J7SC_Orion

---BEGIN TRANSMISSION--- It's been a busy period building and configuring new (and updating existing) systems over the last few months. These days, that means grappling with RGB, one way or the other - some of it cannot even be turned off w/o using software after every single (cold) boot (looking at you GSkill...) Now, I don't mind a bit of RGB, as long as it is 'static' and in a colour somewhere between 'Cherenkov Radiation Blue', blue-purple or turquoise... ...at the same time, I try to be security-conscious and hate low-level software that needs to run (and call 'home'...) for control, never mind the huge big-data sucking that is going on with it as well as OS, social media and so forth. With that in mind, on to the latest two AMD 16c/32t builds joining an existing but updated TR 2950X w/RGB (all btw doing productivity as well, thus even more aware of security issues)... The latest builds involved an Asus Crosshair VIII Hero wi-fi / 3950X and the 'Dark' variant of that Asus X570 board with a 5950X. Asus has some control in bios re. RGB, but it really pushes its 'armory crate' big-and-broad software (replacing the older, smaller Asus Aura), even in the bios ! I found 'armory crate' to be, well, more than troublesome when installing it on the 3950X system. In fact, it hung during install - and as it is a HAL-type app, Windows 10 Pro couldn't even boot correctly anymore. No amount of 'safe mode', 'repair' and so forth worked over several days (I'm not a newbie re. this) so I had to reinstall not only Win 10 Pro, but the 150GB to 200GB of apps I had just loaded ?. I just turned off as much RGB as I could after the reinstall, though the four sticks of GSkill RGB kept on happily doing their rainbow thing... Right, onward and upward. Next up was the Dark Hero / 5950X build, also with identical GSkill memory...I tried to track down the older, smaller 'Aura' but on Asus' sites, even if you find it, they substitute armory crate for it - no thank you. I did find an older version of Aura that '''worked''' elsewhere re. mobo RGB, but no cigar for the GSkill control. I then loaded GSkill's latest RGB control software. I have learned that at least with some of the mobo software, you can choose the colours and display-type you want and it seems to make appropriate adjustments in bios / win - to the point that you can actually completely uninstall it but keep your colour pattern. I have had similar experiences with Gigabyte's RGB Fusion on the MSI X399 Creator 2950X / dual Aorus 2080 Ti setup... This time however with the Aus Dark Hero / 5950X, things get reeeaaallyy interesting... Everything 'worked' (boot, all apps in Win 10) w/o any problems, BUT the Q-Code on the mobo went haywire...initially, it kept on displaying 'FF' - a Q-code 'reserved for future use', though some folks call it the Q-Code of death...well, since performance and stability wasn't impacted, I knew it had to relate to the two RGB packages I had just installed - they were probably not 'playing nice' with each other. So I uninstalled the first one (Asus) and to my great happiness, it kept the 'Cherenkov blue' settings even from a cold boot. But now, the Q-code - while everything was working fine in Win 10 pro - would jump around between '33, 34, 36 39' and back and forth and back and forth continuously while fully booted up . WTF ? ? I then uninstalled the GSkill software as well, and voila Q-code of AA (or 40 after a sleep-reboot), the way it is supposed to be. I then reinstalled the GSkil RGB control package and unloaded it after booting into Windows 10. Even an uninstall will work, unless the system is doing a cold boot - at which point in time you have to activate the GSkill RGB package again, rinse and repeat... The moral of the story ? Run sever boards or Get Linux (haha), and/or buy non-RGB RAM. But this is high-bandwidth, low CL binned Samsung-B I already had, so that doesn't apply here. Given that most of the new consumer mobos, CPUs, RAM and many peripherals come with 'RGB' whether you like it or not, the solution I have now is palatable. Still, the various RGB software you need to control it all are just 'another brick in the wall' --- END OF RANT---

...pics from when it was on the showroom floor before pickup (company lease, 4th beemer, not counting my youth in Europe). Lease is coming up and giving serious thought of buying it out w/ extra BMW warranty - it's been completely trouble free so far...only one issue: Ivory-coloured leather is very nice to look at, but it requires a lot of regular cleaning ?

...currently, I'm listening to V10 and V12 ?

