Batman Returns

[E-curbi]

Amazing CPU from silicon lottery there, it's always amazing me haha.

Yea, this 8086K really is a great CPU, I love it, but ya gotta give it solid cooling. Now I know! Stupid me for trying the impossible or the highly improbable.

I really thought 5.6Ghz would be no issue. I boot 5.6Ghz 6C12T all the time to run single core benchmarks. I knew 5.7Ghz all core all thread was out of the question, I can only boot to 5.7Ghz and also 5.8Ghz as a single-core boost (per-core boost, where only a single core will reach 5.7 or 5.8 at a time. 5.9Ghz? lol I'd have to start disabling cores, maybe down to only 2-cores running or maybe even a single core, I just don't know. And some of these extremely impractical clocks you have to ask yourself, if I do it ok then what? All the trouble and RISK involved, it becomes not really worth it simply to "see if you can".

If mine was not a work build, then yea it would be fun, possibly very expensive also if replacing burned up - DEEP FRIED components.

Also, just got another Z390 DARK scare of my life ... again. These motherboards should come with a special warning, damage to your emotional well-being extremely likely!

----------------------

Bios chip #3 was frozen at 5.5Ghz would not reset to defaults, so selected bios #2 using the manual slider switch on the board and booted into Win 10. Then moved the slider back to bios #3 and tried to reflash bios #3 three times, all failures. OK, that bios chip is TOAST!

Back to bios #2 it's set at v1.03 default out of the box, so tried to flash it to bios v1.06, another failure I've flashed the EVGA bios about 6X in the past always successful, now I'm thinking why would bios chip #2 be unflashable? Oh Geez! A global issue! Then a continuous boot loop from bios #2.

See what I mean, these Z390 Dark boards will scare the crap out of you...

Back into bios #3 still stuck at 5.5Ghz not resetting, then to save and reset out of bios no changes, something in the change log said DNF or DNB 2.3558 enable to disable, so what the heck > I clicked OK.

Now bios #3 is working fine and defaults the CPU back to 4000Mhz and memory settings all clear, not sure what happened, the bios dropped some corrupted data packets??? I have no idea.

PIcking up Chinese for the family for dinner, need some fresh air....

 

[Deleted member 178884]

PIcking up Chinese for the family for dinner, need some fresh air....

Enjoy : D I had Chinese today (it's my birthday today : P)

See what I mean, these Z390 Dark boards will scare the crap out of you...

I guess all you can do is resolder a new BIOS chip to replace the dodgy one, although that'd take a bit of time up.

 

[E-curbi]

Enjoy : D I had Chinese today (it's my birthday today : P)

I guess all you can do is resolder a new BIOS chip to replace the dodgy one, although that'd take a bit of time up.

Happy Birthday Brosephioso! Do something Amazing!

OR stay in - have a few beers and order something Amazing! lolol

We had "Americanized" Chinese, not actual Birthday-Level Chinese lol - String Bean Chicken Breast for me and Eggplant Tofu for mom and our 3yr old, supergreens {kale, broccoli, cabbage} last minute drive-thru Panda Express Thursday. It's pretty ok eating for only $18, a lot of food actually - lunch for the following day. Always been my job to go out and get the food, (lol Papi ), the girls stay home and set the table.

___________

I'm replacing the Noctua L9x65 65mm cooler with the absolutely brilliant Noctua C14S 140mm cooler in a few minutes. YAY! Still need to assess damage to bios #2.

Z390 Dark - 3 bios chips 2 soldered, and 1 socketed. So even if you totally destroy all 3, EVGA will send you a brand new bios chip that simply plugs into the socket. I heard they ship/send at no cost, but I don't know, ROG use to charge like $12-$15 per chip.

 

[tabascosauz]

OOF

Well, the little one did admirably at 5.4GHz. That's a lot to ask of a cooler that's only 65mm tall (that's what the 65mm is, the fan is a 92mm NF-A9x14, if it was 65mm trust me you would REALLY be hearing it lol).

