*Official Benchmark Thread* - Post it here or it didn't happen :D

[electrosoft]

Oh Nvidia......you rascally rabbit you!

 

5070ti is really shaping up to be the sweet spot for Nvidia when MSRP settles down to $749.99.....

 

 

[Papusan]

4 hours ago, electrosoft said:

Last cash grab as the market normalizes to a degree and all the heavy hitters move out.

 

Hmmm, who was it that said everything would settle down a bit by the end of April?

 

Yep. But now you'll come to next level of scalping... Government scalping! We have the same here home... Forced 25% tax on top of everything we buy. 

 

Nice. 25% additional tariff on top of the 20% general tariff for anything coming from China. Get ready to pay more for PC cases and GPUs.

 

Aluminum is a fundamental material in constructing PC cases and is also utilized in manufacturing various GPU components. The newly imposed tariffs are expected to increase production costs for these items, leading to higher retail prices.

 

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the aluminum tariff is determined by the value of the aluminum content in an import.

 

The good thing... Increased supply of graphics cards will reduce the next level of increase in prices. So it could have been even worse. Maybe we will see plastic backplate and scrap metal heatsink for GPU's as a counterweight to the increased aluminum prices?😀

 

'Absolute Madness': Trump's Aluminum Tariffs Hit GPUs, Desktop Cases

 

 

Why not 5090 and 5080 ?

Amazon reserves RTX 5070, RX 9070 XT GPUs as Amazon Prime exclusives, to the dismay of scalpers

 

[jaybee83]

24 minutes ago, Papusan said:

Why not 5090 and 5080 ?

Amazon reserves RTX 5070, RX 9070 XT GPUs as Amazon Prime exclusives, to the dismay of scalpers

 

 

easy: numbers. they want the maximum amount of addditional prime subscriptions, and the number of buyers for the 70 class far outweighs the 80 and 90 class!

[Mr. Fox]

26 minutes ago, Papusan said:

 

Yep. But now you'll come to next level of scalping... Government scalping! We have the same here home... Forced 25% tax on top of everything. 

 

Nice. 25% additional tariff on top of the 20% general tariff for anything coming from China. Get ready to pay more for PC cases and GPUs.

 

The good thing. Increased supply of graphics cards will reduce the next level of increase in prices. So it could have been even worse. Maybe we will see plastic backplate for GPU's as as a counterweight to increased aluminum prices?😀

 

'Absolute Madness': Trump's Aluminum Tariffs Hit GPUs, Desktop Cases

Only the most selfish and short-sighted Americans will have a problem with this. Things didn't get screwed up overnight. It took time and the deliberate bad behavior of many people that held positions of power that they were unworthy of holding has led us to where we are now. It's going to take some time to fix it, but in the end it will be worth it. Prices of domestic goods are already showing improvement. In particular, fuel and grocery prices have improved. And, we can see all of the emo-tards having their psychotic meltdowns as DOGE is taking out the trash and exposing nonsense and corruption, ending inappropriate use of taxpayer money, etc. 

 

Trump's tariffs are already having the intended outcome. Many large foreign companies are already putting things in motion to move manufacturing to the United States so that tariffs can be avoided. American companies that have played the game of using Chinese slave labor to maximize profits are also pulling back operations to the United States. This will have an added benefit of being able to have more control over what our enemies (like China) can do. This could even have the benefit of totally depriving them access to things that we decide that we don't want them to have access to.

 

Yeah, there are going to be some things that don't feel good while they run their course. If not now, then when? Why wait and let matters worsen? It's not going to get better by itself. Yes, there are going to be some losers, but primarily those that never should have been allowed to participate in the first place. Justice is difficult for the unjust. Not unlike a very calculated and deliberate medical procedure, it's going to hurt for a bit. When it stops hurting its going to be better than it would have been if left untreated.

[tps3443]

17 hours ago, electrosoft said:

 

I'm so glad a board member picked it up especially @1610ftw. Hopefully he gives it a whirl in his X170SM-G to see how far it can flex especially compared to the SP101 I sold him that was my best sample I had including vs my golden sample like yours but your SP106 was rated higher I think than my LTX sample.

 

---

 

And yeah, supply is trickling in steadily now but more importantly demand at those higher price points is waning fast.

 

The fact those combo deals which aren't even that bad (Sub $3k w/ a z890 Motherboard) for a gigabyte shows something is going to have to give especially for perceived "B" tier cards.

