electrosoft

Yeah that initial VSOC out the door to get it stable baseline was the initial red flag to me but even locking it down at 6000 makes it viable for D2D use but is a kick in the pills. I would be curious to see why it was an open box return and wouldn't be surprised if that was the reason. We can't be the only tech enthusiasts who immediately enable the enhanced BIOS and go to town on it. 🙂 Funny thing is I never even considered them but I've used them in the past to get various hard to find CPUs and motherboards. Did the upgrade to LM from PTM yield meaningful results or was the cooling system a limitation? I could see LM at least helping with idle ramp ups and low load fan noise though. I am like you and prefer my laptops at QHD so hopefully a display swap is a possibility. That is really odd with the quality level tamped down to a 1 it still has an odd bit of lag even frame locked to ~119fps in GFE/NVCPL? Yeah I should really complete the puzzle as they say. What would be the best source for clear tubing? I would probably want clear coolant too to be honest. Scary, right? Here's a funny story fresh off the phone as to why you DON'T wait.... I just finished talking to a gaming buddy in Philly who I was helping spec out a system and he was complaining about the price of the Asus ProArt 5090 because he wants one due to the USB-C support and compact size for a moveable VRRig and I told him Microcenter had a few in stock for $3999.99. He counters with, "yeah, but it was launched at $3099.99" and????? I told him literally YESTERDAY he should grab the single one they had in stock because prices are going to go up ASAP "Nope, I'll wait." Well he just messaged me pissed off because MC JUST raised their prices on several 5090s and obviously ALL of Asus cards. Astral is now $4829.99 for black, $4929.99 for BTF and white and 5090 ProArt jumped from $3999.99 yesterday to $4499.99 today..... I literally tried to warn him less than 24hrs ago prices were going to get real loopy again. Now he's lowered his expectations and is looking at the 5080 ProArt and comes back ranting because it went from $1699.99 YESTERDAY to $1899.99 TODAY...... I told him suck it up or quite honestly get a Gigabyte or PNY Compact 5080 for $1199/$1299 RIGHT NOW and just run his rig externally powered with an injection cable because eventually all prices are going to jump.....I've known him for years and I know he's going to freeze up because he can't stomach the now prices and when they jump again kick himself again.... I mean, I am the "hardware guru" amongst my many gaming and personal friends and family and I've lost count how many times I've said, "buy now or buy in X years....." and they don't listen then lose their marbles because of the pricing....even back during both cryptobooms and now the AI boom. This is clearly translating into memory and now SSDs.... The sad thing is this is a litmus test for AIBs to get an idea of what the market can sustain and while I do think prices will fall eventually when this AI thing hits a wall either through collapse or saturation for many reasons, prices will only adjust down to the point inventory flows again to expected levels. If you need it NOW, buy it NOW. If you see a great deal, SNAG IT NOW. This goes for CPUs, GPUs, SSDs, Memory.

5090's drying up fast.... Newegg is down to Astrals and a PNY starting at $4300 shipped and sold Microcenter has single digits in stock of several 5090s starting at $3779.99 Best Buy is down to the black Astral for $4329.99 Nvidia knows who and what is buttering their bread atm.... Now we move to the lower tiers as reported by @Papusan.... The retailers know what's coming with massive price increases on the horizon, better to profiteer off old current stock and pricing while they prepare for delayed / lower orders from AIBs because of new pricing to average out net income and profits for the next few fiscal quarters. Smooth out that bottom line.... Like I said before, most of us are set and ready to go with hardware on our shelves for current and future projects. Both sides use the, "for the children" rhetoric to push through draconian measures or push their political agendas and it is always disgusting to see. It usually comes down to which way a person leans to determine one side's implementation as "good and just," and the other side, "bad and anti American," when more often than not it is two sides of the same coin.... USA is not alone in realizing the dangerous, addictive and counter productive properties of social media on young and undeveloped minds and the problems it introduces socially among peer constructs in the real world. We all know it starts at home, period. Bad parenting continues to get worse. We also know corporations have targeted kids for profits for centuries. Remember candy cigarettes and bubble gum chewing tobacco to prime kids for the real deal when they got older and purposely putting sugar cereals on the eye level of kids? Yeah , that's just the tip of the iceberg... -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's the funny thing, awhile back, I did pick up a pump/res combo recommended by @Mr. Fox, I do have a spare generic 360 rad in a box and enough fittings to kit out a full loop I picked up over on OCN but I stalled on researching soft tubing, leak testers and coolant choices....lol I have a metric ton of space in this Phanteks Enthroo2 for a 420 top, front and 360 on the bottom.... but yeah...i hear ya.... Any plans to delid your 9950X3D2 or keep it lidded? Have you tried a static OC? I usually find that brings the heat and thermals to life on AM4/AM5 chips. The itch to run a TG AM5 or 1851 HS has been gnawing at me for several months now, so I bit the bullet with a 9850X3D for delidded operation. I plan to push a static OC for shiggles to see where it takes me cooling wise at that point. I think @Talon is running the Noctua AIO (not sure 360 or 420)....they are pricey but they have $100+ of Noctua top end fans on them out of the box...

