New Computer

kennith · Nov 21, 2019

Here's one I did a while back as a Christmas gift. That one also needed to be serviceable and easily expandable:

Doesn't matter what has to come next, it's easy for them to do it themselves if they ever feel the need, and they can see all the wires and parts that make it run. They were just starting to appreciate computers, and expressing an interest in a desktop machine, so I intervened to make it a little more fun, easy, and educational to look at.

It's probably about ten years or so later at this point, and it's still humming along performing daily tasks, media, and light gaming without a hitch.

I tend to use factory cooling solutions more often than others for a number of reasons. Reliability and ease of fan removal for cleaning (people just can't figure out how to get a fan off a heat sink) are very high up on that list. An all in one liquid cooler is dangerous to deliver, because when when that pump stops (and they do fairly frequently) you chance toasting a CPU. A heat sink helps prevent that.

Since I also don't like handing an average user a system that needs coolant changes or has five pounds of aluminum hanging off the motherboard... It's a mid-size or stock cooler when appropriate. Good air management prevents any issues. I do level the CPU heat spreader and heat sink base, because the damned things are often lumpier than you'd think.

When you treat it like the top shelf stuff, stock cooling is often quite sufficient, and is generally very reliable. I've had too many people ask their friends to ask me to call them and explain how to remove the fan from an aftermarket heat sink... The average person seems incapable of doing so unless they're staring at four screws.

It's like "that person" in your family trying to switch inputs on his television.

Cheers,

Kennith

brian4d · Nov 25, 2019

kennith said:
Here's one I did a while back as a Christmas gift. That one also needed to be serviceable and easily expandable:

View attachment 57676

Doesn't matter what has to come next, it's easy for them to do it themselves if they ever feel the need, and they can see all the wires and parts that make it run. They were just starting to appreciate computers, and expressing an interest in a desktop machine, so I intervened to make it a little more fun, easy, and educational to look at.

It's probably about ten years or so later at this point, and it's still humming along performing daily tasks, media, and light gaming without a hitch.

I tend to use factory cooling solutions more often than others for a number of reasons. Reliability and ease of fan removal for cleaning (people just can't figure out how to get a fan off a heat sink) are very high up on that list. An all in one liquid cooler is dangerous to deliver, because when when that pump stops (and they do fairly frequently) you chance toasting a CPU. A heat sink helps prevent that.

Since I also don't like handing an average user a system that needs coolant changes or has five pounds of aluminum hanging off the motherboard... It's a mid-size or stock cooler when appropriate. Good air management prevents any issues. I do level the CPU heat spreader and heat sink base, because the damned things are often lumpier than you'd think.

When you treat it like the top shelf stuff, stock cooling is often quite sufficient, and is generally very reliable. I've had too many people ask their friends to ask me to call them and explain how to remove the fan from an aftermarket heat sink... The average person seems incapable of doing so unless they're staring at four screws.

It's like "that person" in your family trying to switch inputs on his television.

Cheers,

Kennith

Stock cooling is great until it isn't. I will (to extend shelf life) overclock a cpu slightly but never bought into the water cooling for reasons you mentioned. I will however venture over to the Thermal take route. had great luck with them.

https://www.newegg.com/thermaltake-riing-silent-12-blue-cl-p022-al12bu-a/p/N82E16835106404?Description=thermal take cpu fan&cm_re=thermal_take_cpu_fan-_-35-106-404-_-Product

kennith · Nov 25, 2019

My USB3 cable came in! That was bugging me. I can get USB header extensions quickly, but I thought that USB cable was going to be a month out. Cable Mod was the only reasonable option that didn't involve me dying, splicing, or sleeving; which would be pointless here. Whatever. I'll install it tonight.

On the sound card note, I'll point out one thing:

If you move from on-board to a proper dedicated card, like they used to build when Roland, Adlib, and Creative were duking it out, you'll notice something. In games, some of that "Michael Bay" will likely be tamed. This is the age-old problem in which something is recorded one way, the playback device assumes you're an idiot and that you're also using a shitty headset, and then boosts the fuck out of separation and detail to whiz-bang you into their cult.