 

I'm thinking of cancelling my Astral 5090 pickup at the end of the week. I just am having problems stomaching a $3.5k 5090 purchase. I know it's an Astral and all that, but the price just seems crazy high. But on the other hand, Astrals have been binning pretty nicely overall but I know me and I'd be just as content with a $2k FE or a $2.2k PNY and keep it moving.

 

I'll continue to mull it over mentally. 🤣 I could always just play with it and see if that justifies the purchase. I do have a 60 day return window but still that isn't realistic considering I have to pay for it within 30....

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Astral price is really steep! But these cards have a really good cooler which provides great temps and also really good clocks. I think the bios is pretty good on these Astral cards. Seems like Asus tried to release a solid product this go around that actually matched the extravagant price tag. I remember everyone including @Mr. Fox was complaining how terrible the 4090 Strix OC was and how it was overpriced gamer boy junk.. So at least the 5090 Astral gives you something, good cooling, looks cool, injured wallet, and high core overclocks. But it’s essentially still a 5090 at the end of the day. So I think you gotta determine if it’s worth the price. If I bought a 5090 Astral I’d probably keep it knowing me lol. It’s a very nice GPU. Then again, I really appreciate my 5090FE for $2,100 all in. I think with the VRAM size, and performance uptick in 4K heavy RT, it can straight whoop my 4090 by 50%. And if we use heavy up scaling with 4K, the gap REALLY grows. The 5090 memory bandwidth is strong. It’s nice we have so many options. Truth is, 4090 is so fast already it is more than enough juice. Heck, even my laptop 4090 is fast enough for majority of gamers. 

 

15 hours ago, 1610ftw said:

 

I want to find out which one needs lower power indeed. Got a GT76, too that could use a better CPU so we will see where it ends up! Your 10900K will be hard to beat as it uses roughly as much or even less power with 10 cores as many 9900K use with only 8. Of course I will also check out how far it can go with 5.2 or possibly 5.3GHz, and if I can still achieve great results at around 200W and maybe up to 220W:

https://hwbot.org/benchmarks/cinebench_-_r23_multi_core_with_benchmate/submissions/5619877

 

Shame that we cannot bin CPUs any more now that it is more important than ever especially for Intel.

 

This 10900K can do low power 5.3Ghz, it was like 170-180 watts running R15. I want to say it could run 5.0Ghz with like 1.075v. I did very very minimal testing on it. I wish I could have ran it properly with a Z490 Apex on the test bench and chiller. My motherboard was a Z490 Aorus piece of crap to the max (I hated this board, I hate its bios and it was so horribly unstable) I had a 10850K SP84 that was direct die cooling, and on a massive multi-pump custom loop with external rad cooling which used 298 watts at 5.3Ghz, and this 10900K on a 360mm AIO “Not even delidded” would absolutely smash that thing! It was pure impressive how much better this 10900K was. 
 

Since I bought a 14900HX/4090 laptop, I didn’t need this 10900K system really. And it was just sitting in my living room.

 

 

@electrosoft When I first saw the prices on 5090 MSI Laptops, I thought they have gotten super greedy man. And this is pure hilarious to see them now. 😂 I mean, what was MSI even smoking to begin with..Not sure who is paying 5K+ for a MSI Raider. It’s a really great machine. But buying a barely faster than a 4090 laptop rig. For thousands more is nuts..

 

Also, have you overclocked your 4090 machine yet? I seem to get about +1,000 on memory with mine, but I think that’s it. Also, I noticed if I hold my laptop off the table it drops 9C on GPU temp! No cooling pad or anything fancy. Just sitting my laptop on a cup in the table lifted about 5 inches off the table it drops a straight up 9C in game. 🤯 

[Clamibot]

This looks a lot like thay Rev-9 laptop that came out a while back: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Massive-T1000-mobile-PC-supports-AMD-Ryzen-9-9950X3D-RTX-5090-and-other-desktop-CPUs-and-GPUs.977868.0.html

 

Soo maybe my Slabtop dreams will be realized sometime soon since these niche true desktop replacements keep popping up?

[Papusan]

On 3/31/2025 at 4:33 AM, Papusan said:

 

I'm sure the results for 4000 series graphics cards would be better if nvidia bothered spend some time with the drivers for EOL cards. Same also for even older 3000 series.

