Blog
Build logs & debug notes
Hardware writeups. What broke, what worked, what I'm running next.
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What Phase Shedding Is — and Why I Turned It Off on the Dominus
Phase shedding parks most of your VRM at idle to save a few watts. On a board with 32 teamed power stages, that's oddly fascinating — here's what it does, how the Dominus Extreme handles it, and why I run all 32 stages all the time anyway.
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Why the ROG Dominus Extreme VRM Will Basically Last Forever
32 teamed IR3555 power stages, a CPU that pulls 400 watts, and barely 12 amps per phase. The Dominus Extreme power delivery is so overbuilt it can't really wear out — here's the math, the board, and why nothing current touches it.
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The Water Block That Was Never Sold in America
A Washington pawn shop. A "broken" X99 flagship. One full-cover monoblock that ASUS officially certified and Bitspower never distributed in North America. How I ended up with one of three cooling products ever certified by the ROG program.
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I Paid $280 for a Dual-Socket DDR4 Workstation With Noctua Coolers Already On It
ASUS Z10PE-D16, dual E5-2620 v4, 64GB DDR4 ECC, two Noctua NH-D9DX coolers, full IPMI. $280 shipped. Here's the board, the test results, and the split plan.
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The ROG Rampage V Extreme That Was Never Actually Dead
POST code 53, a $90 refund, a borrowed RAM kit, and one overlooked switch. The X99 flagship was fine the whole time.
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Dual-Socket LGA 2011 Bundles Are Free Money If You Know What You're Looking At
Average buyers see old server hardware and scroll past. Flippers see DDR3 or DDR4 ECC worth more than the asking price. Here's how the Z9PE-D8 flip went, and why I just bought its big brother.
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Radeon Pro V340L Teardown and Repaste
A full teardown of the AMD Radeon Pro V340L — dual Vega 10 XL GPUs, 16GB HBM2, SR-IOV MxGPU virtualization, and a repaste after years of server life. Part number 109-D05387, formerly in Google Stadia.
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DIMM.2 on the ROG Dominus Extreme: The Feature That Almost Killed My RAM
Two DIMM.2 slots, four M.2 drives, and a RAM overheating problem I didn't see coming. The Dominus Extreme's most interesting feature is also its most annoying one.
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Meta Ray-Ban + VisionClaw: The Complete Windows Setup Guide (And My Honest Review)
I've been wearing Meta Ray-Ban Gen 2 smart glasses for weeks. Here's my honest take on the camera, the AI features, the livestreaming bait and switch — and a full walkthrough of setting up VisionClaw on Windows with an Android phone.
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I Got NVIDIA's Forgotten $2500 GPU for $500
The Titan RTX is the full unlocked TU102 die with 24GB of GDDR6 — and in 2026 that VRAM matters more than ever for local AI. I grabbed one off Facebook Marketplace for $500.
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Back on the 285K
Built this rig in November 2025, moved to the Dominus, and finally came back. White GPU, black build, and CUDIMMs running at 8800 MT/s on a 4-slot board.
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I Almost Built a Poor Man's AI Lab for $150
Dual socket LGA 2011, two Xeon E5-2697s, and 256GB of DDR3 ECC for $150 off eBay. The plan was a cheap local AI lab. Then I found the shipping damage.
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HBM: The History of Stacked Memory and Where It's At Now
From Fiji to MI300X — how HBM went from a niche GPU trick to the backbone of every serious AI accelerator.
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LGA 3647: Born in a Server Rack, Dropped in a Desktop
Intel's LGA 3647 was designed for server sleds. Then they shipped a 28-core unlocked chip on it and called it enthusiast. The mounting system never got the memo.
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20 Xeon Silver 4114s for $20 and a Piece of Scrap Wood
Won an eBay bidwar in September 2024. 20 server CPUs for a dollar each. Built wall art. Still don't know why I did it.
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Putting Together a Corsair XM2 NVMe Waterblock on a Samsung 980 1TB
Brand new Corsair XM2 M.2 waterblock, a Samsung 980 1TB, and a build that took about two minutes. Here's the full process.
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My First ROG Dominus Extreme Was $300 and I Flipped It
Spring 2024, $300, and an EKWB VRM block included in the sale. Post code 00 resistor problem. Sold it for profit. Buyer fixed it.
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I Liquid Cooled a GTX 1650 Super With a Kraken G12
Drilled custom holes, cut brackets, and got it to post — then found out the PCB was too short to actually cool anything.
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I Built a Microwave Transformer Arc Machine at 15
Grandparents were getting a new microwave. I searched what you could do with the parts. This happened.
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I Delidded a $5 Pentium With a Vice and Used Aluminum Foil to Make It Post
First delid ever. Vice, foil, and zero reason not to try it.
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The Vega 56 Strix and My Love for HBM
Got this card in August 2022. It ran hot, it had the thermal pad problem, and I loved it anyway.
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I Downgraded to a Vega 64 LC for $200 and I'd Do It Again
Came from a 5700 XT, paid $200 in July 2023 for a factory liquid cooled Vega 64. Technically worse. Worth it.
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I Paid $270 for Intel's Most Unhinged CPU
The only consumer 28-core chip Intel ever made, bought off eBay for $270. It has lived a hard life and does not care.
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I Got 9000 MT/s CUDIMMs for $400
48GB G.Skill Trident Z5 CK at 9000 MT/s. Listed at $650, countered at $400, seller said yes.
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128 Sticks of DDR2 ECC for $21.73
Won an eBay auction for 128 sticks of server RAM at age 14. Built wall art with my grandpa.
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The Dominus Extreme Came Back From the Dead
POST code 00, a dead board, an eBay listing, and one button fix.