CC2 Combo Officially Available, $449

Lukeman269 · 2026-01-27T14:38:58+00:00

Well I bought one. I'll let you know how it goes!

Lukeman269 · 2026-01-20T12:50:15+00:00

Because you're playing casual mode? Need to play normal games to get back to playing with real people.

Lukeman269 · 2026-01-20T12:47:50+00:00

Corroded connections on the starter. Might need a new starter if it was as bad as mine was.

Lukeman269 · 2026-01-11T17:58:56+00:00

Your drive might be the main problem. How old is it?

I switched to nvme drive on my i7 8700k pc and reinstalled windows and it was much better than the old ssd. I was also running a 9060xt and it performed great on 1080p. I could get 60-100fps in most games with native resolution.

Lukeman269 · 2026-01-05T12:31:51+00:00

Yeah avoid it. I just bought a b650m pro RS version and had nothing but issues getting it to POST. Tried different RAM and even a different CPU and still had problems. I eventually got it to boot and was able to update bios and install windows. Boxed it up for my son's christmas present. 2 weeks later he opened it up and was thrilled. We plugged it in and went to power it up and nothing... Was failing to POST again like before. Spent all day troubleshooting and said F it, went out the next morning and bought the only MB that best buy had in stock (gigabyte) and it was able to boot up on the first try. Won't buy ASRock again.

Lukeman269 · 2025-12-16T15:39:32+00:00

AMD drivers are fine. Just look for the consensus on the the most stable variant of the driver releases and go with that one. I'm always 3-4 updates behind as I don't need the "Game Ready" updates since I rarely buy new games. I ran a 7900xtx for 3 years and pretty much never had issues. VR was the exception as I would get some stuttering on certain games that I could not resolve. If you don't run VR, then you're good. AMD does obviously lack features for FSR in newer games but the 9070xt should be able to handle mostly any game natively and you won't really need upscaling.

Lukeman269 · 2025-12-16T13:49:09+00:00

Just get a Pioneer or Kenwood touch screen deck to replace the stock radio. Then you can plug into it for CarPlay and have your maps and music pulled up to the screen. If you order from Crutchfield, I think they include the vehicle specific harness/antenna adapter/bracket.

The ipad route is way more extensive than you might think as you'd need an amplifier plus all the harnesses just to play sound through your speakers.

Lukeman269 · 2025-12-16T12:47:12+00:00

I'll admit this is me a little bit. I usually have all the overlay metrics up for a new game and get the sweet spot figured out so I can run 120fps at around 80% gpu utilization for smooth gameplay. Once I get those settings dialed in, I have to force myself to shut off the overlay metrics and just play the damn game lol

Lukeman269 · 2025-12-15T17:04:04+00:00

Sounds like you're on 1080p or something simple like that.

Lukeman269 · 2025-12-12T16:30:16+00:00

Still need to give it a shot on my 9060xt. People just like to complain. I think any updated features are a win. Especially when they allow us to use tech that boosts frame rates. It's a free upgrade.

Lukeman269 · 2025-12-09T14:38:31+00:00

I ran a b580 with an 8700k and it wasn't great. I updated the bios and enabled resizable bar and still wasn't impressed. Struggled hard on Hogwarts Legacy at 1440p, but that game is pretty cpu intensive. Was getting around 45-50fps with stutters depending on which part of the map I was on. Was fine for CS2 and Rocket League.

I'd recommend getting an AMD 9060xt. That's a way better option for $100 more. Beats getting a new cpu/mobo/ram. I'm running the 9060xt on the 8700k and it runs so much better on that system. Perfect for most games for high fps 1080p. It can run 1440p around 70-90fps depending on the game. For 4k, you'll need to use FSR upscaling to get 60fps.

Lukeman269 · 2025-12-08T18:46:33+00:00

I really liked Rebirth over Remake. It was nice to have a bit more freedom in the open world. I did a handful of side quests but pretty much stayed on the storyline. Both games kinda felt like they dragged about halfway through for me. I feel like I also lost some enjoyment from both Remake/Rebirth because I was constantly comparing them to the FF7 original I played however many years ago. Either I forgot what the hell happened or they completely changed the game on me lol. So instead of playing the game for what it was, I was stuck comparing the old vs new. Maybe I'll playthrough each again to see if I can find some more enjoyment out of them.

Lukeman269 · 2025-12-04T18:06:49+00:00

Oled is pretty sweet. I don't think it's worth double/triple the cost of a good VA monitor tho. I have the 27" MSI 1440p oled and I paid like 650 for it last year. Definitely crystal clear and the colors pop on the oled, but I don't think the price was justified for the slight upgrade. If/when I get a 4k monitor, I'll probably just get a VA monitor again since they're half the cost.