 

 

Game developers are recommending GeForce RTX 40 Series owners roll back to drivers from 2024

https://www.tweaktown.com/news/104313/game-developers-are-recommending-geforce-rtx-40-series-owners-roll-back-to-drivers-from-2024/index.html

 

 

Yup, the direction for modern tech goes the wrong way... If I remember correct... The mobile 5090 have less cores than 5080 desktop cards. And you get jokebooks with soldered on 5090@95W 

 

GeForce RTX 5090 laptops are a whopping 50 percent slower than the desktop RTX 5090

 

On 3/31/2025 at 5:22 AM, Mr. Fox said:

Well, that is the driver I have installed already. But, your point is no less valid regardless. I seldom ever use current drivers because most of the time there is an older one that is better.

 

 

 

[tps3443]

50 minutes ago, Clamibot said:

This looks a lot like thay Rev-9 laptop that came out a while back: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Massive-T1000-mobile-PC-supports-AMD-Ryzen-9-9950X3D-RTX-5090-and-other-desktop-CPUs-and-GPUs.977868.0.html

 

Soo maybe my Slabtop dreams will be realized sometime soon since these niche true desktop replacements keep popping up?

Several variants of this should already exist. Just give us a massive thick brick that has PCIe slots and cpu sockets lol. It’s easier than making tiny BGA machines. That would be nice. I’m quite enjoying my BGA Turd book though. 14900HX+4090 Mobile. The thing RIPS! But, I kinda wish it was not so locked down. And I wish I had a little more juice for the GPU TDP. It seems to have the cooling headroom. I really need 200w TGP. 

[electrosoft]

8 hours ago, Papusan said:

 

Yep. But now you'll come to next level of scalping... Government scalping! We have the same here home... Forced 25% tax on top of everything we buy. 

 

Nice. 25% additional tariff on top of the 20% general tariff for anything coming from China. Get ready to pay more for PC cases and GPUs.

 

Aluminum is a fundamental material in constructing PC cases and is also utilized in manufacturing various GPU components. The newly imposed tariffs are expected to increase production costs for these items, leading to higher retail prices.

 

According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the aluminum tariff is determined by the value of the aluminum content in an import.

 

The good thing... Increased supply of graphics cards will reduce the next level of increase in prices. So it could have been even worse. Maybe we will see plastic backplate and scrap metal heatsink for GPU's as a counterweight to the increased aluminum prices?😀

 

'Absolute Madness': Trump's Aluminum Tariffs Hit GPUs, Desktop Cases

 

 

Why not 5090 and 5080 ?

Amazon reserves RTX 5070, RX 9070 XT GPUs as Amazon Prime exclusives, to the dismay of scalpers

 

 

The sweeping tariffs announced today across ALL countries basically and increasing China's tariff rate to 54% is mind boggling. The <$800 loop hole is also closing too. I wish we would just focus on China at the moment but alas....

 

 "Liberation Day" 🤑🤮

 

With the way things are going, buy any hardware you want now if you're in the US as much higher costs and a recession is almost guaranteed along with a lot of US based businesses going under because US buyers can't or won't buy their goods at those costs.

 

If this sticks, expect computer part prices to skyrocket in the US. I don't even know where GPUs are going price wise at this rate....

 

It's a game of chicken at this point and I'm not really sure China will blink let alone the sheer amount of damage we are doing to our relationships with all the other countries in the world including those we call (or called) friends and allies.

 

As always, my main concern is making sure exemptions are placed on necessities required to exist. I really am not as concerned about the top end Lincoln Nautilus going from 80k to 120k+ as I am the cost of necessities from food to household items jumping from $10 to $15 across several ranges that add up quickly for those barely getting by or even those slightly above that.

 

"Hey, tariffs have made the price of already unaffordable American made items cheaper than previously affordable but now extremely unaffordable imports....are we winning yet?"

 

Imagine in the USA where ~11% are classified as poverty level and some studies showing 50%+ live paycheck to paycheck suddenly everything goes up in cost by 10% or more because of tariffs which are known to be another form of taxation. I don't care how you sugar coat it and wrapped it in false patriotism and puffery......tariffs = tax on citizens.

 

Do you think companies are going to suck that up? Nope, they're going to pass as much of it as they can right along to consumers.

 

trump is betting big with house money. I truly hope he knocks it out of the park, but if he doesn't, this could be catastrophic for the US.

