PC Build Advice/Review II: 3090 or Bust.

[Krandor]

I've seen people even with an ATX 3.0 psu getting the melted connectors.

[Melena]

Oh damn. I missed that. Was sick all weekend so haven't been following much. Between the 4090 fires though, and Samsung releasing an update that bricks your Watch 4 if you power it down or it runs out of battery, technology is scaring me right now lol.

[synistar]

The power connector on the EVGA prototype is facing the front/anterior side of a case as opposed to all other models having the connector pressed up against the side of the case. So maybe EVGA's version would be less likely to have cables catch fire if cables don't require extreme bending right off the card. It's also 2 inches shorter than the Strix and it's about the size of the Founders.

[Bweigelt]

So it should be noted that these aren't starting fires, the plastic is literally melting from the outside in, it's just getting too hot for the plastic, it's not going to actually ignite anything. Also this seems like a small defect issue that only effects certain cards and even then a very small number of them. No FE cards have had the melting issue and all the issues have happened extremely quickly. One even happened the day the person that reported it started using the card. I think it's probably an issue with the female outlets that are actually on the cards not letting the connectors seat properly which is why we are seeing different cables having the issue and why no one has been able to reproduce the issue at any point.

[Prothescar]

yeah seeing all the hysteria on reddit about 4090s burning down houses when there hasn't been a single case of an active fire being started by the connector yet has been funny. still bullshit that a $1600~$2000 GPU has the risk of being bricked because of the connector that they chose to use, but yeah. luckily ordered a cablemod 12+4 well ahead of release since I use their stuff in my builds anyway so haven't had to worry much about it, but if I was using a standard adapter I'd be worried every day

[Bardicrune]

GN's actual testing and recreation of a melting connector.

[Prothescar]

looks like that crazy 45" flexible corsair ultrawide monitor will be coming soonish. theyre preparing a big marketing push

[Jamison]

Multi-part question regarding setting up a home VPN.

Looking for suggestions on a mid- or high-end router that has VPN server support (presumably OpenVPN or WireGuard?). My anecdotal information is that TP Link is decently well known for working well with VPN but otherwise isn't considered particularly high end. I've got Fios and do a fair amount of both internet and internal traffic. Any recommendations there is appreciated. I start getting charged monthly for the Verizon router (which has otherwise been rather good) in January.

The other option would be to repurpose an older PC -- if that's possible -- into some sort of server that hosts a VPN. That's something I haven't researched there so any suggestions (or warnings) on that path are also appreciated.

[Bardicrune]

If you have an old PC you can repurpose, you could always just turn it into a router/vpn/firewall using pfSense.

[Boyiee]

Speaking of VPN's, my college wifi won't let me do anything fun - will a VPN fix that? What's the cheapest option to enable me to play games on break?

[Obiron]

Multi-part question regarding setting up a home VPN.

Looking for suggestions on a mid- or high-end router that has VPN server support (presumably OpenVPN or WireGuard?). My anecdotal information is that TP Link is decently well known for working well with VPN but otherwise isn't considered particularly high end. I've got Fios and do a fair amount of both internet and internal traffic. Any recommendations there is appreciated. I start getting charged monthly for the Verizon router (which has otherwise been rather good) in January.

The other option would be to repurpose an older PC -- if that's possible -- into some sort of server that hosts a VPN. That's something I haven't researched there so any suggestions (or warnings) on that path are also appreciated.

I bought this TP-Link AX11000 from Costco when it was on sale. I've also seen it go on sale at Amazon, but Costco was cheaper at the time. I don't use the VPN functionality, so I can't say how it is, but I'm in the UI now and I see that it uses OpenVPN so it's there. So far it's worked out really well for me. I had CenturyLink fiber, and now Google fiber, and no issues with the speeds. It doesn't support Google's multi-gig though. It does have a 2GB WAN port, but from what I've read you can't plug Google fiber into that, if that's something that would matter to you.

[Yabby]

Most of the Asus ones have this feature as well.

[Krandor]

Ok weird question I haven't been able to find via googling or hunting storefronts.

Does the device exist to allow you to switch between USB devices connected to a single computer? i.e. output to the computer, input A has two usb devices, input B has two different usb devices. In this case it would allow an arcade setup I'm building to switch between the built in dual arcade sticks and two wired controllers in case people want to use those over the sticks.

I could wire this up myself but I'd rather not spend the time soldering it if it already exists.

Edit : actually you know what, I think a KVM switch I already have will work if I use a usb splitter on the separate outputs and the Pi connected to the input side.

[Jamison]

On a quick search the best thing I could find is a USB hub with individual power switches, and I'd think that could be wired up to look fairly nice (more so than just something like a USB extender where you swap the cables as needed, certainly).

https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-4-Por.../dp/B00JX1ZS5O

Maybe something like that works for you.

[Krandor]

That actually might work better than what I was thinking, would let people mix and match their preferred control method.

Thanks

[Prothescar]

Can second those powered USB hubs. Not as elegant a solution as you may have wanted but it works

[Melena]

Review embargo for the 7900 RX and XTX is lifted.

[Prothescar]

The 7900XT manages to look pretty awful in terms of price : performance even though nvidia basically handed AMD the price : performance trophy on a silver platter. 7900XTX is the one to buy if you want the best that Team Red is offering. The sub-80/90 SKUs this gen are going to be horrible for both sides.

[Weltall]

Yeah, that lineup is an instant pass lol.

[Celeras]

What are ya'll looking at, exactly?