ProfessorTomoe

The world may never know.

Hey, think of it as Free Cooling for your Godzilla box's CPU.

Well, the Black Friday negotiation turned out to be a "week before" near knock-down-drag-out argument. I did manage to get one item out of the deal, though - a new SSD. Decided to go with a Kingston KC3000 2TB instead of the previously picked Samsung, however. The Kingston is a real speed demon in testing, which is what I need. The reason I couldn't wait until Black Friday had to do with vanishing inventory. The place that is selling them at a decent price had their inventory shrink from over 250 to just barely over 100 in less than 24 hours. They'd never make it to Black Friday, and with this drive being brand new, the likelihood of the drive being restocked anytime soon at the discounted price is pretty close to zero. Hence the emergency purchase. So, here's my last PCPartPicker parts list going into the real hiatus: PCPartPicker Part List CPU: Intel Core i7-12700KF 3.6 GHz 12-Core Processor (Purchased For $465.46) CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 chromax.black 82.52 CFM CPU Cooler ($119.02 @ Amazon) Thermal Compound: ARCTIC MX-5 Incl. Spatula 4 g Thermal Paste (Purchased For $7.58) Motherboard: MSI MPG Z690 EDGE WIFI DDR4 ATX LGA1700 Motherboard ($346.39) (not purchased yet) Memory: G.Skill Flare X 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR4-3200 CL14 Memory (Purchased For $411.34) Video Card: EVGA GeForce RTX 2060 6 GB SC ULTRA GAMING Video Card (Purchased For $585.63) Case: Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower Case (Purchased For $135.30) Power Supply: SeaSonic FOCUS 750 W 80+ Platinum Certified Fully Modular ATX Power Supply (Purchased For $113.65) Case Fan: Noctua A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan ($26.95 @ Amazon) Case Fan #2: Noctua A14 PWM chromax.black.swap 82.52 CFM 140 mm Fan ($26.95 @ Amazon) Keyboard: Microsoft LXM-00001 Wired Ergonomic Keyboard (Purchased For $49.62) Custom: Noctua NM-i17xx-MP83 chromax.Black, Mounting Kit CPU Coolers on Intel's LGA1700 Platform (Black) ($9.63 @ Amazon) Custom (Storage): Kingston KC3000 PCIe 4.0 NVMe M.2 SSD - High-performance storage for desktop and laptop PCs -SKC3000S/2048G (Purchased For $426.57) Total: $2724.09 Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available Generated by PCPartPicker 2021-11-20 02:51 EST-0500 I'm down to a mere $528.94 of unpurchased parts, and it's going to have to stay that way until either after January 1st or until I come up with some income of my own. Know anyone who needs a few minutes of music commissioned?

That will do the trick.

I've made the final purchase from my money before the hiatus - the G.SKILL Flare X 64GB RAM. Quite pricey at $411.34 including tax, but very fast at CAS level 14 and 14-14-14 timings. It's advertised as Made for AMD Ryzen systems, but the G.Skill website says the RAM works with Intel-based motherboards as well, so no worries there. I think I may have negotiated a Black Friday purchase out of Mrs. Prof. We shall see. It would be a shame if I didn't get to save at least a little bit of money,.

Godzilla is Dead! Long live Godzilla! (pours out a 40oz)

If it weren't for Mrs. Prof's retirement income, I would have your finances. I'm on Social Security Disability myself, and I don't get to keep a dime of it for my "personal" coffers - it all goes into the household account. And as for "next year," it's a painful wait when my serious music writing is brought to a screeching halt because the Music Computer can no longer handle virtual instruments properly. That's why I was gunning for the build now, instead of waiting for a break in the chip shortage. Farfnargl.

Correction: the build has not completely come to a screeching halt, not just yet. I am restricted to purchasing items using funds from my own personal bank accounts. I am not allowed to touch the household account at this time. This does not let me complete the build by any means. The restriction will not come off until after the new year. Still not a happy camper.

And without any warning, household finances have forced a screeching halt to the computer build until at least after the new year. I am supremely not happy with this situation and will stop typing before I type something that will get me in trouble.

Test image of the build inventory so far:

I snapped that up like a Brit snaps up Marmite on a digestive. Is that close to being right? Since it was plucked, I doubt it did much running at all.

Bingo. There's also the "Cookie" virus from the early MS-DOS days, which would do the same thing.

Death before dishonor, but neither before breakfast.

Just got a sweet deal via a price alert from PCPartPicker on my Seasonic FOCUS PX-750, 750W 80+ Platinum Full-Modular power supply. Regular price was $149.99 - Newegg knocked it down to $109.99 with free shipping, plus added a $15 mail-in rebate card. I snapped that up like a crocodile snaps up a plucked chicken. $1357.24 down - only approximately $1186.15 to go!

Added another item to the shopping list: a Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard (LXM-00001), Black. This is a replacement for my old 1st generation Microsoft Natural Keyboard, also black, with a PS/2 connector. None of the high-end Z690 motherboards have PS/2 ports anymore, so I need to bid my old keyboard adieu and finally move into the modern era. I have hedged my bet, however - I've ordered a USB-to-PS/2 adapter, but I don't have high hopes for it working. It was only just under $9.00, so there's no skin off my nose if it doesn't work. I've gone ahead and ordered the LXM-00001 keyboard at a price of $49.62, including tax, from Amazon, just in case. I considered going with fancier keyboards, but I decided to stick with something at least moderately familiar. I've been using that keyboard since the late 90s. I don't want to ditch a good thing by going too weird.

??? Am I missing something???

Not quite.

At one time, in the 60s and 70s, a certain hirsute newscaster could deal with them quite successfully. Unfortunately, we no longer have a Hairy Reasoner.

<ancient reference>Give me a cookie.</ancient reference>

I have "side-loaded" a product onto the build - a fresh supply of Stabilant 22A. If you're not familiar with the product and you do any system building at all, I highly recommend you click on the link. Stabilant 22A is a NATO-spec contact enhancer that I've used since the 90s. It creates a bond similar to a weld without welding, while being a sort of contact inhibitor in between contact points where no contact material exists, preventing cross-contacts. I've never lost a circuit board or CPU due to faulty contacts where I've used Stabilant 22A, at least not that I'm aware. It's good stuff. I'm going to give my son my existing supply for helping me put together my system, and I'm going to use my new supply in the new build.

My CPU has arrived. The Intel Core i7-12700KF is here. It's in a very small box for something that cost almost $450 before tax. Remarkably small.

https://www.egscomics.com/comic/balance-081 Whoa. Whoa indeed.

To reopen the discussion, I got a message from the eBay seller of the video card. They were apologizing for being a bit too late on shipping the card. Seeing as how they're only located in Houston (with me in the Dallas area), I'm not going to sweat it much, nor complain, nor knock them down a star. C'est la guerre. On the other side of the eBay coin, I'm guaranteed to plop at least $102.50 into my computer build coffers come Monday when some excess laptop RAM I have on hand sells. That'll help pay for the rest of the balance on the video card. The $500 I brought in yesterday will pay for the remainder.

Quite all right. Quite all right as well. We were at least discussing something tangentially related - eBay. It strayed a tad, but not too far. We now return you to your regularly scheduled mayhem. Play ball!

I would kindly ask that we not hijack this thread for purposes other than the stated subject. I am not a moderator, but I did start the thread, and it is primarily (or at least tangentially) about something I'm doing. Thank you very much.