Is your chip binned? That's some nice performance. Meanwhile I'm over here fighting against this 3700X with a NF-F12, NF-A9x14, NF-A9, and about to throw another A9 at the D9L to try and hold this bitch down in stress testing (I'm super anal about these things and will not rest until it holds completely steady at 70-75 on 16-thread 100% load). OCCT large integer is harder to tame thermally than Linpack! 12.6L of volume really seems to be a difficult time for 8C/16T Ryzen on air, regardless of the amount of air going through it.

Speaking of Chinese, I must be pretty lucky to be having it a couple times a week haha.

Also, you high end ATX bastards are incredibly lucky. That's like having 3 changes of fresh clothes on a hot day. Imagine doing what you do on ITX; that's why I don't OC, even when I was in a bigger case with the potential for an AIO, hybrid or loop.

 

[E-curbi]

OOF

Well, the little one did admirably at 5.4GHz. That's a lot to ask of a cooler that's only 65mm tall (that's what the 65mm is, the fan is a 92mm NF-A9x14, if it was 65mm trust me you would REALLY be hearing it lol).

Is your chip binned? That's some nice performance. Meanwhile I'm over here fighting against this 3700X with a NF-F12, NF-A9x14, NF-A9, and about to throw another A9 at the D9L to try and hold this bitch down in stress testing (I'm super anal about these things and will not rest until it holds completely steady at 70-75 on 16-thread 100% load). OCCT large integer is harder to tame thermally than Linpack! 12.6L of volume really seems to be a difficult time for 8C/16T Ryzen on air, regardless of the amount of air going through it.

Speaking of Chinese, I must be pretty lucky to be having it a couple times a week haha.

Also, you high end ATX bastards are incredibly lucky. That's like having 3 changes of fresh clothes on a hot day. Imagine doing what you do on ITX; that's why I don't OC, even when I was in a bigger case with the potential for an AIO, hybrid or loop.

The little cooler also performed admirably at 5.5Ghz 6c12t, extremely well. Think it could have held it's own at 5.6Ghz if only made it past the boot sequence. I honestly never remember seeing any temperature anywhere near 66C reading on the Z390 Dark's post code display during startup. A normal post-boot pre-OS temp with the C14S is around 30C-32C. 66C and a blackscreen WOW, just too much thermal energy for the little cooler to handle. Saturated in a nanosecond? Heat soaked so quickly? I didn't believe it was possible to do so.

____________

When the Seasonic TX-700 Prime Fanless Titanium launches, I'll post some install pics, should be an outstanding PSU.

600watt titanium fanless 2017
700watt titanium fanless 2019
800watt titanium fanless 2021??? Seasonic might need to increase the chassis dimensions, extend the length a bit.

Love those components that illustrate mankind moving forward.
Thanks for letting me hang out here at TPU with you guys for a week, was very enjoyable.

 

[tabascosauz]

The little cooler also performed admirably at 5.5Ghz 6c12t, extremely well. Think it could have held it's own at 5.6Ghz if only made it past the boot sequence. I honestly never remember seeing any temperature anywhere near 66C reading on the Z390 Dark's post code display during startup. A normal post-boot pre-OS temp with the C14S is around 30C-32C. 66C and a blackscreen WOW, just too much thermal energy for the little cooler to handle. Saturated in a nanosecond? Heat soaked so quickly? I didn't believe it was possible to do so.

Your thread, your rules! (well, aside of the obvious, of course) It has been quite the treat to follow along these adventures.

Maybe something else is going on at boot. It doesn't seem to me like there should be such a dramatic temperature spike so quickly? Is that an exclusive feature to display temps on the Dark POST indicator? Again, all of you so spoiled with multiple BIOSes, socketed BIOSes, POST codes, oh you

I stress test because I quickly realized that after moving from the SG08 into the SG05 with a L9x65, acceptably cool in games =! acceptably cool. In a tiny case, heat builds up from all directions and can't escape easily. The 3700X isn't anywhere near a dangerous temp, just higher than I'd like. The second A9 is going on today, we'll see how that works out. That, and watching Ryzen 3000 temperatures in any monitoring software is like watching people on a roller coaster. Motherboard fan control just can't keep up with Ryzen (rapid PWM fluctuations become annoying real quick), so just gotta throw more cooling at it.

