Mr. Fox

IceMan Cooler LGA 1700 direct die water block a couple of weeks ago, with a second one for my other desktop incoming. Great product.

That's really horrible. I always thought the X3D chips were pretty silly, but this is a real tragedy for anyone that wasted their money on one. They should replace all of the X3D SKUs with a complimentary 7950X.

??? What post are you responding to, Brother @ryan?

Using force to remove the stock covers can be very dangerous in terms of tearing the chips off of the PCB if not done in a very specific manner. You have to wedge an object between the IC and the cover to push the cover off away from the IC rather than pulling on the cover externally. The first couple of times I used this method, I used a plastic pick tool that was longer than the module and very slowly and gently pushed it between the IC chips and the outside cover lengthwise a few millimeters at a time. The tension between the chips and the cover pushing them apart separated them. But this method was destructive to the adhesive pads used to glue the covers in place. The safest way to get them off is to soak them in a shallow bath of lacquer thinner or acetone long enough to soften the adhesive on the pads and then they can be lifted off with minimal effort. I have used this method with two kits and it is a much better way. If you take care not to submerge the portion of the memory module that has the identification label on it, then it will be impossible to tell visually that anything has happened. After the solvent has dried there is generally most or all of the adhesive left intact and you can reinstall the covers and it will look as if they have never been tampered with. You need to store the covers inside of the original plastic clamshell to avoid any dust getting on the adhesive over time so that they remain sticky in case you ever wish to sell or RMA the modules. Then you can put them back on again later and they'll look as good as new. If no harm is done removing the covers there is absolutely no legitimate or honorable basis for the warranty to be affected. You would actually be doing the manufacturer a huge favor and enhancing the life and stability of the memory modules by getting those crappy heating blankets off of them. Knowing that most of the OEMs look for lame excuses to not stand behind their products, it is wise to take steps to avoid giving them something to leverage as an excuse for shirking their responsibility for selling a good quality, long-lasting product.

They will help more than you would think for memory. They would work better if they had fins on top or something like that, but they would be a huge improvement over the stock heating blanket garbage. I know putting the water cooling RAM jackets on my G.SKILL and TeamGroup modules knocked about 10°C off the temps without changing anything else. Even naked with a fan blowing on the sticks is better than the stock trash beautification covers that most DDR4/5 modules have installed on them.

Those are basically exactly the same design as the water cooling RAM jackets minus the holes on top to attach the block. Unless you want them for the fancier aesthetic and "scales" design on the side, just buy the red, black or water cooling RAM jackets for a whole lot less money. Either one will be much better than the stock heating blankets. Just be aware that if you ever decide to add a water block, those will need to be replaced with the version that has the holes on top to attach the block. China: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2047675.m570.l1313&_nkw=+B-MRCOV-X-V2&_sacat=0 US Seller: https://www.ebay.com/itm/295428113138 (choose the option for 2xBlack, 2xRed or 2xWhite for $19.99... I purchased mine from this seller)

Twice the motherboard, half the price... and a real warranty that takes care of your needs, should you have any, with a sense of urgency and genuine customer care. https://www.evga.com/products/product.aspx?pn=121-AL-E699-KR The Apex doesn't look or feel like anything more than a 2-DIMM Strix with a DIMM.2 slot and a few extra nice features the Strix is missing. But, the overall quality feels very cheap like the Strix. Thin and lightweight PCB. It's not horrible, but it sure as hell ain't a $700 product IMHO.

Not worth it. Too much money for a stripped naked used mobo of unknown condition and no warranty. $250 was a fair offer. I will let him keep it or wait for someone that wants to overpay him for it and keep running the defective Apex at its max stable DDR5-6800. At the end of the day, the actual performance difference between 6800 and 8200 is small and hard to measure with anything but memory benchmarks. In almost everything else the difference is irrelevant.

That's correct. Brother @ryananother pre-built brand that Hardware Unboxed is sponsoring is https://skytechgaming.com/product/eclipseb-0533-13900k-4090-32grgb/

As usual, Tommy's shill-mill makes no mention of their having missed the mark with disappointing performance results based on overstated expectations, misleading marketing hype, reliability and QC issues that have surfaced during Q4 of last year and Q1 of this year. After all, none of those things would have an effect on revenue, now would they?

