Mr. Fox

Indeed. Overclocking and benching is perhaps the only aspect of computing that keeps me interested in technology. Absent that, I don't think I would actually care about any of it anymore. My setup is sort of a hybrid system. I have the HC-500A Chiller connected in series. Most of the time it is not used, and water simply circulates through it. It adds capacity to the loop, and that alone is beneficial for ordinary use. It takes longer to heat up the coolant because there is roughly twice the volume of the loop minus the chiller. When the ambient temperatures are hotter than ideal, I sometimes run the chiller to improve thermals for normal daily use. Living in the Phoenix area, summer heat can get my office ridiculously hot even with the central AC going with two overclocked PCs belching hot air into the room for days at a time. I don't game much anymore, but it was particularly useful for the occasional 12-16 hour gaming binge that kept the system under load for extended periods. My radiator on that system is a MO-RA 360. The lines are connected with QDC fittings. When I push the overclocking harder for benching, I bypass the radiator completely because it is an impediment. It actually prevents the water from getting as cold as it needs to be because the radiator is designed to normalize the water temperature with ambient temperatures. I have QDC fittings on the inlet port (female) and outlet port (male) of the radiator. I unplug the inlet fitting coming into the radiator, unplug the outlet fitting coming out of the radiator, then connect the ends of those lines directly to one another when I am on a benching spree. The QDC fittings are installed so that the orientation matches at the end of the lines where they connect to the radiator. So, the conversion from radiator and chiller to chiller-only takes about 15-20 seconds. I have a D5 pump mounted to the chiller and two D5 pumps with 270mm reservoirs mounted on the sides of the radiator. All three D5 pumps are working regardless of whether or not water is being circulated through the radiator. The arrangement of the loop is like this: Daily Use: CPU > GPU > Radiator > D5a > Chiller > D5b > D5c > CPU Benching: CPU > GPU > D5a > Chiller > D5b > D5c > CPU

I suppose it is all relative. I am not impressed by anything from Intel, AMD or NVIDIA. They all suck, and I simply choose which one seems to suck less. We can toss Micro$lop's name into the hat as well. They're not really PC hardware experts, which is evident by their Surface crap, but they excel at suckiness in the realm of technology.

Each year replace two e-cores with two p-cores and viola... 4 more generations. Planned obsolescence... er, I mean, Scalable architecture.

Too funny, bro. Great minds do think alike. I posted that over here earlier today. I did not really expect the KS to be a different product as much as a binned sample of an existing product. So, there is some basis for disappointment. However, taking the glass is half full view, buying a KS might be the best way to avoid being dealt a tragic ticket in the silicon lottery. That's not a bad thing per se, but paying $200 extra for something that isn't as good or better than a superior 12900K silicon sample is where the basis for disappointment comes in. It's more like damage control or loss prevention than an upgrade. You have to decide whether it is better to roll the dice on a K and hope for a win, or pay extra for something that is, at least, pretty good... with potential to be better than pretty good. If the chips are now being culled in favor of KS branding, then the chances of winning with a K might be drying up as old stock gets sold and replaced with stock representing the culled chips that didn't make the KS cut.

I am more than willing to forego the experience of "playing" the auction game. For me, it's all about getting what I want at reasonable if not lower price, then moving on. That's what gives me the boost of adrenaline. I have never used Auction Sniper, but I almost never bid on anything. I most typically use the "make an offer" and "buy it now" and purchase when the price is right because I don't like waiting for however long the auction is scheduled to run. Most sellers know what they have is worth and if it is overpriced just to see if a sucker is dumb enough to grab it at full asking price without thinking they will often accept a reasonable offer.

The nice thing about benching obsolete hardware is you can often swoop in and steal rank from people that previously set high scores when the hardware was current after it is too late for them to return and try harder because they no longer own the hardware and can't re-enter the competition. It is like playing the role of a sniper. Just patiently waiting in the shadows until the opportunity for a stealth headshot surfaces. Nobody sees you and the moment they let their guard down *BAM* ...game over.

I still prefer doing more with more, versus more with less. More watts is MOAR better. I still miss seeing 1.2kW+ getting sucked from the wall with my 7980XE in Cinebench. Fun times. I probably should upload one of my 3090 KPE with the XOC vBIOS pulling 1100W+ in 3DMark 11.

