(Anti) SFF fun house

[tabascosauz]

Really tempted to just sell the Impact and go back to the Unify-X. From being on FBMP for like 2 months with only lowballers interest, I feel like I'm the only one who can actually appreciate the board...

Anyone have any good recommendations for a small res for DDC? Currently the only viable option I can get is the Heatkiller Tube 100 or 150. Tube 100 is a little small but I can guarantee I can continue to use in any case. Tube 150 is better sized, but I may have to change down the road if I'm set on eventually getting the case I think I will.

Both priced around $120-130. Have heard some issues about glass tube sealing, so I'd pick up the extra set of 55x4 and 55x5 o-rings with it just in case - I can leak test with my EK tester beforehand.

Available from Dazmode which ships CP Xpresspost across the country for reasonably cheap.

Just not seeing a lot of other DDC options. EK is out of the running entirely as their pricing is batshit insane even for a res-only 160 DDC res at $187.

I've seen that same residue in all my loop variations using Cryofuel, so it seems like a common thing. Doesn't bother me though - especially not since I ditched my large res It also only seems to stick to certain plastics (acrylic, possibly the neoprene ZMT tubing, tiny amounts on acetal) and doesn't really build up over time, so I ultimately don't care. After running it for ~two years without any service with both bare copper and nickel-plated blocks in my loop and both being essentially clean afterwards, it really doesn't seem like a concern. I can completely understand it if loop aesthetics matters though.

On paper I don't see why Cryofuel should be a problem. At most, the oily depositions just cause a headache when I eventually have to disassemble the res to clean it of the residue. Especially once I replace the Iceman res (SS 304 plate), there will be nothing except brass and nickel in the loop, so not much work for Cryofuel to do anyway.

But unlike the classic coolant mfgrs there's so much negative feedback out there about EK coolants. When I bought it, I thought the negativity was limited to their pastel colors (which I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole), but clearly the Clear isn't spared either. No such problems with Mayhems or DP Ultra, but unfortunately both are not possible (DP ultra not in stock, Mayhems shipping is killer)

Seems they make a decent product, but I'm not keen on gambling on their clearly very sketchy QC. Especially as I only have about 600mL left from this batch and will need to buy more.

That and the price. $24 per 1L......I can bring that down to $15 per 1L by getting the concentrate and making my own, but apparently the concentrate is even less reliable

Is it time for automotive coolants?? I trust the electroless Optimus block to stand up to just about anything, not so sure about the Bitspower block...

 

[mechtech]

Really tempted to just sell the Impact and go back to the Unify-X. From being on FBMP for like 2 months with only lowballers interest, I feel like I'm the only one who can actually appreciate the board...

Anyone have any good recommendations for a small res for DDC? Currently the only viable option I can get is the Heatkiller Tube 100 or 150. Tube 100 is a little small but I can guarantee I can continue to use in any case. Tube 150 is better sized, but I may have to change down the road if I'm set on eventually getting the case I think I will.

Both priced around $120-130. Have heard some issues about glass tube sealing, so I'd pick up the extra set of 55x4 and 55x5 o-rings with it just in case - I can leak test with my EK tester beforehand.

Available from Dazmode which ships CP Xpresspost across the country for reasonably cheap.

Just not seeing a lot of other DDC options. EK is out of the running entirely as their pricing is batshit insane even for a res-only 160 DDC res at $187.

View attachment 233663



On paper I don't see why Cryofuel should be a problem. At most, the oily depositions just cause a headache when I eventually have to disassemble the res to clean it of the residue. Especially once I replace the Iceman res (SS 304 plate), there will be nothing except brass and nickel in the loop, so not much work for Cryofuel to do anyway.

But unlike the classic coolant mfgrs there's so much negative feedback out there about EK coolants. When I bought it, I thought the negativity was limited to their pastel colors (which I wouldn't touch with a 10 foot pole), but clearly the Clear isn't spared either. No such problems with Mayhems or DP Ultra, but unfortunately both are not possible (DP ultra not in stock, Mayhems shipping is killer)

Seems they make a decent product, but I'm not keen on gambling on their clearly very sketchy QC. Especially as I only have about 600mL left from this batch and will need to buy more.