I always use the on-board a bit just to see what's been done, and nothing ever changes. This board was just as bad as every other board I've used. It's roughly the same as leaving your new TV on "store display mode" after a purchase, cranking the brightness to the sky, and breaking off the sharpness knob trying to hit 101%. It's not a subjective issue; you're genuinely missing data, and a hell of a lot of it.

If you want to amplify footsteps in an FPS, get a card. The designers already factored that in, but your on-board solution is so busy trying to be the next Transformers movie that they've been overshadowed by everything else. If it's still not "G4m3r" enough for you, that's what the EQ is for; but you might want to reevaluate your priorities, because I've never met a highly skilled FPS player who uses any more than stereo unless they're being paid to do so.

The benefits with monitoring, mixing, and listening/watching are all still there. The dedicated cards are equipped with all the same cool features that the gamer stuff is, such as EAX; which has been around for ages. I'm playing The Outer Worlds now, and they really went retro with EAX. It's used extensively. The On-board boosted it to comical levels, but the Xonar... It sounds precisely like EAX is meant to sound; subtle.

Even my Xonar has the boosted modes, but you can disable them all and leave it in flat "Hi-Fi" mode. The difference is vast.

It's kind of like listening to music on a set of Beats headphones or a Turtle Beach headset and then swapping over to a solid set of AKGs. The other two are pretty much a joke once you hear the real thing. You don't need artificial surround or a headset with fifty-seven tiny drivers if you've got a solid stereo unit.

The cards offer the highest form of virtual surround, but you simply don't need it anymore.

Cheers,

Kennith

brian4d · Nov 25, 2019

kennith said:
My USB3 cable came in! That was bugging me. I can get USB header extensions quickly, but I thought that USB cable was going to be a month out. Cable Mod was the only reasonable option that didn't involve me dying, splicing, or sleeving; which would be pointless here. Whatever. I'll install it tonight.

On the sound card note, I'll point out one thing:

If you move from on-board to a proper dedicated card, like they used to build when Roland, Adlib, and Creative were duking it out, you'll notice something. In games, some of that "Michael Bay" will likely be tamed. This is the age-old problem in which something is recorded one way, the playback device assumes you're an idiot and that you're also using a shitty headset, and then boosts the fuck out of separation and detail to whiz-bang you into their cult.

I always use the on-board a bit just to see what's been done, and nothing ever changes. This board was just as bad as every other board I've used. It's roughly the same as leaving your new TV on "store display mode" after a purchase, cranking the brightness to the sky, and breaking off the sharpness knob trying to hit 101%. It's not a subjective issue; you're genuinely missing data, and a hell of a lot of it.

If you want to amplify footsteps in an FPS, get a card. The designers already factored that in, but your on-board solution is so busy trying to be the next Transformers movie that they've been overshadowed by everything else. If it's still not "G4m3r" enough for you, that's what the EQ is for; but you might want to reevaluate your priorities, because I've never met a highly skilled FPS player who uses any more than stereo unless they're being paid to do so.

The benefits with monitoring, mixing, and listening/watching are all still there. The dedicated cards are equipped with all the same cool features that the gamer stuff is, such as EAX; which has been around for ages. I'm playing The Outer Worlds now, and they really went retro with EAX. It's used extensively. The On-board boosted it to comical levels, but the Xonar... It sounds precisely like EAX is meant to sound; subtle.

Even my Xonar has the boosted modes, but you can disable them all and leave it in flat "Hi-Fi" mode. The difference is vast.

It's kind of like listening to music on a set of Beats headphones or a Turtle Beach headset and then swapping over to a solid set of AKGs. The other two are pretty much a joke once you hear the real thing. You don't need artificial surround or a headset with fifty-seven tiny drivers if you've got a solid stereo unit.

The cards offer the highest form of virtual surround, but you simply don't need it anymore.

Cheers,

Kennith

Good information on the sound cards, I always thought the designated cards were for audiophiles.

As for your custom cables, if you don't use these guys already you should.

https://www.monoprice.com/

kennith · Nov 25, 2019

brian4d said:
Stock cooling is great until it isn't. I will (to extend shelf life) overclock a cpu slightly but never bought into the water cooling for reasons you mentioned. I will however venture over to the Thermal take route. had great luck with them.

https://www.newegg.com/thermaltake-riing-silent-12-blue-cl-p022-al12bu-a/p/N82E16835106404?Description=thermal take cpu fan&cm_re=thermal_take_cpu_fan-_-35-106-404-_-Product

Once leveled they hold up well. If you move to an aftermarket fan and keep your intake filters, they do even better; but there is a limit as you suggest.