 

6 hours ago, tps3443 said:

The Astral price is really steep! But these cards have a really good cooler which provides great temps and also really good clocks. I think the bios is pretty good on these Astral cards. Seems like Asus tried to release a solid product this go around that actually matched the extravagant price tag. I remember everyone including @Mr. Fox was complaining how terrible the 4090 Strix OC was and how it was overpriced gamer boy junk.. So at least the 5090 Astral gives you something, good cooling, looks cool, injured wallet, and high core overclocks. But it’s essentially still a 5090 at the end of the day. So I think you gotta determine if it’s worth the price. If I bought a 5090 Astral I’d probably keep it knowing me lol. It’s a very nice GPU. Then again, I really appreciate my 5090FE for $2,100 all in. I think with the VRAM size, and performance uptick in 4K heavy RT, it can straight whoop my 4090 by 50%. And if we use heavy up scaling with 4K, the gap REALLY grows. The 5090 memory bandwidth is strong. It’s nice we have so many options. Truth is, 4090 is so fast already it is more than enough juice. Heck, even my laptop 4090 is fast enough for majority of gamers. 

 

 

With today's announcement of 54% tariffs on all imports from China and Liberation Day, these prices may seem cheap in a few months.....

 

Looks like Saturday it should be ready for pick up now and I'm going to pick it up. Worse case scenario, I return it if it has too much coil whine and/or that 4th fan @Papusan is proclaiming sounds like Darth Vader's breathing system at the end of Return of the Jedi after the emperor tunes him up before taking a swan's dive sounds thusly so back it will go.....

 

6 hours ago, tps3443 said:

@electrosoft When I first saw the prices on 5090 MSI Laptops, I thought they have gotten super greedy man. And this is pure hilarious to see them now. 😂 I mean, what was MSI even smoking to begin with..Not sure who is paying 5K+ for a MSI Raider. It’s a really great machine. But buying a barely faster than a 4090 laptop rig. For thousands more is nuts..

 

Also, have you overclocked your 4090 machine yet? I seem to get about +1,000 on memory with mine, but I think that’s it. Also, I noticed if I hold my laptop off the table it drops 9C on GPU temp! No cooling pad or anything fancy. Just sitting my laptop on a cup in the table lifted about 5 inches off the table it drops a straight up 9C in game. 🤯 

 

$3999.99 isn't crazy out of range for the 18 Raider with the 285HX, 64GB 6400 memory, 5090 and 2TB SSD and a mLED display though. but a heck of a lot more than I paid for mine. After tax that is ~$2k more than I paid. No thank you.

 

Nope, when I got home from Florida we got sick with Covid pretty quick and it sat in the bag till last Friday when I updated it for an out of town trip for a family member's wedding where it handled gaming nicely and now (lol) it's back in the bag again. I always use a set of old school "laptop balls" on all my primary laptops for keyboard angling and better cooling.

 

Next time I bust it out, I'll collect some before and after OC data from it. I know you asked me before a week or so ago, but it was still in the bag....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Papusan]

13 hours ago, electrosoft said:

... is betting big with house money. I truly hope he knocks it out of the park, but if he doesn't, this could be catastrophic for the US.

 

It's a game of chicken at this point and I'm not really sure China will blink let alone the sheer amount of damage we are doing to our relationships with all the other countries in the world including those we call (or called) friends and allies.

 

 

Exactly. I see it here in one of worlds most expensive countries to live in. Why should we get cheaper computer parts than US? Something is wrong.

 

5090 will be a great option for those with AI Server needs. Probably the cheaper option from Nvidia... Because tariffs will make the better opinions from Nvidia even more expensive for those running AI tasks.

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/seven-rtx-5090-gpus-power-ai-server-worth-over-usd30-000-over-4000w-of-power-and-224gb-of-memory-in-a-single-frame

 

This is why there is so few 5090's for gamers and so high prices... The shift went from cypto to AI servers. This doesn't bode well for people/gamers that want cheaper nvidia geforce flagship cards.

 

 

US knock down their best friends. Norway got a 16% gift because we have tariffs on much needed agricultural goods. Remember, we live in one of the worst places to grow food from the ground. Can't compete with other countries on prices because they have a better climate for food production. That would kill all food production here. We have one crop a year where we can get food from the ground (the growing season here is very short.). 3 months of summer and then 9 months of cold. And the summer is also colder than most places on Earth.

 

It will be hard for the poorer people. They will have it even harder than today. But the middle class will survive. None of this will hurt China. Just the rest of us. See the whole video above. Very good summarized.

