Covid-19 Community Support and Mental Wellness Thread

originally posted by: Byrd
A dear longtime friend has just become a number in the Michigan COVID-19 death count. He had many health problems but I hadn't thought that someone so big and dynamic would fall in this epidemic.

Shai Dorsai.

My sympathies and a warm hug.

It's getting scary out there in the world. Take deep breaths to calm yourselves, listen to music, reach out to your family and friends and love with every beat of your heart.

We are all in this together from all over the world, from every walk of life. I wish you all strength and courage through these trying times.

I want to thank everyone for their posts, though I regret not being caught up. My Husband has been on dialysis and that is scary enough. With the added worries of this haunting virus and my anxiety, it's been a struggle, but I have been strong...so far.

To lighten the mood...

In hindsight probably should have just went with "Oh, PC upgrade? Cool! Whatdya order???"

a reply to: Hefficide

Understand that when I upgrade, I never go for the tippy top of the line, I aim for something a bit more between mid-grade and top.

This will be my first AMD build. I've always gone Intel before, but the Intel chip I was after was out of stock everywhere.

I was going for an Intel I7-9700K, but went with a Ryzen 7 3700X instead. I *think* they're roughly comparable. That changed my motherboard out too, so I'm getting the Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite motherboard. And I'm adding in a GTX GeForce 1660 vid card. That one is one backorder, so I probably could have waited for the CPU, but I decided not to.

I'm also getting a 16GB RAM stick. Ooo, Eeee, Ah ...

Oh, and thermal paste.

Oh and the sexiest bit -- the six pack of canned air. Can't forget that. We're on our last can.

Anyhow, most of it should be here by the end of the week. I think I'll wait until I have the vid card though. And soon enough my Purple Power Tower will be ready to go.

a reply to: ketsuko

It's been my experience that the CPU comes with thermal paste applied.

a reply to: Phage

They do, but we've had builds in the past where it has helped to have some extra. I recall one build where it kept overheating because the paste they'd applied either melted or chaffed off.

Chip was good. It just needed more applied to it.

Similarly, this past build of mine kept not working because at the factory, they'd assembled parts of it backwards. We didn't figure that one out. The gal at the computer store just tried putting in a part backwards to see, and it fired right up and has worked ever since.

a reply to: ketsuko

Can never have too much thermal paste, I always say.

Sort of like toilet paper.

Sorry, I should say they put part of the mother board together backwards. I forget exactly which bit it is ... I think maybe a RAM stick, but something on that board sits backassward to how it should.

a reply to: ketsuko

I think maybe a RAM stick, but something on that board sits backassward to how it should.

That's bad. You'd pretty much have to break something to do that, with any component. They all have insertion "keys."

a reply to: ketsuko

That's some good stuff!

I have a 3700X myself and have been incredibly pleased with it. In gaming the 9700K pulls ahead a bit but in just about everything else the 3700X slays.

One caveat, if you were literal about a single stick of RAM, you might want to consider adding another or swapping to a 2x8 kit - as Ryzen performs much better with dual channel memory. Substantially so.

The X570 Gigabyte Elite is also a great buy. That's actually the board I was going to get myself but when I got to the store they had the X570 Taichi in a bundle sale so I got it.

Phage is correct, if you use the stock cooler, which is absolutely an option and will perform about on par with something like a Hyper 212 Evo - or thereabouts - good quality thermal paste comes preapplied.

Congrats in any case. I think you'll be really happy with those choices.

a reply to: Hefficide

I went with the single 16 stick because I couldn't recall for sure which my own mother board was. I know I have an 8 in there, but I'm not sure which type it is. It may not work.

If it does, then I can absolutely go with 2 8s and my husband will take the 16 GB stick. He doesn't play high demand games, so it won't matter as much for him. I honestly don't all that much either, but I'm more likely to run things that will notice the difference than he is.

But given how my current build is sort of shoe-stringed together, I am hesitant to pull it apart until I have to. Don't break what you don't have to and all that.