Ah, then that wouldn't work for me. I like to float between projects in flux and know I always have something to work on at any given time. I can see that approach would drive you batty. My wife is a completest to the point she can have problems falling asleep if something she is working on isn't completed. She'll lay there and think about it. She will be dog tired (even now) and can't stop till something she's working on around the house is completed. Me? I can shut down my brain and disconnect. I had to learn to do it years ago because as a programmer, I couldn't turn off my brain even after work. I would sit there or lay in bed with code just dancing through my head to the point I would have to get up and keep working. A lesser form would take hold in any hardware or software (or even gaming) projects I did back then. Took awhile, but I was able to translate that into everything I do and learn to shut down and then turn it back on the next day. Agreed, we didn't know how "good" we had it back then but AI and generated scarcity is driving record profits. Companies are charging these prices but I see everything in stock in abundance on the consumer side except 5090s which are in the single digits at MC so the wall has been hit for everything 5080 and below. Cheapest is the $3599 Ventus..... Those two Gigabyte Infinity OC 5090s at my local MC are still in stock after all this time at $5299.99. Biggest shock was I haven't checked Best Buy stock in quite some time. Only two 5090s in stock. The $3999 MSI gaming and $4329 Astral. Newegg cheapest in stock is $4149 TUF 5090 with a very limited selection.... I mean....sheesh.... 5080s? Plenty in stock everywhere but prices are still going to rise across the entire stack outside of the 5090 which does its own insane thing.... https://videocardz.com/newz/msi-and-colorful-announce-rtx-50-price-increases-for-distributors-rtx-5070-ti-now-starts-38-over-msrp Incoming MSI and Colorful price hikes: It will take a bit, but as always these prices will hit everywhere else and in the US prices will just adjust up with some retailers adjusting in the now even with current stock on hand because....profits.... Glad I snagged that $983 open box 5080 when I did last week. Same as snagging that $1971 Vanguard 5090 last August. The market is reaching a point where inventory is just going to stagnate because even at current pricing clearly cards aren't moving same as ram and storage. Crap tons of stock everywhere..... Something has to give and when this crashes, I hope it is spectacular...

