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Normally I'd agree with you, but there's something rattling around inside the cooler too. Not even going to try to bend it back so the seller can claim I damaged it further, nope. I mean it was quite literally just put into a bag and mailed. That bag is how it arrived in my mailbox. The DVI port appears to have been pulled on pretty hard too as one of the bolts is missing (and in the bag loose), so it could be part of the DVI port rattling around inside, I dunno. Not worth my effort to try to fix when I paid $220 and it was advertised as working, not damaged. Dude should've put insurance on it and packaged it properly. I paid like $20 for shipping on it, and he used a $1.50 bubble mailer envelope. I'm getting increasingly sick and tired of LAZY ebay sellers that won't package something appropriately. The last 290x that was sent back was packaged literally in cling wrap from their kitchen, and a foam stick....which probably killed it by ESD (display outputs were ALL dead, dunno if card was recognized at all by PC, no display). Seriously, an anti static bag and some newspaper isn't too much to ask for, inside of a dang BOX.

So uhhh, let me show you guys how to NOT ship a $200+ GPU...... -_- Needless to say, it was promptly sent right back (well....its going back tomorrow). I'm being nice and at least including a box. Sooooo unamused, that's the dang SECOND 290x now that's come broken due to seller mishandling. HOW DO YOU NOT KNOW THESE THINGS AND SELL ON EBAY? Ugh. /rant Enjoy the gore on my behalf. -_- Now I get to wait another few weeks for a refund....again, to buy yet ANOTHER 290x. Let's see if third time's the charm this time. And yes, its more damaged than just the bracket, there's stuff rattling around under the cooler. It was quite literally, put into a bag, and mailed. Probably would've been safer to mail it naked with a sticker attached to the cooler.

I saw elsewhere (phone surfing so no links sorry) that hp and acer were in on it too. And apparently the ban might also apply to 3d printers. Kind of an odd thing to ban considering the times. Idk, weird stuff all over those 5 states anyway.

The system they're refusing to sell is mostly the west coast states, and its a Ryzen 5800 with a Geforce RTX 3060. How is THAT a "power hungry" machine? The thing can run on a 350w PSU (a really good one), its more efficient than PC's were 20 years ago. I really think its a political statement moreso than anything, I'll leave it at that. I don't know about you guys, but I've noticed that PC's have gotten less and less power hungry, which is exactly the opposite of what they appear to be claiming in the article. Unless....they're claiming more people are buying PC's, which that's just not true at all....more people use smart phones over a PC these days. I dunno, maybe I'm missing something. I know 3 of the 5 states involved (for sure) are making it law very soon to outlaw gasoline vehicles and only electric vehicles will be sold starting in 2022. Electric vehicles (while neat) aren't exactly easy on the power grid......I wonder if this is related.

You guys are making me want to water cool again....... Good stuff, good stuff. Can't wait for more updates!

That's why I like forums like this man, learn something new everyday. Never thought to run dual pumps in serial. I had only ever learned of simple loops, and that's all I ran before. Pretty sure I was following good practices still, my last loop did last like 2 years without draining, and sold the whole rig functional. But yeah. I just assumed that air was simpler to maintain on something that's on 24/7 365. I wasn't thinking leaks or anything silly like that. Was thinking punishment as in its more parts that could potentially fail and lead to downtime of a "server", that's all. I guess dual pumps in serial kind of negates that point, since you'd have a backup pump already running so at least things still move. And the biocide + inhibiter I'm assuming would stop things growing better than a killcoil would. Neat stuff!

Here I am, just now getting a rack system this last year. And here you are, going away from a rack into a Threadripper all in one setup. Not sure if you like punishment or what, going with water cooling on a server, but it looks absolutely amazing so far. Them cable management pictures......man oh man.

I did think of using nuts and bolts originally, but I just can't imagine a way that would hold them in place without drilling through the actual front of the plastic though. Not sure. Plastic work is all brand new to me, so got research ahead of me first. I might just try to bust out some good ol' Bondo, like we used to see people use in the old days. I dunno, I'm afraid to break it further.