That and the price. $24 per 1L......I can bring that down to $15 per 1L by getting the concentrate and making my own, but apparently the concentrate is even less reliable

Is it time for automotive coolants?? I trust the electroless Optimus block to stand up to just about anything, not so sure about the Bitspower block...

I don't always use liquid cooling................but when I do

HYDROCOOL : Guide and thrust bearing oil coolers

Thermofin manufactures reliable guide and thrust bearing oil coolers designed for easy maintenance and low cost operations.

thermofin.net

It's ASME certified

And yes, my son wanted orange so I put some dexcool in his lol

 

[tabascosauz]

Still waiting on my Gigabyte RMA (3 weeks!!! ), and my VKB Gunfighter Mk. 3 on Friday. In the meantime, here's something a little different:

I don't always use liquid cooling................but when I do

HYDROCOOL : Guide and thrust bearing oil coolers

Thermofin manufactures reliable guide and thrust bearing oil coolers designed for easy maintenance and low cost operations.

thermofin.net

It's ASME certified

And yes, my son wanted orange so I put some dexcool in his lol

In the end I just stayed with Cryofuel. In my life, God punishes me severely every time I try to fix something that ain't broke, and it wasn't broke, so I didn't fix it.

From the ingredients list, Cryofuel is just watered down Dexcool anyway

 

[Valantar]

Still waiting on my Gigabyte RMA (3 weeks!!! ), and my VKB Gunfighter Mk. 3 on Friday. In the meantime, here's something a little different:

View attachment 239154

That's a nice looking keyboard! I like the chunky, symmetrical bezels. What profile are those caps? They look kind of cherry/OEM-like, but ... somehow a tad softer? Or is the photo just tricking my eyes? I kind of broke myself when I got a (poor print quality, but otherwise acceptable) PBT DSA profile keycap set for my Masterkeys Pro S - I kind of want something more colorful for it, but having to go back to a taller, more squared off cap profile just rubs me the wrong way. And that of course stacks on top of the difficulty of finding nice Nordic/Norwegian ISO keycaps in the first place. You ANSI users have it so easy. Also considering just going for an ANSI Keychron Q1 or Q2 (prebuilt, w/knob) to get all the birds with one stone, though adapting to some bastardized ISO-on-ANSI layout would likely be a major challenge. We'll see, I guess.

 

[tabascosauz]

That's a nice looking keyboard! I like the chunky, symmetrical bezels. What profile are those caps? They look kind of cherry/OEM-like, but ... somehow a tad softer? Or is the photo just tricking my eyes? I kind of broke myself when I got a (poor print quality, but otherwise acceptable) PBT DSA profile keycap set for my Masterkeys Pro S - I kind of want something more colorful for it, but having to go back to a taller, more squared off cap profile just rubs me the wrong way. And that of course stacks on top of the difficulty of finding nice Nordic/Norwegian ISO keycaps in the first place. You ANSI users have it so easy. Also considering just going for an ANSI Keychron Q1 or Q2 (prebuilt, w/knob) to get all the birds with one stone, though adapting to some bastardized ISO-on-ANSI layout would likely be a major challenge. We'll see, I guess.

I think it might just be the angle of the photo. They're cherry profile. Hammerworks CRP Desko with GMK RGBW modifiers. The Desko sat in storage for a while because I'm not the biggest fan of PBT Cherry profile (slightly narrower keys, not a fan of the texture), but I think this is the way to go for the U80. For every board I have this period in which I'm constantly changing sets, but once I settle on something it'll be stuck on there for the long run.

I was looking at that Keychron with the knob while discussing keyboards with a friend, it looks good for the price. Best of luck with the ISO search though, I don't envy you lol. Especially with how hotswap is all the rage nowadays (personally not a fan of hotswap), it's hard to find boards or high end used keysets that come in ISO.