Hopefully it's a ripper! Fingers crossed. No denying the 5090 is a monster. The problem remains the current pricing and with Nvidia looking to continue to raise CPU/memory packaging costs, they will just keep going higher....insanity atm. I didn't realize the frequency drop in the 9950X3D2 either, meh. Hopefully once you dig into it, it will show its worth... Personally, I love having numerous projects in the queue. I actually get antsy when I don't have at least two projects in front of me to work on.... You'll eventually get to the 270k delidded improvements. I'm hoping to see that extra cooling translates into at least a bin or two of uplift but we will see. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Speaking of projects, I picked up a 9850X3D for a good price and I'm going to be running it delidded with a TG Heatspreader in my desktop. I cancelled my 7600X3D order from MC and decided not to pick up that 7800X3D on OCN and instead I plan on running my 9800X3D in my SFF Portable project instead especially after comparing my 9800X3D vs the 7500X3D at 1440p and 1080p in the Lightning B850i. 7500X3D can not cap out the 5080 at 1440p and especially at 1080p so on to the 9800X3D as my new portable rig CPU. Problem is I haven't used liquid metal in ~2yrs and my collection is pretty old. Somehow I lost my ( albeit 7yr old lol) Conductonaut vials and all I have left are ~6yr old Silver King vials from Thermalright. I do still have a bottle of non conformal coating but I think I'm just going to toss out everything and refresh with the big 5g kit of Conductonaut Extreme. Last CPU I ran with LM was my NH55 12900k I delidded and before that obviously dozens of CPUs from 6th gen through 10th gen. Still have plenty of Flitz's and tons of the high quality LM application Q-tips too along with silicon gasket sealant albeit I won't need that with the TG HS. Desktop 9850X3D delid and upgrade* SFF build out which is all over the place in a good way Still playing with the 270k build but it needs more love. I haven't had time to really dial down on it. Wife's system needs a major overhaul and clean install. Personally, I am not impressed with the AC LF III 360mm AIO. Very loud and cooling is.....ok. Not sure what I'm switching her to AIO wise but acoustics are priority #1 and switch her Gigabyte Gaming 9070xt to the Red Devil 9070xt which runs MUCH quieter and clocks higher. Basically, if you can't tell, she's complaining about how noisy her computer can get. Maybe even switch her case fans to Noctuas too. It's worth the cost to not have to hear about how loud her computer is every night at dinner. 🙂 *Really fighting the urge to give the Noctua 420mm AIO a whirl because reviews have been overall really positive. My Arctic Cooling Liquid Freezer II 420mm has been running for 5+ years now as my main AIO rig cooler. Might be time to set it out to pasture especially as the Noctua is even quieter and cools even better.

Good news: C26 arrived early Bad news: #1. MB is defective from the 7500X3D+Asrock B850M-C combo after much testing so I'll be heading back to MC this week. I ended up finding a good deal on an Asrock B850i ITX Lightning MB that I used for testing and I'm going to use that instead with a 7600X3D from MC for $199.99 + MB $130 = $329.99 vs $249.99 for the combo but much better MB quality between the two. I ended up trying 7500X3D, 9800X3D and 8400f along with 4 sets of DDR5 (TG 8200, KB 8400, CV 9200, KR 6000) and the MB would only post 1 out of 10 times and 0 times if trying from the onboard HDMI port. When it did manage to post it would eventually freeze randomly booting or even in Windows using it for a bit then restart and same instant lights. Tested all the CPUs and memory sticks on the Asrock B850i ITX and rock solid each and every time. #2. My order from Amazon with all my Noctua fans and a custom squeegee for my Armada was out for delivery on the 21st and disappeared. Amazon refunded me today for the "lost" package. Hope someone is enjoying 5x Noctua fans, and a sweet sweet custom telescoping squeegee with all the bells and whistles..... Helluva HTPC ya got there..... looks good though and perfect height for integration with the wood slats on the front. With the market predictions getting worse and worse, holding onto GPUs, DDR5, storage and even CPUs potentially makes sense if you want to have the flexibility to work on projects and fun stuff at sane levels in the future. A decent parts stash makes sense with prices really predicted to rise on GPUs, memory, CPUs and Storage even more. The poor victims in the contracting PC market are PSUs, cases and MBs. Nice! And someone we know will get the good data from such a high SP 270k to see how it compares to quite a few previously binned samples. What is the highest SP rated 270k you've seen out in the wild at this point? It will be nice to see the differentials in results from SPs low 80's to s 97 in regards to stock lidded clock OC's to really get an idea of how much you get. MCs can be a crap shoot but that SP97 looks to have a decent one that Digital didn't go out of his way to note in not so many words was "meh" at best like the SP96.

Yeah, but it will eventually sell. I'm going to assume you snagged that SP97 🤣. I saw it earlier just can't part with that $$$$ at this stage with so many toys in play atm. I need to downsize a lot of hardware and some other items at the moment to build back up the coffers. I've been slammed with all types of expenses this year on a level that has never happened in a 4 month period it is mind boggling lol.... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- FC running the spectrum of pastes, PTM and LM to see what rises to the top on his 5090. 1.040 max vcore on that thing.... Final conclusion: HY-P17 and MX-7 reign supreme for pastes with HY barely edging out MX-7 by what could be called margin of error in many cases. PTM is overrated for best temps at least LM as always rises to the top because it IS superior and a 4-5c differential still means it is ~8% better than the best paste in his arsenal. I actually picked up a few vials of MX-7 and have been using it in place of KPx and I've found it to be slightly better overall in my testing by 1-2c the last few months as CPUs get rotated and tested but as always YMMV. I like PTM and I've tried it a few times and I tend to agree with Dufus a bit on this one. I think many times it is user application error of thermal pastes and/or pump out that causes problems. PTM is as problem free and more consistent as it gets.... set and forget....

