Long story short, my father passed away unexpectedly after being in and out of the hospital for the past couple of months.

Powder coating is being babied but should be ready by the end of the week. Perks of having a high school friend that goes back two decades.

My custom grills I've paid for almost two months ago, there's been no word on them in at least two check-in emails, so I'm either out $60 or they're just that busy laser cutting parts.

I hate saying this, but what I've built could have covered my father's burial expenses for both of his resting places, and now I'm starting to see my first "real" build in fifteen years as a huge mistake in hindsight.

Maybe my mind will come back around when I'm through this really difficult time. Brains tend to wander off when shelter insecurity is a very possible thing to come up.

Anyhow, enough rambling. My $250 custom cables are going to have to wait several months now.

So, I've finally drug myself over to builds.gg to catalogue my efforts of completing my first build in over fifteen years. I started gathering parts at the beginning of May 2021, not knowing how long the pandemic would keep us all indoors. Normally, I wouldn't have amassed as many parts as I currently have; but the past year and a half has been anything but ordinary. I pretty much have a system that's ready to go. The only parts left to obtain are the RAM DIMMs and peripherals. The only peripheral I truly need to invest in is the monitor. (I'm not afraid to admit I'm still slogging an ancient VGA monitor, cause well, I'm essentially broke most of the time.)

I'm already seriously over-budget on the build, thanks to my cat's vet bills eating into my build budget, so if there's any reason why I might be kvetching more than one should, it's because I ended up being short by an entire month's fixed-income. (Spoiler: I basically didn't do anything for two months, and well, still short.) My main issue is sourcing the RAM. The options I currently have, thanks to lag in restock on Amazon are: I could buy the 3600 with demo kit, but I'd have four demo sticks that would go unused and spend $40 more than if I were to wait on just the DIMMs alone; I can buy the 3733 kits for $20 less than it would if I were to buy the 3600 kit (but I've heard talk that AMD doesn't like the extra 133MHz for some reason, so I'm wary); or I can cave and spend $60 more than the 3600 kits and go with overkill 4400. I forgot to mention, the 3600 kit (just DIMMs, no demo kits) is supposed to retail at $150/16GB. Right now, there's third-party listings for $298.99/16GB. That's one railroad I'm avoiding a ride on. Any way I look at it, $300 will take me anywhere from 3-6 months to save up or pay off on credit. Trying to avoid the latter, but something's going to end up charged. I can't do much when I've only got $400 left out of $1100 every month. (Before anyone tells me to cut back on food - I only eat once a day, and it's not much.)

So that brings up the remaining $800 in peripherals. Monitor, mouse, keyboard. Well, the monitor I might be able to find on eBay, so I can't complain there. As long as nobody bids on it, I can actually score it significantly below cost. Mouse? Haven't found any local offers for a used one, so I can almost safely assume I'll just be buying it new for like $78. Keyboard? I've found one used that's far below the average $200-250 for new. Only issue aside the sky-high price is the lack of switch availability from the switch manufacturer. I'd prefer to have some replacements, since I have no telling how brutal my palsy hands will be on an optical-mechanical keyboard. Especially if this used one has a loose key. If it's not remedied with a cap swap, I'm up the creek for a while with a dodgy key.

Maybe I'll get lucky and win the local lottery...

At any rate, if I end up scoring some RAM, I'll start posting build photos. The downtime will give me a chance to improve the workspace, since I have furniture to move, and need a new desk.

Now I sleep, since it's like one in the morning...

Pretty simple update here.

I still haven't been able to land the 3600 AORUS RAM (my initial lead hasn't responded back in a week), so I've emailed Gigabyte to see if they've discontinued those DIMMs. We'll see how soon I get a reply. If it turns out they did indeed cease producing them, it looks like I'll be upgrading to the 3733 DIMMs.

In better news, eBay has worked in my favor and I will be receiving an AORUS FI27Q-P in roughly two weeks time. Hey, for $328, I'm not complaining! I'm just stoked I'm getting a DP 1.4 monitor to go with the DP 1.4 output on my GPU.

In terms of case modding, I'm still trying to work out local hands to help me with machining and probably vinyl, since I've really only got painters in my corner (and not the kind who are willing and able to assist with a case teardown, unfortunately), so that's left me a little busy. I'm also trying to source anodized screws for everything, but taking an inventory and sizing with verniers is proving tedious. If it helps, for fans (including the AIO mounted ones) I was planning on contrasting light blue countersunk washers to pair with dark blue screws. I'd like to do the same on the mobo, but I'm not a fan of causing shorts, so I'm still trying to figure those out. In terms of thumbscrews for the outer TG panel, I'm getting mixed numbers on the length and type, so I'll be having to measure one to be sure I get the right length M4. The mix of M3 and #6-32 is a head scratcher to say the least. *lol* Also debating replacing the TG with a reactive acrylic panel, but people are already griping about the downgrade in material. (Hey, I remember when it was the only material used unless you were ballin', and ballin' I am not.)


Only things left now are grabbing me a W10Pro key, the RAM, and (possibly) my custom cables. (Which I'll need to ask Matt about, since the brain hath questions about sleeve reactivity, but that can wait for the budget to play catch-up!)

Onward with the waiting period!