No worries. I usually take the high road, so you could have been talking to me,too. I didn't this time because it really rubbed me the wrong way and I stooped to his level. At least (assuming the post remains) maybe my superficially kind/subtly sarcastic response to his snarky public reply may save someone else from wasting their time with that clown. Looks like he is also slow to respond to others that expressed interest. He must be a really "special" fella. I mean, what kind is nutty weirdo sells all of the heat sinks off of a severely overpriced motherboard for their scrap metal weight value and then expects to get anything halfway decent as a used resale price for it when they are done using it? And, on top of being used and not eligible for warranty, I suspect it has be rag-dolled pretty hard on LN2, so even that makes my offer pretty generous. Well, I sold the EK Velocity2 direct die block and redesigned die frame to a fellow Arizona resident that hangs out at overclock.net. I used the money from that to order another IceMan block.

Nah, I did it on purpose, since he thought it would be cute to insult me as a low-baller in public the least I could do it put his stupidity in context for anyone else that might be interested later. I thought $250 for a parted out motherboard that nobody can use in a normal PC was pretty dog-gone generous. I wouldn't want it even for free if I did not have all of the parts that are missing on his naked PCB. It's worthless the way it is, unless you need a spare part for LN2 destruction.

Dad gum. What a bung-hole this smart-alecky fool is. Not sure I would even buy this from him if he changed his mind. I PM'd him Friday of last week. https://community.hwbot.org/topic/223937-fs-z690-apex-dark-ddr4-igame-4000c14/#comment-641215 @johnksss @tps3443

On a GPU that is both power and voltage limited, overclocking can and does cause it to be unstable if you push it too hard, but it does not damage the GPU because it has been castrated to such a degree that there is no mechanism for the damage to occur. It remains within the range of acceptable specs for power and voltage (which you have no meaningful control over without performing hardware modifications) and you simply end up with an unstable pile of garbage if you push it too hard. Think of it like you would a motor vehicle that misfires and malfunctions if you attempt to overrev the engine. You're not going to blow it up, it's just going to run like crap because you are attempting to do something it is incapable of doing because it is malfunctioning. If you overheat your GPU, just like your car, that can cause damage and shorten its lifespan in a measurable way. If that is happening, then chances are also fairly good that running it stock is also causing thermally-induced damage. Especially so if it is a laptop. I have never experienced the death of the GPU due to overclocking. I've had some dead GPUs before--almost entirely MXM--but nothing to suggest overclocking had anything to do with it. My shunt modded GPUs were never adversely impacted as far as I could tell, and none of them ever stopped working. I attribute the MXM cards that died as having died due to heat fatigue and compromised engineering. They're just not durable products and never have been. I have not personally owned or seen an Intel CPU that was damaged from overclocking. It can happen and I have heard stories about it, but cannot validate them. It is uncommon. More likely due to overheating. While they are not power and voltage limited like modern day castrated GPUs and could theoretically be damaged, it would not happen in a vacuum and you would have to be deliberately trying to tear it up acting like a bull in a china cabinet. Here again, overheating it (due to overclocking or poor thermal management otherwise, without an overclock) can damage it or shorten its lifespan. Although, a whole lot less likely than a GPU due to more effective thermal protections and tripping mechanisms. If you're running an AMD CPU or GPU, then a lot more can go wrong. It seems that both historically, and as recently as a few days ago with their latest CPUs, we have seen issues with goofed up voltage and thermals that can kill the AMD component. Overclocking isn't required for this tragedy. And, these malfunctions are engineering defects that are extreme in nature, not a result of overclocking. Remember when Jay tried to kill his 9900K ES CPU on purpose? That didn't work out like he hoped it would. It was too tough to kill. Laptops in general tend to be unreliable and their GPUs are the most common point of failure, even in the absence of overclocking. They are not made to be durable. The manufacturers cut corners on design and they tend to slowly cook themselves to death. They are made to last only as long as the warranty. BGA isn't less reliable, per se. BGA makes it easier for them to sell you a new laptop because you cannot fix the soldered turd they sold you that wasn't very durable in the first place. The inability to upgrade is collateral damage.

I think it is totally safe. I think the notion that it is unsafe is totally wrong and reflects lack of understanding on the people that believe it is unsafe. You can't really say that because someone has overclocked a component that it is the reason it failed unless you have a crystal ball. Stuff wears out and things fail even when they live a pampered life. Lots of people that never overclock have motherboards and GPUs that fail. If anything is done incorrectly, in a foolish or haphazard manner it has potential to be "unsafe" or result in a failure, but I would not classify overclocking as being an unsafe, dangerous or detrimental practice. Like anything else, it's not the product, but the person using the product that is the problem and that is dangerous (you can include guns, fast cars and alcoholic beverages in the same conversation) or an inherent flaw or design defect in the product that results in an undesirable outcome 99.9% of the time.

