually is. Or, maybe some of both.

@tps3443is correct. The Z690 MEG Unify-X was, and still is, truly amazing. I wish they would have released a Z790 version of it. I think the bottom line is they probably decided they did not need to, for the following reason(s): Z790 doesn't bring anything new that is worthy of mention. Intel eliminated Optane support that hardly anyone cared about, and freed up the PCIe lanes for PCIe 5.0, which nobody benefits from currently. It's a new feature with no practical application. There was zero performance improvement with Z790, except to the extent that OEMs diverted their efforts toward selling the new product. The chipset doesn't offer anything in terms of performance enhancements (per Intel). Z790 boards are better purely as a result of the OEMs burning calories on their shiny new mobos. MSI is not focused on the overclocker market. They are a gamer brand first and foremost. The Unify-X still overclocks memory better than 99% of the high end motherboards on the market. It smokes 4-DIMM mobos. I wish MSI would get more in tune with the overclocking crowd. With EVGA leaving the niche, ASUS is really the only serious player at this point. With no competition in that realm, ASUS is more likely to get worse, not better. The Gigabutt Tachyon is a piece of garbage. It is only a smidgen better than the defectively engineered Z690 Apex. If my understanding is correct, it maxes out between 7600 and 7800 with good A-die samples. So, actually that is more than a smidgen better than Z690 Apex, but not in the same league as the Z690 Dark, Z790 Dark or Z790 Apex. I do blame them, and that is appropriate. The issues I had were not brand-specific. Some brands were worse than others, but the issues were widespread and totally AMD's fault. Some brands managed to minimize the issues through their own efforts, while others elected to ignore the AMD flaws and it was left up to AMD to try to fix their mistakes. And, AMD didn't really fix anything. 65K Cinebench R23 score and 700W+ power draw, while thermally limited by air cooling. Imagine this on chilled water or LN2.