That's exactly what I was thinking about doing. Some sort of plastic "weld" on the inside of the crack and a clamp to hold it in place while it dries. The bottom panel, the clips are all busted. Was thinking of using similar plastic "weld" to build up little nubs, and put neo magnets on the nubs to act as the missing clips. I'm aware its not going to be perfect. Honestly, if I thought I could do a halfway decent paintjob, I'd go ahead and paint it beige to match. But yeah, with the discoloration from being so old, I really doubt it'd look right. It'd be the whole case or nothing. I'm fine just repairing the crack and the missing clips and calling it a day at that really. Just need to figure out appropriate goop to use on it. I have my doubts on JB Weld.

Okay, so I'm going to need some expert opinions here. I was trying so very hard to NOT have to do plastic work, but on this case I'm just going to have to. Take a peak at what arrived today, but sadly is broken. Not sending it back, gonna try to fix it. Any ideas on how to fix this, please....in detail explain! Also, not exactly advertising.....but if anybody is confident enough in their abilities to actually fix this front panel for me, I'd happily pay somebody. Any links or recommendations on that would also be appreciated. This case NEEDS to be restored back to its original glory! I mean c'mon, I have the OG box even!!! And just for giggles, this GPU just arrived today. This is the GPU I intend to put into this beast of a tower. ATI Radeon 9800XT 256MB. Planning on it pairing with an Athlon T-Bird 1.1GHz or so, 512MB RAM, and Win98SE. Of course I'll also ATTEMPT to modernize it at first, maybe with a Linux flavor or something? But that's the eventual plan for this setup. The front panels of the case aren't a big deal as I'll be using 2x 3.5" externals and 2x5.25" externals as well. So the messed up bay covers aren't a big deal. Just the giant crack in the top, and the completely busted off plastic clips that hold the entire bottom assembly on. If I can fix that somehow with magnets or something, then great! I just need to figure out how to "build up" plastic, high enough and strong enough that it'll hold.

I was avoiding this "club" because I'm OPNsense, but since you stated we're welcome here too...... Specs of my firewall: CPU: i5 4490 mobo: Some B85 mATX board, Asus I think RAM: G.Skill 8GB ripjaws DDR3 1600 OS drive: 2x WD Green 120GB SSD's RAID1 PSU: Seasonic 350w NIC: Quad Intel Giga-nic, X350 I think was the model? Case: 1u Rack (currently in an old Dell beige box though) Extra: Adaptec 5808z RAID card (because no onboard RAID) I use it because I have a "server" setup already for file serving, various VM boxes, game serving, lots of things. Got a VPN going on one of the LAN's, and have my whole house basically going through wifi through the VPN now. Having some issues with ports (made a thread on that). Once I figure out how to get things to go through that I want to go through, I'll be very happy with the setup. Observations? Yeah, its a royal PITA to setup. I've always used consumer grade routers before and was happy with my Netgear R7000 that I've had for years and years. I decided to try PFsense (and then OPNsense) because I wanted more control over the VPN and the networks. Only reason I'm not using PFsense is because I could NOT get the VPN to work at all on PFsense, but it works fine on OPNsense. Just wish I'd have thought that through a little better, because now nothing works right lol. Eventually, and I'm sure this is possible, but waaaay out of my skillset levels, I'd like to setup a second VPN to have LAN access to my buddy's house across the state. That + VPN internet + security was my reasonings for making the switch.