Seasonic is amazing. I've gotten spectacular units from other OEMs like the Leadex in my G2 750, but Seasonic never lets anybody down. Even more so than their high end stuff throughout the years like the new fanless units, KM3, the AX they made for Corsair, I just built a friend's rig with their new Focus Plus line and honestly, seeing that kind of performance at what was previously just shy of bargain basement pricing had me speechless. Just a couple years ago, the choice was between group regulated shitshow from all the other dubious fire hazards or group regulated with decent components from Seasonic; coming back and seeing that somewhere along the line Seasonic had finally kicked S12II/M12II (still solid on components, just really outdated) to the curb and came in swinging with Focus Plus is really nice to see. And as the stalwart master of power supplies oklahomawolf has confirmed, Seasonic has the retailers pick random units to send to reviewers now. And as expected, they blow the socks off everything else.

The day I no longer need to opt for SFX is the day I come back to Seasonic (though if they come up with an SFX in the meantime...). I mean, the original SF600 is still excellent all around, but it just doesn't stand up to Seasonic levels of legendary.

 

[E-curbi]

Your thread, your rules! (well, aside of the obvious, of course) It has been quite the treat to follow along these adventures.

Maybe something else is going on at boot. It doesn't seem to me like there should be such a dramatic temperature spike so quickly? Is that an exclusive feature to display temps on the Dark POST indicator? Again, all of you so spoiled with multiple BIOSes, socketed BIOSes, POST codes, oh you

I stress test because I quickly realized that after moving from the SG08 into the SG05 with a L9x65, acceptably cool in games =! acceptably cool. In a tiny case, heat builds up from all directions and can't escape easily. The 3700X isn't anywhere near a dangerous temp, just higher than I'd like. The second A9 is going on today, we'll see how that works out. That, and watching Ryzen 3000 temperatures in any monitoring software is like watching people on a roller coaster. Motherboard fan control just can't keep up with Ryzen (rapid PWM fluctuations become annoying real quick), so just gotta throw more cooling at it.

Seasonic is amazing. I've gotten spectacular units from other OEMs like the Leadex in my G2 750, but Seasonic never lets anybody down. Even more so than their high end stuff throughout the years like the new fanless units, KM3, the AX they made for Corsair, I just built a friend's rig with their new Focus Plus line and honestly, seeing that kind of performance at what was previously just shy of bargain basement pricing had me speechless. Just a couple years ago, the choice was between group regulated shitshow from all the other dubious fire hazards or group regulated with decent components from Seasonic; coming back and seeing that somewhere along the line Seasonic had finally kicked S12II/M12II (still solid on components, just really outdated) to the curb and came in swinging with Focus Plus is really nice to see. And as the stalwart master of power supplies oklahomawolf has confirmed, Seasonic has the retailers pick random units to send to reviewers now. And as expected, they blow the socks off everything else.

The day I no longer need to opt for SFX is the day I come back to Seasonic (though if they come up with an SFX in the meantime...). I mean, the original SF600 is still excellent all around, but it just doesn't stand up to Seasonic levels of legendary.

What about the SFX-L form factor? Will that work in your builds?

Seasonic announced the STX-800 at Computex 2019, 800watts Prime Titanium SFX-L should be launching soon.

800watts and extremely efficient in a very tiny chassis.

STX-800 is titanium
SPX-800 is platinum

It's their new naming system - nomenclature, the OneSeasonic Initiative:

https://seasonic.com/oneseasonic

 

[E-curbi]

Noctua teasing it's upcoming black powdercoated coolers, with blacked-out fans.

Hey Noctua, don't powdercoat the coldplate.

Cuz this pic, it looks like you did - and that would be bad.

Unfortunately, the C14S is not on the list of coolers to be offered in black. Also, I have one of the all black Chromax 140mm fans and it's not anywhere near the quality level of the Noctua Industrial 140mm PWM fans, have two of those in daily use, phenomenally quiet, the Chromax 140mm all black fan I have emits substantial bearing hum and grind at the same rpms vs the Industrial 140mm's amazing silence.

...yea, could just be my sample, but the price difference is only $3 (three dollars) last checked, and the industrial sku feels much more substantial in the hand - even the frame is made of better materials.

