electrosoft

He's fun to watch though..... 🤣 He definitely has a very small following but 40k isn't terrible and enough to grift a decent amount of $$$ his way via discord paywalls, tuning classes, custom tuning for $500 a pop and constantly soliciting donations, hawking his classes or directing his followers to publicly thank those who donate over and over again.....

I started having weird little freezes with my main rig about a month ago. I caught the flu and was down for the count for 10 days and did not care about my computer, but getting back to D2D usage and just very random little issues. On the 17th the errors went into full tilt hardware errors overdrive: That was when I pulled my 5090 to swap into my Ultra rig and it had no problems and my main rig "calmed down" a bit without the 5090 in there. Still, something was up. Pulled out good 'ole AIDA full suite stress test, no problems. Pulled out OCCT and ran extreme tests on every sub system no problems. Ran OCCT combined extreme and started getting random errors every different run within 5-60 seconds: "VRAM failed," "GPU failed," "memory failed" and even "CPU failed". Each run was a crap shoot which error I would get so I was pretty sure it was the EVGA P2 1600w that was slowly failing and then suddenly took a turn for the worse. Installed the MSI AI1600T tonight and combined passed with flying colors. As a checksum, hooked the EVGA P2 1600w to the Ultra Rig with the 9070xt and OCCT combined crashed and burned on it too with the 9070xt. Bonus was seeing transients on the 9070xt hitting 600w+..... Getting the AI1600T couldn't have come at a better time.... EVGA P2 1600w has a 10 year warranty so it will be interesting to test the "new" EVGA for an RMA.....might as well get an RMA for a dead/dying K20 keyboard I have in the closet too from them. wasn't worth the postage to send it back but combined with the PSU probably worth the round trip.I tossed one of their wireless mice that just died a bit ago. Shoulda held onto it to toss in there too for an RMA...... Wife's EVGA K20 keyboard is still going strong and she beats the crap out of that thing playing WoW..... MSI AI1600T is gorgeous.....too bad you'll never see it in this Phanteks case. Good thing is switching to a single 12v2x6 run and the way the cables are thinner and braided meant easier runs and management. It has a USB-C to USB connector to the MB, but you need to run MSI Center Bloatware to access the features and yeah, no thank you. I'll use it as is. Almost in final boss form ( need to make a few cuts to the brackets for the DDR5 fan): ----------------------- Yeah, that was a pleasant surprise on the Ultra when running the original MSI octopus connector directly vs through the WVP2. I'll take every bit of coil whine reduction I can get. Definitely going to go back to 800w Matrix as my daily vs just testing but I also want to test the 1000w Lightning. Nothing wrong with the gigachad, but I'm leaving a lot of the 1.125v cap on my card on the table with the 600w variants. One thing I learned during the Pandemic was to scroll on by comments and positions that make zero sense. Better for your mental health. Politics? Religion? Absolutely stupid takes on tech? Scroll Scroll Scroll! I feel bad for family and friends that sit on forums and social media for hours on end just arguing. You won't walk away feeling better and you will carry that luggage with you for an indeterminate amount of time. Most forums and groups I quietly extract nuggets of useful information and absolutely refuse to engage in any type of flame wars. It's just not worth it. I didn't join OCN till 4-5 years ago, so I have no idea what it was like during its heyday. I am not. I'll have to give it a whirl. I'll have to check, but outside of outliers that heavily favor X3D (IE Fallout 76), Arrowlake is solid at 4k IMHO. I was a little bummed they cancelled the 290k. I was tempted to pick up that nice 285k over on the OCN forums that is delidded and 9200 C40 certified to play with.... Arrowlake felt a touch like Rocket Lake and almost a prototype calm before the big storm coming. I'm expecting big things at the end of the year from Intel. At least almost all of the XOC bios files are out in the wild now to play with so that's a plus....unless you're an FE owner or an Asus/Suprim AIO owner. As for the 9070xt? Marketshare tells us if given a choice, gamers will pick Nvidia all day everyday still but with 5070ti prices through the roof, 9070xt is viable....if priced properly. All the market conditions in the world won't force gamers to exceed a certain price point. I knew the writing was on the wall when Newegg started lowering their 9000 series prices a few weeks ago. Either lower the prices or get stuck with a glut considering 9000 series has been on the market for almost a year and 5000 series for over a year. Many who wanted them have bought them. Same theory applies to ram prices. You can jack up the prices all you want, but all I'm seeing is plenty of stock, eBay kits priced lower than the MSRP ones not moving and Newegg and MC now offering bundle deals. Nevermind the price of many things overall has gone up in this economy. Comparing my grocery price history today vs a few years ago and it's a bloodbath. Comparing many items on subscription on Amazon and prices are up easily 10-15% overall if not more. Prices in restaurants is so outrageous now and/or shrinkflation we eat at home now or do pick up orders to avoid a savage 20%-23% "recommended" tip (remember when 15% was considered generous?) Good times!