I guess I should've came here to ask questions first. But too late for that now!!!! Anybody in here good with OPNsense, or good with networking in general and willing to create a dummy box to help me out with? If not, maybe you've got a really great understanding of the OS? I'm kinda lost here, let me go over my setup though. It's simple ish, and so far working except the only problem below. LAN1 - ISP LAN2 - VPN LAN DHCP 1 LAN3 - Non VPN LAN DHCP 2 I'm using: DHCP x2, Firewall, NAT, DNS, and VPN pages in setup mostly. I've tried using tutorials (how I got the VPN working) and just common sense / understanding of basic terms. I have gotten Plex to function somehow via the NAT section and port forwarding on LAN2 successfully. When I copy those same (working) settings over to open up other ports, the new ports don't end up forwarding properly. Trying to setup RDP into my network, and those ports (any I try) don't want to open. I've tried forwarding Steam required ports for voice chat over to my main rig, and that doesn't work (also copy / pasted "working"). None of that seems to work. Same with actual game clients it seems. I can access them through my DNS locally just fine. Outside of my ISP I can't access them at all either by IP or by DNS. Maybe its a DNS setting problem? Maybe its a port forwarding problem? Not sure. Been trying all sorts of things between both to fix this, and nothing I try seems to work. Yes, software wise on the rigs its setup correctly. This was all stuff I already had forwarded on my R7000 Netgear. Using LAN3 I've created a work-around by opening quite literally everything to it. I don't like that idea, but it works for now. However it doesn't work on anything hardwired as that's all stuck to LAN2. This only works for wireless clients (like my main rig). Anybody got any ideas on where I can start? To be honest, I don't even think I've got the Plex ports opened up correctly since nothing else works. But magically those are working. So far, this has been my only hiccup with OPNsense. If I could figure out where I'm going wrong with ports, this router will be absolutely amazing.

Woohoo!!!! I'd like to chime in and say audio needs to be addressed in there too. Lots of us enthusiasts have more audio gear connected than just a set of Logitech whatever is this year's model speakers. Would be nice to have my SMSL DAC/amp, speakers, headphones, maybe even the mic have different spots available. Doesn't have to show in the sig, maybe just show the speakers and / or headphones in the sig? But something expandable as mentioned by previous posters? Idk, just another idea. Love what you're doing here so far!

It's a 4x2, so not a lot off road. But I do take it off pavement for sure every chance I get. Climbed a small hill actually on the 4th to watch fireworks. Discount tire even said, "wow, that's the biggest tire we've ever put on one of those".... I just figured it's a patriot, so it needed to look the part. Did the same with my Honda, made it look more like a Honda. Ive got lots to do still. Ladder, rock sliders, bumpers, cb antenna, tools..... It's getting there though. Hard to find time at the metal shop.

My apologies for double posting, but this is going to be a very long one....... Here's the progress of where I'm at so far, hardware wise. Please excuse the bed, my bedroom is the only place I have available to store all this stuff. Wasn't trying to bring you guys into my room...... Also, I went ahead and ran some games and benches on the Phenomenon. Ryzen 2600 Rig (done short GPU): FX 8350 Rig (done / GPU due this week): Now, onto the shelved goodies (very long spoiler): And now onto what we're here for....GAMES AND BENCHMARKS!!! We'll go ahead and start off with more pictures though, because well....I took a lot for you guys. LADIES AND GENTS, I PRESENT PHENOMENON!: Games and benchmarks on Phenomenon: There's so very many games that even this old Phenom rig can play its ridiculous. Again, i'd have tried something more "modern" like Cyberpunk or RDR2, but both of those complain about one thing or another and really aren't worth messing around with trying to force them to work. I have newer rigs that play those games fine. Phenomenon, is a 110% success in my eyes. It plays more games that it could've ever dreamed of when these parts were new what nearly 12 years ago? 13? It offers playable performance, so long as you're aware of the limitations of the CPU and GPU. Yes, I am a gamer that is perfectly fine at 30 FPS so long as it NEVER DIPS below 30. Competitive games like Killing Floor and COD, yeah definitely want to be closer to that 60 mark. Every title played (just about) could be ran at 60 FPS no problem with different settings, I just prefer visuals over framerate usually. And it has a ZIP drive and Windows 10 on it (for now), so I can get the other even older rigs working later on. Totally a win!