Actually, Noctua has offered all-black fans for about 3years already sort of. If you pick up one of the Industrial skus and then the (8) black corner pads separately, which is what I ended up doing. (last pic)

 

[tabascosauz]

Noctua teasing it's upcoming black powdercoated coolers, with blacked-out fans.

Hey Noctua, don't powdercoat the coldplate.

Cuz this pic, it looks like you did - and that would be bad.

Unfortunately, the C14S is not on the list of coolers to be offered in black. Also, I have one of the all black Chromax 140mm fans and it's not anywhere near the quality level of the Noctua Industrial 140mm PWM fans, have two of those in daily use, phenomenally quiet, the Chromax 140mm all black fan I have emits substantial bearing hum and grind at the same rpms vs the Industrial 140mm's amazing silence.

...yea, could just be my sample, but the price difference is only $3 (three dollars) last checked, and the industrial sku feels much more substantial in the hand - even the frame is made of better materials.

Actually, Noctua has offered all-black fans for about 3years already sort of. If you pick up one of the Industrial skus and then the (8) black corner pads separately, which is what I ended up doing. (last pic)

View attachment 130044

I've known the IndustrialPPC for a long time; maybe it's my preference for the beige fans that keeps me from buying one . Though it's probably because the M1 doesn't support 140mm fans, and the NF-F12 is vastly inferior to the NF-A14 on efficiency and noise. I had a PWM A14 in my old Z97MX-Gaming 5 / R9 280X build; it's wonderful.

Apparently, the NF-A12 is supposed to be the bee's knees, so if Noctua comes out with an IndustrialPPC A12 I'll be all over that like flies on a turd. A black 120mm that doesn't scream like a monkey at higher speeds and can actually pull air through a restrictive surface? Shut up and take my money!

I hope Noctua took that picture in a blacked-out lightbox, hence the dark reflection on the contact plate. Also, "coming soon" for Noctua can mean "sometime in the next two decades" so......waiting for Noctua products feels a little like waiting for GM to produce a HD truck without torsion bar IFS......well maybe not, since the 2020s finally aren't T-bar anymore ahahah.

 

[E-curbi]

I've known the IndustrialPPC for a long time; maybe it's my preference for the beige fans that keeps me from buying one . Though it's probably because the M1 doesn't support 140mm fans, and the NF-F12 is vastly inferior to the NF-A14 on efficiency and noise. I had a PWM A14 in my old Z97MX-Gaming 5 / R9 280X build; it's wonderful.

Apparently, the NF-A12 is supposed to be the bee's knees, so if Noctua comes out with an IndustrialPPC A12 I'll be all over that like flies on a turd. A black 120mm that doesn't scream like a monkey at higher speeds and can actually pull air through a restrictive surface? Shut up and take my money!

I hope Noctua took that picture in a blacked-out lightbox, hence the dark reflection on the contact plate. Also, "coming soon" for Noctua can mean "sometime in the next two decades" so......waiting for Noctua products feels a little like waiting for GM to produce a HD truck without torsion bar IFS......well maybe not, since the 2020s finally aren't T-bar anymore ahahah.

Noctua definitely moves-improves at a snail's pace, lol. But you know whatever tech they have already stored in their back pockets, they gotta spread that stuff out over time. If they gave us everything at once, what would they do next?

Same with Intel and AMD, they need to time-stagger launches so they have something new and interesting, and relevant for the next season-next gen-next year. lol I also believe they wait for the competition to show their cards, and plan (although often times unsuccessfully) to only stay out in front by a very small margin, because why not?

Going out on a limb, I bet Seasonic can already produce an 800watt fanless in 2019, possibly a 1000watt fanless. But why make those skus available, when they can incrementally offer 100watt improvements time-staggered every 24months and get some of us (enthusiasts like me ) buying 6 PSUs over 12years instead of only one?

The psychologists employed in their marketing departments - are far from stupid, it means - they know my weakness, my chronic hardware affliction.

------

While still on the subject of NF-A14s.

