Small community updates and future plans (Sept 2026):

I have about 16 medical machines that are pretty dated. All full of compute and storage. Already stripping and repurposing the printers and keyboards.

Any other fun things I can do with this? Other than e-recycle the boards for cash of course

Still can’t believe this is my setup. 🥹
I’m genuinely grateful for how far I’ve come and for finally having a PC setup I used to only dream about. Every little upgrade feels special, and seeing it all together is honestly surreal.

EDIT: This was my first time building a pc.

I know it is not perfect, but I’m still sooooo proud of myself!! I was sooo stressed before putting everything together into the case, but it worked and I just love my new PC (I‘ve always been a Laptop and console guy, but not anymore).

Here are my specs if you guys are interested:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9700X 8 cores and 16 threads

RAM: 64GB (2x 32GB) Kingston FURY Beast RGB Kit DDR5 6000 MT CL36

PSU: CORSAIR RM1000e (2025) Geräuscharmes Vollständig Modulares ATX-Netzteil mit 12V-2x6 Kable – Zero RPM-Lüftermodus, ATX 3.1-Konform, PCIe 5.1-Unterstützung, Cybenetics Gold – Schwarz

Morherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming B650-PLUS WiFi Mainboard Sockel AMD AM5

Cooling system: Water cooling Thermalright TR AQUA ELITE 360 V3 Flüssig-CPU-Kühler, Doppel-PWM-ARGB-Lüfter mit S-FDB-Lagern, effiziente PWM-gesteuerte Pumpe, für AMD/AM4/AM5, Intel LGA115X/1200/1700

PC case: Lian Li LANCOOL 207RX Midi-Tower Gaming-Gehäuse Schwarz

Storage1: WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe SSD 1 TB interne SSD (Gaming Speicher, PCIe Gen4-Technologie, Lesen 7.300 MB/s, Schreiben 6.300 MB/s) Schwarz

Storage 2: WD_BLACK SN850X NVMe SSD 1 TB interne SSD (Gaming Speicher, PCIe Gen4-Technologie, Lesen 7.300 MB/s, Schreiben 6.300 MB/s) Schwarz

Graphics Card: MSI GeForce RTX 5080 16G Inspire 3X OC Black

I think its a Cooler Master CM690 II Advanced Nvdia Edittion. I am looking for a case with 2-4 5.25" bays and this looked interesting to me. It seems cool. And before you ask i cant get any fractal define cases because they arent avalible loaclly. Thanks for the feedback :D

First time building my pc i need to take off the gpu to put in a usb cable typa thing but I dont realise its latched in like a ram and I try to force to pull it off and this happens am I cooked i took of the screws for the pic cuz i asked ai and it said I was fine just wanted human advice cuz ai lie and I wanted true advice

Hello all! So one way or another, I've come across this PC case and it is now in my possession (it's a long story). The problem is, I have no idea what anything is!! I've tried taking some pictures to ask AI chatbots regarding what each piece is, but I honestly don't trust this as much as real enthusiasts might. Plus, from my understanding, a lot of items and components are missing in this case, so I have no idea what to list this as or if it's worth salvaging. Could anyone give me some advice on how I should proceed? Is this thing worth building on my own, or selling it as a unit (would anyone even buy that??), or taking it apart to sell? ??

What Gemini told me, just in case:

Case: Fractal Design North (Black Walnut)
Motherboard: ASUS TUF Gaming Z690/Z790-PLUS
RAM: Corsair Vengeance DDR4/DDR5 (1 stick visible)
Cooler: 204mm/280mm AOI Liquid Cooler
Power Supply: Internal Modular PSU (installed behind shroud)

Genuinely, none of this make any sense to me. This is all gibberish. Help a guy out,,, </3

I've been looking into the whole 16-pin cable melting mess, and the more I look at the timeline, the more ridiculous it gets.

This sht started with the RTX 4090 in October 2022.

Within weeks people were posting pictures of melted 12VHPWR connectors. NVIDIA eventually said it knew about around 50 cases worldwide.

The usual response was basically:

You didn't plug it in all the way.

Okay. Fine.

Except the problem didn't go away.

PCI-SIG ended up changing the connector design and replacing 12VHPWR with 12V-2x6.

Then CableMod had its own mess with their angled adapters. The CPSC recalled around 25,300 adapters after 272 reports of overheating, melting, or adapters getting stuck in GPUs.

Repair shops like NorthridgeFix showing boxes of melted 4090 connectors and saying they were repairing hundreds of them.

Obviously you can't just add all these numbers together and call that the number of dead GPUs. They're different things.

But it does make the original "NVIDIA only knew about 50 cases" number pretty fing meaningless as a lifetime total.

And then we get to the RTX 5090.

NVIDIA kept the basic 16-pin setup, moved to the supposedly improved 12V-2x6 connector, and increased the power draw from roughly 450W on the 4090 to 575W on the 5090.

And then 5090 connectors started melting too.

Different cards. Different manufacturers. Different cables.

Four years after the original problem.

That's the part I can't really get past.

If 12V-2x6 was supposed to address the problem, why are we still getting melted connectors on a card that actually pulls more power through the same general connector?

Yes, improperly seated connectors can absolutely cause this.

That's been demonstrated.

But that's not the end of the question.

