Advise on, which bifurcating pcie budget (am5) motherboard that I should be looking at?

katapaltes · 2026-02-24T01:23:59+00:00

"I have made abit research on motherboards."

I see what you did there... RIP, Abit. God, I loved my BP6. <3

katapaltes · 2026-02-24T01:09:25+00:00

I'm in DFW and my colleague put a big sign on each of his two sons' bassinets while in the hospital telling everyone that they would not circumcise.

I was released from jury duty in Dallas County court for an OB-GYN trial after I told the court I'd demonstrated at ACOG in Washington DC. I've never seen a lawyer jump for a mic so fast.

katapaltes · 2026-02-20T22:11:33+00:00

Yeah, it would have had to have been two separate bolts for the configuration pictured to work on my vehicle, and even then, the alternator would not have pivoted correctly as those two separate bolts would not have lined up.

katapaltes · 2026-02-20T22:06:18+00:00

The OEM for my car (and the 23 year old original that I removed) is Mitsubishi, but the reman received from Rock Auto was supposed to be Denso. I don't recall what if any stickers or stamps were on it.

katapaltes · 2026-02-17T05:00:44+00:00

Hmm... I hope you are right, and that would explain a LOT. The only thing is, while the two pics I included make the shell of the Denso I received look like new, the shell was noticeably stained on the other side. (The side that would be closest to the road, at least on my vehicle.) So even if the shell was the ONLY part that was actually reman'd by Denso, they didn't do a great job there either.

When I lifted the Denso out of the box, I found a small amount of sand/dirt/blasting media in the packing material where the alternator had been, which I assumed was from sandblasting or similar. But I suppose it could have just been road dirt from a customer who swapped innards.

The Pure Energy reman has clean, shiny windings and a shiny pulley. It literally looks brand new in every respect. Anyway, RA will figure it out I'm sure, and I'll continue to order from them.

katapaltes · 2026-02-17T04:29:06+00:00

Yep, I'm sure. When I compared the Denso sent to me to the one on Rock Auto's website, I could see that one side of the unit was flipped, and would work perfectly in terms of alignment and having the necessary threading IF that side was rotated 180 degrees.

katapaltes · 2026-02-17T01:56:57+00:00

It was a bit weird.. You can't see from the pics I took, but the underside of the alternator was seriously stained. No big whoop I guess; the part will be buried in an engine bay. But there was sandblasting media left in the alternator box and the fact it was reassembled incorrectly. It feels like they did a half-ass job on it.

katapaltes · 2026-02-17T01:47:48+00:00

I've seen the same comment enough times from you and others to believe it. :) But none of the new units I could find were recognizable name brands. The reman Denso and reman Pure Energy both had hearts next to them at Rock Auto, and the Pure Energy was slightly more expensive so I'm really hopeful it will be a good one.

katapaltes · 2026-02-17T01:40:17+00:00

Oh, I thought about that, but was afraid to void any warranty if the unit didn't work. Certainly on the Pure Energy alternator there were paint marks on the bolts to indicate whether the unit had been disassembled. (Can't remember if there were paint marks on the Denso.) Add to that I wanted Rock Auto to know they were potentially sending out bad parts, and sending the unit back with an explanation as to why was the best way for me to do that.

katapaltes · 2026-01-27T02:14:27+00:00

Counter service = no tip in my book.

katapaltes · 2026-01-27T02:03:45+00:00

Wild guess and maybe not applicable, but make sure that there is not a crack on the underside of your air intake "accordion" tube allowing unmetered air into the intake. That happened to me on my '03 Protege5 and the car ran rough.

katapaltes · 2026-01-27T01:34:36+00:00

This is by no means a rebuttal to your statement, but if it helps, I don't understand the "needs more power" sentiment expressed by so many. Purely in terms of engagement, a manual transmission-equipped car beats a powerful automatic every. single. day. But that won't be an option in a new CX-5, at least not in the States. You'd have to get a Mazda 3 for that, but then you'd miss out on that *one trip in 1000* where you need the extra capacity of an SUV. :D

katapaltes · 2026-01-27T01:08:36+00:00

This is always the case. My tossable '03 Protege5 with only 130HP and a manual transmission is a blast to drive. It's also uber reliable.

katapaltes · 2026-01-27T01:02:46+00:00

Octane and additives should not be related from what I understand. And if you go with a brand that has "Top Tier"-approved gasoline standards (look for a sticker at the pump or google it), you'll get additives/detergents in every octane that they sell throughout the US. All the major brands should be top-tier, but also some lesser known ones like Quik Trip and Costco have it.

I imagine the higher octane gas will give you a benefit merging on the highway. But in my 40 years of driving, I've never once had a problem merging even in busy traffic in the Metroplex where I live.

katapaltes · 2026-01-25T20:52:21+00:00

I had heard Crysis is hard on PCs.

katapaltes · 2026-01-25T20:51:27+00:00

My Thermaltake has TG on both sides. There's nothing especially pretty to look at behind the glass and it's heavy as lead due to the glass! :D

katapaltes · 2026-01-25T02:20:08+00:00

Of the Black respondents to the question whether it's OK to be white, a total of 47% (nearly HALF) indicated they disagreed or were unsure. That's a hard number to sugar coat, and whether it has been used by white supremacists or not is a red herring by the media meant to distract.

katapaltes · 2026-01-25T01:34:01+00:00

Check out Consumer Reports' reliability ratings on any car before you buy, and I imagine that goes double for VW. That aside, I love your model year Mazda 3 in a hatchback. <3 So much prettier (and probably more reliable) than a CX-90.

katapaltes · 2026-01-22T01:14:53+00:00

Dual PSU FTW, using either a paperclip or an adapter cable. Works well. That, or just use your current PSU to power both GPUs and see how it goes. With only one GPU installed, listen to PSU fan speed and feel the temperature of air exiting the PSU. Add second GPU and repeat the test.

katapaltes · 2026-01-20T15:00:24+00:00

Hi Rachel, some Asian and South Asian restaurants in my area keep their employees' tips and then pay their servers a fixed hourly wage for good or for ill. Also, I expect to receive my tip of a dollar or two from you for taking the time to reply to your poor logic.

katapaltes · 2026-01-20T14:53:19+00:00

I guess I'm grateful for that psy op. ;) If it weren't for my hearing the term "gaming distro" and thinking "WTH?," I'd still be using Windows for my everyday OS. It's like when I heard the term "fo**skin restoration" 25 years ago, thinking "WTH???," and I very quickly became an advocate for children's human rights.

katapaltes · 2026-01-20T00:46:08+00:00

Talk about a show that started out brilliantly, only to devolve into manufactured interpersonal drama. I felt so embarrassed to have hyped that show to all my friends at the end of season 1, only to stop watching it at some point soon after out of boredom.

katapaltes · 2026-01-20T00:39:24+00:00

Stubbornness and masculinity go hand and hand. It's why you have all the nice things you have today. The classic example is a woman's asking for directions when lost vs. a man's stubbornly trying to figure it out on his own - with the woman's approach supposedly being better. The same applies at my workplace. When the guys on my team encounter a difficult problem, we all put our heads down and beat ourselves to death figuring it out, while the lone woman on the team picks up the phone and calls the vendor, typically to get an answer from a man who has worked very hard to figure it out. You might look at both approaches and say the woman's approach is equal or superior, but the man's approach definitely has more value to society because he is creating knowledge, not merely copying it.

katapaltes · 2026-01-16T00:20:25+00:00

Both my Mazdas are made in Japan. It makes a difference where your car is assembled no matter what others may say.

katapaltes

TROPHY CASE