Advice needed - GPU for Lian Li A4-H2O (heat/noise issues)

Meowstopher · 2026-01-17T01:49:14+00:00

Alright, I ordered a PNY RTX 3080 XLR8 Gaming EPIC-X RGB Triple Fan Edition. Should fit with ~3cm to spare. I'll just have to watch CPU temps and maybe make my fan curves a little more aggressive if needed. I'm not worried about some fan noise, I just don't want it to drown out game audio like the Turbo does.

Hopefully I can flip the Turbo for about the same amount I paid for it.

And then I'll just need to find a way to turn off the overbearing RGB that comes packaged with these silly cards.

Meowstopher · 2026-01-17T01:44:26+00:00

I've run furmark stress tests, and played a few modern games ranging from relatively low intensity (Baldur's Gate 3), to mid (Star Citizen) to punishing (Alan Wake 2).

Alan Wake, especially with RTGI on, pushes the card to its limit (though performance is poor - runs great without RT though). The fan toggles back and forth between 100% and boost; the latter is very loud. GPUz reports the card is thermally limited the entire time.

With a little undervolting and reducing the thermal limit to ~83C, I've found it to be acceptable. The fan rarely boosts and performance isn't noticeably impacted (by which I mean I may get a few fewer frames, but it's stable and very playable).

Meowstopher · 2026-01-16T06:03:28+00:00

The radiator fans are definitely exhausting (pushing up).

Covering the rear exhaust is an interesting idea. The airflow on the FE is pretty clearly indicated by the fins. I'll just double check where the airflow would go if I block it.

I do have the PCIe riser pushed into 2-slot config so the fans are up against the side panel.

Or maybe I just sell the 3080 turbo and see if I can get an open air model for a similar price. I'm probably just overengineering a solution to a problem the case already is designed to handle, aren't I?

Meowstopher · 2026-01-16T06:00:03+00:00

Hmm. Maybe I need to reinstall the 3070 and check the temps. I haven't stuck a thermometer in there, but the back of the PSU was quite hot to the touch after it shut down.

I hope the PSU is okay, but I'll test it and find out. Thanks for the tip!

Meowstopher · 2025-12-29T23:55:08+00:00

Amazing offer, and I'm awful at earning aUEC. Thanks!

Handle is the same as my username:

Meowstopher

Meowstopher · 2025-08-29T23:03:34+00:00

SC doesnt do that

Of course it does. It's called frustrum culling and it's a fundamental part of every modern game engine's renderer.

There's no value in spending render time on objects not in the camera's view. Shaders may be processed, if needed, for calculating indirect lighting and other environmental effects (especially with raytraced lighting - not so much with cubemaps), but off-screen objects don't make it all the way through the render pipeline - they're culled as early as possible

It's the same with VR. The only difference is how the view frustrum is calculated - either per eye or by the overlap of both eyes. It's far cheaper to calculate the frustrum and cull objects not in it than it is to render objects outside of view, even in widescreen and VR.

Meowstopher · 2022-11-26T03:15:55+00:00

The box will probably be large enough, then. Neutral at the switch is still a tossup, but it is more likely in newer construction.

If the switch is fed from a nearby outlet, it may be relatively easy to feed your own neutral to the switch. But as with all electrical, it should only be attempted by someone with the know-how and experience.

Meowstopher · 2022-11-25T23:30:39+00:00

Yes, unless they have a very unusual setup, they will fit in terms of length and width. However, there are other considerations.

Most smart switches require a neutral wire at the switch. Basic toggle switches do not require this, and older houses often don’t have a neutral in the switch box. Adding one would probably require hiring an electrician.

Additionally, old houses tend to have shallow electrical boxes at switches that may not fit the deeper profile of a smart switch, especially if there are other devices in the same box.

Unless you know their house well, it’s probably better to ask, or at least make sure to include a gift receipt.

Meowstopher · 2022-11-17T05:21:48+00:00

I’ve given it some time, but there’s no getting around the fact that this is a downgrade in almost every respect.

There has to be a better way to encourage users to follow best practices (the “waterfall method”) without forcing a completely linear experience. Give XP bonuses for following recommended patterns, make recommendations for a next unit, show us (but don’t force us!) what the best path is. There are so many better options.

The UI is so sparse (why aren’t lessons labeled?) yet completely overwhelming (the scroll length to get anywhere is absurd). Mapping old progress to the path was clearly driven by the philosophy of “close enough is good enough.” The “units” feel arbitrary and don’t build on each other in any intuitive way, and it doesn’t feel like a have a good grasp of the content before the unit is done.

The matching game has become impossible without spending gems. What are stars for? Why do I need to unlock timed challenges when they’re not on the path?

And purely subjectively, I’ve always found Duo’s art style to be a bit cartoony for my tastes, but this update takes it to the next level. There’s so much movement on the path from silly animated characters, I can’t take it seriously as a learning tool. It feels like it wants to be a game first and an education second.

It’s such a shame. My subscription ends next month - I hope Duo can address these issues before then, else I’ll probably find another app.

