End of Year PC Build

PowerDown is a power saving feature that lowers the usage of the RAM at idle times.
It can create issues for certain people who don't put computers to sleep or turn them off often or...
Playing certain games for extended periods that are GPU heavy usage but not CPU heavy usage ->50%+.

In these cases some games to the OS can actually be seen as running the computer at idle.
This can put certain games into an unstable state when the ram basically takes a dump so to speak.
And thus get instability as it takes the RAM a bit to catch back up.

I missed that entirely, good observation! I'll look into it; apparently it's an AMD thing.

I'd say it's this. I mean I like to test and push the rig to the limits, while keeping the temps at a sane level. That was the whole reason for getting a water cooled rig. But afterwards, it's back to basics, because it's more than likely fast enough as it is.

Does the basics also mean going back to air or sticking to the water that will eventually have to be replaced and getting rid of the gooey gunk and mess of a draining and ect?

I had the 760 Dual FTW from EVGA, and that is the only card I've ever had to RMA-- but it wasn't for a fan issue (to behonest I forget what the reason was).  But again, I've only ever had one card RMA'd and what I got in return was a brand new card.  Not an already used and refurb'd card, not even my own card refurb'd and shipped back to me....But a brand new card directly from EVGA.

I've heard a lot about MSI (people the Service dept at Canada COmputers tell me that MSI doesn't always used solidly built parts for their stuff.  Bearings and fan often have high coinl whine and burn out more quickly than competitors', and the PCBs in their motherboards don't have the copper and gold count or the same solid build.  I've heard that the PCBs in MSI Boards often have quite a bit more 'flex and bend' to them than say, Gigabyte or ASUS.   

So for that reason, I've tended to stay away from MSIs products.   And then there's the 30-series card scalping scam.....and on and on it goes.    But like everything else I suppose they build both good and not-so-good quality stuff.

Her setup is an Asus ROG prebuilt. We're using MSI Afterbuner just as a diagnostic tool.

I was thinking that perhaps it had more to do with the silicon lottery.

Considering that the 5950X is a little bit more difficult to work with for some odd reason. A lot of people still have stability issues and WHEA errors with their 5950X even without overclocking.

However in my opinion it SHOULD fit in a standard case but case mounting screw locations may not all fit.
Duck-tape may be necessary to make sure it is snug and tight in the chassis:

Motherboard:
ASUS H97-I/G20AJ/DP_MB

AND IF YOU can transfer it successfully to a bigger case...
Try and get two Noctua NF-A12x25's instead -since they will get even closer to 2000RPM:

They are the best fans period for cooling a GPU -aside of the Noctua industrial -but those can get loud.
I used two Noctua A12x25's and lowered temperatures 10*C -even under load.
Problem is they are not slim fans and would make things in a tight place even worse.
For like all Noctua's A12 fan line they are higher speed, quieter and more efficient than almost any competitor of similar value...

Maybe they should underclock and undervolt the 5950 a little bit to gain that stability back?
I know. I know.
Underclock!
How dare you!
The irony is it sometimes can increase performance -especially if you bump the other CPU modifications.

Maybe so...
The question is which is defective the CPU, RAM or the Motherbaord?
Still some people will not RMA who have actually been burned worse in that process.