 

Another devastating factor with Trump's new policies is that hardware manufacturers cannot benefit from the "China+1" strategy anymore, given that the tariffs are also imposed on nations like Vietnam, Thailand, India, and Taiwan, which are deemed to be a viable alternative to China. So, a workaround to these tariffs isn't possible at all.

 

See it this way... China/or the whole asian continent will be the winners. They get the cheapest tech hardware. And hey, they are the first one that can buy and use new released hardware. They even get special hardware (Cpu's and Gpu's) by western tech companies as Intel, Nvidia and AMD.

[1610ftw]

10 hours ago, tps3443 said:

The Astral price is really steep! But these cards have a really good cooler which provides great temps and also really good clocks. I think the bios is pretty good on these Astral cards. Seems like Asus tried to release a solid product this go around that actually matched the extravagant price tag. I remember everyone including @Mr. Fox was complaining how terrible the 4090 Strix OC was and how it was overpriced gamer boy junk.. So at least the 5090 Astral gives you something, good cooling, looks cool, injured wallet, and high core overclocks. But it’s essentially still a 5090 at the end of the day. So I think you gotta determine if it’s worth the price. If I bought a 5090 Astral I’d probably keep it knowing me lol. It’s a very nice GPU. Then again, I really appreciate my 5090FE for $2,100 all in. I think with the VRAM size, and performance uptick in 4K heavy RT, it can straight whoop my 4090 by 50%. And if we use heavy up scaling with 4K, the gap REALLY grows. The 5090 memory bandwidth is strong. It’s nice we have so many options. Truth is, 4090 is so fast already it is more than enough juice. Heck, even my laptop 4090 is fast enough for majority of gamers. 

 

This 10900K can do low power 5.3Ghz, it was like 170-180 watts running R15. I want to say it could run 5.0Ghz with like 1.075v. I did very very minimal testing on it. I wish I could have ran it properly with a Z490 Apex on the test bench and chiller. My motherboard was a Z490 Aorus piece of crap to the max (I hated this board, I hate its bios and it was so horribly unstable) I had a 10850K SP84 that was direct die cooling, and on a massive multi-pump custom loop with external rad cooling which used 298 watts at 5.3Ghz, and this 10900K on a 360mm AIO “Not even delidded” would absolutely smash that thing! It was pure impressive how much better this 10900K was. 
 

Since I bought a 14900HX/4090 laptop, I didn’t need this 10900K system really. And it was just sitting in my living room.

 

 

@electrosoft When I first saw the prices on 5090 MSI Laptops, I thought they have gotten super greedy man. And this is pure hilarious to see them now. 😂 I mean, what was MSI even smoking to begin with..Not sure who is paying 5K+ for a MSI Raider. It’s a really great machine. But buying a barely faster than a 4090 laptop rig. For thousands more is nuts..

 

Also, have you overclocked your 4090 machine yet? I seem to get about +1,000 on memory with mine, but I think that’s it. Also, I noticed if I hold my laptop off the table it drops 9C on GPU temp! No cooling pad or anything fancy. Just sitting my laptop on a cup in the table lifted about 5 inches off the table it drops a straight up 9C in game. 🤯 

 

Very nice, looking forward to play with the 10900K 🙂 I also got a decent 10850K by the way but it is just too much for a laptop as it consumes about 15 to 20% more than the chip I got from @electrosoft.

 

Mobile 50x prices are highway robbery right now with MSI, Asus, Razer and others and the Raider with the 4090 will be much better value for money, so I would keep it for a while.

 

As I have rocked the Raider 18HX as my main driver for the last ca. 7 months I can comment on a couple of things even though I have it worse than you guys as mine uses the 14900HX and 192GB memory:

 

I can confirm that it gets VERY hot when not elevated so elevation it a must but then this is true for just about everything out there.

 

Also even with elevation the SSDs, Intel chipset and memory get very hot, especially with the fans turned down which is not a problem for CPU and GPU temps most of the time. This is because until recently all laptops had little to no active airflow over these areas and this is only slowly changing now with first Razer and then Asus adding a center front fan and now Gigabyte one on each side blowing over the other components.

