My new CPU included a "free" liquid cooling system, but it is way too big for my tiny mini-ITX case.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

My new CPU included a "free" liquid cooling system, but it is way too big for my tiny mini-ITX case. I don't know why I didn't anticipate this. Now I have to either buy a new case or a new cooler, and it turns out finding a small cooler for this power hungry CPU is challenging, so I'm going with the former...it was fun having a tiny cube computer while it lasted, back to mid-tower land, like we did it in the 90s. I would have bought a bigger motherboard if I'd known...

[swelljoe@mas.to]

Also, they gave me one fewer fan lead on this new motherboard, it only has two! I figured since it was also a Gigabyte Aorus like the previous, it'd mostly be plug and play dropping it into the old case, but, nope. But, I guess I'll have a different fan situation in the new case, so I'll figure that out when it gets here. Probably need fewer case fans, anyway, since the liquid CPU cooler vents directly out of the case.

I think I like building computers, but this is all annoying.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

I'm gonna be mad as hell if the liquid cooler has loud fans and I have to figure something out with that. I always buy the ridiculous expensive Noctua fans so they'll be quiet, and very few manufacturers care about making their fans quiet.

[tokyo_0@mas.to]

@swelljoe The one time I built a computer, a component on the motherboard exploded. To this day I don't know if it was something I did wrong or a fault with that unit. I returned it for replacement, and the next one worked, but maybe I wired it differently 😅

[lordjeff@mastodon.social]

@swelljoe lol i gave all that stuff up 10 years ago hehe

[swelljoe@mas.to]

@lordjeff when I was traveling full-time, I went about ten years with only a laptop, so I gave it up for quite a while. But, I got tired of the laptops breaking (mostly keyboard) and being very difficult and expensive to work on. Finally I decided I wasn't going to keep doing that and turned the dinette in my motorhome into a permanent desk and built a desktop machine. That's the one I'm replacing. I can't buy an off the shelf pre built because they all suck, are loud, and cost too much.

[swelljoe@mas.to]

@lordjeff so, even if I don't enjoy it as much as I did as a younger nerd, I pretty much have to do it. I need the expensive extremely quiet fans and a case designed for quiet. I hate loud computers and all PC vendors make loud computers. I need to be able to install a ridiculous amount of RAM.