What's your latest tech purchase?

[Mussels]

So I finally took the cooler off of my new card, and yeah. The horror stories are true.

So I went through and rearranged the thermal pads and applied some MX-5.

I also ran to the hardware store and got four small nylon washers (my tech-related purchase?) for the washer mod. They're about 8mm wide, 1mm thick, and the hole is about 3mm wide.

Carefully screwed it all back together, ran Valley, and...

That's a result! Before all of this, the memory would get into the mid-90s, the hotspot was over 100c, and the GPU itself would be around 80-90C. All of this after undervolting and underclocking to 990mV and 1800MHz.

Now, with the same settings, the hotspot barely reached 80c, the overall temp was under 70c, and the memory stayed under 80c. The card was also much quieter, though still a bit noisy.

Might still want to get new thermal pads since the upper two ones are a joke, but I don't know. This made a much bigger difference than I expected.

All for only 61 cents worth of parts and about 5 minutes of work.

Lost my sub to the thread (ugh) - back again!
That result is without even replacing the thermal pads? big changes from adjusting them, and the washers i guess

Absolutely do get some new quality pads, you'll notice the change, my 3090s fan speed would ramp up when the VRAM got too hot

First time ordering from EK and bought things that are hard to buy locally. I bought 4 low profile 90 degree adapters and a few meters of ZMT. ZMT works with Bykski fittings.

I was able to order the low profile chrome fittings in their website and it says it was in stock but they sent an e-mail a few days after saying it ran out of stock. I had to pay the difference as this satin finish is more expensive than the regular one. You need an allen key to rotate the head once it's installed. I know not everyone has allen keys lying around but I prefer them because it limits the chances of stripping.

Here's a pic with a graphics card port and a 10mm/16mm Bykski fitting which should work with their ZMT.

View attachment 233905

Here's what it looks inside. There might be some flow resistance.

View attachment 233906

Everything EK uses, uses allen keys

They have a black tool that comes with a lot of their gear that people dont realise fits inside their fittings (regular allen key used here, to show its standard sized)

They fit inside the rotary fittings and such too, they've been pretty consistent and universal with it

With your new one, it'd simply be used to tighten the top - but with the old ones, it fits *inside* the fittings allowing you to get better grip tightening or removing stuck fittings
One Key To Rule Them All - ekwb.com

 

[sam_86314]

Lost my sub to the thread (ugh) - back again!
That result is without even replacing the thermal pads? big changes from adjusting them, and the washers i guess

Absolutely do get some new quality pads, you'll notice the change, my 3090s fan speed would ramp up when the VRAM got too hot

Yeah, I went through and centered all of the pads. For replacements, I'm trying to decide between ones from Gelid, Thermalright, or Thermal Grizzly.

I got a couple of Noctua NF-A9x14s and I'm trying to figure out the best way to cool the card with them. I've considered cutting the frames off of the fans and figuring out how to mount them in place of the stock fans. Or I could just remove the GPU shroud and zip-tie them on.

But then I found out I am out of fan headers in my system, so this is going to have to wait anyway.

 

[Mussels]

Yeah, I went through and centered all of the pads. For replacements, I'm trying to decide between ones from Gelid, Thermalright, or Thermal Grizzly.

I got a couple of Noctua NF-A9x14s and I'm trying to figure out the best way to cool the card with them. I've considered cutting the frames off of the fans and figuring out how to mount them in place of the stock fans. Or I could just remove the GPU shroud and zip-tie them on.

But then I found out I am out of fan headers in my system, so this is going to have to wait anyway.

Gelids are the best, but one of the two is really hard and doesnt compress well, so you need the absolute right thickness for those - or put in some effort (two pieces of glass) and manually smoosh em thinner


I was gunna say dont murder noctuas, but if you're replacing the stock fans then hellooooo nurse

 

[Dinnercore]

I'm not nearly as knowledgeable in this area but I did pick up a multimeter yesterday as I would like to start probing VDIMM and VSOC on my boards, especially the wonky Aorus

But not sure where to find voltage read points? The Impact has dedicated measurement points, the Unify-X has 3 exposed looking spots with a gold + that I'm assuming is the right place, but I'm completely clueless as to the B550I Aorus AX...

