TophatFire

Hey, thanks for this! Sorry I missed the notification, and please pardon my delayed response! I appreciate the advice, and wound up going with a new H100i CPU cooling solution in a top-mount configuration instead of the H115i in front, which gave my new GPU the legroom it needed. Plain and simple reason for this decision was just that my local MicroCenter had a H100i available that day, but no quality air cooling solutions or alternative cases worth bothering with. So... I'm grateful for the well thought-out an humorous bullet points, but this decision was made by available inventory, because 2021. Hey, at least I get a 3060 tho. For the benefit of the archives: I would tend to recommend against cutting the mesh grate of the front bezel of the Fractal Design Meshify C as shown in the Bitwit vid. The entire ostensible purpose of Kyle's mesh-clipping mod was to allow fans to be mounted forward on the outside of case rails. But in fact, I doubt the system Kyle built was practically deployable as shown in the video, and the footage is misleading. The case wasn't really intended for this; without the plastic mesh frame you inevitably wind up having the foam filter get sucked into the fans once you've clipped the front bezel in. This mod is impractical unless you delete the foam front filter, in which case you wind up with basically no front filtration and a case full of dust. Not recommended except for hot rod configurations when you don't care and already plan to be spending a lot of maintenance time removing dust from the system interior anyway. Plus your case warranty is voided, sad faces in general. Don't do this; think harder first. Now that I've relocated the smaller H100i rad to the top and upgraded the front fans to Noctua 140mm mounted INTERNALLY on the frame rails, I'm planning on spending some time next weekend stringing a lattice of bailing wire inside the front bezel to reconstruct the mesh I deleted, just to restore proper filtration so I can call this job done. Also, anybody know if I can just order a replacement front bezel assembly for a Fractal Meshify C? Didn't see this on their website. Asking for a friend.

It turns out this is indeed completely free, at least if you already own a pair of side snips. It took some patience, but I managed to get the mesh framing snipped out pretty well. However, we overlooked an important dimension: the Deepcool Captain 240 Pro cooling solution Kyle used in the referenced video is a 240mm solution, with 120mm fans; however, my Corsair H115i is a 280mm solution, with 140mm fans. Even with the mesh clipped out of the front bezel, the 140mm fans won't clear the plastic side frame of the bezel, which is now just flopping around in front of the case since I can't attach it any more. Obviously, this is no long term solution since there's literally no dust filtration whatsoever now from the front radiator intakes, not to mention that it looks janky as hell. So, I have to either try to figure out how to get in there with a hacksaw or rotary tool and hope I can remove enough material from the bezel to make it fit but hopefully still have enough stiffness to clip/remove it reliably without breaking, find another CPU cooling solution, find another case, or some combination of the three of these. How's your weekend going? This card itself though is damned nice, and deadly quiet especially compared to the 2-fan EVGA 1660 Super SC I took out of it to upgrade. Even with its super cute hardware selector switch set to Performance mode vs. Quiet I really can't hear it. I've had kind of a love/hate relationship with ASUS over the years after some bad support experiences, but I think I may have have become a convert to TUF gaming products. If a 3060 suits your needs, I'd highly recommend it. Just make sure it fits.

Apparently it's possible but might require some modification to the case front.

Hmm. This... is intriguing. Apparently that 1080ti he used is 299.72mm, which is awfully close to the 301mm I need... Thanks for the suggestion!

I was lucky enough to wait in line and get my hands on a 3060 today, but unfortunately stock was of course limited and I had to pick a model sight unseen and didn't think to check dimensions until I got home. Asking for a little help checking my math so I don't have to break the box open for a test fit. I tried eyeballing it with a ruler already, but it was just too close to tell conclusively since I wasn't exactly sure where to measure from. For obvious reasons, taking it back to the store for exchange is not going to be feasible. Case: Fractal Design Meshify C (spec max GPU size 315mm with front fan mounted) Cooler: Corsair H115i (front mounted, 26mm radiator plus 25mm fan thickness) Card: Asus TUF-RTX3060-12G-GAMING (301mm) Unfortunately, this radiator only fits in the front of this case so moving it isn't an option. Am I right in thinking that adding 301mm length of the card and the 26mm of radiator is going to put it at 327mm, or just 12mm too big for that 315mm max allowance? Shitty pic in case it helps:

Ah crap. Thanks. Yeah, I knew the spec just said 2 but when I saw that in the guide I got optimistic and thought I had room for a 3rd.

I fell like this is probably something obvious that I'm just overlooking, but I can't figure it out so I figure it's time to ask for help. Background: bought Meshify C for my new personal build, nominally supposedly supports up to 3 3.5" drives. Got my 2 RAID 1 drives installed in the included cage with no problem, though mildly annoyed that it was not a tool-less installation but whatever. But although the case supposedly can take 3 drives, I can't FOR THE LIFE OF ME figure out where the mounting point for that 3rd drive is supposed to be. Not to mention that the hardware for doing such doesn't seem to actually be included (only 8 screws provided), but I could probably get away just mounting some with 2 screws each or something. Relevant snip of Fractal's case user guide attached, but I can't tell if that's the front, top, or back of the case, or else just the top of the PSU enclosure. Can't get enough context clues from the diagram to orient myself. Anyone familiar enough with this case to help clue me in?

