Well, if you ever get bored and want something to do with your PC try building a custom loop and find out. You've probably only seen AIO's?
Probably, more or less, but even so, I highly doubt I'll ever get THAT bored.
Not trying to dump on anyone else's accomplishments, mind you. I guess really the big issue is that what's easy for others is almost always an odyssey for me. For instance, I'd love to build / troubleshoot / repair PCs for a living, but I've been diagnosed with autism in last year.
Hence, related focus and fine motor issues mean I spend half my time looking for what I just had in my hand five seconds ago, and taking the machine apart because I either dropped a screw or it fell when trying to start it. Most people can build a PC in three to four hours, it can take me 3 to 4 DAYS. And that's not the half, I've found out I was misdiagnosed with asthma for twenty years or more, when I have a throat disorder that makes the world a gas chamber to me. Had to give up a good over-the-road trucking career I loved six years ago because of it. But, as John Lennon said, life is what happens while you make other plans.
I actually have three builds I'm trying to flip, including another Ryzen I built out of necessity. My 5900X had driven me nuts for months. During which I RMA'd the board, and hearing rumors of bad 5900Xs, tested everything else with a 3600X on a ASRock B450M-HDV Promontory. Saw similar issues, finally saw one identical issue. Apparently Ryzen and supporting boards are fussy about RAM, and my original Ballistix kit wasn't QVL'd for either board. Of course, my Asus board was given a clean bill of health and returned, though the notifications indicate parts were needed at some point. QVL'd RAM fixed issues on both setups. Rounded out the 3600X build with a Scythe Mugen 5S cooler, 32GB Ballistix DDR4-3600, 500GB WD PCIe3 M.2, WD Black 6TB HDD, and a decent slot-powered 1650 OC in my original Corsair 4000X RGB, migrating my 5900X build to a Fractal Pop XL Air with a Pioneer Blu-Ray burner. Was probably still cheaper than having a PC shop chase it down (and maybe not find it, since most people think RAM is RAM is RAM), and I figure I can at least get my money back out of it, if not profit slightly.
Not long after, I discovered a forgotten Lenovo *puke* workstation given me that still ran fine. Swapped the 2100 for a 2600, planning a Plex NAS for ripping / recording and serving music and movies, but the iGPU just seemed unsuitable for recording smooth video. I got the best bang-for-the-buck upgrades I could find, Musetex TW8-S6-B cases, Intel DH77EB boards, Micron 16GB DDR3-1333, i70 coolers, Crucial 500GB SSD, and WD Black 1TB HDDs, and EVGA SC GPUs, a 750ti for the i3-2100, a 1050 for the 2600. They're no 10th-gens, but these things honestly surprised me, even giving decent FPS at 1600p on a very taxing map in BeamNG.drive on full detail. However, it seems people would rather spend $600 on poorly-tuned retail prebuilts than $400-$500 on well-tuned and maxed-out older hardware that might even smoke that prebuilt.
Of course, I've discovered more recently my video recording method was part of the problem...
Haven't tried the fix on the Intels though. But I digress. Quite simply, I just don't have the focus, patience or motor skills to do this sort of work every day. Hell, I can't even type worth a damn anymore.
Super fun with great results!
I'll take your word for it. I'm not violent by nature, but certain autistic traits have worsened with age, and the more I struggle with something, the more I just want to destroy it.
However not 100% risk-free though....
Yup. I've seen the horror stories of leaks, failed pumps, draining / removal to troubleshoot unrelated problems, radiators somehow springing leaks... I almost threw my 5900X in a lake over RAM issues. I don't need to be tempting the fates with that kind of work involved.
It wouldn't be fun without risk. None of my hobbies were/are tbh.
True, but the fun sort of goes away when what you're trying to enjoy is sending you third-world-war nuclear.
I knew this already as a kid as I was a skateboarder back then.
Yeah, that was all the rage when I was in school. Funny how most of the skateboarding crew were misfits themselves, but made it very clear I didn't belong. If I knew then what I know now...