I am nearly 60 years old and I don't remember ever seeing things as messed up as they are now. Sleepy Joe and his insane clown posse have really done a number on us. It's going to be difficult to recover from the multi-faceted damage. So yeah, $100 USD buys less than ever.

In my case the load temperatures were about 6-8°C cooler with the OptimusPC block versus the Raystorm Pro. Idle temperatures were affected less, maybe 2-3°C. That was with an Intel 10th Gen setup, so it may not translate the same with AM4. Right now the best IC for DDR5 overclocking is SK Hynix. That was definitely not true with DDR4. Samsung B-die was, by far, the best IC on DDR4 and SK Hynix was not good.

100%. Bare die has been amazing in my experience as well. Nothing is better, even for a run-of-the-mill loop or an AIO cooling solution. Delid (except for the 5950X) with LM has also been a close second place enhancement. And, as well all know, all it takes sometimes is a 2-3°C improvement to mean the difference between throttling/malfunction when you are pushing everything to the edge of stability. All it takes is a couple of points on a benchmark run to move a score up in rank.

I think it happened to fit just right. Temps were identical to the Foundation block and it worked surprisingly well. That was the only monoblock I had ever owned and I do not intend to buy another because mounting from the back of the motherboard and the extra screws for the VRM mounting are just too much of a pain in the butt to deal with. I take things apart frequently. That kind of design is far too much hassle to deal with no matter how well it works for a person that doesn't assemble their PC and leave things alone.

I think a better water block is definitely worth considering. I had an OptimusPC foundation and an EK monoblock on the 5950X. They both worked well and produced equivalent results. The monoblock was gorgeous to look at, but I tinker with things often enough that I found it inconvenient. For a person that does not do a lot of messing with the hardware, the monoblock is probably the best bet because of enhanced aesthetics with no loss in cooling performance. I have been a fan of OptimusPC blocks since they were first released. The Signature and Foundation blocks are excellent. I was using a Raystorm Pro block on my work desktop for a long time. I recently replaced it with a Signature block and saw immediate improvement in CPU load temps. Having owned 3 Intel (Signature and Foundation) and 1 AMD (Foundation) CPU blocks, I don't want to use anything else now. I actually prefer the Foundation block with the clear top so I can see if/when cleaning the jet plate is needed. The Signature block looks awesome, but it is solid metal and you cannot tell if the jet plate is collecting sediment or debris without taking it apart for inspection. Here is a photo of the EK monoblock. I loved how it looked.

Probably so. I was more concerned at the time about recovering what little thermal headroom there was back to at least stock level so I could move on to other things. At that point I was also disappointed to the extent that I was ready to get rid of everything so I could offset the cost of going back to Intel. So, my interest in trying to make it something worth keeping was starting to wane. The WHEA errors, USB drop-outs, modest CPU overclocking capabilities, FCLK limitations and crappy memory performance had pretty much ruined the experience to the point that reigniting my interest was probably going to be impossible.

I would encourage you not to. Delidding my 5950X provided no benefit. It turned out to be a waste of time and money. I never figured out a bare die solution, and that probably would have helped. When I first got it back from RockitCool temps were much worse than stock. Uneven chiplet heights seem poorly suited for liquid metal. Using normal paste instead put me back to stock temps with the copper IHS. Net benefit was zero. Net loss was what I spent on it.

I see RockitCool has the delid kit back in stock again, but I am waiting until the bare die kit is available. Delid will certainly be better than stock, but I have run all my Intel CPUs bare die since 7960X/7980XE and that is definitely the way to go. I wish Intel would sell all of their CPUs with no IHS. All laptops are bare die and it is kind of stupid that desktop CPUs are not. The IHS is just another stupid piece of crap to have to deal with.

I tend to agree with that. It is generally the approach I have taken. CPUs are a whole lot easier to kill than they used to be, but still not as easy as some might think. I generally find a reason to upgrade before they degrade, but we do have to be a little more careful than we used to be. Voltage plus severe heat also seems riskier than voltage plus cold. If I can't overclock the crap out of a CPU or GPU, then I have no interesting in owning it.