Some of the more compact cases allow full size (within reason) ATX PSUs, but once you start building into smaller, more compact rigs, the SFX (and even SFX-L) PSUs seem downright tiny in size and weight. Another plus is they usually come with much shorter, flexible and lighter cables making snaking them where you want easier. When builders are really pushing for as compact, light and streamlined as possible, they will even order custom length SFF cables to really clean up the insides and shave a few more ounces off the total weight. For your Lian-Li Dan, it will make it so much easier to work in even stationary. For myself I can't even imagine lugging around a mATX case with a full sized power supply in it. I'm trying to calculate every last bit of weight possible to keep everything sane in weight to cart around. Scoring the extended warranty is really nice. I know every time I've used MSI RMA going back to 2010 it has been pretty straight forward and always resulted in a great outcome. I had a hunch the IMC was a bit weaker needing that extra VSOC but as long as you can get 6000 going that's always a good baseline. I'll be interested to see how far you can push it or if it can go as far as the 7945hx3d which did ~6400. I had a chance to pick up a 5080 variant used for $2450 but I passed. I noticed BHPhoto has the 5080 version of this for $2999 out the door (free shipping and I have Payboo). 5080 is just too close to the 5070ti in the Alienware 18 to pull the trigger. I might be recalling incorrectly, but I think the 7945hx3d used a standard thermal paste so the newer fans and using ptm definitely will help. I have to go back to MC, so I am going to play around with their Raiders and Titan refresh they have on display to really ramp up the fans. How has WoW been on it even at 4k? Congrats Brother! I hemmed and hawed over that chip for days but decided to pass even at $960 but for that price you're getting retail pricing with a known, much better sample overall so that's a win/win. I just didn't want to spend $1k on a CPU at this juncture with so many toys in play. Looking forward to the results. I expect a delid incoming once it passes all the @Mr. Fox checksums. I saw that really nice SP96 270k on the marketplace over there but that IMC really took the wind out of my sails. If it could boot even 8800 I would have picked it up but it only boots 8400 at stock with an MC rating of 41. Feels like that initial 265k I had all over again that couldn't even do 8600 stable juiced and could only boot 8400 stock. The one I picked up from @Talon boots 9066 at stock no problem. The second 265k booted 8933 no problem both G2. That is a majorly insane temp reduction. Both on the same loop? See how much headroom it gives you now.

Well priced too. I think I'll pick one up for a proper "just in case" scenario. I went back to running the Matrix vBIOS because it keeps my game clocks steady over 3200 everywhere. Fallout 76 is no problem. I can even run stock settings, but WoW will trip the WVP2 without adjustments with the 800w bios. On the flip side, my hot spot differential is ~12c with the stock factory application so I'm good atm on that front. No native 12vhpwr on PSU? 🤣 Nice on the warranty just in case. How did the A-die fare in the 5080 variant for comparison? Would it boot at 1050mv VSOC? Let us know how stability testing goes... let's see how this 9955X3D in the 5090 variant compares to the returned 5080... How are the noise levels between the two?