Assuming your BIOS is up to date and you've installed all the updates from ASUS' support page, you could try to use something like SDI to update the drivers for the USB controllers and such on the motherboard. In my experience ASUS is especially bad about pushing driver updates to products after about a year or so. You might also try a different USB cable. Some older/cheaper ones don't play well with USB 3 and can make weird stuff happen. It's also possible that Dell's implementation of USB was flawed but just wasn't apparent until this point, and there might be nothing you can do about it.

Don't think there's one pair of headphones that fits all of those requirements, at least not for $250. Sennheiser PXC 550 is probably the closest. No Dolby Surround, but bonus: it still has a mic. Surround Sound in headphones isn't usually worth it. It's either simulated with software tricks or else they have to use multiple smaller drivers for each ear, leading to a lot of compromises in overall audio quality so it's mostly only found on gaming headsets. Sennheiser has gaming-focused headsets with 7.1, but none are wireless.

Either one really. The newer version is better, but still underperforms relative to comparable offerings at its price point. If you prefer the V-moda styling or such then fine, but objectively speaking they're kind of non-great from an audio standpoint when there are offerings from other makes at or below your stated budget.

The V-moda Crossfade are somewhat hilariously bass-heavy to compete with Beats; unless that's what you really want they're best avoided. They sound like lumpy ass and you can do a lot better at that price point. Both of these below are closed-back, over-ear, noise-cancelling wireless designs but have wired connection as an option, and both can take calls just fine. And both are DRASTICALLY better quality than V-Moda which is essentially designed to compete with the Beats Audio teeny-bopper market that values fashion over quality and thinks bass=quality. Sennheiser HD-1 (formerly known as the Momentum Wireless 2.0 before a trademark dispute) are still a little bass-emphasized, sound much better in general and can be had at ~$350 new or $270 "certified refurb" depending on your tolerance for open box buys. Amazon offers a 3-year SquareTrade warranty on refurbs for $10 that is worth it my opinion to extend the 90-day warranty even though I'm mostly otherwise morally opposed to extended warranties. These are what I bought and were like $500 headphones last Xmas. If you're really bargain-hunting, the wired non-noise-cancelling version can be had for $149 now too. Bose QC-35 Series II don't sound or look quite as good, but are very comfy and have best in class, industry-leading noise cancellation which makes them OUTSTANDING for office environments; I got a pair for my girlfriend for just this purpose and she loves them. They're about $350 new, but the best way to buy is "factory renewed" for about $229 in person at Bose outlets if there's one near you, which is even cheaper than most of the used listings I found on eBay. Bose keeps a pretty tight grip on their pricing and brand management, so as far as I'm aware there's not an online option for this but you might be able to call them up and talk them into a phone sale. Honorable mentions: Sony WH1000XM3: OK-ish at most things in a nicely balanced design, USB-C charging (nice!), meh black plastic styling Sennheiser PXC 550: More neutral sound compared to the HD-1 above, some new features like earcup gesture controls, meh black plastic styling

For playback of locally stored files on a PC: I still use Winamp 5.666 for FLAC playback because I'm hardheaded and haven't found anything better, and though I haven't tested it I understand it plays ALAC For playback on the Pixel: I like Poweramp because I bought a paid license (yeah, I know, it should be free but android OEMs aren't always good about including a good free one) a long time ago and it seems fine, and my previous favorite Apollo is basically long dead For streaming: Tidal provides lossless content, but requires a subscription For purchasing downloadable FLAC content: I like 7digital; they have actually provided the backend for numerous relabeled services

Simplest way might be to mute them for the offending app(s): https://www.howtogeek.com/202404/how-to-tame-notifications-in-android-5.0/

So I bit the bullet and bought a new-ish Fujitsu Scansnap ix500 Evernote Edition from eBay. Then tonight I saw this about Evernote: https://9to5mac.com/2018/09/04/evernote-premium-membership-death-spiral/ So now my whole plan is on its way out the window and I'm looking for alternatives, and may have just bought a $300+ doorstop. ? RIP Evernote, it was a great run. (Referral link removed above since I'm no longer comfortable recommending Evernote)

I let my home PC sleep when inactive, and since that meets 99% of my other needs already I'd be reluctant to make my power bill take a hit for something that should be trivial for wear & tear and for eco-mindedness if nothing else. Hell, a scanner in standy is way more efficient than running even a 200-watt PC 24/7. I'm starting to feel like this might be a ready-made kickstarter project... And if you haven't looked at Evernote I highly suggest it too. I've been using it since 2010 and been a paid subscriber for 3 years now, and it's worth every penny. It's *despicably* handy being able to securely search notes, receipts etc. from any internet-connected device I like and let someone else worry about backups and such, which is why I'm so eager to migrate all this damn paper over to it. Even the free plan is pretty capable and allows up to 60 MB/mo upload. Referral link: (removed) Non-referral link for those who prefer: https://evernote.com