Noctua, Thermalwright, Be Quiet!, and Coolermaster are typically what I'll consider for mid-size air cooling, depending upon noise requirements and budget; Zalman used to be up there, as well. I've made my own in the past, but heat pipes are just unreasonable in a shop. I suppose I could, but I won't.

Thermaltake can be a little hit or miss, but I've had a few Coolermaster Hyper 212s within the past couple of years that featured loose heat pipes, as well. I'm more prone to provide the top-tier CPU before voltages skyrocket and actually underclock it a bit unless it's a machine that really needs the performance for dedicated work-loads.

It can be cranked later when it begins to matter, and I do provide a half-price HSF upgrade option down the road, for the life of the buyer.

The baller guys will want a custom liquid loop, but the warranty changes the second I plumb one, because I don't know what the heck they are going to do with it. I won't support a clogged pump or radiator, or water damage beyond six months. At that point, someone is going to have to open it up, and most people don't know what they're doing.

To compensate for the reduced cooling potential of the factory HSF, I move to "air chamber" case design, and I focus heavily on cooling the motherboard directly. I try to win the silicon lottery, as well. If you cycle through enough, you'll nab a CPU that'll run at lower voltages for a specified frequency. I've got some contacts that score them for me, but I do end up selling a lot of CPUs that didn't pass muster. That goes for RAM, as well; even SSDs.

That's a $2,000 system. Most of what I handle starts at around $4,000 or so. Cooling is a different ballgame, there; and I'll go quite far to ensure each heat sink gets it's own, direct fresh air supply, and that the motherboard is completely cooled with great filtration, because you don't want dust bunnies behind it. At that point with a gaming system, I'll go full-bore custom on case finish and lean into custom loops, but for workstation/server/secure systems, I stick to carefully managed air.

Generally, if water is required for those purposes, the radiators are fitted to case extensions or with ducts and receiving their own ambient temperature air.

I've got to give a ten year warranty on this stuff, so it ends up looking more like a factory build from a workstation supplier, or something stupidly wild for the gaming/YouTuber/streaming crowd. I've built a few dedicated overclocking rigs, but those are rare because the enthusiasts like doing their own thing, but I'll set something up for liquid nitrogen or refrigerated peltier if someone pays me enough.

That typically only happens right before a show, though; and the customer generally has a direct line to the CPU manufacturer of their choice. Sometimes I get that sponsorship mony for the build and cherry-picked parts, but quite often at the high end of competition they straight-up build the system for the competitor to protect their name.

I've done some "factory" builds before involving Intel and AMD and even Nvidia contracts, but it's rare, and I wasn't sure why I was being paid to do it.

Hell, I tell most people to just call Falcon Northwest and be done with it, but like I said; most of my customers are really into long-term secure systems or workstations. I've done the occasional art piece, but my little magnum opus "art piece" is turning out to be a system cooled by a waterfall. I think it'll be neat, and I've got the thermals figured out now.

The extra reliability work I do just doesn't really have a point when it comes to a gaming rig, and that's where some of the extra expense comes in. The people that need it are usually the people that pay for it, in the end. I do have rules: You meet my minimum standards, or I don't build the machine.

Cheers,

Kennith

kennith · Nov 25, 2019

brian4d said:
Good information on the sound cards, I always thought the designated cards were for audiophiles.

As for your custom cables, if you don't use these guys already you should.

https://www.monoprice.com/

I forgot about that, but I didn't see any on Amazon, and they usually seem to be up there; or they have in the past. I kept finding blue units. I'd sleeve and dye or even extend them normally, but I didn't want to bother. Staggering all those tiny solder points to keep the jacket the same diameter is more than I want to fuck with here. Now sure if I could do it anymore, anyway. It might be a little too precise to handle the nerve damage.

I needed a 90 to straight to get the management I wanted, and it needed to be a 20 pin header extension.

