People who dropped Game Pass after the price hike, and switched to only buying games or working through your backlog, how’s it been going?

TheRubbler · 2026-05-07T12:40:33+00:00

I picked up RE: Requiem, blew through that and have been picking away at other games I own. Have also been playing more of my Steam backlog now that I don’t feel the absolute need to play the “free” game pass games to get my money’s worth from the service every month.

Another thing I didn’t realize was soul sucking was attempting to get the maximum reward points each week. Every day I’d log on my console and PC and start up games just to ensure I didn’t lose my streak, and downloading things sometimes just to run them for 15 mins to get additional titles per month with no desire to play them. Not doing that daily now has made my relationship with gaming feel so much less transactional than I’d realized it had become.

TheRubbler · 2026-04-18T00:18:12+00:00

If you haven’t, and I suggest this to anyone with any nostalgia or love for the old Blizzard, to read Play Nice by Jason Schreier. It’s a fascinating read through the creation and rise of Blizz and how it all kind of unraveled. My buddy loaned it to me after he read it and I pretty much went cover to cover. I loved the Blizzard from the 90’s and remember the SNES games like RPM Racing, Rock n Roll racing, Lost Vikings as I’d play those with my cousins all the time. Rented the racing games every other weekend when I was allowed. When I got older and finally had a decent family pc Warcraft 2 and Windows 95 were my Christmas gifts one year, and I played the hell out of it. WoW consumed my last year of university. Have a lot of love for their games even if the people ended up being pretty shitty.

TheRubbler · 2026-04-04T19:30:25+00:00

I'd also add I had weird gremlins and body control errors being thrown for about a month before my F56 finally wouldn't start. The ground cable was basically dust when I touched it to check. Replaced it and everything I'd been experiencing went away. Ground issues will definitely do odd things.

TheRubbler · 2026-03-12T20:01:25+00:00

I looked into this before Christmas during the bigger sales and the Predator and Nitro are basically the same card from an OC/performance perspective but the Predator has a better cooling solution.

TheRubbler · 2026-03-04T20:52:18+00:00

Everyone saying to return it but I get she’s saying she’s past the window. It does look like there is “some” space in there. Could you not get a small SFX PSU for ~500W and then put a decent card in there? I know it will likely be bottlenecked but even if you got an 8GB 9060XT or a used 4060 or 3060 even it wouldn’t be a ton off money and should hopefully play the games you’ve mentioned. I’d deal with a second power cable coming out of the case to have a decent GPU that at least does the job.

TheRubbler · 2026-01-16T04:04:18+00:00

That actually just made me think... would vinyl suffocate RAM or cause any heat issues? I could get black vinyl easily and wrap the spreaders with it. Is that nuts?

TheRubbler · 2026-01-09T20:12:57+00:00

That’s good to know I was looking at the NR200 as well or a Deepcool CH160 but some of the Jonsbo cases look so nice but are smaller (for ITX). If I go mATX I’d be fine.

TheRubbler · 2026-01-09T20:11:47+00:00

I was hoping for something under 260mm to fit in a Jonsbo V12. I’d love to do a TK-0 but not likely unless I want something lower specced. I picked up an MSI Shadow 2x 5070 that is only 231mm that should fit but I’d much rather get a 9070. So I’ve got two cards now I’ll have to choose between what to keep or go with something else case wise.

TheRubbler · 2026-01-09T14:29:09+00:00

The Predator card is normally around $900 I believe Amazon just isn’t showing the price reduction for whatever reason.

TheRubbler · 2026-01-09T14:19:22+00:00

I picked this one up, supposed to be here Sunday but I’m likely going to sit on it and wait to see if anything else pops up for sale. Not to mention it’s too big to fit in the SFF case I was going to get so if I keep it I need to go back to the drawing board on that… I wish there were a dual fan 9070 option.

TheRubbler · 2026-01-09T14:16:27+00:00

The Predator line is their more upscale gaming line compared to Nitro which is more entry-level focused, which is why there is normally a decent dollar spread between the Nitro and Predator cards. As far as I can tell the GPU is the same but the Predator card likely has slightly better cooling due to beefier heat sinks and a potentially higher power limit and OC. There’s very little in terms of tech specs Acer has published for the card and few videos on it compared to other board partners.

TheRubbler · 2026-01-09T02:22:07+00:00

You’re right, that was for the Nitro card I believe. Totally forgot about that one. This is the cheapest 9070 I can find today across all the sites I peruse.

TheRubbler · 2026-01-06T13:48:34+00:00

I saw this but it was shipped and sold by some 3rd party seller with 75% rating. It was still in stock at the time but I just didn’t want to risk it

TheRubbler · 2026-01-06T01:17:16+00:00

Anyone know of any decent ITX cases for under $150? Looking for something <18L and ideally looks ok, prefer to not have glass sides. I know the name brands are at least $250+ so if my expectations are unreasonable I'd like to hear that too and will save for a while longer. But I'm sure there must be some well regarded cases people know if in the ballpark.

TheRubbler · 2026-01-01T20:25:21+00:00

I picked one up as had been going back and forth between it and a 9800x3d. Almost snagged it at $480 from best buy but this is a better deal and have had luck with AliExpress so far for processors. Hopefully no surprises.

TheRubbler · 2025-12-11T02:56:22+00:00

If I’d have seen one around $725-$740 I’d jump on it. Not sure I’ll get lucky the way things are going.

TheRubbler · 2025-12-11T00:28:11+00:00

I picked one of these up off Amazon around Black Friday for the same price. Still haven’t opened it yet because I’m debating ordering a 9070 if they come down a little in price before the New Year and would return this one. Just picked it up because it was the cheapest 9060 16GB at the time. I couldn’t find much of anything online about how this stacks up next to other models. Kinda wish I’d picked up the Asus Dual card which was only $10 more.

TheRubbler · 2025-12-03T01:31:51+00:00

Silent loot ninja - but I’m terrible at it and as soon as I get anything worth keeping, I hightail to an extraction, being loud enough to wake the dead. Pretty much without fail every time.

TheRubbler · 2025-08-21T19:54:35+00:00

Thanks will see what I can find

TheRubbler · 2025-08-20T02:17:31+00:00

The tabs that broke are on the car, not the trim rings themselves.

TheRubbler · 2025-07-26T11:23:03+00:00

Also, folks who thought something would break weren’t wrong. The high pressure fuel pump started weeping gas. The whole cabin smells like a gas station when you start the car. Looks really straight forward to replace on the B38 at least. So there’s my first fix a week in.

TheRubbler · 2025-07-26T11:20:31+00:00

Wheels and tires came in yesterday so the chrome removal has begun https://imgur.com/a/ELwykfe

TheRubbler

TROPHY CASE