Even though the presumed intent is to avoid conflict and controversy, preoccupation with political correctness and avoidance of controversial topics can be an impediment to doing what is right and best because you're burning too many calories on not offending a fringe minority view. And, that can be a reflection of the programmer. Balance can be good, but sometimes it's not and you need to call the balls and strikes and not fret over who might get huffy about it.

The AI will automatically reflect the theories and beliefs of the people doing the programming, no matter how sound or absurd those theories and beliefs may be. Undeniably nice to look at, but if they're not real then...

I hope you are wrong, too. That would be a clear line of demarcation identifying the end of my overclocking/benching hobby.

You beat me to it @ryan. I just saw Brother Tom MacDonald's latest genius masterpiece today. I'm surprised the leftist clown posse hasn't ordered a hit on him for his relentless exposure of their evil, filthy nonsense.

Since you're stuck using W10/11 cancer like everyone else with a current gen GPU you should probably enable resizable bar support. I haven't noticed anything with a performance regression having it in enabled. In most things you will not notice any benefit to having it enabled, but turning it on will bring a minor performance improvement in a few benchmarks and games. Apparently, resizable bar support makes a massive difference having it enabled with Intel iGFX or Arc graphics and disabling it tanks performance.

Windows 10/11 do the same stupid thing to my 6900 XT. I thought something was messed up at first, but running the GPU-Z render test showed the PCIe bus speed working correctly when the GPU was being utilized. The power-saving features on newer versions of Windows really suck. They're catering to turdbook owners that stress out over how long they can run their junky notebooks on battery power. If your BIOS has the option to search it works pretty handy. I use that often to locate a setting when I am not sure about what menu to look at to find it.

I have to say I am super-impressed with the IceMan block. I am thinking about buying another and selling the SuperCool block just because the IceMan looks better and is like a bazillion times more convenient to remove and install. I still haven't taken time to mess with the EK block. I've really lost interest in farting around with it at this point. If someone wants to buy it and the new parts EK sent to me send me a PM. The IceMan doesn't look as gorgeous as the EK Velocity2, but even if it works as well as the IceMan block, the convenience of using the IceMan is making me not want to use anything else at this point. I value that more than the superior aesthetics of the Velocity2. I also found out why my temps were a bit high on the system with the IceMan block. The 91°C max temp in CBR23 was because there was air trapped in the block. My PrimoChill D5 pump/res was allowing air to get sucked into the loop and it could never eliminate the bubbles. I replaced it with an Alphacool pump/res and now the temps are much better. One of the things I have always LOVED about my XSPC Photon reservoirs is the tubes are thick glass, not chintzy acrylic tubes. I chose the Alphacool option because the tube is glass. No regrets. I like it a lot. Here is a picture of it in action. This first image is with the same BIOS settings where it was hitting 91°C. Now about 8-10°C better. Now, kicking the clock up to 5.7 from 5.6 on P-cores, the 13900KF (which uses 0.050mV more than my 13900K due to inferior bin quality) essentially matches the temps seen on the SuperCool Computer direct die block. Check it out. IceMan block... SuperCool block

Well, the name on the IHS matches the product if I am understanding correctly. It is, in fact, a 7950X like what is laser-etched on the IHS, right? If the box was factory-sealed it had to have come that way from AMD. At least they didn't have the kind of mess that I got from B&H Photo where I was sold an open-box (paid for new) with a Haswell CPU that some scammer glued a 10900K IHS on top of. For those with an AMD GPU, check out this overclocking tool. Once you have increased your power limits using MPT, this is a whole lot more convenient to use than the Wattman bloatware. I had never heard of it before. It hasn't been updated recently, but it seems to work great on my 6900 XT. I totally like the minimalist Windows 7-style GUI that doesn't waste a ton of screen space on giant text crap with lots of unused space in the UI. (Don't know why that ugly crap look is so popular now, but I think it sucks.) Anyhoo... grab this OverdriveNTool... https://sourceforge.net/projects/overdriventool/ https://phoenixnap.dl.sourceforge.net/project/overdriventool/OverdriveNTool 0.2.9.zip @Rage Set @Raiderman

So did it appear to be factory-sealed and packaged wrong by AMD? It clearly says 7950X on the IHS, but that X3D missing could be easily overlooked by accident if you're buying a new factory-sealed box processor.

This is an interesting new invention from Roman.