This list from personal experience the three Noctua 140mm fans I've used:

1) https://noctua.at/en/nf-a14-industrialppc-2000-pwm I could write volumes for days! Cooling the 8086K at 700rpms inaudible long hours of daily work and 1200rpms attempting higher unknown clocks and profiles - best of the bunch $28

2) https://noctua.at/en/products/fan/nf-a14-pwm fan that arrives with the C14S cooler $22

3) https://noctua.at/en/nf-a14-pwm-chromax-black-swap - not good quality imho $25

...and I realize $27.95 (slightly over $30 after sales tax) is a lot for a single fan, but then I only needed one fan for this Batman build, the AMD workstation video card obviously came with a fan, the Supermicro 8-bay 2.5inch SSD drive rack also arrived with a fan, so no complaints by me over total cost of fans for the build holding at $30.

 

[Dinnercore]

Noctua teasing it's upcoming black powdercoated coolers, with blacked-out fans.

Hey Noctua, don't powdercoat the coldplate.

Cuz this pic, it looks like you did - and that would be bad.

Unfortunately, the C14S is not on the list of coolers to be offered in black. Also, I have one of the all black Chromax 140mm fans and it's not anywhere near the quality level of the Noctua Industrial 140mm PWM fans, have two of those in daily use, phenomenally quiet, the Chromax 140mm all black fan I have emits substantial bearing hum and grind at the same rpms vs the Industrial 140mm's amazing silence.

...yea, could just be my sample, but the price difference is only $3 (three dollars) last checked, and the industrial sku feels much more substantial in the hand - even the frame is made of better materials.

Actually, Noctua has offered all-black fans for about 3years already sort of. If you pick up one of the Industrial skus and then the (8) black corner pads separately, which is what I ended up doing. (last pic)

View attachment 130044

View attachment 130045
View attachment 130046
View attachment 130047
View attachment 130048

I think that stuff on the coldplate is supposed to be thermal paste and the whole thing has either some weird lighting going on or is a rendered picture. I don´t expect people like noctua to make such a huge mistake and coat the contact area. I really hope so

 

[E-curbi]

I think that stuff on the coldplate is supposed to be thermal paste and the whole thing has either some weird lighting going on or is a rendered picture. I don´t expect people like noctua to make such a huge mistake and coat the contact area. I really hope so

Painted Black

 

[E-curbi]

Getting ready to apply some of my secret thermal sauce interface blend of goopie magnificence, I should really give it a proper name, lol. Then remounting the Noctua C14S and attempting 4700Mhz > 4800Mhz > 4900Mhz > 5000Mhz (5.0Ghz) on the Gskill Trident Z Royal Silver ddr4 dual kit. woohoo!

Already prepared myself for the Z390 Dark to freak me out, piss me off, emotionally abuse me, and then push the ddr4 sticks to their 5.0Ghz of Pure Silicon Glory!


"It's a roller coaster ride with the lights turned off"

 

[E-curbi]

To check for good seating of a coldplate, I wait for SpeedStep to enable in the Win10 task manager > performance tab > CPU clock speed will drop to 1.24 1.04 0.94 0.80 Ghz, which can take a minute or two depending on your motherboard and Windows installation. Then I click on CPUID HWmonitor and check the CPU package and individual core temps in the Minimum Column, since it remains fairly constant.

At 5.4Ghz 1.370volts all core all thread, with ddr4 memory oc also applied 30C 31C 32C is a good seating in my mind from past experience. (screenshot below)

At CPU stock speeds, memory ddr4 stock 28C 29C 30C would be about right for a good seating, in the summer months.

Is that the best way to do it? Probably not, but it works for me, giving consistent and repeatable thermal results. This seating (screenshot below) was 1st attempt this morning, which rarely happens - go through a lot of thermal paste around here. lol

Also a possible helpful tip I only recently discovered: The Noctua "L" shaped Phillips #2 driver they package with their coolers doesn't work bad at all. I've used it twice now after years of tossing the idea aside as a "throw in part" just to get you up and running - when a proper screwdriver would work so much better. Yup, changed that train of thought 180, it's so light in mass, vs the heavy driver I was formerly using, that janky wanky cheap-ass piece of bent cylindrical metal actually allows for a high degree of tactile feedback - sending information on when you are inside the screw head (which can be tricky), rotational torque and displays 1/4turns 1/2turns 3/4turns accurately and also sends adequate resistance from the tip back to your hand telling you about 1 full turn out from the "Full Stop" that you are getting close. So today at the full turn left from stop position I went ahead with another 1/4 turn and made a note for future reference. It's basically a distance measure from coldplate to IHS.