Just to clarify here..

You want the least amount of thermal paste possible, while still covering the small pores/inconsistencies in the cooler base and cpu lid.

The metals themselves transfer the heat most effectively, the thermal paste just replaces any air pockets (essentially). So, thermal compound = better than air, not as good as the metal itself.

Signed,
Someone who has run stuff way, way too hot (CPUs, MOSFETS, etc.). For science.

Im still rocking my 2600k, rather happily lol I have a 1070ti though, which is still pretty capable. CPU is on water, but Ive dialed it back.

ETA: I dont know if it still rings true, but Thermal Grizzly was the absolute best stuff Ive ever used. However, if you get it, getting a larger quantity brings its cost A LOT more inline with other compounds. And.. Watch out for electrically conductive paste. It can be good, but the smallest little bit in the wrong place can be Very Bad.

Also, Im jealous Kets Ive been absolutely LOVING AMD upping their game.

a reply to: Serdgiam

Just to be clear, we're hoping we don't need the thermal paste at all. We just had that one time when, for whatever reason the past on the processor was faulty and we needed some.

We figured since it's a little bit hard to just run to MicroCenter to pick some up these days .... just might as well order it along with everything else.

originally posted by: Night Star
It's getting scary out there in the world. Take deep breaths to calm yourselves, listen to music, reach out to your family and friends and love with every beat of your heart.

We are all in this together from all over the world, from every walk of life. I wish you all strength and courage through these trying times.

I want to thank everyone for their posts, though I regret not being caught up. My Husband has been on dialysis and that is scary enough. With the added worries of this haunting virus and my anxiety, it's been a struggle, but I have been strong...so far.

To lighten the mood...

I just want to be clear you’re one of the BIGGEST givers on ATS I hope all is well for your husband, I am not much of a religious man anymore, but I will say a prayer for you and the one you love, also, I am pretty sure I am speaking for all ats members I hope nothing bad comes your way for yourself or your husband you love. Thank you for being here.

a reply to: ketsuko

I gotcha. The stock coolers/pastes tend to be fine outside of OCing or "specialized" builds.

Ive always got a bunch of compound onhand though, so whenever Id do a build for someone.. Stock paste comes off, Thermal Grizzly goes on

Biggest thing I watch is reasonable deltas between cores. Its also easy enough to mount the cooler, then take it off and look at the spread, then put it back on.

You could always lap the surfaces too

a reply to: Night Star

My thoughts are with the both of you. Keep us posted.

As I read this thread, I find it somehow comforting, Life goes on, and that is a good thing!

For me, is in neutral right now;my little brother died today. Even though he was in a hot spot, he won't be tested because of preexisting conditions.

He's gone, so it wouldn't matter anyway. Except for statistical purposes.

Went to bed around 10, was back up around one...
Ever have a dream that is so irratatingly weird you just cant take it anymore.

First I was dreaming about buildings, big buildings, little buildings, government buildings... only they were intelligent, mobile buildings. It was like the smaller ones were chasing the bigger ones but could never catch up. Well, that got boring and really quite nonsensical, so I woke up and rolled over, went back to sleep.. basically the same dream, only now they were people, each carrying a different strain of the virus. Politicians, wealthy people, us peons, ect. And us peons were chasing the others all over the place. It was like if strain a could just catch up to strain b, or c, the virus would be neutralized and go away. But, the little people, like the little buildings could never catch up with them..

So, now I am awake.. I think today, I am just gonna ignore the news and bury myself in fiction watching hulu. My brain is telling me it has had enough.

My sympathies to those on ATS that have lost friends and family to this virus.

originally posted by: nugget1
As I read this thread, I find it somehow comforting, Life goes on, and that is a good thing!

For me, is in neutral right now;my little brother died today. Even though he was in a hot spot, he won't be tested because of preexisting conditions.

He's gone, so it wouldn't matter anyway. Except for statistical purposes.

So sorry to hear that nugget. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.