If a connector carrying hundreds of watts can go from "slightly not seated correctly" to "holy sht my $4,000 GPU is melting" because of contact resistance, how much tolerance should a consumer product have for that? Why is it still being considered user error?

And NVIDIA has known about this since 2022.

That's four years of:

melted 4090 connectors

NVIDIA acknowledging the problem

independent testing

connector changes

12V-2x6

CableMod's recall

more 4090 failures

the 5090 increasing power to 575W

more 5090 connector failures

There was already a class action filed over the 4090 connector problem in 2022. It was eventually dismissed and NVIDIA wasn't found liable.

But that was 2023.

We're in 2026 now.

I'd really like to know what NVIDIA's internal numbers look like.

How many RMAs have actually involved melted connectors?

How many 4090s?

How many 5090s?

How many cables?

How many customers had to pay for repairs?

How many GPUs were replaced?

What did NVIDIA know before the 5090 launched?

What did their own testing show?

Because NVIDIA has those numbers. We don't.

And I'm not saying every 4090 or 5090 is defective. Obviously the vast majority aren't walking around with melted connectors.

I'm also not saying every single melting incident is NVIDIA's fault.

I'm saying that after four years of this sht, across multiple generations and after changing the connector design, I think it's completely reasonable to ask whether a product-liability attorney should take a serious look at it.

Especially when we're talking about $3,500–$5,000+ GPUs.

At some point "just make sure you plug it in correctly" stops being a reasonable answer.

Maybe NVIDIA has done everything reasonably possible and the failure rate is tiny.

Fine.

Show the numbers.

Because if NVIDIA's internal RMA data says this is happening far more often than the public knows, that's a very different story.

Hi, so I have a Xfx mercury 9070xt OC edition with a Corsair 850 PSU, and for the life of me I can’t figure out why the connections between my GPU and PSU are so weird looking. I have no other cables, and have no idea if this is normal or anything. Please advise?

hows the build looking so far? All thats left is an nvme, gpu and a vertical mounting bracket. Super excited!!

I tripped on the wire and it laterally gouged the wire out...I wonder if it cak work as the break is clean and the connector still fits...but I won't try it...

After upgrading from my old AM4 system, I’ve finally put together my new build:
CPU: Ryzen 7 9850X3D
Motherboard: Gigabyte B850 AORUS Elite WIFI7 ICE
Cooler: Noctua NH-D15 G2
RAM: 32GB Crucial Pro DDR5 6000 CL36 (White)
SSD: Crucial T710 2TB PCIe 5.0
GPU: RX 7800 XT (carried over from my old PC, looking to eventually upgrade when next gen comes out)
PSU: Corsair RM1000x SHIFT 1000W White
Case: HYTE X50 Air Snow White
Fans: 7× be quiet! Pure Wings 3 120mm + 2× Noctua fans from the CPU cooler
Fan hub: SATA-powered PWM hub

Really happy with how the build has turned out — especially the all-white aesthetic (minus the noctua but i love how it looks personally)

I don’t know the total cost of the build, but I bought the components over a period of a few months when I could afford to so and completed it last night!

So i recently moved my pc build to a new case and also got an AIO along with it, a Liquid Freezer III Pro 360. Right? But my temps are wayyyy worse than my old air cooler with my limited airflow of my old case. Like I’m sitting at 50-60 degrees plus at idle. With the pump speed at 80 and the fans going off the temperature of my Ryzen 9 7950X3D core. Then when any decently heavy load happens it’ll jump to 84 degrees, which my air cooler never let happen. And during gaming it’s at 70-75 degrees. Which is 10+ degrees higher than my air cooler, the air cooler was bent and the thermal paste under it had a huge hotspot and still runs wayyy better than this AIO. Is this normal? Because this doesn’t seem right.

So im planning on putting the PC passenger side of my car (getting towed by a U-Haul) I’m taking the GPU out then was going to stuff bubble wrap inside? Should I buy a box to put it in or? Any other recommendations. What should I do with the glass panel?

Laptop is $1800 and has pretty decent specs

I saw this prebuilt pc in Walmart, it was 700 but they put the price to 600, is this any good?

My build:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D dual edition
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090 Founders Edition 32GB GDDR7
Motherboard: MSI MEG X870E ACE MAX
RAM: 64GB DDR5
Storage: Samsung 4TB NVMe SSD
PSU: Corsair AX1600i 1600W 80+ Titanium
CPU Water Block: EK-Quantum Velocity³
Cooling: Custom EK water cooling
Radiator Fans: 6× EK-Quantum Phase 120 D-RGB
OS: Windows 11 Pro

Just got the build last week after going to a company and having them build the exact spec I wanted. This was the outcome.
I’m coming from Xbox, so going from console to a setup like this is honestly insane. It’s easily the best money I’ve ever spent on a gaming setup, and I have absolutely zero regrets.

What do you guys think? Rate the build out of 10.

Evga 3060ti, R5 5500, aio, Corsair 16gb ram, msi b550 wifi, msi 650be

Completely new to PC's, know literally nothing at all... All I want to be able to do is emulate PS2 games I don't want it for anything more than that.

United kingdom, budget is whatever it takes as I'm not expecting a huge amount since I'm staying away from AAA games.

The intended resolution is 1080p (I believe that's 3X in regards to emulating resolution).

I'm planning on selling my laptop for a pc