And one more thing , used one of the Noctua alcohol wipes today, that arrived free with the NT-H2 thermal paste. Noctua is using 99% IPA, very strong scent when opening the packet, and they really do work very well, I wrapped one around my index finger and wiped out that gap between CPU IHS and motherboard socket and the alcohol wipe picked up a good amount of excess thermal paste. Still don't think they are worth the money vs using Q-tips for the same purpose, but they do work extremely well.

 

[E-curbi]

Just ordered an NVMe drive enclosure. Using one of the Intel Optane Memory 32GB M.2 drives as an overclocking drive, and the other I thought would repurpose as an office utility drive to take the place of usb flashdrives.

Kinda on the pricey side, but I'm a sucker for efficient heatsinking, hope the case gets nice and warm during operation - proper science in action.

A little M.2 Optane drive surgery coming this weekend.

 

[E-curbi]

There's 4800Mhz - dimm voltage 1.500v. Really pushing the 8086K's IMC, yet temps still seem AOK!


F4-4600C18D-16GTRS is the kit.

 

[E-curbi]

Here's 4900Mhz at dimm voltage of 1.600v, although it ain't pretty.

No time to highlight the screenshot in Paint, Win 10 screen was going dark - then back on - then dark - back on - extremely unstable.

Most likely since I don't know how to set up the dimm VTT chip yet. EVGA places a special chip for memory overclocking on the board and in bios it's values are +10 +20 +30 +40 etc, and I have no idea where to set the value.

Also, might need to enable Extreme Voltage Mode in bios, to move higher than 1.600v dimm voltage.

Will have to open the Z390 Dark manual and learn a little bit in order to attempt 5000Mhz. oh well, I tried.

Again, sorry for the terrible screenshot, so small and difficult to read, I had no time - any moment I thought the system would crash - although 2450Mhz (4900Mhz) is displayed there somewhere in HWiNFO 64 and CPU-Z.

It's a 4600Mhz kit, so I guess +300Mhz without knowing what I'm doing isn't so bad. The Bright Side.

Almost went for the 4800Mhz kit, but it wasn't in the Z390 Dark's QVL so I cheaped out to save $39. DO'H! Now, I know the QVL is only for XMP 2.0 and that 4800Mhz kit may have allowed a sweet 4600Mhz 17-17-17-34 Daily OC. Next time, I'll know better.

This photo shows the Optane 32GB M.2 drive (on the left) set up for overclocking and benchmarks. Extremely small capacity, yet large enough for Win10 hardware monitoring and benchmark apps, also stripped the Win 10 OS down to bare bones to minimize the number of background apps.

 

[E-curbi]

Might help if I set VCCIO and VCCSA higher than stock, lol

Something I already knew and completely forgot about it. Also, may need to set a mild OC on the CPU instead of stock settings, just like XMP 2.0 sets up an automatic mild OC on your CPU.

Will attempt again after dinner.

 

[Deleted member 178884]

Might help if I set VCCIO and VCCSA higher than stock, lol

Just be careful, particularly with SA, You generally don't want to surpass 1.35v for daily on either of those voltages, 1.25 is recomended.

 

[E-curbi]

Just be careful, particularly with SA, You generally don't want to surpass 1.35v for daily on either of those voltages, 1.25 is recomended.

Thanks bro,

For my Daily OC Profile I use 1.250v for both VCCSA and VCCIO, nice and safe.

For today's attempt, yea I might just be at the limit of the 8086Ks IMC of 4900Mhz at least on ambient air, and raising various voltages just isn't going to help. Although adding a tiny bit of VCCIO and VCCSA above stock might stabilize the 4900Mhz boot quite a bit.

Lots of what ifs: What if I completed the water loop? 720mmX60mm of surface area, 120mmX6 of cooling! I know there are 9900Ks in the wild that can boot their ddr4 kits to 5000Mhz underwater.