 

Up to more than 100C on the memory and permanently around 60C on SSDs was not what I wanted so I just got a second bottom cover so that I do not care if a few of the plastic noses break off and when not typing on the Raider and with it sitting aside I take it off, takes all of 5 seconds. I do this with most of my laptops that I use for multiple tasks as they all get hot and drop a lot of temps in the SSDs and memory when I do that, also very important for the X170. The difference in memory is as much as 40C and with SSDs I easily see 20C less. Oh and I took off the shield over the memory - no idea how it would be supposed to survive if I retained that shield.

 

Here is what I currently use:

Ringke folding stand, it has two height tiers and folds flat when on the road, very convenient:

https://www.amazon.com/Ringke-Portable-Lightweight-Anti-Slide-Invisible/dp/B083VT6P7W/

 

Two Noctua 90mm fans that I had sitting around, just used to move air under the laptop and they can be positioned just about anywhere depending if you type on the laptop or not or if the cover is off or not. Slim 120 x 15mm fans may be even better but I was too lazy to change things. In any case these should just fit under the laptop and in a pinch they can probably be driven directly from the USB-A connector with this:

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0DDT78NTK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

I would still prefer some external power and would definitely do that if these fans run permanently and at home.

 

Fans could for example be two or three of these, they can be attached in a row, no added cabling needed:

https://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-P12-Slim-PWM-Pressure-optimised/dp/B08QDKGCCW/?th=1

and some rubber feet:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X24NTM3?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

 

Fans also work quite well for cooling things down a bit when the bottom cover is closed but of course better when it is not attached or when ventilation openings are increased. So if one never wants to take off the bottom cover I would suggest to get a second one and cut some ventilation openings if needed.

 

TLDR:

• Use elevation and choose one that you can take with you
• add some airflow that goes over the bottom, maybe cut out some areas with a spare cover
• check temps for memory, SSDs and chipset - you may be surprised

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[electrosoft]

Astral disassembly and block.

 

I thought the Astral used LM. Kind of glad to see it doesn't after the Matrix.

 

 

 

[electrosoft]

12 hours ago, Papusan said:

 

Exactly. I see it here in one of worlds most expensive countries to live in. Why should we get cheaper computer parts than US? Something is wrong.

 

5090 will be a great option for those with AI Server needs. Probably the cheaper option from Nvidia... Because tariffs will make the better opinions from Nvidia even more expensive for those running AI tasks.

https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/seven-rtx-5090-gpus-power-ai-server-worth-over-usd30-000-over-4000w-of-power-and-224gb-of-memory-in-a-single-frame

 

This is why there is so few 5090's for gamers and so high prices... The shift went from cypto to AI servers. This doesn't bode well for people/gamers that want cheaper nvidia geforce flagship cards.

 

 

US knock down their best friends. Norway got a 16% gift because we have tariffs on much needed agricultural goods. Remember, we live in one of the worst places to grow food from the ground. Can't compete with other countries on prices because they have a better climate for food production. That would kill all food production here. We have one crop a year where we can get food from the ground (the growing season here is very short.). 3 months of summer and then 9 months of cold. And the summer is also colder than most places on Earth.

 

It will be hard for the poorer people. They will have it even harder than today. But the middle class will survive. None of this will hurt China. Just the rest of us. See the whole video above. Very good summarized.

 

Spot on with that link to Reagan speaking about the pitfalls of tariffs and how to properly use them.

 

Look, the US has been here before. When we went to economical war with Japan in the late 80s/early 90s we were successful because of not only us but other countries bringing balance to global trade and leveling out participation in the economy. Focusing on China only and making sure we have allies in the fight world wide is the right approach if that's the goal to thwart another country from achieving economical dominance like the US has enjoyed for decades. But this Liberation Day nonsense in tandem? No. I will reiterate, I hope it succeeds, but all the signs are it is going to cause catastrophic damage and the vast majority will be a tax on citizens in the US and other countries if they retaliate which I expect can and will happen.

 

I'm just not seeing the end game here dropping an economical nuke on the world and not expecting retaliation.

 

I'm sure @Reciever is going to want to steer the convo back to tech (rightfully so), so this is all I'll speak on about the tariffs and how our hobby is going to get much more expensive sooner than later.

 

 

------

 

If more and more businesses, both small and large, start to use 5090 for AI server needs that will compound pricing on top of everything. It would also harken back to mining farms and lots of GPUs being sold en masse.

 

For 5090 flag ship cards, it's a potential problem, but for all the cards underneath I expect supply to continue to flow in both AMD and Nvidia. If you're content with 5080 on down, you should be good to go soon.