I have this Jonsbo Z20 on the shelf, but I'm going to go with the Mechanic Master C26 for the SFF portable 2026 project. Z20 = ~20.1lL vs the C26 = 13.2l. Both support mATX.The C26 doesn't support an AIO but I was going to go with the Thermalright AXP-120-X67 I have brand new on my shelf anyhow or a max height ~130mm air cooler if needed. C26 supports up to ~310mm length GPU so the GB WF OC SFF 5080 should fit as it is exactly the length of the FE edition (304mm) and ~2.5 slots wide (closer to 2 than 2.5). Specs: MC 7500X3D + Asrock B850M Combo deal MC Open box GB 5080 SFF Corsair SF1000 Samsung 990 Pro 2TB KB 2x24GB 8400 sticks Thermalright AXP-120-X67 Noctua NF-A9 x4 Noctua NF-A12x25 G2 PWM Sx2-PP Mechanic Master C26 Then it comes down to the C26 or Z20 The downsize from 20.2L to 13.1L is pretty massive..... C26 weighs 6.6lbs (3kg) vs the Z20 11lbs (5.5kg)....again in the land of portability pretty massive The entire buildout in the C26 will weigh right around the Alienware 18 + PSU or a hair less actually and more importantly open up carrying case room for wireless KB/M and a 18-23" portable display and be much quieter under load vs any gaming laptop out there along with being able to tune every component with no restrictions. This type of build allows a 5090FE to slot right in but with a 1080p or 1440p 18-23" portable display that is overkill. The idea is lock in 120-165hz solid fps on the go\ as quiet as possible. This Windforce sff 5080 is much quieter under load than my Vanguard 5090. I'll probably end up with a Noctua NF-A12 on whatever cooler ends up end game on the CPU. I don't think a tuned 7500X3D will hold back a 5080 especially at 1440p, but if I do find it is a bottleneck, I will shift my 9800X3D into it and then sort out my desktop core system again. C26: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There's that positivity!! 🤣 Good set of baseline data though to see how it fares over the coming months/year. Are you going to routinely test the connection with a firm push check from time to time or leave it completely alone and see how the integrity potentially gives up the ghost? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Curious to see your results with the A die swapped in and hopefully the warranty extension can be applied to really bring it home. There is always the chance of a poor IMC even on a laptop unit so fingers crossed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Remember to pre-order your ROG 20th edition bundle to get the 20th edition 5090 Astral since it isn't being offered stand alone for only $5499.99...... "Only" $10,349.96 or $11k+ after tax.... https://eshop.asus.com/us/90yv0nf3-mvaa00-rog-astral-rtx5090-p32g-edition-20.html Don't forget you still need a CPU, memory and storage too.... might as push for a $15k build at this point....

Yeah, I went "yay for.....slightly below MSRP?" It should work out perfect in the Z20 so we shall see. In the end, it's a 5080 which means most likely one of my 9070xt's is headed out the door. Maybe I'll end up swapping in the Red Devil in the wife's system and probably sell off the Gigabyte Gaming 9070xt. It has been a solid performer now for 14 months and the wife has definitely given it a workout in WoW. Nice @Talon! I'll be giving this a whirl tonight! Nice snag man! Congrats! It really is the unicorn floating around out there. Looking forward to your hands on review and comparison to the 5080 variant you had before. If you can get the 2x16GB to run that's icing on the cake. WoW should run like a beast on that thing. I was in MC the other day and they had a floor model Titan still out on display (285HX + 5090) so I had a chance to check out the 4k mLED display and it definitely looks nice and they let me run 3Dmark on it and give it a general whirl on desktop and surfing. I just prefer QHD and 18"+ displays on my laptops/portables. Definitely stays quieter than the 7945X3D MSI we both shared during normal usage but of course under meaningful stress it lit up like an Xmas tree but that's ok. I'm hoping you can tame the sound profiles on this one and have a good review of it overall for when I eventually buy it off of you for a slight discount down the road. 🤣 I'm curious how the actual internals compare vs the 7945HX3D + 4090 Raider too if you can spot any changes / upgrades.

Sometimes Microcenter makes zero sense. I snagged that $1079.99 open box "Complete" GB Windforce 5080 and planned to pick it up today but then a $1034.99 (983.24 after MC discount) open box popped up "Incomplete As is" but for $45 bucks, I don't care about accessories and stuff so I grabbed that one. Crack it open before I leave the parking lot to take a looksy.... "Incomplete As Is" = looks brand new with everything in the box complete down to the original plastic covering, port inserts and interface plastic sleeve. It look so new I held it up against the light to look through the side to make sure I could see the core even though I know MC tests their returns. Get it home and swap it into the 270k rig, DDU it, 610.74 drivers and it works exactly as it should scoring ~32k-33k GPU at pure stock low 60s on temps nice and quiet. *Shrug* go figure.... I also picked up one of their 7500X3D + Asrock B850 mATX bundles for $249.99 ($237.50 after MC discount) to kick off the Jonsbo Z20 fun with the KB 8400 2x24GB sticks on the shelf. https://www.microcenter.com/product/709974/amd-ryzen-5-7500x3d,-asrock-b850m-c-cpu-motherboard-bundle --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Argh! I would have snagged that. Did you get it? I'm glad at least you had a bright moment during a dark time brother. Hopefully we can look at on this a year now and remember and you'll be in a better place. Hope the pizza was delicious!