Installed the WV2Pro while testing on the Ultra for setup, taking the Corsair SFX SL1000 for a real run and some basic looking around. SFX 1000w has held up nicely.... Testing with the MSI Yellow tip of death adapter during Steel Nomad runs before I get around to the big transplant. Still collecting some Ultra WoW data for my archives. Verdict with MSI's yellow tipped 4 headed octopus? Not doing backflips.... Saw pin 2 dip as low as 6.8 and Pin 6 as high as 9.4... Interesting coil whine test. Connected directly to the Corsair SFX SL1000 and the Vanguard was definitely noisier than in my main case (inversely, the 9070xt is quieter in my main rig case with the P2 than with the Corsair), but when I hooked up the WV2Pro, that extra coil whine went away. That bodes very well.

Finally got around to the ole switcheroo for some FO76 and WoW testing.... Welp, my 265k adventures have come to an end for potential on my main rig methinks. 9800X3D is just too beastly in Fallout 76 9070xt is just too weak on top of that but that was to be expected against a card that costs 3-6x more and is really a 5070ti/5080 contender depending on games played. Good news is for WoW at 4k? 265k tuned is a legit contender. It also was holding its own in Hogwarts too. For raids, I found it had almost that same smoothness and control of the lows like the SP109 14900KS in the wife's system. If all I played was WoW, I'd recommend a nice, tuned, cheap 265k on the cheapest board you could find. Problem of course is securing 8000+ DDR5 in the current market. Unfortunately I play equal parts Fallout76 and WoW both at 4k these days as my two main games and have for the last 3+ years and the X3D just massacres All of Intel's offerings in that game as it always has since I started testing with the 7800X3D several years ago vs the 12900k, 13900KS and eventually the 14900KS. I did manage to eeek out a little bit more performance on the Strix and 8600 tuned vs 8000 tuned with the better 265k being able to tune up quite nicely but it still couldn't hang but that's about right considering it couldn't hang even with the 14900k still churning along at 59/45/50 atm. Red Devil 9070xt was clocking over 3300 at stock in Fallout76. Much better than my Gigabyte 9070xt in the wife's system. 265k vs 9800X3D with MSI Vanguard 5090: 9070xt vs 5090 on 9800X3D: 9070xt vs 5090 on 265k: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Up next is a break down and cleaning of my main rig and install the MSI AI1600T PSU along with the WV2Pro and DDR5 cooling mod. I plan on holding onto my Vengeance 9200 sticks in anticipation for Nova.....

Now we're talkin! @Papusan Do any of the Lightning vBIOS files work on the Asus 5090 Astral AIO?

I still wouldn't run the 2001w XOC as a D2D vs the Matrix vBIOS. I guess if you don't really have a choice unless you want to whip out a soldering iron to get it working with the Matrix, you use what you can use but for normal cooling, it is the Matrix 800w for me or potentially the 1000w Lightning.

I agree, the 2500w like the 2001w and other LN2 geared enthusiast vBIOSes are not the D2D way to go.... I still think when all is said and done the Matrix 800w is going to be the sweet spot for everybody outside of LN2 extremists based on some testing I've done so far, but we'll see.

800w variant has leaked on the OCN forums but go ham with the 2500w variant: https://www.overclock.net/posts/29561175/ https://www.techpowerup.com/vgabios/281792/281792 I am using a third party contact frame on my AM5 platform and had no problems but I am using an Arctic LF2 which I still prefer over the LF3. I picked up a LF3 for the wife's 14900KS system and it runs a tad better than her ancient EVGA 280mm did but louder with the 120mm fans vs the 140mm fans on the 280mm. I'm not super impressed with it. I picked up a Lian Li GA II Elite 360 which is supposedly the new king on the block....I'll get around to testing it when able. Still mired down in setups, clean installs and boxing up stuff from the great hardware selloff purge of 2026.

