I’m a fool. In my excitement I brutally ended the life of a dear friend. A mistake, but the end doesn’t change because of the intentions, or lack of. This is my tale, and I am the villain.
Two days ago I had just received a new SSD. It’s a Samsung 970 Evo 500gb M.2 and she is a beauty. I knew she was going to fit in wonderfully with my setup. With her I was going to be able to say farewell to my trusty 850 Evo, the last 2.5 sata drive and begin my journey living with only M.2 drives. Who would have thought that in a few moments, my rig would be changed forever.
I guess I should describe my rig before I continue. Built in a Custom Mod SFX, she’s in a tight 6 liter case in textured black paint. Small, sleek, and sexy. Inside I’m rocking an Asus Turbo 1080 Ti, Asus Z370-I, 32gb of G. Skillz 3200 DDR4, 500gb Samsung 950 Pro, and an 8700k underneath a Cryorig C7 Al. Built with overkill and e-peen in mind, this is my baby whose name I will never share with another mortal.
My 8700k is modestly running stock clocks. Bought near launch, she was sent to Silicon Lottery to be delidded. I’ve had her in 3 cases since. The most impressive was in an Air 540 in a custom loop. With an Asus X Hero and an easy OC button, she hit 5.15 stable with no adjustments. I believe the wise OC’er could’ve pushed her to the fabled 5.2 , I was content with her the way it was setup. But deciding to merge my lan rig (in a Silverstone RVZ02), and the custom loop into a powerful rig that was portable, I crammed it all in the Custom Sfx and have enjoyed it for a month.
Late that evening, after putting the kids to bed and entering daddy time, I made my move. The 950 was in my front M.2, leaving the only slot available in the back of the motherboard. In a bid to save time, I first removed my GPU and tried to go thru the case to mount it without luck. So I had to remove the psu, the 2.5 ssd, and finally the mobo. Finally flipping the motherboard around on my desk, I noticed the rear mounting bracket was blocking the rear M.2 slot. Undeterred, I made my first mistake.
Deciding to save time, I undid the bottom 2 nuts securing the cpu cooler to the motherboard. I knew there was no need to remove the cooler. I knew it would take all of 2 minutes and a couple of mL of Arctic Silver 5, and I wasn’t wasting my precious time or paste. Remember these words, they will be important later in my saga. As I slid the m.2 drive in its precious slot, I set my motherboard on the edge of the table and reached for my screwdriver set.
And it happened. As I dragged the toolbox towards me, it bumped the motherboard. God and gravity claimed it for their own, and sent it hurling to the ceramic tiled floor of death. At first I was terrified I had destroyed the mother board. I then took the cooler off, the one i had sworn I wasn’t going to waste the time not 2 minutes before, and inspected the damage. Amazingly the board looked solid. No noticeable cracks, no broken capacitors, and I counted my blessings. After finishing the SSD installation, I reattached everything and installed all my parts back into the case. I never thought about testing it while it was out of the case. After all what could be wrong?
Something was wrong. All the lights on the motherboard lit up. Shining all pretty, but it wouldn’t post. It wouldn’t even try to. No fans spinning, beeps, nada. So I removed all the pieces out of the case and began diagnosing. I removed the ram and cpu and checked for bent pins. Searching for minutes with a magnifying glass, I swear today that not a one is bent. I started searching for PCB cracks, and still couldn’t find any.
I then pulled out my X Hero. I hadn't sold it yet, and figured the q-code scanner would be a great boon. I attached the basics: psu, cpu, cooler, and the ram. The lights all lit up, but no fans, and not even trying to post. More aggravating to me, the q-code didn’t pop up with any easy to google codes for me. I started diagnosing ram. One stick, the other, and then started all over in a different slot. Getting flustered, I removed the CPU and inspected it closer for the first time. This is what I found:
My IPhone 5S and crappy photography ability make it hard to see. But if you look closely, two corners of the CPU are bent down. There are also cracks on between the pins on the pcb. I’m guessing those were the two corners that were still tight when the cooler fell. I don’t know, but I guess it really doesn’t matter. I’ve tried to straighten it back, but it is still deader than 4 o clock.
If you’re still reading this, you must be as bored as I am while writing it. Thanks for allowing me to share this with you. If you’re looking for a moral or catch, read it again. I can’t tell it to ya. I’m just sitting here, at my desk, on my safari browser typing. Typing and waiting for my new chip to come in. I’m actually picking up this chip’s cousin, an 8700T. Weaker than the beast it’s replacing, she still benchmarks higher than the 6700k i had in the lan rig. I figure I’m going sff, And that I should be taking this event as a sign that I need to go even smaller. And it’s hard to go smaller with a 90+ watt chip, even if it’s been delidded. I’m hoping my motherboard is ok. I swear the pins are straight and that I can see no cracks, but my eyes ain’t the sharpest anymore. And it still smells like rain around here.