A lot of this "custom" stuff is usually pretty crappy when it comes to strain reduction and overall termination, but Cable Mod seems to have actually bought or had made a very good cable, and then sleeved it; or they've just had a manufacturer handle it during production. Some of their stuff doesn't really impress me, but this was a good purchase, I think.

I'll snap some pictures later. Hopefully it works. If it does, I might pick up a couple more for future use just to save time.

I typically use Bluejeans for cable around the house, making longer runs to monitors, and things of that nature. Monoprice is pretty good for the price, actually, and that's good, because I fucking hate braided external cables. It's stupid as fuck. There is indeed such a thing as too flexible, and they suck for abrasion resistance, not even considering the fact that most of them don't hold at the strain relief; if they even have it.

Monoprice stuff doesn't have that problem, but I do watch the conductor diameter like a hawk. It's more important with digital now than it ever was with analog. The second you're firing 4K with HDR down the pipeline, you'll be lucky to get six feet; and that even includes USB unless you go active. The standards suck balls.

DVI and Coax are better than anything we've got now. Don't let a soul tell you Coax can't handle that stuff, because it CAN. It's just Sony keeping you from using it. Those fucking assholes. I hate Sony for that very reason.

Cheers,

Kennith

brian4d · Nov 25, 2019

kennith said:
Once leveled they hold up well. If you move to an aftermarket fan and keep your intake filters, they do even better; but there is a limit as you suggest.

Noctua, Thermalwright, Be Quiet!, and Coolermaster are typically what I'll consider for mid-size air cooling, depending upon noise requirements and budget; Zalman used to be up there, as well. I've made my own in the past, but heat pipes are just unreasonable in a shop. I suppose I could, but I won't.

Thermaltake can be a little hit or miss, but I've had a few Coolermaster Hyper 212s within the past couple of years that featured loose heat pipes, as well. I'm more prone to provide the top-tier CPU before voltages skyrocket and actually underclock it a bit unless it's a machine that really needs the performance for dedicated work-loads.

It can be cranked later when it begins to matter, and I do provide a half-price HSF upgrade option down the road, for the life of the buyer.

The baller guys will want a custom liquid loop, but the warranty changes the second I plumb one, because I don't know what the heck they are going to do with it. I won't support a clogged pump or radiator, or water damage beyond six months. At that point, someone is going to have to open it up, and most people don't know what they're doing.

To compensate for the reduced cooling potential of the factory HSF, I move to "air chamber" case design, and I focus heavily on cooling the motherboard directly. I try to win the silicon lottery, as well. If you cycle through enough, you'll nab a CPU that'll run at lower voltages for a specified frequency. I've got some contacts that score them for me, but I do end up selling a lot of CPUs that didn't pass muster. That goes for RAM, as well; even SSDs.

That's a $2,000 system. Most of what I handle starts at around $4,000 or so. Cooling is a different ballgame, there; and I'll go quite far to ensure each heat sink gets it's own, direct fresh air supply, and that the motherboard is completely cooled with great filtration, because you don't want dust bunnies behind it. At that point with a gaming system, I'll go full-bore custom on case finish and lean into custom loops, but for workstation/server/secure systems, I stick to carefully managed air.

Generally, if water is required for those purposes, the radiators are fitted to case extensions or with ducts and receiving their own ambient temperature air.

I've got to give a ten year warranty on this stuff, so it ends up looking more like a factory build from a workstation supplier, or something stupidly wild for the gaming/YouTuber/streaming crowd. I've built a few dedicated overclocking rigs, but those are rare because the enthusiasts like doing their own thing, but I'll set something up for liquid nitrogen or refrigerated peltier if someone pays me enough.

That typically only happens right before a show, though; and the customer generally has a direct line to the CPU manufacturer of their choice. Sometimes I get that sponsorship mony for the build and cherry-picked parts, but quite often at the high end of competition they straight-up build the system for the competitor to protect their name.

I've done some "factory" builds before involving Intel and AMD and even Nvidia contracts, but it's rare, and I wasn't sure why I was being paid to do it.

Hell, I tell most people to just call Falcon Northwest and be done with it, but like I said; most of my customers are really into long-term secure systems or workstations. I've done the occasional art piece, but my little magnum opus "art piece" is turning out to be a system cooled by a waterfall. I think it'll be neat, and I've got the thermals figured out now.

