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Workstation bullshit: Difference between revisions
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* '''2022-07-05, 0700:''' i wake up, smoke a cigarette, check my mail, and go back to sleep. as i do every morning, i note that my condo is not full of the smell of burnt electronics. | * '''2022-07-05, 0700:''' i wake up, smoke a cigarette, check my mail, and go back to sleep. as i do every morning, i note that my condo is not full of the smell of burnt electronics. | ||
* '''2022-07-05, 1000:''' i wake up again, and smell a horrible acrid odor suggesting burning plastic. i go to find out who's been smoking crack in my condo. nope, the electric stink is coming from my machine, where the four leftmost power pins of my RTX 2070 Super have melted into the PCIe slot ([https://www.reddit.com/r/watercooling/comments/vset9i/press_f_for_respects/ press 'f' for respects]). it is immediately obvious that the card will never again multiply a matrix. the motherboard, somewhat shockingly, still posts. | * '''2022-07-05, 1000:''' i wake up again, and smell a horrible acrid odor suggesting burning plastic. i go to find out who's been smoking crack in my condo. nope, the electric stink is coming from my machine, where the four leftmost power pins of my RTX 2070 Super have melted into the PCIe slot ([https://www.reddit.com/r/watercooling/comments/vset9i/press_f_for_respects/ press 'f' for respects]). it is immediately obvious that the card will never again multiply a matrix. the motherboard, somewhat shockingly, still posts. | ||
* '''2022-07-05, 1100:''' i look into what's required to replace a motherboard's PCIe slot, shake my head, and order another Gigabyte Aorus Master TRX40 off Ebay. aftermarket TRX40 motherboards are not plentiful. i pay about $450, similar to the cost paid back in 2020-03 when i originally bought it. i order an EVGA Copper Hydro 2080ti for about $750 and, marveling at freefalling GPU prices, pick up another 2070 Super for $300. i sell the scorched 2070 Super for $40, unsure why anyone would pay even that. i throw an air-cooled Radeon 6650 XT into another slot, forcing me to pull my Hyperx4 NVMe card, meaning my two SSD-based RAID1s are running in degraded mode. | * '''2022-07-05, 1100:''' i look into what's required to replace a motherboard's PCIe slot, shake my head, and order another Gigabyte Aorus Master TRX40 off Ebay. aftermarket TRX40 motherboards are not plentiful. i pay about $450, similar to the cost paid back in 2020-03 when i originally bought it. i order an EVGA Copper Hydro 2080ti for about $750 and, marveling at freefalling GPU prices, pick up another 2070 Super for $300. i sell the scorched 2070 Super as parts for $40, unsure why anyone would pay even that. i throw an air-cooled Radeon 6650 XT into another slot, forcing me to pull my Hyperx4 NVMe card, meaning my two SSD-based RAID1s are running in degraded mode. | ||
* '''2022-07-05, 1130:''' GPU prices continue to fall like Tom Petty falling off a stage while signing "free fallin'". the 2080ti i paid $750 for is now like $600. goddamnit. i see that the Quantum Momentum TRX40 monoblock i use is on extreme clearance at EKWB, and pick up a second one for $70. my old one had some organic crud in the fins, and who knows, maybe i'll end up using it with the old Aorus Master (minus one slot). and anyway, just $70! | * '''2022-07-05, 1130:''' GPU prices continue to fall like Tom Petty falling off a stage while signing "free fallin'". the 2080ti i paid $750 for is now like $600. goddamnit. i see that the Quantum Momentum TRX40 monoblock i use is on extreme clearance at EKWB, and pick up a second one for $70. my old one had some organic crud in the fins, and who knows, maybe i'll end up using it with the old Aorus Master (minus one slot). and anyway, just $70! nothing's that cheap in watercooling! | ||
* '''2022-07-06:''' i fix the DRGB cable on my old Quantum Momentum, which had been decapitated a few months back (as in the 3-pin DRGB plug was severed from the cable, still not sure how this happened). doing so required identifying the three stranded wire groups within the cable, and then soldering on a new [https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/molex/0022284033/313893 Molex 0022284033], $0.27 at Digikey. first, i use the ohmmeter functionality of my Amprobe multimeter to verify that no wires were crossed in the plug housing. they weren't, which meant there were only two possible mappings of cable internals. ARGB 3-pin is 5V, Data, no pin, Ground, so the three bunches of stranded wire were either | * '''2022-07-06:''' i fix the DRGB cable on my old Quantum Momentum, which had been decapitated a few months back (as in the 3-pin DRGB plug was severed from the cable, still not sure how this happened). doing so required identifying the three stranded wire groups within the cable, and then soldering on a new [https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/molex/0022284033/313893 Molex 0022284033], $0.27 at Digikey. first, i use the ohmmeter functionality of my Amprobe multimeter to verify that no wires were crossed in the plug housing. they weren't, which meant there were only two possible mappings of cable internals. ARGB 3-pin is 5V, Data, no pin, Ground, so the three bunches of stranded wire were either | ||