 

[tabascosauz]

So, in summary:

• Gigabyte board died ⇒ RMA took a month ⇒ shipped back to me in PSU box with no accessories and missing heatsink ⇒ GB ignored all my emails ⇒ posted on Reddit ⇒ GB reddit rep noticed and did some snooping for me ⇒ GB USA magically "noticed" my emails ⇒ they offer to find a new replacement ⇒ I send my board back using their label ⇒ now GB USA back to ignoring my emails, radio silence
• Viper Steel DIMM also got nuked by the 5V short on the Giga board ⇒ now unable to hold any profile over JEDEC stable enough to boot Windows ⇒ Patriot RMA doesn't even list any model over 3733 ⇒ emailed their RMA dept instead ⇒ TBD
• 3070 Ti TUF on big sale for $210 off ⇒ picked up one in store ⇒ open it at home to find the card bent and mangled ⇒ backplate screws driven into the finstack at 45 degree angle ⇒ take it right back to store ⇒ they can only offer me refund or RMA ⇒ brand new unused card now with Asus for RMA for who knows how long

All in a month's work. I love you, 2022!

 

[tabascosauz]

So, in summary:

• Gigabyte board died ⇒ RMA took a month ⇒ shipped back to me in PSU box with no accessories and missing heatsink ⇒ GB ignored all my emails ⇒ posted on Reddit ⇒ GB reddit rep noticed and did some snooping for me ⇒ GB USA magically "noticed" my emails ⇒ they offer to find a new replacement ⇒ I send my board back using their label ⇒ now GB USA back to ignoring my emails, radio silence
• Viper Steel DIMM also got nuked by the 5V short on the Giga board ⇒ now unable to hold any profile over JEDEC stable enough to boot Windows ⇒ Patriot RMA doesn't even list any model over 3733 ⇒ emailed their RMA dept instead ⇒ TBD
• 3070 Ti TUF on big sale for $210 off ⇒ picked up one in store ⇒ open it at home to find the card bent and mangled ⇒ backplate screws driven into the finstack at 45 degree angle ⇒ take it right back to store ⇒ they can only offer me refund or RMA ⇒ brand new unused card now with Asus for RMA for who knows how long

All in a month's work. I love you, 2022!

The drama ain't over! AMD just approved the RMA, gotta pack it up and send it out.

My 5700G was damaged as well. How do I know? Everything that runs off the SOC domain is having a very rough time.

• UMC: now literally refuses to train B-die above JEDEC. Errors straight into BIOS recovery mode (Asus) or endless training bootloop (GB).
• Fabric: just about long gone. No point in even trying. I wouldn't even bet on it holding 1800MHz anymore if I gave it 1.5V.
• iGPU: we were 2300MHz stable, then all of a sudden even stock 2000MHz was holding on by a thread, and now it's artifacting.

I could get into BIOS but not past Windows login. I thought Windows might be corrupt. Clean installed, and Windows setup only barely managed to complete after 7 reboots. Same thing - it wasn't Windows either.

Think you've seen Ryzen degradation? This 5700G went downhill like an undiagnosed ebola patient.

Vendor RMA reputations in 2022:

• Gigabyte: an arduous 2.5 months to finish RMA properly and get a hold of people. But I got a new board, brand new accessories to replace the ones lost, a jacket and a USB stick.
• Patriot: 2 weeks from submitting RMA to receiving replacement. Bravo! New replacement sent directly from their distributor through Amazon, which is where I bought the original.
• Asus: fucking dogshit service for an inexcusable, brand new, unused GPU - 4 weeks and no updates whatsoever. Every passing business day the Asus dungpile gets bigger.
• AMD: we shall see.........

 

[Chomiq]

The drama ain't over! AMD just approved the RMA, gotta pack it up and send it out.

My 5700G was damaged as well. How do I know? Everything that runs off the SOC domain is having a very rough time.