...may be it was because 'Frank' didn't make it past face control ?! ...anyhoo, more beautification tools - not for Frank, but for 'Project Raven' and its 5 gazillion wires and tubes

...Peekaboo ...progress ? ...entering the final appearance mod stage (pics of that soon) after everything is wired, setup and stress-tested. CPU and GPU are both good samples (nothing worse than a good-looking sloth when it gets to building a performance system).

cool ?

...keep the 0.5 anyway - they might come in handy down the line (some EK blocks for example use 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0 etc). I used the Thermalright 1.0mm on the 3090 block and VRAM temps improved by 7 C or so - though I'm not sure how to delineate the breakdown between better mounting vs. better pads

...I can't even tell anymore whether you guys are kidding or not - that's how crazy the GPU market has become ? ...I never sold any parts because they were purchased via a company account, and selling inventory out of the back-door is obviously a no-no, even if it has been amortized. But we made some accounting rule changes recently... ...I got way too much stuff and am wondering what to keep and what to put up for sale / how much to ask. For example, I have 6x top end (in their day) MSI, Gigabyte and Asus mobos (Rampage, Maximus, 2x E WS), several with a whole pile of PCIe x 16 slots (via one or two PEX onboard). To get an idea about what to ask for them, is FleaBay the best pricing indicator ?

...updated to an Asus Crosshair VIII Dark Hero and a 5950X - which has four+ cores of the sixteen that can do 5050 MHz...given FS2020's stressing a handful of select cores, that has made a big difference, especially with low, fast flights over complex terrain / metro areas. The 3090 is also w-cooled now, and this combo is even more of a joy in FS2020 4K / Ultra / Dense than the other setups already were. More on the build-log (Project Raven) > here ....speaking of updates, FS2020 had another big (20GB+) patch - no problems with it on my FS2020 systems (and yes, SLI-CFR still works on the other system), and perhaps additional improvements in some visuals. ..a few quick 'setup flights' below...Hope airport (near Vancouver) during cold / stormy weather, and a low flight over Berlin... ...this vid on reddit / FS2020 is fun to watch source ...near Hope, BC ...icing (not on the cake) ? Berlin in low flight...

source ...big ! ...might even play Crysis real well.

...should be an interesting head-to-head with the new Zen3 based Epyc / TRs trickling out.

..."after applying the recent update" ? No choice in the matter, at best one can delay it ? . I also noticed issues on two Win 10 machines here after the updates, and those machines never had any prior issues before the forced update...

...with that kind of thing, quality is a must. By coincidence, latest Gamers' Nexus vid on the PCIe riser theme

...per project Raven , I started with a fully adjustable and tilt-able laptop desk from Walmart but heavily modded it; it's wood and metal and best of all, it has wheels, pic below. As to PCIe riser cables, are you looking for PCIe 3.0 or 4.0 for the 1080 Tis ? Lian Li makes some really nice PCIe4.0, but they're only 20 cm...pic below per Amazon is for 30 cm PCIe3...but I haven't tried that type personally (I'm using a Thermaltake PCIe3.0 / 20cm in one of my builds and it works perfectly). If all else fails, may be email Linus Tech - I've seen them mucking about with 40 cm++ risers...

? (as long as I got the right protective suit on...)

...if it has to be rgB - it should be electric blue ! Very 'noice' !

...thanks. It's a ton of fun customizing it to my liking - which leans towards the unusual (or degenerated into that...) ?

...how many kidneys you got left ? Arms and legs also accepted in trade ? ?

... continuous supply ? continuous supply= ? - but at least there are actual pallets that actually exist of both 3080 Ti and 3090 destined for N.America

?

...Raven's motherboard and vBios fully updated and resizable_BAR enabled...wasn't really wanting for fps before, but frame times seem to pick up, depending on app...Cyberpunk 2077 4K RTX Ultra definitely likes r_BAR ?

...my family tree is Dutch / German but I grew up in Germany...

I have always been absolutely fascinated (and admittedly somewhat mystified) by quantum entanglement, ever since I saw a scientific documentary about 'proof' re. entangled particles generated by a supernova but meanwhile apart by huge distances in space. Add to that that D-Wave, one of the early leaders in producing and selling quantum computers for specialized applications is HQed only a few minutes from here, and I am ready to upgrade ? Quantum entanglement, in theory at least, offers the ideal basis for a network