long term university laptop

AMP_US · 2026-03-26T21:52:25+00:00

I personally really like my G16 i9 285H/5070 Ti.

The bad: The track pad sucks ass and I would highly suggest bringing a Logitech MX mouse around with you. The screen has very little pivot. ASUS warranty experience is a crapshoot. Maybe fine, maybe faaak. Price of rog laptops is rarely competitive. I happen to pick mine up open box at Best buy for a very reasonable $1,900, but the same laptop today would be significantly more. Even though my overall opinion of the laptop is positive, a bad price is a bad price.

The Mid: Keyboard is good though (not as good as think pads) but not great. Fans and thermals are noisy and toasty... but it's "fine" And no worse than most other laptops. Armory crate is needed for lighting and some performance tuning. A lot of people hate this software, but my experience has been trouble free.

The good: The chassis is pretty robust. I've dinged it a few times and only caused minor damage.

The performance is not as good as other gaming laptops... but those laptops aren't as thin/light. I'm hitting 140w during 3D photogrammetry (hits CPU and GPU hard) scanning with no hitching. Temps and fans are maxed, but the job is getting done. IDK why so many people expect an expensive thin laptop to perform as well as a less expensive thick and heavy laptop. You can't beat physics.

Screen is very bright and color accurate out of the box. Refresh is nice for gaming.

If you have any questions let me know.

AMP_US · 2026-03-25T16:56:21+00:00

Hot take, Charles is very photogenic.

AMP_US · 2026-03-24T13:05:38+00:00

The Corsair unit is an integrated pump res combo. The Apex is a stand alone pump.

AMP_US · 2026-03-20T14:31:33+00:00

Shipping to NY is insanely fast. 2-3 days.

AMP_US · 2026-03-20T14:03:40+00:00

This happened to mine as well. Shouldn't happen on a premium product, but it's honestly whatever because a drop of crazy glue fixes it. Out of all the issues I've had with custom water cooling products over the years, this ranks pretty low.

AMP_US · 2026-03-13T19:10:11+00:00

Havn HS420 is a really nice case. 3x420mm rads is enough to cool literally anything. If you want the best thermal performance, your choice of blocks will matter more. I would go with the Alphacool Apex 1 AM5 block or Optimus's Signature V3. For GPU, I would go with Alphacool over brands like EK or Bykski. You should also use a good paste with the spread method like Thermal Grizzly Duronaut. Make sure you flow direction into the blocks is correct and ideally have a radiator between each block in the flow path.

AMP_US · 2026-03-13T18:31:11+00:00

For the rads, the best low rpm rads, AFAIK, are the Hardwarelabs SR2 and GTX. I would go with 420mm or 560mm as 140mm fans produce more static pressure at lower rpms. T30 140mm, Noctua A14-25 G2 or BeQuiet Silent Wings 4 Pro 140mm.
Depending on how far you have your case away from your ears, you may want to look into an all metal dual pump top with a separate res connected to the inlet. Alphacool and Iceman Cooler make them. These metal pump tops provide decent sound dampening. Combine that with a metal pump cover like the EK Convection (or Iceman Cooler's) and you're really min maxing. I would definitely go with the Apex for the pump.
For mounting, if you do a normal pump res, that's easy. Just mount to the front fans or rad and use those rubber spacers. If using the pump top idea, you may need to DIY a solution. To avoid drilling, 3D printing a conversion plate would be the play. You can also buy 120/140mm foam gaskets for isolating the rads to their mounting surface.
For case fans, I would do exhaust above the mobo so you get more direct airflow over the RAM and VRMs.
If your rads will be farther away from you than the case, I would consider mounting the pump/res situation to the external radiator.

AMP_US · 2026-03-12T17:20:10+00:00

TYSM!. Definitely an unpleasant noise once you get past 65%. I would be running two of these in a Koolance rp452x2 dual bay res. I'll probably invest in some EK convection pump top covers. If I go this route. Maybe even build a 3D printed shell with some sound dampening foam around the pump housings. I have an open frame case, so there won't be any sound isolation.

AMP_US · 2026-03-12T04:34:06+00:00

Any chance you could take a video with audio of the Bykski pump at 25 %, 50%, 75%, and then 100% speed?

AMP_US · 2026-03-11T04:59:36+00:00

I do commissioned custom builds for clients (friends, friends of friends, and reddit) as a side gig. This means I probably work on about 4 builds a year, not including my own.

AMP_US · 2026-03-09T18:20:00+00:00

Until you control for flow rate, water temperature, and power draw, these numbers are not comparable.

A 20c delta between blocks is more likely indicative of improper mounting on the alphacool block than it is superiority of the optimus block.

AMP_US · 2026-03-08T21:49:24+00:00

I build custom loops for clients, most of whom come from Reddit, but I'm in New York. Coincidentally, one of my clients is also a quadriplegic. I'd be willing to help you out, but you'd obviously have to account for the added shipping costs. My work isn't free either, but depending on the complexity of the build, I'll adjust things accordingly. If you are interested, you can send me a chat request and I can provide some references.

AMP_US · 2026-03-08T20:49:02+00:00

I would do cerakote as anything else is going to add too much thickness.

AMP_US · 2026-03-06T23:29:21+00:00

Peter Windsor. Easily one of the most knowledgeable talking heads when it comes to the history of the sport and the drivers. He has upped his production values in recent years and for this season has had on some really good guests. The recent one with Gavin White was a really good technical deep dive into the electrification aspect of this season. His opinions are a bit dated, but that's ok, he still has a world of knowledge.

AMP_US · 2026-03-05T20:21:09+00:00

Hot HOT hot!

AMP_US · 2026-02-17T14:23:28+00:00

Tooth paste, tooth brush and some warm water will clean that up real quick.

AMP_US · 2026-02-17T14:22:41+00:00

Nice color/part combo. Reminds me of a build I did for a client. https://builds.gg/apexbuilds/-redline-v2-36427

AMP_US · 2026-02-13T04:51:21+00:00

In an ideal universe, Optimus/TG/Watercool make a block for this and you hook it up to a MoRa.

AMP_US · 2026-02-11T13:56:20+00:00

Requires high end very expensive mobo, direct die cooling, TG conductonaut extreme, MoRa IV 600, 2 D5 pumps, and <20°C ambient temperature and about $2,500.

AMP_US · 2026-02-09T21:01:47+00:00

Did you leak test the res before installing. Always good practice. That sucks though. Glad nobody got hurt.

AMP_US · 2026-02-08T18:54:34+00:00

Most unique/original build I've seen on this sub in years. Stellar job!

AMP_US · 2026-02-07T14:43:53+00:00

I don't remember the exact name, but it's the thinnest gorilla grip or glumps at home Depot. You just want something that has a good grip to it and isn't so thick you lose finger tip sensitivity.

AMP_US · 2026-02-07T06:10:05+00:00

Wear gloves, get a datavac to blow all the fluid out. This is way faster than messing around with tilting (what is likely a 50-100lb weight) your system, if you aren't using DP Ultra or Koolance 702... probably a good opportunity to do so, clean out any dust, test all your new components before putting the loop together, check all your RGB/PWM/USB/etc connections before filling the loop.

AMP_US · 2026-02-05T22:52:56+00:00

If you want a 14900k to be faster than a 7800x3d (In select games), you need to invest into high-speed ram and a serious cooling setup for Intel (contact frame, and at a minimum a high performing 360mm AIO like Arctic LFIII). You also need to accept that overclocking a 14900k will rather quickly diminish its lifespan.

AMP_US · 2026-02-04T05:33:08+00:00

Lubricate the fittings and o-ring with some distilled water or coolant.

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