• UMC: now literally refuses to train B-die above JEDEC. Errors straight into BIOS recovery mode (Asus) or endless training bootloop (GB).
• Fabric: just about long gone. No point in even trying. I wouldn't even bet on it holding 1800MHz anymore if I gave it 1.5V.
• iGPU: we were 2300MHz stable, then all of a sudden even stock 2000MHz was holding on by a thread, and now it's artifacting.

I could get into BIOS but not past Windows login. I thought Windows might be corrupt. Clean installed, and Windows setup only barely managed to complete after 7 reboots. Same thing - it wasn't Windows either.

Think you've seen Ryzen degradation? This 5700G went downhill like an undiagnosed ebola patient.

Vendor RMA reputations in 2022:

• Gigabyte: an arduous 2.5 months to finish RMA properly and get a hold of people. But I got a new board, brand new accessories to replace the ones lost, a jacket and a USB stick.
• Patriot: 2 weeks from submitting RMA to receiving replacement. Bravo! New replacement sent directly from their distributor through Amazon, which is where I bought the original.
• Asus: fucking dogshit service for an inexcusable, brand new, unused GPU - 4 weeks and no updates whatsoever. Every passing business day the Asus dungpile gets bigger.
• AMD: we shall see.........

Jesus, my hair would go completely white after all that RMA sh*t.

 

[Valantar]

The drama ain't over! AMD just approved the RMA, gotta pack it up and send it out.

My 5700G was damaged as well. How do I know? Everything that runs off the SOC domain is having a very rough time.

• UMC: now literally refuses to train B-die above JEDEC. Errors straight into BIOS recovery mode (Asus) or endless training bootloop (GB).
• Fabric: just about long gone. No point in even trying. I wouldn't even bet on it holding 1800MHz anymore if I gave it 1.5V.
• iGPU: we were 2300MHz stable, then all of a sudden even stock 2000MHz was holding on by a thread, and now it's artifacting.

I could get into BIOS but not past Windows login. I thought Windows might be corrupt. Clean installed, and Windows setup only barely managed to complete after 7 reboots. Same thing - it wasn't Windows either.

Think you've seen Ryzen degradation? This 5700G went downhill like an undiagnosed ebola patient.

Vendor RMA reputations in 2022:

• Gigabyte: an arduous 2.5 months to finish RMA properly and get a hold of people. But I got a new board, brand new accessories to replace the ones lost, a jacket and a USB stick.
• Patriot: 2 weeks from submitting RMA to receiving replacement. Bravo! New replacement sent directly from their distributor through Amazon, which is where I bought the original.
• Asus: fucking dogshit service for an inexcusable, brand new, unused GPU - 4 weeks and no updates whatsoever. Every passing business day the Asus dungpile gets bigger.
• AMD: we shall see.........

Damn, that is a looooong shitlist you're building up. Won't be many hardware vendors left to use after they've all ran out of goodwill at this pace. That degradation is pretty harsh though - what settings/voltages were you running previously?

 

[tabascosauz]

Damn, that is a looooong shitlist you're building up. Won't be many hardware vendors left to use after they've all ran out of goodwill at this pace. That degradation is pretty harsh though - what settings/voltages were you running previously?

I was not serious about the degradation remark, this one is looking like pure physical damage. The 5700G going to shit exactly coincides with the 5V rail short.

Prior to the board RMA, UMC held 4333CL16, IF held 2166MHz, iGPU held 2300MHz for 6 straight months. All 3 stooges were happy as long as load VSOC didn't drop below 1.18V.

After the board RMA, the 5700G was having a seizure in the Impact when I tried to tighten primaries. Rev.E was ok, but again, tRCD and tRP had to remain weirdly loose even for Micron, and iGPU completely refused to OC at all anymore.

Then I got the replacement Vipers and found out that the UMC was flatly boycotting B-die, that's when I knew I had not gotten to the bottom of it. Then the UMC and IF skipped town altogether.

It's not really a shitlist. Gigabyte just had me exasperated for 3 months, it's Gigabyte. Patriot was a good experience. AMD, well, they quickly approved this time without wasting my time.