Makes sense. I would love to compare/contrast the much cheaper V-color CL26 sticks but they're both pricey endevours. Still mulling it over, but those cores aren't great on second glance. Very wide range of voltages and pretty beefy on some of them. IMC is fantastic though overall. It really is a sample focused on fine tuning memory as the primary goal. I wouldn't put anything past Nvidia especially after they purposely killed off MXM and removed SLI as an option on consumer level cards. We're seeing them in true boss form right now in the worse way. It's a combination of being a reviewer, work (albeit that is mainly a lot of Mac hardware nobody cares about in these threads), and sometimes being asked my true assessment of particular hardware from a few NDA sources who apparently value my opinion....who whudda thunk it? 🤣 I will say this, expect a lot and I do mean a lot of cut down options (16GB + 512GB) on models that normally would come with 32GB + 1TB standard on some mid tier models wise and expect a lot of 2024/2025 rehashing of CPUs (14th gen Intel, 8000 series AMD) paired with low to mid (5050->5070) 5000 series GPUs for grossly inflated pricing in the land of laptops. We're already seeing refreshed 290hx models on the top end going for $5-6k which is absolutely mind boggling but even worse we'll be seeing rehashed 14th gen models with mid tier or lower 5000 series GPUs (5060 even) going for $2k to start. If I was in the market right now for a decent laptop, I would look to last year's inventory clear out and then look for open box or used on top of that to save a major bit of coin. Same 5000 series and for gamers, the CPU refreshes aren't really bringing anything major to the table. Right now, with things in the pipeline as they are, the 9955HX3D Raider 18 is a good option if you can lock down a sub $3k variant. The 5090 version is quickly entering unicorn status it seems. Hopefully not a situation of Nvidia influencing them to not add it as a readout. Now we need MSI AB to add it in for their OSD. How ya feeling @Papusan? Hopefully things are moving in a positive direction for ya.

I don't blame ya. I'm a 2x24GB+ user now. Sweet spot between 32GB and 64GB of ram and the prices are insane. Priorities first. Scary thing is they're supposed to continue to go up as corporations push for AI centers everywhere to the detriment of the world and citizens as a whole on a local level. I'm trying to see the downsize to the 270k as time rolls on. Yes, X3D in pockets bests it and 13/14th gen pretty handily, but overall? 270k is a price:performance banger across the entire spectrum especially at 4k gaming. I saw this last night. I asked a few questions in PM. Nice fellow. Makes you wonder what his other 9950X3D2 can do......he's on a chiller so you have to figure that in too to some degree. Has a fantastic 1:1 IMC 2200/6600 is super nice Has an above average 2:1 IMC capping out at 8400 Static chiplet testing is.....average. It's an SP118. Then you get samples like Sugi's doing 8800 and 5700+ but everybody has their own levels of "personal use stability." This one *might* have some of that under water and delidded....$980 + S&H + fees = ~$1050. I'm wondering what memory he was running at 2200/6600 with those timings......that's pretty damn good. I'd pick it up for it's IMC primarily at 1:1. That is pure beast mode.

The fact you and the other user reports a manual profile reducing GPU power limits completely solves the issue points to a faulty PSU failing under higher loads or a board level power delivery issue. If you had a wall power meter to see how much is actually pulled, I think you will see your shutdowns are occurring at a certain overall draw level. First thing, and easiest thing to do, is to order a 380w PSU from Amazon with a 30 day return policy and see if that fixes your problem. If it doesn't, at least you can rule out the PSU and move onto a board level power delivery issue somewhere.