The extra reliability work I do just doesn't really have a point when it comes to a gaming rig, and that's where some of the extra expense comes in. The people that need it are usually the people that pay for it, in the end. I do have rules: You meet my minimum standards, or I don't build the machine.

Cheers,

Kennith

Guess I missed the fact you do this for business purposes. I would have thought that market was dwindling but you'd know better than me. 10 yeas is very generous. Sounds like you're proud of your work, good on you. For me it was a hobby, glad to see some convert that hobby into their business or career.

brian4d · Nov 25, 2019

kennith said:
I forgot about that, but I didn't see any on Amazon, and they usually seem to be up there; or they have in the past. I kept finding blue units. I'd sleeve and dye or even extend them normally, but I didn't want to bother. Staggering all those tiny solder points to keep the jacket the same diameter is more than I want to fuck with here. Now sure if I could do it anymore, anyway. It might be a little too precise to handle the nerve damage.

I needed a 90 to straight to get the management I wanted, and it needed to be a 20 pin header extension.

A lot of this "custom" stuff is usually pretty crappy when it comes to strain reduction and overall termination, but Cable Mod seems to have actually bought or had made a very good cable, and then sleeved it; or they've just had a manufacturer handle it during production. Some of their stuff doesn't really impress me, but this was a good purchase, I think.

I'll snap some pictures later. Hopefully it works. If it does, I might pick up a couple more for future use just to save time.

I typically use Bluejeans for cable around the house, making longer runs to monitors, and things of that nature. Monoprice is pretty good for the price, actually, and that's good, because I fucking hate braided external cables. It's stupid as fuck. There is indeed such a thing as too flexible, and they suck for abrasion resistance, not even considering the fact that most of them don't hold at the strain relief; if they even have it.

Monoprice stuff doesn't have that problem, but I do watch the conductor diameter like a hawk. It's more important with digital now than it ever was with analog. The second you're firing 4K with HDR down the pipeline, you'll be lucky to get six feet; and that even includes USB unless you go active. The standards suck balls.

DVI and Coax are better than anything we've got now. Don't let a soul tell you Coax can't handle that stuff, because it CAN. It's just Sony keeping you from using it. Those fucking assholes. I hate Sony for that very reason.

Cheers,

Kennith

Monoprice has gotten commercial but I've been using them since well before that, they (at one time) were the best custom cable company out there, not sure about today.

three words.

Mini display port. 140Hz all day long. Talk about rigid cables, coax gives me headaches.

kennith · Nov 25, 2019

brian4d said:
Monoprice has gotten commercial but I've been using them since well before that, they (at one time) were the best custom cable company out there, not sure about today.

three words.

Mini display port. 140Hz all day long. Talk about rigid cables, coax gives me headaches.

You can get it smaller and more flexible, but you can't use the stuff anyway because of HDCP nonsense.

That really pisses me off. It's probably the best cable and connector we've invented, followed shortly by the various D Sub standards.

I absolutely hate HDMI and Displayport, but it's what we're stuck with if we want all the features.

Bluejeans and Monoprice both spend some time picking the right connectors, strain relieving them, and generally doing a better job than most. Bluejeans is run by the lawyer that smoked Monster's ass when they tried to claim IP rights to some stupid RCA connectors and tried to put him out of business. I think the letters are still on his site, if you want a good laugh.

I'm running a lot of his cables; specifically for the 45 foot run from my rack to the A/V display. I didn't want a converter in line there. I also use his fatter stuff for connection to my monitor from the PC, as it's about 10 feet of cable away. Nothing less at the time would give me a reliable signal.

I have no issues with Monoprice, though. I just need a bit more for longer runs. I like the way they mold their jackets and strain relief, and the use decent connectors.

On a side note, one of my favorite parts of my Ducky Secret mouse is the fact that it uses a conventional jacket instead of that stupid braided stuff. My G502 is braided, and it's always knotting up, which is a deal-breaker in an FPS. I get a kick out of faster DPI swapping in editing, but I'm pretty much done with it since they updated those stupid drivers; as if I need nearly 300mb to run a fucking mouse, and communication to their bullshit. The ducky also requires no drivers beyond what's included with Windows, and you can still change DPI settings just by pushing a button.

