I totally agree with this. I have always been able to empathize with people not liking a game that I’m obsessed with. Every game has flaws, and games are like music genres- if I like EDM, you may like country, and that’s ok.

People get really closed-minded about games, even past the point of “fanboy”. It’s like some sort of hero worship.

I keep mine in the family area. More distractions, but it keeps me more available for everyone.

For Bluetooth, many adapters have a cable that plugs into a USB 2 header on the motherboard. If it isn’t plugged in, you won’t have Bluetooth. And of course, make sure you have drivers for it. Windows usually handles it, but often the drivers that you can download give extra performance.

As long as you have something that works for you, that’s all that matters. I have a 7900 XTX now, and I’m watercooling it only because I already had everything except the block. It runs cool on air.

And I agree, watercooling is almost never worth it. I love the hobby, so I stick with it, but I don’t generally recommend it. It is an incredible amount of work and money.

When I bought my reference 6800XT, the temps were horrible. The regular core temps weren’t too bad, high 70s to mid 80s, but hotspot was constantly in the low 100s. Mem temps were about the same.

I had good airflow, and a cool house. Checked all the torques on the board, everything seemed fine. I finally went watercooling, and the card cooled down so much it was unbelievable. I could run 3dMark on a constant loop, and never even crack 50 degrees. Fur mark for an hour, never above 44 degrees and this was on a single 360 rad.

However, temps crept up by 10 degrees over time. Paste pump out happened. Tried a different paste same thing happened a couple months later.

Finally tried Gelid GC Extreme, and it has stayed the course. I think the coolers on the reference cards are just bad, and when you add in thermal cycling, it’s a bad time. I found it especially suspect that the 7900 XTX reference boards had major vapor chamber problems. I wonder if there wasn’t a problem a while in the making.

I am in love with the KDE System Monitor widgets. They were, of all things, what truly cemented the Linux switch for me.

I used Aquasuite on Windows to control my watercooling, and it can set up a vast amount of widgets on your background for easy monitoring of temps and other values. It will not run on Linux.

The KDE widgets give me basically the same experience, although missing a few things. It’s enough that I’m happy with it, and I can check temperature and flow rates at a glance if something starts acting fucky.

OW2 is OW1. They just added a couple maps, removed some maps, took away a tank, and filled it full of grind and micro transactions. Absolutely no reason for “2”.

Hopped around when starting out, and finally landed on Nobara about a year ago.

I use the KDE version, and I love it. Ticks all my personal boxes.

I find this pretty intriguing, tho I would like to see some thermal testing.

If it isn’t ridiculously expensive, the ease of use would be worth it.

He wants to turn FL into a Christian country club. Only the wealthy and like-minded are invited. Can’t pay, too bad.

That was very interesting. The tolerances are astounding. Also, TIL that HDDs work on air bearings.

Honestly, if you are just getting a torque wrench for spark plugs (and any other BASIC projects at home) any brand will do. Just make sure it has the torque range you need.

I recommend “click type” because they are easy to operate correctly, and easy to take care of. Seriously, read the manual that comes with it, and follow the steps everytime. If you do this, it will last you a long time.

I bought my two torque wrenches from Harbor Freight for about $10 each. Torquing frame bolts or spark plugs? No problem. Would I use them for valve train or engine internals? Absolutely not.

If you don’t want to go the cheap route, go to any big box store like Home Depot or Lowe’s (US) and anything name brand will do, as long as it has the torque range you need.

Really nice work.

Makes me jealous, I’ve been waiting for my Alphacool block for my 7900XTX to be in stock for a while. One day soon…

I appreciate the update! Seems pretty similar to mine, so I’m guessing there a some similarities in the VBIOS. Thanks again!

I have all three cases (4000D, 5000D, 7000D), and offer a counterpoint.

They are very complicated cases, the 5000 and 7000 especially. But- they work for just about anything. No matter what style you want in your PC (solid colors, hidden cables, hidden drives, air cooled, water cooled, etc), these cases work. I agree there is excess, but it makes them work for a vast amount of users. Nothing like buying a case and realizing there is absolutely no way you can fit something in there.

I’ll agree with you that first time setup is a bitch. But once you get it how you want it, it’s fantastic. And I appreciate the extra parts, because (at least for me) builds change frequently, according to my needs and interests. I just found a smaller box, and keep all the extra components in it saved in case I need them later.

Either way you look at it, I hope you enjoy it, they are great cases.

First time I’m hearing about this, and hella excited. Loved the series, reading the books, definitely interested to see where this goes.

Always 3DMark. I love that program. So many uses.

I play in a party of four, most times. Two of us on KB/M, two on controller. No problems.

I try to stay mostly on Linux, and voltage control hasn’t been exposed yet. I may go to my Windows drive and play with it, and test the results.

The fan curves on mine aren’t necessarily aggressive, I just wish they were more constant, at a low level. Still, if you remember when you do, I would love to know how your curves are, out of sheer curiosity.

So I have the Sapphire Nitro+, and was wondering if you have monitored your temps on idle?

My temps creep up to 62C, then the fans kick on at about 30%, and cool it down to about 42C, rinse and repeat.

It’s the oddest fan curve I have seen. Just wondering if yours act in a similar fashion, or if this is just how Sapphire programmed it. I have been waiting more than a month for a waterblock, and it looks to be a couple more weeks. I’ll be happy when it comes in, because then the fan curves will be a non-issue.