There are two ways to do it. One way is to just grab it and rip the band-aid off. It is quick and it only hurts for a few seconds. The band-aid is still sticky. You could stick it back on again if you wanted to. The other way is to get the band-aid wet. The adhesive will soften and after a while it will just fall off. It does not stick to anything and it is totally worthless. You can't change your mind, and you would not want to because it is disgusting. This way takes longer, but does not involve any anxiety or discomfort. I am taking the latter approach. ----------- Edit ----------- Well, we can add Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare and Call of Duty: WWI to the Linux play list.

Based on my contempt for what a mess Winduhz has become in the past couple of years, I have really stepped up my efforts to replace it with Linux. It isn't 100% yet, but getting closer. For those that enjoy gaming, things are better than they ever have been. I am finding many "Windows-only" titles play very well under Linux using Steam Proton. I recently tested a random assortment from my Steam Library and the only one I did not get working was Gears 5. That kind of makes sense since it is a Micro$lop Studios title and they would have a vested interest in making sure it doesn't work on Linux, LOL. Quake 2 RTX Bright Memory Infinite Crysis Remastered Death Stranding Doom Eternal Halo: Combat Evolved Halo 4 Metro Exodus Enhanced Edition Rise of the Tomb Raider Shadow of the Tomb Raider

I can hardly wait to see what kind of astronomically ludicrous price tag one of those with a 1600W capacity is going to carry. I anticipate that they'll be much prouder of it than they should be. Hopefully, they will keep the new standard in place for at least another 20+ years again rather than inventing new ways to milk us for more money sooner for something we don't actually need apart from the fabrication of need.

I was super excited about the 5950X build... like a kid at Christmas. I had been anti-AMD, and for good reason, for about a decade after some major product failures and disappointments with their brand. Once upon a time, I was a team red fanboy. That was all I owned for a time. But, that ended with a long string of product failures and disappointments that spanned a few years, mostly with defective GPUs, (about 11 in total,) buggy drivers, and lackluster overclocking. With a heavy heart at the time, I gave up on the brand. I shook the dust off of my feet, went back to Intel and NVIDIA, and never looked back. I typically don't care about brand and I only practice brand loyalty to the extent that it serves my interests. My natural tendency is to blacklist brands that disappoint me. I am lenient to the extent I give second chances, but beyond that it becomes difficult for a brand to redeem themselves. Ryzen 9 got them off the perma-ban list with me... at least intially. I started noticing signs of improvement early on with Ryzen development. It was encouraging. Not enough to make me care at first, but things were trending positively on the CPU side of things. Then here came the impressive and beastly Ryzen 9 5950X benchmark scores. I drooled over the amazing Cinebench runs I saw posted on HWBOT and impressive 3DMark physics scores. After a lot of hemming and hawing I decided to bury the hatchet, forgive the past and dive back into the red pool. I thought my overclocking experience would allow me to improve on the results I was seeing from most 5950X owners and jumped in head-first with great optimism and high expectations. I was very disappointed with my purchase. The system I had suffered from the USB dropout problem and none of the fixes fixed anything. About 90% of the time, none of my connected USB peripherals worked without unplugging and reconnecting them (dozens of times every day) and WHEA errors numbered in the thousands. I frequently had to power off the PSU to clear the "00" POST code on a cold boot. Overclocking abilities were lackluster (about 500MHz less than the 7960X and 7980XE processors I loved owning). I found AMD's approach to overclocking and the PBO thing to be an absolute joke. The AMD UEFI firmware is a mess, and having to use software in Windows to improve results simply added insult to injury. (I appreciate the efforts by 1usmus to try to remedy the situation using his software. It helps a little bit.) Thermal management of 5950X was more difficult than Intel, despite having the same core count as the 7960X. Running under chilled water helped, but it didn't appreciably enhance overclocking headroom. Delidding made it worse, not better. Memory latency was totally absurd. After about 90 days of struggle and disappointment, more time wasted with troubleshooting than having fun, and failing to identify a reason I should like it other than a few impressive benchmark scores, I sold the 5950X, Crosshair and EK Quantum monoblock at a huge loss on eBay and went back to Intel. I tried very hard to like it and failed. The monetary loss was painful.