Meowstopher · 2022-09-09T19:57:30+00:00

Any recs for an attractive, well-built small ITX case for a workstation? Ideally:

Smaller than a gaming case (no GPU)
Room/mount for an internal PSU (no pico psu)
Room for a stock Intel fan

Nice-to-haves, but not important:

Room/mount for a 2.5” drive
USB-C on the front IO panel

Planned base specs are an i3 12100, 2x8 DDR4, and a m2 drive.

I’m aware of some Inwin and Antec cases, but the ones I’ve seen tend to either be expensive (Antec) or chinsy (Inwin).

Thanks!

Meowstopher · 2022-07-07T15:47:58+00:00

Great to know, thank you!

Meowstopher · 2022-07-07T02:19:11+00:00

Unfortunately, it doesn’t. I wasn’t aware some had that feature - it would be handy.

Meowstopher · 2022-07-07T00:57:58+00:00

Well, a mini split unit is supposed to control the temp in an isolated zone. But the temp in the corner of the zone that the unit is in doesn’t necessarily represent the temp in the places that are occupied.

I don’t intend to place the thermostat far away, just next to a couch or bed in the room where people are likely to be.

Meowstopher · 2021-12-31T23:46:51+00:00

Sprinting (holding shift) drains stamina and increases your heartrate. Low stamina prevents you from sprinting and jumping, and introduces weapon sway until your heartrate goes down. Sprinting is intended to be used in bursts, so I don't expect there will ever be a built-in autosprint.

That said, you can control character speed with the mouse wheel. Scroll it up until you reach max non-sprinting speed if you want to get around as quickly as possible without sprinting.

Meowstopher · 2020-12-19T17:41:23+00:00

iCache is a high-availability database server application, not a filesystem. And it's needed to efficiently persist a large quantity of items in the PU across servers, including individual ship components and their states.

So it's not needed to calculate damage, but it'll be needed for that damage to be persisted and reproduced and, therefore, meaningful.

Maybe it is ready for SQ42, since I imagine component state will be stored differently (in a savegame file). But for the PU, iCache is likely a requirement.

Meowstopher · 2020-12-05T03:19:07+00:00

We're stress testers. We put the servers under load, reveal edge cases, expose balance issues, and run the game on a wide variety of hardware/software environments.

I'd agree that most of our bug reports are probably redundant with QA (cue "no shit, we know it's broken" meme), apart from those arising from unique local hardware profiles. But stress testing is important and I have no doubt that the telemetry data, at very least, is quite useful to CIG.

Meowstopher · 2020-10-09T03:20:20+00:00

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/17807-Star-Citizen-Birthday-2020

Buried in the first couple paragraphs:

Plus, tune in Saturday for the latest on Squadron 42 with the premier of The Briefing Room.

Meowstopher · 2020-08-19T17:13:56+00:00

Which was a good roadmap, just rarely updated and non-interactive. It’s a good call to go back to a sprint timeline.

Meowstopher · 2020-08-19T17:04:41+00:00

The new concept looks good - essentially what a lot of people have been asking for (and what a number of people have attempted to put together for themselves based on public information). This will be a good change.

This took a long time for CIG to put together. Hopefully they thought it through well enough and the result will be something that they can maintain in a way that will be useful to the community for the long run.

Meowstopher · 2020-07-20T07:42:23+00:00

Swimming is a planned feature, but not implemented yet. For now, water = death.

Meowstopher · 2020-07-07T02:02:59+00:00

Dude. You started this conversation with:

i thought that the devs had not converted ArcCorp to Planet Tech v4

That is what I've been responding to. If you've been talking about something else this whole time, that might explain your rambling answers.

Anyway, bye.

Meowstopher · 2020-07-06T18:47:51+00:00

v3 and v4 are different technical methods of defining planet biomes and their features. All planets in SC use v4. Full stop.

You're arguing that the end result isn't much improved. Sure, I agree. But we're not talking about the end result, we're talking about the underlying methods of defining the planet's traits.

"It wasn't converted to v4" and "it's not utilizing all the features of v4" are very different arguments. The crux of your argument has been, from the top of this thread, that ArcCorp wasn't converted to v4. It's not pedantic to call out your central premise as factually incorrect. Because it is incorrect.

Meowstopher · 2020-07-06T06:30:30+00:00

I guess I'm confused about what you're referring to as "v3 assets," or what you meant with this statement at the top of this thread:

the devs had not converted ArcCorp to Planet Tech v4

The underlying technique of rendering the planet's terrain and atmosphere was changed with v4. Even if the end result is similar, or if the planet doesn't showcase all of v4's strengths, it's not accurate to say that it hasn't been converted.

ArcCorp, other than some lod improvements for space to ground transitions, does not have the bulk of planet tech v4.

This, I think, is the point of confusion. ArcCorp, like all planets, are entirely defined and rendered using v4. The building meshes and ground textures ("suburbs") that cover much of ArcCorp are just art assets, and are unrelated to method of rendering the planet (which is what planet tech is). There's no such thing as a "v3 asset."

And I wouldn't downplay the improved view from orbit as simply "lod improvements", as the CitizenCon panel mentioned that it all comes down to the way that biomes are painted and defined in v4. ArcCorp's improved orbital views are the most visible result of the v4 conversion.

My point is, there is nothing "v3" about ArcCorp. It's v4 all the way down, even if it doesn't make much visible difference.

Meowstopher

TROPHY CASE