Donk Quixote

If you can make good use of the AV1 encoder, and if you don't mind the bugginess of a first gen product, and your system has resizable bar support then I say why not. Just keep your 1080 as a backup in case you have older games at the Ark can't handle. If it's just FPS that you're chasing a better upgrade would be something from AMD. IMHO that's a lot of ifs.

You mentioned you downloaded and installed all the software and drivers, but did you update the BIOS?

This is from an Amazon review: The one thing I say is an absolute *must-do" in my opinion is go to the Asus website after you're all booted and connected to the internet and download all of the latest drivers and bios software. After my first boot I was not able to get my system to produce any sound at all or connect any bluetooth devices (like my wireless earbuds and wireless keyboard). A quick check of the BIOS version showed I had version 1005 and the latest version (1405) had just been released a few days prior. So I updated the BIOS via the ex bios update tool that is in the BIOS software itself (the mobo also has a bios flash USB header but from what I understand using this improperly can lead to a completely crashed system). After updating to the newest version and downloading a the driver updates for that version from Asus, everything is now working at 100%.

As far as how you can tell how much power your laptop is pulling you'll have to get a watt meter. These Jackery type devices have one built in. Your Cyberpower might have one too, but not sure. I found out that normally when I'm only doing web browsing type stuff my laptop pulls 20W. But if I turn the brightness down to 50% it pulls 10W. So on my laptop I can make my battery last signifiganly lower by lowering the brightness to the lowest tolerable level. The only way to know how signifigant screen brightness settings would affect your laptop's power usage is to get a watt meter. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=watt+meter&crid=1K82ZPZE5GF9I&sprefix=watt+meter%2Caps%2C376&ref=nb_sb_noss_1

Looking at the reviews it looks like the R150 is not a pure sine wave AC outlet and it wouldn't work on charging their laptops. The R300 is pure sine wave so I would recommend that one. Your Cyberpower UPS didn't use pure sine wave so because it worked for years perhaps your laptop is not sensitive to the wave type, but to be on the same side I would still recommend the R300. If your laptop charger plugs into the same outlets as the US (which I think might be the same as all of North America) then it will 100% work. They are essentially the same as the outlets in a house (except the max wattage you can pull is a lot lower, but for a laptop they work fine). If you live in a country that doesn't use North American outlets then you would have to search for one made for your country. I have no idea where to buy anything outside the US, be it online or local.

Just saw they make a GOLABS R150 rated at 204Wh, which would power my laptop for 8 hours plus my laptop battery. It only costs $140. That or the R300 if you want overkill is your solution. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08NSFHDSF/ref=emc_b_5_t?th=1 edit: there's a $20 coupon, so it's $120. Dang I might have to get one now.

You could use a USB type A (to plug into the USB ports on the powerbank) to USB type C cable but it would only pull 10W max. You would need that exact $40 from dell to get your old power banks to work and charge your laptop at full capacity. The pw7018lc power bank is rated at 65Wh and would work, but the cheapo Jackery I linked earlier is rated at 299Wh (4.6x the pw7018lc). Plus I just looked and there is a $48 coupon which brings the price down below $200. My laptop is pulling about 20W right now, which would mean the cheapo Jackery (actual name is the GOLABS R300) would power my laptop 12 hours plus whatever my laptop battery gets me. The pw7018lc would power it 2.6 hours plug whatever is in my laptop battery. The GOLABS R300 is the clear winner here. https://www.amazon.com/GOLABS-Portable-Station-Generator-Emergency/dp/B08P5SFV4D?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1