What is the alternative for competitive play to make sure you can watch every level of the hardware? Each time game companies up their watchdog/guardian programs, hackers and mod makers figure out a way around it. It has been escalating till the final solution is to monitor every nuance of the hardware as the final solution and now mod makers and cheaters have met their match. The only way around this, and it has been attempted, is post level compromised systems that can get in there to subvert the tpm / secure boot mechanism. On the other hand, making two distinct forks could and should be the way to go with one targeting single player mode but even then that has to be worth the effort for the game makers as again the real money is made from multiplayer and long term sustainability and monetization. If there was a financially large enough compelling reason to offer a single player version of the game devoid of big brother being knee deep, they would do it but I suspect that single player only audience is very small. Surfing various gaming forums and reddits, there is low to no outrage to this because it restores the integrity of the game not because they're sheeple lol. As a player, I would definitely set up two individual installs of Windows which I've done in the past for other reasons with one targeting game play only and the other for personal use. I'm with you. I don't want a game company having access to every level of my hardware. Good unboxing and nice overview.... Couldn't use OLED due to heat, but I don't like the USB display interface but that's just me. Thing runs so cool including the memory, wicked.... You can sign into your MSI account RIGHT NOW!!111 and enter the raffle for the right to spend ~$5500 after taxes to get 3-10% more performance over your existing 5090 while sucking down insane power.....

Ok, that is slick.....real slick.

Cheapest 9070 = $629 Cheapest 5070ti = $899 ----------------------------------------------- Top ten list was valid and a good trip down memory lane.... And this is the future of competitive games. Blame the cheaters and mod makers. Do I wish single mode was left alone? Of course, but single mode is a drop in the bucket (if that) vs the massive and sustained income multiplayer brings in and confidence is wiping out cheaters keeps the user base sated and large. I will not purchase or play (even if free of charge) any game that requires me to enable TPM or Secure Poot in the BIOS. I have been buying and playing Battlefield and Call of Duty since the first release in each franchise, but I am done with them now. I only play single-player campaign. Yet, they insist on dictating this unacceptable filth even in circumstances where cheating is a non-issue, so to hell with them and their cancer game crap. They will not receive another cent from me if this is how they roll now. And, I am not the only former player they have lost. If they were paying attention they would recognize that this dictatorship mentality is one of the reasons that Micro$lop is losing OS market share at an unprecedented rate. PC gamers and enthusiasts are not Kool-Aid drinking zombie sheeple like crApple users are. Unfortunately this is the future. Blame the cheaters, but true multiplayer is where the bulk of the $$$ is made not single player campaigns. As a former competitive fps player and still seeing rampant cheating going on in the games I play, I'm ok with this. Again, I don't like the "throwing out the baby with the bathwater" approach and single player campaigns being hit, but I get exactly where they're coming from. I'm sure they've run the numbers and know which side butters their bread. $5090 for a 5090.....I mean, I love everything the Lightning is bringing to the table and no I'm not going to nitpick thermal pads 'cause that's low hanging fruit my friend. But that price? 2.5x more than I paid for my Vanguard 5090 and even that was excessive IMHO.... Insane pricing.... PASS. --------------------------------- eBay store has been in full swing since the beginning of the month. I've sold about $3.6k worth of stuff so far including 4 of my lower and older tier laptops and have one more to list and then I'm down to my main driver Alienware 18 with the 275hx and 5070ti and the wife's Nitro 275hx and 5060 (both eval units so zero cost). When all is said and done, I expect to top off the till with ~$5k and more importantly clear out a lot of stuff. That's the primary goal instead of sitting on top of so much gear both personally purchased and sent by companies for eval. A massive decluttering. Trends I've noticed on eBay.... Forwarding International purchases are up drastically because the US dollar is much weaker right now worldwide. I'm used to forwarding purchases being ~10-20% of my sales YoY, but they are easily 40-50% now. While the market is telling us memory prices are out of bounds, kits on eBay at a much lower cost than MSRP are languishing and just not selling. You also have Microcenter and now Newegg offering some pretty sweet bundles basically selling kits at the cost they were (or close to it pre Ramageddon or a touch below. Plenty of stock too of overpriced memory. Something isn't adding up. People fail to look at trends and prices on eBay and thus their listings languish weeks if not months instead of getting realistic.