Cheers,

Kennith

brian4d · Nov 27, 2019

kennith said:
You can get it smaller and more flexible, but you can't use the stuff anyway because of HDCP nonsense.

That really pisses me off. It's probably the best cable and connector we've invented, followed shortly by the various D Sub standards.

I absolutely hate HDMI and Displayport, but it's what we're stuck with if we want all the features.

Bluejeans and Monoprice both spend some time picking the right connectors, strain relieving them, and generally doing a better job than most. Bluejeans is run by the lawyer that smoked Monster's ass when they tried to claim IP rights to some stupid RCA connectors and tried to put him out of business. I think the letters are still on his site, if you want a good laugh.

I'm running a lot of his cables; specifically for the 45 foot run from my rack to the A/V display. I didn't want a converter in line there. I also use his fatter stuff for connection to my monitor from the PC, as it's about 10 feet of cable away. Nothing less at the time would give me a reliable signal.

I have no issues with Monoprice, though. I just need a bit more for longer runs. I like the way they mold their jackets and strain relief, and the use decent connectors.

On a side note, one of my favorite parts of my Ducky Secret mouse is the fact that it uses a conventional jacket instead of that stupid braided stuff. My G502 is braided, and it's always knotting up, which is a deal-breaker in an FPS. I get a kick out of faster DPI swapping in editing, but I'm pretty much done with it since they updated those stupid drivers; as if I need nearly 300mb to run a fucking mouse, and communication to their bullshit. The ducky also requires no drivers beyond what's included with Windows, and you can still change DPI settings just by pushing a button.

Cheers,

Kennith

Isn't USB 3 625MB/s?

kennith · Nov 27, 2019

brian4d said:
Isn't USB 3 625MB/s?

I can run fast enough to clear a mile in five minutes. I've just never made it past the hundred yard mark at that velocity...

Actually, it occurs to me I haven't used the USB 3.1 header on this motherboard. That might be useful for charging a phone and my portable SSDs.

I think my last few normal cables are coming in today, and I've already got the 3.0 extension. Maybe I can get this thing cleaned up later. Some of what I wanted wasn't in stock, but that seems to have been remedied.

Cheers,

Kennith

brian4d · Nov 27, 2019

Kennith,

I'm running the Blackbox Pro, take a look at the connection specs. True USB 3.1. 7200RPM. I'm running the 10TB. SSD's are great but I know you'd appreciate a company dumping this tech into a external mechanical hard drive. It was not easy to find a 3.1 USB external when I got this things about 2 years ago.

https://www.glyphtech.com/product/blackbox-pro

kennith · Nov 27, 2019

brian4d said:
Kennith,

I'm running the Blackbox Pro, take a look at the connection specs. True USB 3.1. 7200RPM. I'm running the 10TB. SSD's are great but I know you'd appreciate a company dumping this tech into a external mechanical hard drive. It was not easy to find a 3.1 USB external when I got this things about 2 years ago.

https://www.glyphtech.com/product/blackbox-pro

Just had to request a replacement motherboard. I don't know what it is with me, but I've got bad luck buying those things. Asus did try to help, but were unable to send another before I returned this one. Amazon, however, was happy to mail out a replacement in advance; with only one day to spare on the return policy.

I do understand Asus's position, as I do sell systems, but it's damned inconvenient. What I used to do with builds was just buy another part and use the faulty unit in my own rig or sell the replacement. Not doing that anymore.

Portable storage is a strange market, and a fun one. I've got a LaCie unit in the other room that's only 2.0, but on this machine it's just an old WD MyBook that I got on clearance. I haven't tried Blackbox units, but I might give them a shot next time around. I'm not really keen on the new LaCie stuff. I wish someone would put a Raptor in one of these, but I suppose keeping it cool would be a problem.

I have to use the SSDs for video, as almost nothing else will keep up with the transfer. C Fast cards are quick enough, but they carry a premium price and aren't useful for much else, and at the capacity I need... My word they're expensive. When you're shooting 6K with electrolytes, the file sizes are fucking OBSCENE. If I don't have at least one fast terabyte connected to that video camera, I can't do shit.

I do use portable HDDs for other things, and of course I use HDDs for long-term backup and RAID arrays.