But Asus is unequivocally on the shitlist.

 

[Valantar]

I was not serious about the degradation remark, this one is looking like pure physical damage. The 5700G going to shit exactly coincides with the 5V rail short.

Prior to the board RMA, UMC held 4333CL16, IF held 2166MHz, iGPU held 2300MHz for 6 straight months. All 3 stooges were happy as long as load VSOC didn't drop below 1.18V.

After the board RMA, the 5700G was having a seizure in the Impact when I tried to tighten primaries. Rev.E was ok, but again, tRCD and tRP had to remain weirdly loose even for Micron, and iGPU completely refused to OC at all anymore.

Then I got the replacement Vipers and found out that the UMC was flatly boycotting B-die, that's when I knew I had not gotten to the bottom of it. Then the UMC and IF skipped town altogether.

It's not really a shitlist. Gigabyte just had me exasperated for 3 months, it's Gigabyte. Patriot was a good experience. AMD, well, they quickly approved this time without wasting my time.

But Asus is unequivocally on the shitlist.

Ah, that does indeed sound like that CPU got fried somehow in that failure. A real shame, considering how it ran previously! Gigabyte is indeed a ... special case

 

[tabascosauz]

I am THIS close to selling my entire HTPC and never touching anything from the red company ever again

My CPU came back from RMA anew, my board came back from RMA new, my other board IS new, my RAM came back from RMA new, my HDPlex works just fine, my SN550 works just fine......and I still cannot make it to Windows or through a Windows install no matter what I do

I have tried everything and now am down to swapping in the brand new B550I Aorus AX replacement board because I am out of options and am ready to off myself

2022, what the hell is your problem??

 

[phill]

2022, what the hell is your problem??

I feel your pain.....

I can't say I've had any problems with any AMD kit I've bought and I've a few boards and CPUs here.. Could it be just time for a different make/model??

 

[tabascosauz]

I am THIS close to selling my entire HTPC and never touching anything from the red company ever again

My CPU came back from RMA anew, my board came back from RMA new, my other board IS new, my RAM came back from RMA new, my HDPlex works just fine, my SN550 works just fine......and I still cannot make it to Windows or through a Windows install no matter what I do

I have tried everything and now am down to swapping in the brand new B550I Aorus AX replacement board because I am out of options and am ready to off myself

2022, what the hell is your problem??

Okay, looks like Asus is just incompetent. Phew. Back up and running on the Gigabyte board with our old January 2022 settings. F13l beta BIOS, 4333 16-16-16 @ 1.54V, 2300MHz Vega 8 @ 1.26V VSOC. Reinstalled, downloaded all my stuff, played Genshin, started working on curve optimizer. Runs exactly like it used to and as I expect it to. Still need to work out new curve optimizer and maybe new iGPU/VSOC/VDIMM.

Now I'm left with a spare Strix that can't handle APUs, performs badly, doesn't like to train B-die, has much worse build quality, questionable I/O, and rather sus M.2 cooling. Great.

I feel your pain.....

I can't say I've had any problems with any AMD kit I've bought and I've a few boards and CPUs here.. Could it be just time for a different make/model??

I dunno. Next time around I think I would just go for an i5 + low profile GTX 1650 or RX6400. I'm still using the niche F13l beta BIOS and not the F13 release, because iGPU performance savagely tanks for no reason in F13, and they don't have a AGESA 1207 release yet.

Which is still more than I can say for Asus.

I just...I always try to give AMD the benefit of a doubt over the whole "Intel is more dependable" thing because it sounds like a fanboy thing to say. But I can't deny it. The 3700X was just a turd. The 4650G found itself on some really sketchy AGESAs - and then Adrenalin drivers really hated Vega 7 for a while. The 5900X is the closest to reliable, but it still had the fTPM problem. The 5700G...well...the board vendors still don't understand Renoir/Cezanne. The one time Intel ever gave me trouble was a geriatric i5-650 that just wanted to quit.