** 5V, Data, Ground, or | ** 5V, Data, Ground, or | ||
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* '''2022-07-15:''' i receive my block from Optimus less than 30 hours after ordering it. my IceGiant is picked up and brought down by a friend. has the 3970X been sitting out bare in my living room for two days with thermal paste all over it? it sure has! | * '''2022-07-15:''' i receive my block from Optimus less than 30 hours after ordering it. my IceGiant is picked up and brought down by a friend. has the 3970X been sitting out bare in my living room for two days with thermal paste all over it? it sure has! | ||
* '''2022-07-16:''' i rebuild my new motherboard, restoring the factory heatpipery. i upgrade the thermal pads along the way, using top-of-the-line Gelid pads. i use about 20% of the screws i removed. the heatpipe and heatsinks are hanging on by a prayer. i install the Optimus block. i install the 2080ti, wire everything up, and build a new core for my custom loop. i run a leak test and immediately eject over a liter of coolant onto my floor, coming from what looks like three places. one definite leak is at the input of the Optimus, and liberally drenches my motherboard and the GPU. do remember that this all started with a leak into a motherboard slot. fuckin' fantastic. | * '''2022-07-16:''' i rebuild my new motherboard, restoring the factory heatpipery. i upgrade the thermal pads along the way, using top-of-the-line Gelid pads. i use about 20% of the screws i removed. the heatpipe and heatsinks are hanging on by a prayer. i install the Optimus block. i install the 2080ti, wire everything up, and build a new core for my custom loop. i run a leak test and immediately eject over a liter of coolant onto my floor, coming from what looks like three places. one definite leak is at the input of the Optimus, and liberally drenches my motherboard and the GPU. do remember that this all started with a leak into a motherboard slot. fuckin' fantastic. | ||
* '''2022-07-17:''' i spend over 16 hours detaching the PCIe slot from the old Aorus Master, and soldering a new one ($1.33 from Mouser). it is an incredible struggle. by the end my asshole is in tatters, and it sings a lamentation of worlds that only were, worlds where i have not soldered and wicked tiny holes for two thirds of a day. if you want to try this at home, watch [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bZFmOFfdDQ this video], and change your mind. i eventually get the thing to POST with my Radeon, and oh readers i felt myself one of the world's greatest pimps when i did. as soon as the <tt>amdgpu</tt> kernel module was loaded, video failed and could not be recovered. sshing into the machine saw all <tt>amdgpu</tt> <tt>ioctl(2)s</tt> failing and sepsis in my kernel logs. i resolved to still consider this a success, and sold the motherboard for $80 on ebay. who's buying this shit? as a followup, i repair a D5 pump using an NPN transistor, pretty entirely due to [https://kampidh.blogspot.com/2019/11/down-rabbit-hole-d5-pwm-pump-flaw-and.html this superb writeup]. | * '''2022-07-17:''' i spend over 16 hours detaching the PCIe slot from the old Aorus Master, and soldering a new one ($1.33 from Mouser). it is an incredible struggle. by the end my asshole is in tatters, and it sings a lamentation of worlds that only were, worlds where i have not soldered and wicked tiny holes for two thirds of a day. if you want to try this at home, watch [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bZFmOFfdDQ this video], and change your mind. i eventually get the thing to POST with my Radeon, and oh readers i felt myself one of the world's greatest pimps when i did. as soon as the <tt>amdgpu</tt> kernel module was loaded, video failed and could not be recovered. sshing into the machine saw all <tt>amdgpu</tt> <tt>ioctl(2)s</tt> failing and sepsis in my kernel logs. i resolved to still consider this a success, and sold the motherboard as parts for $80 on ebay. who's buying this shit? as a followup, i repair a D5 pump using an NPN transistor, pretty entirely due to [https://kampidh.blogspot.com/2019/11/down-rabbit-hole-d5-pwm-pump-flaw-and.html this superb writeup]. | ||
* '''2022-07-18:''' having run fans on the machine for 24 hours, i fix the leaks, take a breath, and...boot a working machine. | * '''2022-07-18:''' having run fans on the machine for 24 hours, i fix the leaks, take a breath, and...boot a working machine. | ||