Cheers,

Kennith

JUKE179r · Nov 29, 2019

Meh... Firewire 800 > USB3... just sayin.

kennith · Nov 29, 2019

I'm getting sick and tired of this 30% Asus consumer motherboard failure rate. When they work, they'll go a few years and then you've got about a 50:50 chance of something failing to function, but initially they'll run for about a month and then blow out at a high rate unless you burn the fuck out of them to weed out the chaff first. I didn't burn this in, so here it is about a month later... Right on schedule.

This actually isn't a very good design at all, but I figured I'd sort out Asus's ignorance later. Those "heat sinks" on top of the M.2 slots are just trapping heat. They don't know what they're doing, in the end. Asus doesn't understand heat, so whoever developed their AIO with the VRM fan must have been straight from Asetek, because I know Asus didn't design it. I've had to fix too much of their shit.

Now I've got to wait; and I may just sell the replacement and get something that's worth a fuck. Depends on burn results. If it doesn't feel right, it's gone. I can smell this stuff a mile away, and I figured this was going to pop, but I thought I'd wait to see what a BIOS update would do first.

One thing I know for sure: I'll never buy another Asus board. Even if I keep the replacement, they're done. Generally, I'll use one if someone cries about it, but now they get to call another integrator if they're stupid enough to demand Asus. I've had enough of their foolishness, at this point.

Oh, well. Just be warned. This was the last chance I was going to give them.

Cheers,

Kennith

kennith · Nov 29, 2019

JUKE179r said:
Meh... Firewire 800 > USB3... just sayin.

It still isn't any more reliable than what it was designed to replace.

Someone in this thread is still rolling with SCSI, apparently. If USB used D Sub connectors, it would likely be rock-solid; aside from configuration issues and the occasional conflict. It's connector size that kills USB and HDMI, in the end.

Cheers,

Kennith

kennith · Nov 30, 2019

Eh. Since I've got to wait anyway, I ordered the new PSU.

I figured I'd go balls out on something I really like, and picked up the Seasonic Prime 850 Titanium. When I was buying Corsairs, Seasonic was the OEM; but I didn't really like their new stuff as much, even if they kept the single rail.

This will probably get an AIO/CLC liquid cooler after the burn in; but I want to level that heat spreader and stock HSF to see what the stock stuff can do on this CPU first. Actual lapping is generally a waste of time, but leveling can make a big difference on certain dies. It'll be interesting to see how Ryzen 3 responds.

At least I can keep this machine going while setting the other one up, and really push it to make sure the stuff is reliable. I'll also be able to do a better job with the cables without having to cut anything or use extensions, as they're longer on newer units.

I feel a lot better about it now that I have a spare desktop. My other stuff obviously isn't going to do any modern editing.

Cheers,

Kennith

kennith · Dec 1, 2019

Looks like the new PSU will arrive on Friday, and the replacement motherboard on Tuesday, so I suppose in the meantime I can get the routing on the data cables a little better. I don't know how stiff the PSU cables are, so it won't be completely done, but it should be much closer.

I just hate having to reinstall the OS after getting everything running right already. Whatever. At least I've now I've got two running that are capable of doing the work I need done, so it's not an inconvenience this time. I should have bought that PSU when I got the rest of the stuff.

Most of my own computers and parts are quite old or "vintage", so with the dedicated VR rig off somewhere else, I had to keep pausing renders and pulling the new machine apart every time I wanted to do something.

Cheers,

Kennith

kennith · Dec 1, 2019

brian4d said:
All really cool. I'm running a 1060M with 6gb. Mid-setting for X-Plane 11, you want demand look no further than flight simming. You seen the new MS FS? Your machine would work it semi-well.

Think it will run Jetfighter II?

It took a long time, but a boxed copy finally showed up. Obviously it wasn't the greatest "sim" of all time, but it was a hell of a lot of fun.

Cheers,

Kennith

brian4d · Dec 1, 2019

kennith said:
Think it will run Jetfighter II?

View attachment 57733

It took a long time, but a boxed copy finally showed up. Obviously it wasn't the greatest "sim" of all time, but it was a hell of a lot of fun.

Cheers,

Kennith

Just wow. Chuck years air combat was great. Remember Comanche? Gunship 2000?

New Computer

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member

Well-known member