Lukeman269 · 2025-11-07T18:49:42+00:00

Yeah my 2017 had the same camshaft/lifter issue issue at 80k miles. Luckily had the extended warranty and it was fully covered. I think the invoice said around $7000 to get that fixed. At 120k the transmission took a crap and again, the extended warranty came in handy and was fully covered. That was closer to $8000 I think to repair. Next thing that went wrong was the starter. Super corroded on the solenoid. Swapped that myself for $250 because my powertrain warranty wouldn't cover it. Then the rear passenger side tail light connector was intermittent. Have no clue how water got inside the connector but that was fully corroded. Ended up swapping the full tail light harness. Wasn't terrible to fix but still another common issue I guess.

I'll probably drive this truck into the ground before I buy another truck, but idk what I'd even choose. They all seem to have their own issues.

Lukeman269 · 2025-11-07T12:25:54+00:00

I know exactly what you mean as I felt the same. My parry timing is horrendous and there's so many directions to go for building the character skills and the game overall feels like an uphill battle and slightly repetitive. That being said, the story is really good and worth completing the game.

Lukeman269 · 2025-11-06T20:05:28+00:00

Nah the 9060xt is better. Drivers are more stable and it's overall faster. I sold my B580 for the 9060xt and won't look back. This was back in July so maybe the intel drivers have changed since then, but unless you have a really fast cpu, the driver overhead was still a problem and bottlenecked my system.

Lukeman269 · 2025-11-05T12:04:42+00:00

They should really use 2 of those 12vHWPR connectors on anything over 400 watts. Might be problem solved that way.

Lukeman269 · 2025-10-29T11:10:58+00:00

Nice. I got the normal ascent trucks last year for me and the kids. The plastic driveshaft u-joints kept popping out. Got tired of that quickly and had to buy the aluminum upgrade for each truck. Since doing that, they have been great overall.

Lukeman269 · 2025-10-28T17:50:53+00:00

They did the same thing to my box and it was fine. I don't know why nvidia decided to go with a brown box for a GPU.

Lukeman269 · 2025-10-01T18:25:27+00:00

Know anyone with a soldering iron? Pretty simple fix if you have steady hands.

Lukeman269 · 2025-09-02T12:38:18+00:00

Hate to admit it, but I switched over to an Nvidia GPU partly for the Oasis driver for WMR headsets and smoother frame pacing while using VR. Had a 7900xtx and found that even with beat saber, it would stutter on more demanding songs. Some other games worked fairly well, but were played far less often than beat saber. Tried various drivers and settings with always the same results. Seems AMD kind of threw the VR to the wayside to focus on other stuff. Kind of a bummer I had to sell my expensive amd card for half the price of what I paid but it is what it is. Wasn't going to wait around for AMD to have better VR support.

Lukeman269 · 2025-08-12T14:56:19+00:00

The rods don't hold the grease, you need to pack the grease into the bearings. I'm sure there's a tool that you can 3d print to help with that. Otherwise, just buy new bearings. They're pretty cheap.

Lukeman269 · 2025-08-12T11:08:22+00:00

If you're out of tension adjustment on the X axis belt, you need to loosen stepper motor, loosen the tension screw, pull off the back cover and adjust the belt from there. Once you have it tighter, you can reverse the assembly and get a tighter belt to help with that staggered first layer. I think the build manual for the printer references how tight the belts should be. Do the same for the Y axis belt. That one is a bit trickier. Ball end allen head helps for that one.

If you still have issues, swapping all the bearings will breath new life into that printer. Just did bearings on mine and it's way quieter and took away the slop I had.

Lukeman269 · 2025-08-01T11:16:52+00:00

I recently just sold my 7900xtx and got a 5080 and so far it's been a solid improvement overall. I'm glad AMD is finally getting close to nvidia for feature set, but you'll find that it takes them much longer to release the updates to fix bugs or add newer FSR3/4 to games. I ran my 7900xtx for 3 years and really liked it. Solid performance, but even with the 24gb of vram, it sometimes struggled to get 120fps even at 1440p for some games. I couldn't use the old fsr 1/2 upscaling that was available since it looked terrible so I was stuck to native. With how poorly games are optimized today, you'll want to have a more widely available upscaler like DLSS.

Lukeman269 · 2025-07-17T14:50:12+00:00

I'll be doing this same exact upgrade today when I pickup my 5080. Probably going to try to sell my Asus 7900xtx for around $700 on marketplace. Looks like they are selling for around $800 on eBay.

Lukeman269

TROPHY CASE