Sitting at my desk Monday online.

Snap, crackle, pop, screen goes blank ... look over at my PC, and motherboard is on fire. Flames. Smoke.

Pull cord. What the ...?

IEEE 94 connection must have shorted. Probably too dusty. Mobo toast.

Got 11-plus years out of that build. Sandy Bridge 2600K. Salute!

Fire extinguisher protocol refresh time.


Now putting together a new build. Been chin deep in research mode :

I7-12700K
Giga Aorus Master (going with DDR5 - 32GB Corsair)
2TB 980 Pros (two for now, but no plans for RAID)
Noctua D15S (canceled an order for Corsair Liquid setup)

Gonna try to salvage my old Corsair 800D case, 4-5 Noctua fans, checked the Corsair 850W PSU with the paper clip trick yesterday and seems fine .. fan still quiet, etc.

Contemplating GPU and mebbe a new monitor.

Trying to avoid Win 11.


Once the new machine is running, may try to find a used mobo on the ‘bay and see about reviving the old machine. I know someone who could use it.


And that’s the way it is here today ... once-per-decade geek-a-thon ongoing.

Signing off from iPad ...

"What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as freedom should not be highly rated." Thomas Paine