The SL guy has told me in the past, 4600Mhz and above is where booting and stability become extremely difficult and IMC dependent. So my IMC inside the 8086K might be a good performer, yet not the very best out there.

OR, it might be the very best 8086K IMC out there and 4900Mhz is the absolute limit for any 8086K on ambient air.

OR, I'm an extremely below average overclocker.

gf: 100 good stories make you interesting at parties.

 

[E-curbi]

Everything back to normal, reinstalled the Daily OC profile from bios, the Z390 Dark performed admirably today, no issues or strange behaviors at all - first time.

That VRM (PWM) temp of 28C. That PCH temp 33C, in the summertime. Heatsinks on the board be THICC.

 

[tabascosauz]

@E-curbi I too didn't think much of the screwdriver in 6 years of owning the U9B SE2. Only on the D9L did I start to appreciate the tool - on the split heatsink, the coil sprung screws are located perpendicular to, not along the path of airflow. Noctua's L-driver is literally the only tool on the planet that can reach the screws. Not particularly useful for anything else, but when every other tool in my electronics kit was singlehandedly made obsolete by my TEKTON everybit kit, the Noctua screwdriver stayed for that sole reason.

Also, the bit head is perfectly adapted to the SecuFirm2 spring screws.

 

[E-curbi]

@E-curbi I too didn't think much of the screwdriver in 6 years of owning the U9B SE2. Only on the D9L did I start to appreciate the tool - on the split heatsink, the coil sprung screws are located perpendicular to, not along the path of airflow. Noctua's L-driver is literally the only tool on the planet that can reach the screws. Not particularly useful for anything else, but when every other tool in my electronics kit was singlehandedly made obsolete by my TEKTON everybit kit, the Noctua screwdriver stayed for that sole reason.

Also, the bit head is perfectly adapted to the SecuFirm2 spring screws.

 

[E-curbi]

For external storage and backup, used some double-sided Gorilla tape to adhere a small 4-port Xcellon usb hub picked up from B&H Photo NYC, to the underside of the work desk, it's very James Bond . So can switch on - activate the external storage only when needed. Located the usb port switch just under the mousing surface out of sight, so an easy reach without losing track of work.

The two Sony enclosures in the photos, actually arrived as completed drives, swapped out the 1TB Seagate 2.5in HDDs for Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSDs. So the Glyph Studio 3.5in drive is the only HDD I'm using. As expected, it's far from inaudible since not solid state, yet only turn it on at the end of the workday or workweek for storing Acronis full drive images or simple category redundancy.

Here's a step-by-step with photos for swapping the 2.5inch rotating drives for solid state if anyone is interested in an inexpensive and silent external storage solution.

From the previous Batman build thread: Post number 53

Batman's CaseLabs Mercury S8 Work Computer

My 12month old 8700K binned at 5.2Ghz scoring a Cinebench ST at 5.3Ghz of 233 (screenshot below). My 8086K scored a Cinebench ST of 236 TPU high score, but that was at 5.5Ghz! What the heck is going on? It's the exact same silicon for goodness sake! :eek: Going to push the 8700K further...

www.techpowerup.com

Why not simply buy the Sony drives with SSDs already mounted inside? Sony wanted $600 each. Picked up the enclosures for $85 and the Samsung 850 EVO's back then were $90, now about half that price. Planning on updating both drives to 860 Pros Black Friday Sale - this coming November. The (4) Samsung 860 Pro drives I'm using in the Supermicro mobile rack were $140 each - now same drives only $87 at Newegg.

The Glyph Studio drive is also just a very nice enclosure, offering some noise isolation, an internal power supply, clean aesthetics and a front positioned power on/off switch, while most enclosures are the reach around to the rear to power on - front access so much easier. You can open it up and mount any size HDD drive you want. 12TB Helium? Sure, why not. Oftentimes when a company will not sell an enclosure that you like separately, you can pick up the lowest capacity available "cheap" and swap out for the capacity you really want and save a few hundred dollars as long as you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty, lol. I like simple weekend projects like opening a drive and stripping it down to bare PCB, but I realize - it's not for everyone.

 

[E-curbi]

Was hoping it would remain a tropical storm. Dammit! Must begin storm preparations.

Hate living in Florida.