At some point enough is enough. But then again, I have no desktop experience in 8th-12th gen, so who knows? I don't want to be Intel's guinea pig either for Meteor Lake, so I guess I'll see if they can convince me with 13th gen.

 

[80-watt Hamster]

Okay, looks like Asus is just incompetent. Phew. Back up and running on the Gigabyte board with our old January 2022 settings. F13l beta BIOS, 4333 16-16-16 @ 1.54V, 2300MHz Vega 8 @ 1.26V VSOC. Reinstalled, downloaded all my stuff, played Genshin, started working on curve optimizer. Runs exactly like it used to and as I expect it to. Still need to work out new curve optimizer and maybe new iGPU/VSOC/VDIMM.

Now I'm left with a spare Strix that can't handle APUs, performs badly, doesn't like to train B-die, has much worse build quality, questionable I/O, and rather sus M.2 cooling. Great.



I dunno. Next time around I think I would just go for an i5 + low profile GTX 1650 or RX6400. I'm still using the niche F13l beta BIOS and not the F13 release, because iGPU performance savagely tanks for no reason in F13, and they don't have a AGESA 1207 release yet.

Which is still more than I can say for Asus.

I just...I always try to give AMD the benefit of a doubt over the whole "Intel is more dependable" thing because it sounds like a fanboy thing to say. But I can't deny it. The 3700X was just a turd. The 4650G found itself on some really sketchy AGESAs - and then Adrenalin drivers really hated Vega 7 for a while. The 5900X is the closest to reliable, but it still had the fTPM problem. The 5700G...well...the board vendors still don't understand Renoir/Cezanne. The one time Intel ever gave me trouble was a geriatric i5-650 that just wanted to quit.

At some point enough is enough. But then again, I have no desktop experience in 8th-12th gen, so who knows? I don't want to be Intel's guinea pig either for Meteor Lake, so I guess I'll see if they can convince me with 13th gen.

Anecdotally, I'm two for two with 9th and 10th gen setups (outside of a bum refurb board, but that's hardly the platform's fault). Keep wanting to build a platform around a 5600G, but can't justify the expense.

 

[tabascosauz]

Anecdotally, I'm two for two with 9th and 10th gen setups (outside of a bum refurb board, but that's hardly the platform's fault). Keep wanting to build a platform around a 5600G, but can't justify the expense.

Sometimes I indulge in "what-if" sessions and wonder what it would have been like if I ponied up for a 9900K. Probably would still be using it now and cost much less in the long run. Bought into the whole online Ryzen hype train I guess.

It's a little late to buy into the APUs. They can do a bunch of things but those things are kinda mutually exclusive. And if you're not into fast ram then Vega 7 won't beat a 1030 sooo

 

[Valantar]

I wouldn't buy a Ryzen APU now for the sole reason of AM5 APUs in the near-ish future with DDR5 and RDNA2 kicking their butt. We're already seeing that in mobile, with the Radeon 680m in a 28-45W APU roughly matching a laptop 1650 in light to medium loads (the 1650 pulls away in heavier tasks, likely due to being less bandwidth and power limited, not sharing a power budget). They just make the current Vega iGPUs look oh so dated. I just hope AMD is somewhat quick in getting desktop Rembrandt out on AM5. But the "we're nearly there!" APU performance train just keeps on rolling...

 

[phill]

I dunno. Next time around I think I would just go for an i5 + low profile GTX 1650 or RX6400. I'm still using the niche F13l beta BIOS and not the F13 release, because iGPU performance savagely tanks for no reason in F13, and they don't have a AGESA 1207 release yet.

Which is still more than I can say for Asus.

I just...I always try to give AMD the benefit of a doubt over the whole "Intel is more dependable" thing because it sounds like a fanboy thing to say. But I can't deny it. The 3700X was just a turd. The 4650G found itself on some really sketchy AGESAs - and then Adrenalin drivers really hated Vega 7 for a while. The 5900X is the closest to reliable, but it still had the fTPM problem. The 5700G...well...the board vendors still don't understand Renoir/Cezanne. The one time Intel ever gave me trouble was a geriatric i5-650 that just wanted to quit.