 

9 hours ago, 1610ftw said:

 

Very nice, looking forward to play with the 10900K 🙂 I also got a decent 10850K by the way but it is just too much for a laptop as it consumes about 15 to 20% more than the chip I got from @electrosoft.

 

Mobile 50x prices are highway robbery right now with MSI, Asus, Razer and others and the Raider with the 4090 will be much better value for money, so I would keep it for a while.

 

As I have rocked the Raider 18HX as my main driver for the last ca. 7 months I can comment on a couple of things even though I have it worse than you guys as mine uses the 14900HX and 192GB memory:

 

I can confirm that it gets VERY hot when not elevated so elevation it a must but then this is true for just about everything out there.

 

Also even with elevation the SSDs, Intel chipset and memory get very hot, especially with the fans turned down which is not a problem for CPU and GPU temps most of the time. This is because until recently all laptops had little to no active airflow over these areas and this is only slowly changing now with first Razer and then Asus adding a center front fan and now Gigabyte one on each side blowing over the other components.

 

Up to more than 100C on the memory and permanently around 60C on SSDs was not what I wanted so I just got a second bottom cover so that I do not care if a few of the plastic noses break off and when not typing on the Raider and with it sitting aside I take it off, takes all of 5 seconds. I do this with most of my laptops that I use for multiple tasks as they all get hot and drop a lot of temps in the SSDs and memory when I do that, also very important for the X170. The difference in memory is as much as 40C and with SSDs I easily see 20C less. Oh and I took off the shield over the memory - no idea how it would be supposed to survive if I retained that shield.

 

Here is what I currently use:

Ringke folding stand, it has two height tiers and folds flat when on the road, very convenient:

https://www.amazon.com/Ringke-Portable-Lightweight-Anti-Slide-Invisible/dp/B083VT6P7W/

 

Two Noctua 90mm fans that I had sitting around, just used to move air under the laptop and they can be positioned just about anywhere depending if you type on the laptop or not or if the cover is off or not. Slim 120 x 15mm fans may be even better but I was too lazy to change things. In any case these should just fit under the laptop and in a pinch they can probably be driven directly from the USB-A connector with this:

https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0DDT78NTK/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

I would still prefer some external power and would definitely do that if these fans run permanently and at home.

 

Fans could for example be two or three of these, they can be attached in a row, no added cabling needed:

https://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-P12-Slim-PWM-Pressure-optimised/dp/B08QDKGCCW/?th=1

and some rubber feet:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07X24NTM3?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

 

Fans also work quite well for cooling things down a bit when the bottom cover is closed but of course better when it is not attached or when ventilation openings are increased. So if one never wants to take off the bottom cover I would suggest to get a second one and cut some ventilation openings if needed.

 

TLDR:

• Use elevation and choose one that you can take with you
• add some airflow that goes over the bottom, maybe cut out some areas with a spare cover
• check temps for memory, SSDs and chipset - you may be surprised

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, that 10900k was one of those CPUs on the desktop the SP113 when pushed to 300w the SP113 was clearly the winner hitting 5.5+ pretty easily, but in the X170SM-G? I just kept comparing R23 runs going, "this can't be right" because it was running so much better than all the previous ones I tested and all the ones after I tested.

 

 

Yeah, you and @tps3443 run 14900hx chips while mine runs a 7950x3d. He has an Acer while you and I have MSI variants.

 

I did swap out the stock drive for a heatsink equipped 990 Pro 2TB. I'll have to check the memory temps.

 

I've been using this since 2016 and if I'm away for awhile, I will pack it in my laptop bag. It works fantastic.

 

[Mr. Fox]

33 minutes ago, electrosoft said:

Astral disassembly and block.

 

I thought the Astral used LM. Kind of glad to see it doesn't after the Matrix.

 

 

 

That is an awesome-looking waterblock. I'd like to know where to buy those rubber gaskets for the liquid metal.

[Papusan]

51 minutes ago, electrosoft said:

Astral disassembly and block.

 

I thought the Astral used LM. Kind of glad to see it doesn't after the Matrix.

 

 

 

 

Asus use phase-change GPU thermal pads. Hopefully similar quality as PTM 7950. But as you have seen from my posts... Asus can do cheap choices to cut costs for maximized profits. Only a tecnical inspection from an review by Igorslab can determine the brand/quality. Asus could easily use an copy cat to cut costs.