On Cyberpower's webisite they go for about $115. On Amazon they are about $50. I'm sure they one's sold by Cyberpower are better (meaning will probably last longer) but most reviews seems positive and personally I would roll the dice with the Amazon, there are other listings but here's the one I found: https://www.amazon.com/12V-Battery-Replacement-Cyberpower-CP1500AVRLCD/dp/B07L9HC6FX The following video on YouTube makes it look really easy. Have a watch and if it looks like something you could do I would say go for it. The big thing is to make sure you are hooking up the wires to the correct spot. I have no idea what a repair shop would charge for something like that. A car battery cannot handled being drained very many times, less than a dozen. That first video a posted in the first reply goes deep into the science and chemistry. As far as were you would buy a deep cycle batter I have a store near me that only sells batteries. If you can't find someting online then see if you have a local store you can ask. But to be honest with how you're asking questions I wouldn't go that route. It's a little more complex than switching out UPS batteries. The Jackery would be another route, it's really simple just leave it plugged in then turn it on and plug the laptop in when the power goes out. If my mom or aunt were in a similair situation I know that switcing UPS batteries is too complex for them so I would tell them to get a Jackery. The only problem with that is the cheapest Jackery will eat up your entire budget. Here's a no name brand on Amazon of the same type of device for a little cheaper https://www.amazon.com/GOLABS-Portable-Station-Generator-Emergency/dp/B08P5SFV4D?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1

"Could I buy a replacement battery for it or and how much does it cost and would it be easy/hard to install it yourself?" - Yes, and probably the ideal solution. Looks about $50-$100 and YouTube videos make it look like a simple process. "Someone had suggested I could buy a car battery" - You dont want a car battery. The YouTuber Technology Connections made a vidoe addressing a similair scenerio (this was to back up normal computer and monitors so his mom can work from home on inconsistent power. You'll want to use a deep cycle battery not a car (autos are designed for cranking amps, deep cycle are designed for cycling on and off). The idea is to use a UPS like the Cyberpower, then get and keep charged a deep cylcle battery and inverter. When the power goes out plug the UPS into the inverter. This is overkill and the combined battery capacity will probably power you laptop for at least 2 days. The video is still worth a watch

Well the only other thing I can think of is something that I have to do every time I add a BT dongle. Open Device Manager, under "Sound, video, and game controllers" right click your device and choose 'update driver' then choose "browse my computer for driver software' then 'let me pick...". Hopefully it will give you options. That is the only way I can change the driver for my BT dongle. I saw you wrote there wasn't anything under 'audio' of Device Manager, but it wouldn't be there it would be under the controllers.

Since it's audio that suggests it might be something with the headset. Try things without it plugged in, and just for thoroughness do the same with the other components (one at a time).

The wire connecting the front headphone jack is more susceptible to electronic interference and is usually worse. However one time I had a motherboard that fancy itself as a gaming board and the front headphone jack was connected to some kind of different circuitry than the motherboard connected jack. The front didn't sound better in terms of clarity and whatnot but it was able to better power my headphones at the time. Basically if you hear a difference you're losing sound quality, if not then you're not.

Have you tried to get to it in Windows sound settings? On mine I got to "Playback Devices"-> Properties (of the device you're using, probably says Realtek something something)->Enhancements tab, then I check the "Enable Room Correction" box then hit the "More Settings" and it lets me change the volume and distance of individual channels. You can change the speaker size by right clicking the device and choosing "Configure Speakers", but only do that to make sure everything is set to full range speakers since the Logitech systems will take care of the that.

FWIW every once in awhile the JBL LSR305 go on sale for $100 each $200/pair. I'd would wait till the price drops again and grab those. Otherwise the first suggestion with the Miccas and the amp is solid.

It's kind of a pain in the butt to get behind my computer so it took a while, but eventually I did try this. No bueno. I did find a solution by going into the advance settings of Chrome and unchecking the "use hardware acceleration when available" box, but the playback was choppy. I then tried Microsoft Edge and 4k YouTube wouldn't even work. Then I tried FireFox and no problems so far, so I guess the solution is switch to Firefox. What super weird is I was able to get 4K @60hz with HDMI. That shouldn't be possible with the HDMI 1.4 on my 270x. Happy surprise.