View attachment 234553

Finding ground is usually not a big issue, screw holes are my go to as they are usually out of the way of heatsinks and other components. After that I poke around, through-hole caps close to the VRM can usually be probed from the back. Some chokes have contact points that can be reached, but not all. This gives you the output of your VRM.
Now if you want to measure the voltage that your component sees, you gotta get as close to it as possible. For VDIMM I take the heatsink off of my modules and measure directly on the sticks themself at some small cap on the outer edges of the stick.
For my current DDR2 setup here I get e.g. 2.0738V directly at the FET on the board, 2.0707V at the choke and 2.0582V on the stick at the cap. If you ever get some funny readout, try the next spot. Not sure about the pinout on DDR4, but if you have one that might help.

EDIT: Could these be dedicated measurement points on your board?

 

[Deleted member 24505]

 

[tabascosauz]

Finding ground is usually not a big issue, screw holes are my go to as they are usually out of the way of heatsinks and other components. After that I poke around, through-hole caps close to the VRM can usually be probed from the back. Some chokes have contact points that can be reached, but not all. This gives you the output of your VRM.
Now if you want to measure the voltage that your component sees, you gotta get as close to it as possible. For VDIMM I take the heatsink off of my modules and measure directly on the sticks themself at some small cap on the outer edges of the stick.
For my current DDR2 setup here I get e.g. 2.0738V directly at the FET on the board, 2.0707V at the choke and 2.0582V on the stick at the cap. If you ever get some funny readout, try the next spot. Not sure about the pinout on DDR4, but if you have one that might help.

EDIT: Could these be dedicated measurement points on your board?

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately the Aorus coincidentally decided to give up the ghost earlier today so it'll probably be a while before I can even use my HTPC again, assuming it didn't take anything else with it. So far it seems like just the board is dead (either doesn't POST/doesn't boot, depending on PSU used). But I can confirm that the COUPON points don't appear to be functional voltage measurement points.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately the Aorus coincidentally decided to give up the ghost earlier today so it'll probably be a while before I can even use my HTPC again, assuming it didn't take anything else with it. So far it seems like just the board is dead (either doesn't POST/doesn't boot, depending on PSU used). But I can confirm that the COUPON points don't appear to be functional voltage measurement points.

You tried leaving the board unplugged with the battery removed for a day or two? Sometimes that makes them come back to life again. Don't ask me how or why, but I have had this happen a few times.

The COUPON pins are not for Voltage measurement, they're for VRM debugging that's proprietary to Gigabyte's engineers.

 

[tabascosauz]

You tried leaving the board unplugged with the battery removed for a day or two? Sometimes that makes them come back to life again. Don't ask me how or why, but I have had this happen a few times.

The COUPON pins are not for Voltage measurement, they're for VRM debugging that's proprietary to Gigabyte's engineers.

Yeah, I thought as much. Figured Gigabyte wouldn't give us free high end OC features on a midrange board lol

The board developed a very loud and high pitched coil whine when it suddenly refused to boot. Couldn't figure out where exactly it's coming from. Tried a lot of things including clearing cmos and draining battery, testing with other PSUs, looks like there's no saving this one. Not sure what happened.

 

[Mussels]

Yeah, I thought as much. Figured Gigabyte wouldn't give us free high end OC features on a midrange board lol

The board developed a very loud and high pitched coil whine when it suddenly refused to boot. Couldn't figure out where exactly it's coming from. Tried a lot of things including clearing cmos and draining battery, testing with other PSUs, looks like there's no saving this one. Not sure what happened.

dishwasher time

 

[Chomiq]

Yeah, I thought as much. Figured Gigabyte wouldn't give us free high end OC features on a midrange board lol

The board developed a very loud and high pitched coil whine when it suddenly refused to boot. Couldn't figure out where exactly it's coming from. Tried a lot of things including clearing cmos and draining battery, testing with other PSUs, looks like there's no saving this one. Not sure what happened.

Classic case of sudden death of GB mobo, F.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

 

[SN2716057]

View attachment 234699

oh a wind speed meter

 

[GamerGuy]

My 'The Witcher' keycap came today, and combined with the red LED on my CMStorm keyboard, it looks great!

Also got a fund lookin' XXL mousepad to make my desk area look a tad more fun....

