Any PC Builders Out There?

Wish.com cards.

Still happens everyday. They tend to take mid to low teir 500 series cards and put a cheap custom cooler and BIOS flash on them, then sell them as 10 or 20 series cards. The shops also move on after a specific amount of time and rely on shipping from China taking longer than it takes them to setup under another account on Wish or eBay.

 

You'd be astounded how dumb the average person is, esp when you dangle a shiny carrot in front of them that they want.

The other thing is that often these scams are designed in such a way that reasonably street smart people pick up on the fact its a scam and don't take the bait, leaving only the rubes that have a high likelihood of being a successful target.

 

There was also a surge in idiots who managed to use a paid for botnet to grab cards, then saw their $10K credit card bill, and tried to dump the cards for profit quick and fell for these scams. The amount of scammer on scalper crime was crazy high early on.

 

I have no love for scalpers. They get what they deserve.

 

anyone see this?

could be a good deal for anyone who needs a high core CPU and is starting a business

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arcGebjgM_k

 

Win 11 still scares me, I didn't adopt win 10 until I discovered LTSC/LTSB version about 2 years ago and now 10 is out the door!

Hopefully there's a no nannys or spyware version like that for 11.

I really don't like how it is trying to emulate apple at all.

And I still need a 3090.

Going on a road trip soon and plotted the route out to hit 4 different Microcenters and then again on the way back hopefully I get lucky one of those times.

I really want a founders edition but I've never even seen them online or in store in stock with bestbuy and they haven't done a god damn thing to resist bots and scalpers so long as they're moving product they don't give a shit.

At least Microcenter is trying.

 

Looks like the "Health Check" for Windows 11 will be reworked.

 

How do I know if I have TPM2?

 

It's in your BIOS. Look for fTPM or PTT under security settings.

 

Is it a standard thing or was it only put on specific chipset or high end boards?

If I enable it can I dual boot?

 

Standard since around 2017. 300 series and above for sure have it, as well as some 200 series boards. It can either be implemented in a separate chip or as a firmware function of the CPU (second most likely.)

No need to dual boot. Enabling it has no real disadvantage until you use BitLocker.

 

Alright so I should be plenty good (z390 i9-9900k) what's the benefits of Bitlocker?

 

Bitlocker is encryption for your OS and other drives on your PC, that's all. TPM support is necessary to hand off random keys and enable Bitlocker.

TPM has other functions as well though. It's much more difficult to execute many malware attacks at boot with TPM enabled. The most important function of TPM is to ensure the integrity of a particular platform over the internet or operating system. To ensure this functionality, TPM checks the process of booting and its authority via hardware and software systems. Thus, this asset acts as a firmware. It also contains configuration registers for storing and reporting the information securely.

Last bit is mostly from here if you want a read: Trusted Platform Module- Its Uses, And Implementation (etipsguruji.com)

 

Well just bought an EVGA 3060 XC (12G-P5-3657-KR). Entered their queue on 3/2/21 and was notified today. Pretty stoked, even though its only a 3060.

So if anyone is looking for a lightly used EVGA 1660 w/ a factory backplate (bought in January) hit me up haha

 

In these hard times if you need a card I say get it. I'm still using an rx 470 4gb model. Would like to get my hands on a 3060 ti eventually.

 

3060s/3070s/6700XT/6800 are on the shelves here now. Lots of them. ME had a ton last time I was there in NE Calgary.

 

Anyone here watercooled gpu only? Got a 3080 but accidently got a waterforce card and I have no clue on watercooling.

 

It's easy, you just need to get a cheap pump/res combo and a 240 radiator minimum I figure for a 3080.

For simplicity and longevity's sake use distilled water with a little biocide and lube additive in it only instead of the colored "coolants".

Corsairs new Hydro offerings are decent, get some G1/4 barbed fittings and soft tube and you're up and running for a houndred bucks or so.

Currently I have an AIO (all in one) on my CPU and my GPU is air cooled but I just bought a whole bunch of goodies from HeatKiller, watercool GmbH, EKWB and Aqua Computer going to be doing a hard tube open loop on my GPU and eventually expand my CPU into the loop to replace the AIO.

 

I recently had a very good day.


Story time: I went on a trip to see some family and planned my route past 4 different Microcenters stores, wanted to get to the first one before opening for a chance to get an upgrade card (any 3080 or better) got there about thirty minutes before opening but you had to join a digital que for a lottery chance at buying a card, which closed an hour before store opening. So I missed out on that, figured maybe just maybe I can have a tiny chance at one if I get in the door right at the normal opening but then I received a video call I had completed forgotten about being scheduled.

I had to take it so I couldn't even get in the door at opening so as I pushed through the call watching smiling faces trickling out with RTX green in their hands my heart fell a little more each time.

Roughly an hour and a half past general admissions I waltz in expecting everything to be gone, the GPU section did look mostly lile a Ghost town but lo and beholden there at the top of the locked case, centered was one last RTX card in the shelf, so naturally...

Thank's God.


Guess this means things are getting better? Also happy to see Microcenter is taking steps to combat scalpers and put cards in the hands of gamers.

So without further adieu:





I uh... Was expecting a little larger...



But for real it's a hair skinnier, and just a touch longer, and naturally .55 slot thicker, was expecting it to be at least as large compared to my 1080 as my 1080 was to my 770's it just looks bigger in photos but the triple fans are rather small and thick too, angle of attack is significantly more agressive I bet this is going to be a loud card.



First things first, I had concerns about my 750w G3 EVGA supernova being up to the task of all this raw pixie wrangling so I decided to upgrade, wanted plenty of headroom for adding more RGB puke, fans, OC, and water cooling down the road so I went with a 1200w ROG Thor with the screen. This ment I had to mod my PSU bracket and shroud to allow visibility. Using a Kill-a-watt I knew my PC drew close to 600w with the older 1080 under full load.



I hate cable management, this was as good as I could get it before I swept it all under the rug that is the PSU shroud but those individually sleeved cable mod cables that came with the PSU do look great which is nice since with the 3090 3x 8 pin connectors are required meaning I can't use my EVGA Power-Link L connector and hide the cables like I did with the 1080
Which also makes the 3090 look smaller than the 1080 did installed.

That said I am glad I upgraded to the 1200w though as during TimeSpy and the CPU test I was pulling a hair over 700w and I haven't over clocked anything yet nor added pumps etc. The 850w wouldn't have made me nervous as for headroom.





I was also worried about keeping the backside VRAM cool so here's my temporary solution until EKWB ships my face and back active water blocks and I get my loop built. (Stay tuned?)

Seems to work well, little sinks chopped up and .5mm thermal pads directly on the backplate with the fan plugged into the GPU opt header. It's not getting hotter than 37C measured at it's hottest spot with a Fluke IR thermometer in what little I have done so far, still haven't fired up the Valve Index.



And unicorn diarrhea ENGAGE!

 

Nice choice