@tps3443 if you're still looking for a good CL26 kit, maybe look to V-Color. I don't know what G.Skill is smoking with their CL26 kits and stupid pricing, but V-Color has CL26 kits for sub $450 with at least the same primary timings and requiring less voltage (1.40 vs 1.45) We also have these older kits (Yes, including the F5-6000J2636H16G2-TZ5R) which are going to be outclassed with the new ULL kits which are completely newer modules coming off the line and will be priced the same as G.Skill is asking now if not much lower. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 5080 Prime was on my list too and I actually tried to pick one up earlier this year and managed to snag one right before the price hike but somehow it made it to my local BB store to prepare for pickup then stayed in "preparing for pickup" for two weeks and disappeared and they cancelled my order....I think we all know what happened....congrats to the employee who picked it up to use or resell.....this has happened to me 2x now at my local store. From now on, I'll be changing pickup to their main distro store in my area which is ~35 min away versus 2 min away.... I'm realizing I want to have two lower intake fans on the Z20 so that pushes me to a 2 slot being the best approach. Maybe a 2.5 at most? But we'll see with the GB SFF 5080. I'm hell bent on solving this SFF portability issue with no compromises vs a laptop. Somehow compacting down the perfect SFF, wireless 65% keyboard, wireless gaming mouse and a 23" USB-C powered 144hz 1440p display is the current "holy grail" I'm working on atm......

I still love laptops and portables. I always have since I got my hands on a TRS-80 Model 100 as a pre-teen many moons ago. I just go with the flow and see what comes out and adjust to the hand that's dealt but the onslaught of thin and light and the effective EOL of true, customizable DTRs with truly upgrade enabled GPUs and CPUs still stings. I was down to two laptops but I was sent an HP Omnibook Panther based laptop with an Intel 356h in it, so that's been fun to run but it is severely constrained. Still rocking the sent to me Nitro 275hx + 5060 for the mrs and the Alienware 18 275hx + 5070ti for myself since they were all sent and no cost to me. I don't know if I can stomach purchasing another notebook anytime soon with the current crazy (and climbing) prices and "meh" offerings. Even the potential of picking up a 9955HX3D + 5080 MSI Raider was dashed with @win32asmguy short review on it in this thread. Belgium spanked us good and proper and then Spain shut them down fairly easily IMHO. No skin in the game now, but Norway or Switzerland winning works for me or at least NOT Argentina...... --------------------------------------------------- If anyone has a 5080 they want to let go for a decent price, let me know. I did find an open box GB 5080 SFF at MC for $1079.99 so $1024.99 + tax = ~1090 after MC Card discount I have on hold till Sunday for pickup, but I'm open to other cards.

Thanks! Definitely want to give it a whirl. I agree about ZT. I'm so used to having it on AM5 I wouldn't mind an equally competent version on Intel. Is that at stock 600w vBIOS? That replacement MSI MEG 1600T is still trucking along and even with a 600w+ stock OC and those wonderful bars lit up almost to their tops, it is really balanced and nice even when pulling 615-623w on the WV2P. But yeah, the connector is atrocious. Imagine if you didn't have the WV2P and were just merrily skipping along playing till one day you're like: "Is that smoke I smell?" Yikes mine only lasted less than two years and they ended up replacing the MB and 2080 Super but it was under warranty at least during that time. As for the watercooled HS, only place I found them before was AB and TB but I just checked my own launch page info on this here and they are long gone. For the normal HSF combo for the KM, found one left on eBay I dug through my heatsink bin and I did find this custom copper IHS I had made from BartX I know is from 9th gen I think but could be modded as needed potentially (sanded down for z-height issues on die). I had already soaked and reheat cycle treated it for gallium then sanded it down so it's smooth and saturated already. If you want it, let me know and I'll pop it in the mail for you to see if you can get it working with your 10900k no charge. Just inbox me your address. My last, custom made 10th/11th gen IHS from BartX I sent off to @win32asmguy some time ago. That thing was awesome. Have you messaged Rockitcool to see if maybe they have one floating around in the back somewhere? 🤣 Looking forward to your updates over in the SM thread!

That is damn good for a D2D driver IMHO. I'm going to have to dive back in for some comparison work. Where did you download Memory Foundry Pro? lol, you forgot the power of the 5090! 🤣 Especially now that you're running a real AIB card and not the 5090 FE adds that nice bit of "oomph" on top. I said it before and I'll say it again, if price was no object I would have stuck with the Astral. I liked EVERYTHING about it and I do mean EVERYTHING except the price. Aesthetics were great, cooling lights out for an air cooled card, good build quality, tons of QOL touches. Basically zero coil whine. I know it wasn't a deal breaker, but I know you have to be loving not having that screeching of the 5090 FE in pockets. I knew you would dive in head first and have a blast @Mr. Fox! Give it another month or so then you'll be able to see who rises to the top: AM5 or AL......

