CoolaxGaming

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

OK, so it was a bit since I read the Extreme's datasheet, so I did misremember a bit of it. It does support x8/x8 mode, but it also has it where if you populate a particular M.2 slot, your GPU is limited to 8x and the 2nd PCIe slot is disabled. For your use case with the SSD, the Formula would work out better since it does have a PCIe slot driven entirely off the chipset. 
Unless you have a genuine need for the capacity, you'd be better off getting a faster kit of DDR5 than trying to run 128GB of slow DDR5 (5200MHz in most benchmarks isn't actually much faster than 3200MHz CL16 because of how loose the timings are on DDR5). You can return your kits and get a kit of DDR5 6200MHz for about the same price as the 128GB and end up with much better performance overall. 
 
And yes, it would take a while to POST. I know Jayz2Cents ended up doing a video with uncut post times, and it was over a minute to POST with DDR5 in 4 DIMM configurations. The memory controller on Alder Lake for DDR5 is definitely first gen, and these are first gen issues. 
 
It does not. Granted, I don't really care about TPM, it's only just is to say if it recognizes a boot device and store encryption keys for Bitlocker. If you don't use Bitlocker like 95% of desktop users (since robbers aren't exactly gonna try to steal your 50LB water cooled gaming rig) then it actually doesn't make a difference whether it's enabled or disabled. If your system is in an area where it's likely to be tampered with like a Hospital, yeah use a TPM, but for a home desktop I'd prefer to have it off since it just gets in the way. 
 
The Apex is a more overclocking focused motherboard, but since it has 1DPC topology it will clock memory much higher more stably (6200MHz is about the upper limit of any of the 4 DIMM boards, yet people get pretty regularly 6600MHz+ on the 2DIMM boards fully stable). It's to the point that because of how important fast RAM is to performance nowadays, if I were building a DDR5 system the only boards I'd consider are the 2 DIMM boards like the Apex, Unify-X, Tachyon, Aqua OC, Z690 Dark, and a couple of the ITX boards (the ITX boards to a less extent since a POST code is basically necessary for DDR5).

ha! love this example, I was just about to mention this.
 
on a serious note, @richbtheres literally many other ways that your stuff can die, it reminds me of someone who would always hold stuff for pickups at post office because they said trucks could damage them. at the end of the day theres a lot of precautions you can take, hows your rooms humidity? how clean is the power, does it effect your stuff? usually the answer is if you were in a situation where it mattered, you probably would already be aware of it and would take that precaution already. the reason linus doesent mention it in every video (i used to watch a couple years ago and from what i saw he would use like some mat or smth 50% of the time, and hes made a video on the topic itself), is that static electricity isint specific to building your pc, chances are youd already know if you were in an enviornment that is extremely charged and has no grounding.

Do you have a car? if you do why are you driving it?
You know that you have a change of crashing it and dying???
why are you going outside your house? You know that there can be a stranger with a gun waiting for you to come outside and he would shoot you??

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast

... I think this thread is gonna get derailed real fast