Two days ago I had just received a new SSD. It’s a Samsung 970 Evo 500gb M.2 and she is a beauty. I knew she was going to fit in wonderfully with my setup. With her I was going to be able to say farewell to my trusty 850 Evo, the last 2.5 sata drive and begin my journey living with only M.2 drives. Who would have thought that in a few moments, my rig would be changed forever.
I guess I should describe my rig before I continue. Built in a Custom Mod SFX, she’s in a tight 6 liter case in textured black paint. Small, sleek, and sexy. Inside I’m rocking an Asus Turbo 1080 Ti, Asus Z370-I, 32gb of G. Skillz 3200 DDR4, 500gb Samsung 950 Pro, and an 8700k underneath a Cryorig C7 Al. Built with overkill and e-peen in mind, this is my baby whose name I will never share with another mortal.
My 8700k is modestly running stock clocks. Bought near launch, she was sent to Silicon Lottery to be delidded. I’ve had her in 3 cases since. The most impressive was in an Air 540 in a custom loop. With an Asus X Hero and an easy OC button, she hit 5.15 stable with no adjustments. I believe the wise OC’er could’ve pushed her to the fabled 5.2 , I was content with her the way it was setup. But deciding to merge my lan rig (in a Silverstone RVZ02), and the custom loop into a powerful rig that was portable, I crammed it all in the Custom Sfx and have enjoyed it for a month.
Late that evening, after putting the kids to bed and entering daddy time, I made my move. The 950 was in my front M.2, leaving the only slot available in the back of the motherboard. In a bid to save time, I first removed my GPU and tried to go thru the case to mount it without luck. So I had to remove the psu, the 2.5 ssd, and finally the mobo. Finally flipping the motherboard around on my desk, I noticed the rear mounting bracket was blocking the rear M.2 slot. Undeterred, I made my first mistake.
Deciding to save time, I undid the bottom 2 nuts securing the cpu cooler to the motherboard. I knew there was no need to remove the cooler. I knew it would take all of 2 minutes and a couple of mL of Arctic Silver 5, and I wasn’t wasting my precious time or paste. Remember these words, they will be important later in my saga. As I slid the m.2 drive in its precious slot, I set my motherboard on the edge of the table and reached for my screwdriver set.
And it happened. As I dragged the toolbox towards me, it bumped the motherboard. God and gravity claimed it for their own, and sent it hurling to the ceramic tiled floor of death. At first I was terrified I had destroyed the mother board. I then took the cooler off, the one i had sworn I wasn’t going to waste the time not 2 minutes before, and inspected the damage. Amazingly the board looked solid. No noticeable cracks, no broken capacitors, and I counted my blessings. After finishing the SSD installation, I reattached everything and installed all my parts back into the case. I never thought about testing it while it was out of the case. After all what could be wrong?
Something was wrong. All the lights on the motherboard lit up. Shining all pretty, but it wouldn’t post. It wouldn’t even try to. No fans spinning, beeps, nada. So I removed all the pieces out of the case and began diagnosing. I removed the ram and cpu and checked for bent pins. Searching for minutes with a magnifying glass, I swear today that not a one is bent. I started searching for PCB cracks, and still couldn’t find any.
I then pulled out my X Hero. I hadn't sold it yet, and figured the q-code scanner would be a great boon. I attached the basics: psu, cpu, cooler, and the ram. The lights all lit up, but no fans, and not even trying to post. More aggravating to me, the q-code didn’t pop up with any easy to google codes for me. I started diagnosing ram. One stick, the other, and then started all over in a different slot. Getting flustered, I removed the CPU and inspected it closer for the first time. This is what I found:
My IPhone 5S and crappy photography ability make it hard to see. But if you look closely, two corners of the CPU are bent down. There are also cracks on between the pins on the pcb. I’m guessing those were the two corners that were still tight when the cooler fell. I don’t know, but I guess it really doesn’t matter. I’ve tried to straighten it back, but it is still deader than 4 o clock.
If you’re still reading this, you must be as bored as I am while writing it. Thanks for allowing me to share this with you. If you’re looking for a moral or catch, read it again. I can’t tell it to ya. I’m just sitting here, at my desk, on my safari browser typing. Typing and waiting for my new chip to come in. I’m actually picking up this chip’s cousin, an 8700T. Weaker than the beast it’s replacing, she still benchmarks higher than the 6700k i had in the lan rig. I figure I’m going sff, And that I should be taking this event as a sign that I need to go even smaller. And it’s hard to go smaller with a 90+ watt chip, even if it’s been delidded. I’m hoping my motherboard is ok. I swear the pins are straight and that I can see no cracks, but my eyes ain’t the sharpest anymore. And it still smells like rain around here.
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