At some point enough is enough. But then again, I have no desktop experience in 8th-12th gen, so who knows? I don't want to be Intel's guinea pig either for Meteor Lake, so I guess I'll see if they can convince me with 13th gen.

I been reading through the thread and just wondering, the Impact and Ryzen is that more of a gaming rig for you or just a general use machine that is for everything? I get that its meant for a very small case so it can be transported around easily

It's looking great so I'm trying to keep an eye

 

[tabascosauz]

I been reading through the thread and just wondering, the Impact and Ryzen is that more of a gaming rig for you or just a general use machine that is for everything? I get that its meant for a very small case so it can be transported around easily

It's looking great so I'm trying to keep an eye

The Impact and 5900X is my main, it does everything so I put a premium on stability over max OC. Cerberus is a bit too big to carry around and Impact is a bad choice for <5L cases or APUs.

The Aorus and 5700G is hooked up to my TV usually, I take it with me if I need it. Otherwise, mostly just for chilling in bed at night/on the weekends. I experiment a lot more on this one.

I did have travel in mind for the small one, but oddly enough ever since I've made it convenient for travel, I've stopped travelling.

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
That last bit was funny

 

[ThrashZone]

I stay away from strix.

 

[tabascosauz]

I stay away from strix.

I appreciate a good Asus BIOS as much as the next guy but I don't feel like Asus puts in any effort for their lower-than-ROG. The AM4 Strix VTTDDR only going in the ↑ direction was a funny one

Didn't like the B550-I Strix but it was the only alternative - the ASRock not suitable, the lower end ASRock I have and it's ass, the MSI I had and it didn't understand APUs either. In the end I disliked the Strix for the exact issues I thought I would - the socket placement causing problems, Richtek VRM, the M.2 stack is weird and not very good, terrible rear I/O, not-preinstalled rear I/O makes USB-C hard to plug in, no fan control for VRM fan (the two on the Impact are controllable) etc.

ROG is good, but man the prices just keep going up

 

[freeagent]

Man.. really sorry to hear your troubles. I wonder what is going on with them? I have 2 Strix boards, I am sure they aren't the best, but to me they have been awesome. I did buy that one TUF that was DOA.. but even just looking at the board.. what a piece of crap that was, not the Asus quality that I was used to. Mind you I only buy their ROG stuff anyways. But what a piece of crap, especially for the price. Pretty sure I used toilet paper thicker than that board lol

 

[tabascosauz]

Man.. really sorry to hear your troubles. I wonder what is going on with them? I have 2 Strix boards, I am sure they aren't the best, but to me they have been awesome. I did buy that one TUF that was DOA.. but even just looking at the board.. what a piece of crap that was, not the Asus quality that I was used to. Mind you I only buy their ROG stuff anyways. But what a piece of crap, especially for the price. Pretty sure I used toilet paper thicker than that board lol

I paid $220 back in the day for that same TUF......not proud of that, but let's just say at least that board worked.

$250 Strix is even with a price cut. It launched at over $300, highway robbery for what it is. Has no backplate while the same price Aorus does. Same price Aorus has a finned M.2 heatsink - the Strix literally has a chunk of plastic stuck on top of the M.2 heatsink. Also the B550 PCH runs hotter than the X570 Impact just sad

I don't have an explanation for why it loves crashing so much, no other board does it.

 

[Mussels]

You definitely gotta have a faulty or incompatible part going on there
I mean it's also possible that asus just have some lemon designs from time to time and that's one of them - my x570-F has been fantastic, except for a thermal pad on the chipset that died way too fast
In my experience with about 20 ryzen systems in the last few years, every damn time theres issues it's the RAM.

Does the B-die you're using have odd or even timings? Gear down mode could be behaving differently between the boards altering the timings in a way the RAM doesnt like (and you dont give the impression of someone who'd settle for 2x8GHz 3200Mhz XMP)