I've made some decent progress on my Jeep lately. Dad's metal shop has been super busy lately, so still waiting on the ladder we're building for the back to access the spare tire up there. But the basket's done now, with toolboxes.

The only one that's finished is the phenom. I'll happily boot her up tonight. What would you like to see? I've got cod4-black ops or mw3. Beamng.drive. Killing floor 2. Dirt 2-4. All benchmarks that are free of course. Ummm, rdr2 and cyberpunk but I'm pretty sure both of those complain about the 6970 not being dx12. I could toss an rx580 8gb in there to see though if needed. I'm just having fun. Was kinda shocked at how tiny 250mb is on a zip disk though. I recall fitting a heck of a lot more stuff on my zip100 disks back in the day lol. EDIT: I'll go ahead and do all the bigger games that I have currently installed on it, and a run of Heaven and Valley while I'm at it. Not going to try Cyberpunk or RDR2, not installed, never intended to install. But I'll get Beamng, DiRT, Crysis, GTA V....you know, the basics. Screenshots coming shortly.

Just wait for the 939 build...... Going full modded case on that one.

That's kind of the point. I have a 6 year old son who's starting to get into tech and computers. I'd like for him to know (eventually) how computers have evolved. My nephews are 7 and 10, and they have actually been asking me what some of this old gear is and how it works too, like the zip disks they caught me so excited about lol. That's why I've decided to go back even older than 939, and its what I grew up playing on myself too. I am, of course trying at the moment to see how modern I can make old junk play, but that wasn't entirely the point. "Museum" was the point. But yeah, I was surprised by the Phenom build. It plays my favorite game, Beamng.drive, just fine at 3840x1080. "Lowest" settings, but plays it smoothly, with easily an average FPS of 45-60. My Ryzen 3600 / RX580 can barely eek out playable framerates on "Ultra" same resolution, or "Normal" at native res of my monitor (5120x1440). Game is very very CPU heavy with lots of mods and cars spawned, and the Phenom can do the game playable. Kind of surprised me considering the game's requirements. I've been playing Killing Floor 2 on it too, but that's a little less surprising that it works.

Well, my Phenom rig is now 100% complete. Here's the specs and a few pictures. Asus M4A79 Deluxe Phenom 9850 @ 3.0GHz TRUE 120mm CPU cooler 8GB (4x2GB) DDR2-1066 @ 833, 5-5-5-15 Seasonic M12II 520w Sapphire HD6970 TP Link Wireless N Card (for older OS's) DIYPC case of some flavor / cheapie Iomega ZIP250 ATAPI drive Lite On DVDRW SATA drive Crucial BX500 240GB SSD White Label 2TB 7200RPM SATA HDD I have a whole lot of other stuff going on too. I'm about 99% done with my FX build. I'm about 75% done with my Thuban build. I have everything here for my 939 build minus the power and reset buttons (doing a custom case on that one). I have a second 939 build by accident (whoops) that's like 50% complete parts list. I have 2 Ryzen rigs of course. I need some high end GPU's but those are too spendy of course still. Oh, and I also ordered a Chieftec Dragon!!!! That bad boy is going to house my Socket A Windows 98SE rig (I have plans for 2 Socket A rigs, and eventually a Socket 7). Sorry for the delay on updates, the site's been dead for me / couldn't connect....and well, I've been busy scouring ebay for deals. I have every GPU I wanted either here or on its way (again short of modern high end cards starting after RX580). EDIT: The NZXT Source 210 that this rig WAS installed in previously is getting modded for the 939 build. So that's why I changed cases on the Phenom. I also figured out my GPU setups I wanted to use on these all so they'd make sense, so that's why I changed from a 4890 to the 6970 in here. This Phenom rig can play 99% of the games I play anyway still, even at 3840x1080 (it won't do native 5120x1440 for me). Honestly, I've been pretty impressed with its performance for its age. But yeah, I changed a few plans up to save myself from having to buy all new everything since I had some junk laying around already.