For now...... AI will eventually replace many jobs including white collar smart sector employment. The only problem here is some companies tried to roll it out too early and are paying the price but the writing is on the wall. AI will only continue to get smarter and better. That is its (un)natural evolution assisted by mankind to usher in their own replacements on many levels. So many are mistaking apathy and disinterested consumerism in regards to AI producing a marketable product to justify its cost. Any and all AI tangible consumer grade products in the here and now that can return even a few pennies ROI is icing on the cake. The real product and end game is replacing expensive human workers as much as possible with AI automation.

Looking good! At least now you can "run to" your local Microcenter. How far is it exactly from you? I know mine is ~55 min away for the closest one. Uh oh, looks like the B850MPOWER + 9950X are in the potential "jettison" position of the line up now. 🙂 Let me know if you're going to sell off the B850MPOWER in the not so distant future and how much. That's a good and fitting picture of ya spelunking in the Bios @tps3443! ---------------------------------------------------------- Definitely picking up one of these. I'm still rocking a gen 1: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Skip through the slow parts (~7hr stream), but a Solid 9850X3D delid video using TG delid tool along with using a TG AM5 Heatspreader testing.... Not a fan of his data comparative approach. He notes a ~5c decrease in temps lidded vs delidded but I'm not sure why he didn't have profiles saved to use before and after nor not realizing that as soon as you pull / swap your CPU on first detect it will always reset your BIOS to stock. Also not sure why he didn't run CB24 before to get a good baseline of data and some game data to compare after but still informational for the actual delid process and heatspreader usage. Plus he's actually a funny guy. 🙂

@tps3443 If you're looking to get a known, good IMC on the 9950X3D2 over on OCN $850 USD but ships from Aus: https://www.overclock.net/threads/9950x3d2-great-imc.1819789/?post_id=29597168#post-29597168

It's possible to have a weak IMC on any AM5 chip. Remember, these are only "officially" rated to handle 5600 and I had that 9800X3D which barely could do that before returning and capped out at 2000 fclk on the nose. Nothing would push it over. Order another and/or another motherboard to sort out what is holding you back. It could also be your memory too. I went through a few boards and sets of memory to realize that first 9800X3D was the culprit. Second one ( current ) is much better. ---------------- You could always return everything and go 270k too for shiggles and probably save a bit of coin on top of it.

Did not even think of the 25H2 CE (which I am running) being the culprit, wow. Fitting though..... On the HP Omen, it is running the OEM cookie cutter 24H2 Home edition. Scores looking much better! When you lop off its head for DD cooling, that will kick it up a notch nicely.

Welcome to the club @Mr. Fox and I had a very similar problem actually with the Asus Z890 Strix and Intel B580 when testing my Acer B580 variant on it. Initially, I thought the card might be defective at one point. I kept having the GPU randomly go into recovery mode as listed under device manager. Let's call it Code 43 adjacent. I tested it on a pre-built HP Omen HP sent me to eval and it suddenly worked fine no problems so I ended up doing a few clean installs, same issue would just randomly pop up and tracked it down to Asus driver revisions. I ended up going with Intel and Gigabyte variants and the problem resolved itself. The Asus versions were so wonky that every time I went to install the Intel GPU drivers it kept trying to update the firmware which was already updated each and every time. Once I sorted out the drivers, the GPU driver install worked as it should.

If you're able to do 6600 anything 1:1 that is the golden level for IMC compatibility. Most chips can't do 6600 with proper stress testing. For example, I can post 6600 but can't pass anything meaningful but 6400 is no problem. If you're able to somehow dial in 2200/6600 that is literally the golden standard of G2. You *might* have a not so great 8000+ kit on your hands but a really good 1:1 6400 dual rank set in your possession @Mr. Fox If you're able to do 2133/6400 on dual rank that is something major for my low end use case/testing and I would love to see some gaming and bandwidth/latency benchmarks for testing. I've had several dual rank 6000 kits that were trash for 8000 and couldn't hit 2133/6400 for any meaningful stress testing. Do they pass 2133/6400 dual rank Karhu and Aida64?