We are a very small, tight knit community that started as a cast off from the original NBR forums which were already dying to the point they shut them down in totality. Those forums at one point were so large and influential that representatives from the major laptop makers would frequent them on the regular for interaction and feedback but with changing market conditions, social media and other means of delivery coupled with niche and specialized laptops dying out and being replaced with thin fast and cheap laptops the writing was on the wall. You can't blame laptop makers for this as they simply go where the $$$ is and the vast majority of consumers have zero desire to tinker with their laptops and just want them to work, with good battery life and be light and portable. Every year, we saw true DTRs dying off and those original representatives basically abandoning NBR till all that was left was Clevo and their last somewhat true DTR based on desktop chips was their 12th gen hybrid 15.6" model (Clevo NH55) which did poor enough to signal the end of DTR anything as we knew it with interchangeable CPUs and GPUs. The first real death stroke was Nvidia basically abandoning MXM and upgradeability standards. ----- A community such as this is only as good as the enthusiasts who still have a passion for some older hardware and many of those, myself included, have moved onto more modern laptops because all the modding in the world will not approach the power modern models provide. The best you can do with modern laptops is look for models that at least have or offer the possibility of flexible BIOS so you can at least tune your hardware. Prema still offers his BIOS services on some models commercially followed by MSI which still has their excellent unlockable BIOS options. Dell/Alienware does offer some limited options as does Asus. You can also look to make mods to the actual cooling system itself from something as basic as upgrading the thermal interface material to modding the actual heatsink and fans themselves along with the chassis to improve air flow. Good luck!

I called this early on, but at least 8000 has drawn parity with 6000/6400 worse case and best case it usually is a little bit better overall but nothing to write home over. 6000/6400 shines in extremely latency sensitive games though but they are few and far in between these days.... For X3D, we've collected enough data and seen enough game bench marking to know it truly is a case by case benefit with a massive differential ranging from only running a few points better at best than non X3D to running up to 86% faster vs a 9700x showing how brutal it can get if a game really loves that X3D cache and can comfortably sit in it the majority of the time. Seriously, I'm looking forward to Intel's foray into 3Dcache with BLLC..... Tight 6000 and Tight 8000 are the sweet spots for AMD. Buildzoid, while taking his first venture into Arrowlake, talks about some bandwidth and platform memory limitations on AM5. Intel is really where you want to be to push memory and see tangible gains with scaling even up to 9000 you will see some gains G2.

Obvi Zen 6..... 🤣 One thing we can always give AMD is socket longevity. Intel could learn a thing or two. Remember Skylake? Trying to lock out processors on the same socket with bumps to chipsets.....how the mighty have fallen (but clawing their way back with a vengeance) Hey, as long as you don't murder this chip this time around, it's a win win! 🤣

I managed to lay in a nice array of 500gb, 1tb and a few 2tb nvme drives, but I'm kicking myself for not jumping on a few 4tb drives last year. That was a good snag! You also managed to snag your 9070xt and 5070ti for damn good prices before the market went to poo too...... This is how I view it. I've locked down all the hardware I'm going to need to ride out this hardware Armageddon. If the 5090 wants to remain the top dog to 2028? I'm you're huckleberry. 🙂 Snagging a 1.125v Vanguard 5090 for $1971USD that turned out to be superior to both my Astral and Ventus and no coil whine is still the pinnacle of my hardware wins in a plethora of wins hunting down open box / refurb deals over the years. Getting to ride it into 2028? Priceless..... As for other hardware..... 9850X3D is a snoozefest. I'm not seeing the 9950X3D2 being anything magical unless they have somehow fixed that CCD0 to CCD1 latency issues for gaming. AM6 isn't launching till later this year or even early 2027 Novalake isn't launching till late 2026 or even early 2027 too Nvidia 6000 till 2028... AMD RDNA5 not till mid 2027 but I suspect late 2027 Intel basically cancelled their B770 so we don't know what they have planned for future desktop GPUs Basically team, settle in with your hardware and enjoy! There is nothing on my want list till Nova and potentially AM6 (I'm more excited for Nova than AM6 atm) and that's it..... 7600 is the threshold for >=6000 tier performance so you're good in that aspect especially being able to get those tight timings. Maybe dial in 6000 and 7600 and see which one gives you the better performance. While it isn't mind blowing on my end, 8000 dialed in > 6000 and 6400 dialed in across the board even if miniscule so I'm sticking with that. Just like there are Asus and Apple fan boys, there are Razer fan boys and you know some are going to buy this...... I'm a firm believer that someone's disposable income is theirs to buy whatever tickles their fancy, but I'm also silently judging hardcore based on my own biases and purchasing criteria 🤣 As with all things like this, I will seek out a Youtube video on it and live vicariously though that and I'm good....