Award for most heatpipes!
This motherboard was probably meant to be an overclocking beast! But probably it was overkill.
Zalman at it again
At first I thought this was silly, but then others like Noctua began releasing dual tower coolers with fans in the middle.
Something is wrong
I accidentally delidded this CPU. I removed the heatsync only to discover that the IHS was firmly stuck to the cooler while the CPU was firmly stuck in the socket. But, something seems to be missing...
8 Computers in one!
Stacks on stacks of gaming computers that I built for Xbox to test PC games on. 8 PCs per test station.
Wiring was the hardest part
Powering and controlling so many computers in such a small space was a challenge. 8 gaming PCs to a KVM and 4 KVMs per bench.
Very very wrong
So it turns out the CPU die was firmly stuck to the IHS. This was when they were soldered to the IHS. I literally ripped the die right out of the CPU by hand!
Fan transplant
One of the fans gave out on this GPU, but I wasn't about to let that slow me down!
Weird SFF chassis
Putting the dumb proprietary PSU back into its dumb proprietary SFF chassis.
PSU fan replacement
Normally this is a very bad idea, but this stupid little PSU is proprietary and is the only one that would fit. So I had to replace the fan that had died.
It was time for RTX
RTX promised to change gaming forever! But in reality it only made Minecraft prettier. At least for a few years.
These guys are getting old
These servers were about 8 years old and starting to show their age. They stopped getting security updates so they had to go.
Surrounded by Servers!
Servers can be the most powerful of computers! When it's time to upgrade, you have to upgrade them all at once.
Removing the drives
Took out all the old drives so that they could be reused.
Removing the sleds
The sleds were not compatible with the new servers so they had to go.
8 years of dust
8 years of built up dust all over these HDDs and sleds...
Pro delivery of new servers!
The 'new to me' servers that were replacing the really old ones! All I had to do was get them from their old home to our new home! This is only about a third of the total that I fit in here.
RGB along with RTX
It was at this point that it became harder and harder to find parts without some sort of RGB lighting
GPUs get bigger and bigger
Another budget chassis, another compromise. I had to take out the HDD bays to fit this GPU. In what would be the beginning of an alarming pattern...
It fits!
There was no way I was gonna give up. I can build any computer.
Just barely
This is the last GPU this chassis will ever see. After this generation they only got bigger.
Too many pumps!
Sometimes pumps get noisy after some age and need replacing. And sometimes many need replacing at once.
I don't even know
I don't even know what this is, but I had it anyway.
Mining is old news!
Crypto mining is so last decade! The new hotness is Machine Learning!
AI takes the crown
Machine Learning computers make building fun again, they need so much power and processing that you need to really pack it in.
Color coordinated
An all white build I made for a client
Pretty sleek
It's never been easier to color coordinate a build!
Why?
Why would they put this over top of a motherboard screw?!
Oops
Dropped the CPU into the socket. There's a first time for everything.
Preparing more Gaming PCs
Prepped a huge amount of gaming PCs for another test lab before the lab was ready to receive them.
Spare parts
Keeping spare parts is a very important part of keeping a test org running all day every day.
Laptop repairs
Sometimes the part you need to replace is at the literal bottom of a whole mess of parts.
Laptop screen replacement
This can be a delicate process. I have broken a screen or two during replacement, but I have gotten better.
Computers are getting pretty small.
Every 'computer' part of this laptop fits in the palm of my hand.
Tower of test machines!
A whole bunch of identical gaming PCs for game testers all built by me.
RGB is hard to escape
Even though these machines were destined for a professional life of testing new Xbox games and RGB didn't matter, they were the only parts I could get.
The professional's gaming PC
I did manage to find some parts that didn't have any RGB so I made some gaming PCs that fit in with professional dress code setting.
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