 

[toilet pepper]

View attachment 234699

Did you already buy this? I was thinking about getting one for myself but I found somewhere (I can't remember where) that they use aluminum inside.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

Did you already buy this? I was thinking about getting one for myself but I found somewhere (I can't remember where) that they use aluminum inside.

No haven't got it yet, it has shipped. If it is aluminium I probably won't use it. If it is it could cause a major problem in a loop, not sure. Shame as it looks really nice.

EDIT see here, it is apparently POM only the front panel is aluminium.
https://www.reddit.com/r/watercooling/comments/ef95x2

 

[Space Lynx]

I got this about two weeks ago. Anne Pro 2: steel backplate, cherry mx blue, arrow keys are built in a short tap function on shift/right ctrl, etc. High quality keycaps, and it came with the colored keycaps you see here as well, still moving them around to get the color scheme I want, and it also has per-key RGB. got it on lightning sale for $39, got really lucky. I really love 60% form factor personally. I see no reason for bigger, all I do is game really. Never used the other buttons all that much.

It has another feature called Magic FN on caps lock key, but I have no idea what the point of that is, it already has an FN 1 and FN 2 key. The software is very minimal and easy to use, I was impressed by it. My favorite color mode is called POP something or other, its a weird name, but basically random colors for each key as I type.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

I got this about two weeks ago. Anne Pro 2: steel backplate, cherry mx blue, arrow keys are built in a short tap function on shift/right ctrl, etc. High quality keycaps, and it came with the colored keycaps you see here as well, still moving them around to get the color scheme I want, and it also has per-key RGB. got it on lightning sale for $39, got really lucky. I really love 60% form factor personally. I see no reason for bigger, all I do is game really. Never used the other buttons all that much.

It has another feature called Magic FN on caps lock key, but I have no idea what the point of that is, it already has an FN 1 and FN 2 key. The software is very minimal and easy to use, I was impressed by it. My favorite color mode is called POP something or other, its a weird name, but basically random colors for each key as I type.

View attachment 234745

I have a anne pro II, good keyboard overall. I have some coloured keys, but personally don't like them, so have the original white set on. I might buy another set for it at some point.

 

[Space Lynx]

I have a anne pro II, good keyboard overall. I have some coloured keys, but personally don't like them, so have the original white set on. I might buy another set for it at some point.

I would have got the white version but it was not on sale. The RGB looks great on black anyway so can't complain. I like the colored keys, but I might put a couple originals back as I like the per key RGB more, and in settings I have the backlight set to max. I'm glad I only paid $39 for this though, I'm not huge into keyboards, but it is nice to have something of quality for a change.

 

[Mussels]

I got this about two weeks ago. Anne Pro 2: steel backplate, cherry mx blue, arrow keys are built in a short tap function on shift/right ctrl, etc. High quality keycaps, and it came with the colored keycaps you see here as well, still moving them around to get the color scheme I want, and it also has per-key RGB. got it on lightning sale for $39, got really lucky. I really love 60% form factor personally. I see no reason for bigger, all I do is game really. Never used the other buttons all that much.

It has another feature called Magic FN on caps lock key, but I have no idea what the point of that is, it already has an FN 1 and FN 2 key. The software is very minimal and easy to use, I was impressed by it. My favorite color mode is called POP something or other, its a weird name, but basically random colors for each key as I type.

View attachment 234745

Yo dawg i heard you like RGB, so we put RGB in your RGB so you can RGB while you RGB

 

[GreiverBlade]

Yo dawg i heard you like RGB, so we put RGB in your RGB so you can RGB while you RGB

RGB as in "Really Great Booze"?

 

[Mussels]

RGB as in "Really Great Booze"?

really good board
relatively generous buttons
reasonably germane blinkers

Edit:
Really Glorious Buttons

 

[Cutechri]

Not recent but I did buy the Chromax Noctua NH-U12A when it came out. Finally that legendary beast turned up in a nice suit. Doubt I'll ever need another cooler unless there's some major mounting incompatibilities.

 

[tabascosauz]

First glass res. Nice german engineering. Getting ready to move the loop tonight.

 

[Mussels]

One day.
One day i'll get a new fancy res.

 

[Cutechri]

One day I'll have enough expendable cash to see what's so good about water cooling and custom loops, and then probably return to my Noctuas anyway