So, I got a reply from GB Sales. I should have seen the bamboozle coming. They said they found their RAM on Amazon (I know their RAM is there, just not from Amazon themselves.) and they send me a link. To a third-party seller, selling a 16GB 3600MHz kit with included demo kit for the grand sum of... (take a breath, folks) $424!

With everything that's been going on with their company lately, I think this is it. I'll be avoiding Gigabyte for the foreseeable future. Why? I asked if they had discontinued production, but they didn't even approach that query. Then to pitch me to an Amazon page without so much as looking at who is selling it, and being okay with the 2.5x MSRP markup? Yeah... I do believe I'm entitled to wash my hands of them, right after I offload the GP-P750GM I have, then force return it after I send it in for the exploding PSU exchange.

That said, I have the AORUS option for RAM at 3733, or I can say frag it and get Crucial Ballistix 3600 with way tighter timing.

My question to the modding community: Where does one draw the line and break from a theme build, and does this look like one of those times?

Talk to me, Goose...

Another small update.

Monitor has shipped according to eBay, so I'm just waiting on UPS to update tracking; pipeline says I'll have it in a week. Works for me.

My buddy is offering to gift me his RAM when he upgrades. It'll be a blow to the theme, but it's by no means garbage RAM considering it's G.Skill Trident Z Neo with speeds at 2x16 @ 3600 C16-19-19-39. Certainly better than the 2x8 3600 C20-19-19-43 on the AORUS DIMMs. We'll see if 4mm is too much and interferes with the top mount AIO - whenever the homie gets around to his upgrade.

Ordered some blue anodized hose separators for the AIO tubing. USPS says next Friday, but that shit's literally in the next county over, which is right next to our regional sorting facility where my area's daily mail is handled and sent to the local post offices. I'm betting the tracking will update with a sooner date in the next day or so. Just waiting on a few more bucks to order some other small, miscellaneous parts for the build as well. (Think hardware like colored screws, anodized spacer sleeves for the case fans, AIO gasket, AIO grill, slot dust covers, nylon thumbscrews, maybe some cathodes and/or LED strips.) The little stuff adds up quickly, it does.

Finally, we get to the best part of my day. I received in the mail today my new custom printed PSU shroud plate. For those not in the know, you can't really put the shroud plate back on and run 3x120mm fans on the front without omitting two screws on the bottom fan. You can, but then you also get an ugly cable management gig without the slotting present, so you end up either hanging the GPU power cables via some gap under the motherboard, or you do some god-forsaken move like running the cables from the top of the case. But yeah, we're stoked about it. Thanks to Brendan Albury for making this happen. I guess twenty years or so might also have a few things to do with it. *lol*

Alright, that's enough yammering from me today... Break time!

Looks like today was "Buy the rest of your kit!" (Except for RAM, see previous update.)

Coming in soon, we've got some bling and the rest of the peripherals.

• Sky blue anodized washers to fit under the stock AIO screws (since I can't find any #6-32 UNC x 30mm dark blue anodized ones, I may paint them, not sure)
• Dark blue anodized hose separators for AIO tubing
• Dark blue anodized flat-head hex M3x8 screws
• Sky blue anodized 12mm M3 threaded spacers
• Dark blue anodized thumbscrews for the PSU and GPU (still need to sort a proper M4 if they don't thread into the TG screw holes)
• Pair of Adafruit JST SM 3-pin cables in case I need them for the AIO's odd inline fan and LED controller that doesn't use even the most basic 5v/12v LED (though not sure what it uses)
• Gigabyte AORUS K1 Keyboard (I'll get around to the add request once the contest is up and I edit the build list.)
• Gigabyte AORUS H5 Headset (Another I'll be having requested to add.)
• Gigabyte AORUS M5 Mouse

I think I've got it all listed.

Guess I better find a desk to fit everything on now...

*anticipation intensifies*

Keeping it short and sweet...

We now have a monitor to bring us into the modern, non-VGA adapter age!


Behold:





Not too sure how the Adafruit JST SM cables with connectors will work out, since I'll have to sacrifice one pair to make a complete set, since it's each gender connector on a wire with the opposing end ungendered; so basically I have two male and two female pigtails that I need to make into extensions. It's easier to just disconnect and repin the opposite gender connectors onto the bare ends, rather than trying to solder together those small wires. I'll worry about that when they come in. They're a day late already.

The hose separators are probably going to be another headache since they haven't even been delivered to USPS, but the origin city is not even an hour away - and it's already been four days... ETA is supposed to be September 3, but jeez... They're right next to where mail gets sorted FFS.

Anodized case screws for the fans and the associated hardware will be arriving by Ali magic carpet sometime in the next month. *sad party noises*

Keyboard, mouse, and headset are due to arrive next week, so all that's left is getting some RAM and I'm good to start setup proper. I just need my payday to roll around to order a few small things from PPCS while I decide on how best to tackle lighting and plan out the paint and vinyl schemes.

Still wouldn't mind doing some case modding for the light design on the shroud, but I'm not coordinated enough to do intricate work. SoCal, help a brother out, yeah? Credit will go where credit is due, no doubts there!

Now it's just a waiting game. As much as I'd love to slap it together without the RAM, I'm going to wait, just so I can do more than stare at the UEFI.