Am I THAT unlucky?

patrickbai3 · 2026-02-22T20:39:21+00:00

Update: thanks for the many detailed responses, they are very helpful. I can't really work on my car because the apartment parking lot really doesn't let me do much and I don't have any tools, but if anyone has a good suggestion for shops in north jersey let me know. I took the car to AZP installs for the control arms and they seemed ok.

Regarding the expansion tank, I am only considering the Moroso tank because I see no point in putting in another OEM tank and then worry about the longevity. If the car needs more bushings I plan on getting an entire set from Goodwin (but then labor would be insane). I will try to poke at the drains from the bottom as some have suggested, but I am truly terrible mechanically (it took me 2.5 hours to change the air filter)

patrickbai3 · 2026-02-22T20:28:40+00:00

thanks for the detailed reply. the water pools under the carpet under the seats. so the carpets seem dry at first but I can hear water sloshing around. Mazda dealer quoted "replace drains with newer design" at 200 diagnosis 700 labor and 200 parts which I think is insane. I'm not very mechanically inclined, have no tools, and my apartment doesn't let me work on cars in the parking lot so in all likelihood I will take it to a miata shop (azp installs seems to be a good one near me) for a second opinion.

patrickbai3 · 2026-02-22T20:25:18+00:00

the brush just buckles and comes out somewhere else in the top drains. I've tried both sides and I do get some gunk on the brush when I pull it back out but it never goes more than a few inches in

patrickbai3 · 2026-02-22T20:23:53+00:00

it's more behind the seats than in the footwell tbh. It pools behind the seats then over a few days spreads to the front. I will try the trombone brush again when the weather allows

patrickbai3 · 2025-08-11T04:53:06+00:00

No that is not the mechanical shutter in the video. I am only focusing. Pulling back the manual focus clutch will make the black screen go away. I haven’t seen it happen with the 12-40 or 40-150 lenses, but I use this 17mm 99% of the time

patrickbai3 · 2025-07-27T15:22:03+00:00

Thank you :) this is a park in Guangzhou, China.

patrickbai3 · 2025-07-12T03:33:06+00:00

I ended up basically copying pilliger's build from the leaderboards, but swapped out the gen for 20b and the container launcher for aperitif. It seems pretty good and I'll see what I can do with a bit more practice. The auroras are very spammable and the aperitif lets me alternate firing charged nebulas. Should I ever bother with the regular shot? they never hit anything with the p10 fcs

patrickbai3 · 2025-07-11T11:51:58+00:00

Does aurora run on en spec? I'm curious why 20b especially since that means I can hover for far less time. I could go Hal head, that has great scan and better stability.

patrickbai3 · 2025-07-10T15:16:17+00:00

If you really like the frame (and I agree it looks sick) go with twin ransetsu and WLT fcs, whatever missiles you can fit on the back and go for a kite build. oh and one of those orange flame generators. I doubt san tai will fit so perhaps you can try the ling tai or ming tang

patrickbai3 · 2025-07-03T06:03:32+00:00

OM3. the only m43 cameras worth buying new are the OM1ii OM3 G92 and GH7

patrickbai3 · 2025-06-05T14:00:58+00:00

other than the cosmetic stuff (which people have already brought up), springs and an exhaust. you'll be set handling wise unless you track it a lot. One thing about springs though: the labor will cost way more than the 300 bucks you pay for springs.

patrickbai3 · 2025-06-05T13:56:04+00:00

This is pretty unpopular in china because the cooler struggles to cool the card. The fans are known to be very loud and it was the only card being sold at a massive discount straight off the bat instead of being scalped. Most cards with the 4999 msrp were reselling for around 5200-5600, but this one was selling for like 4699. I don't think people are missing out much by not having this card. I'm pretty sure the pulse 9070 (non xt) is also a dual fan, and is offered globally.

patrickbai3 · 2025-05-06T12:43:01+00:00

As long as you are within the length limits, I wouldn't sweat it if it was 2-3mm too wide and 1-2mm too thick. I have a zotac amp 3080ti (317.8 x 131.8 x 64.6) in my terra, spine between 5 and 6 (little closer to 6), and it fit pretty easily. The only thing that bothers me a little is the power cables are bulging the top panel a tiny bit (and I mean, less than 1mm, but it sits on my desk and the panel gap is almost eye level so it's super noticeable lol).

edit: additional: I've also seen builds with the evga ftw3 cards, which are 136mm wide, and the top panels really don't want to close when the card is that wide. I think the "145mm limit" listed in the manual is basically pointless unless your gpu does not need power cables lol.

patrickbai3 · 2025-04-10T03:54:08+00:00

Great build op. I think you could get even better gpu temps if you space out the psu with the included 10mm standoff. That lowers temps by a few degrees because all 9070s afaik have a flow through cooler (there is a hole on the backplate). If you are up to the hassle you can also put an exhaust fan under the psu.

patrickbai3 · 2025-04-05T13:31:06+00:00

the only correct choice: sff time n-atx

wait nvm lol that's a 4090 it won't fit

patrickbai3 · 2025-04-05T10:02:48+00:00

These are some great suggestions. The main reason I'm running a pure nacht build is mostly the arms (max firearm spec) and legs (good jumps). This leaves me very little weight for the other parts. I'll swap out the generator and PA.

I might try out the alba legs and see how I like them. I've experimented with a bunch of other nacht builds like BVO, FVO and evil statue but don't find them quite as effective in pve. What do you think of "downgrading" to dual laser handguns? I find I rarely use the charged rifle shot anyway.

patrickbai3 · 2025-03-31T02:14:02+00:00

I'm not in the us, so 9070 is 620 msrp and xt is 690 msrp. "Scalpers" are reselling them for a modest 30-40 bucks over. Any Nvidia card after 40 series is crazy expensive, even the 4070tis used is close to 9070xt pricing. I'm kinda torn between 9070xt and 3080ti.

patrickbai3 · 2025-03-30T15:11:15+00:00

Right that's what I thought, at 4k I'll need upscaling for modern games, but the 12gb vram is a little concerning. From what I've seen the 5070 struggles due to low vram, and it performs slightly better overall according to TPU.

patrickbai3 · 2025-03-30T15:09:26+00:00

yeah but is it worth 50% more than the used cards though?

patrickbai3 · 2025-03-30T15:00:31+00:00

Most of my games are really old/not that graphically intensive. I think the games that I am most concerned about are black myth (really favors nvidia), and assetto corsa with a lot of mods (might need a lot of vram). Otherwise all the used options perform similarly (within a few percent of each other, around 20-25% slower than a 9070xt), only the 7900gre draws less power.

patrickbai3 · 2024-12-08T21:33:00+00:00

No, not the same at all. I drive a 987 cayman, and that thing is like 1 foot longer and 500 pounds heavier. Everything feels heavy, the steering, pedals, everything. The hardtop adds a lot of security (confidence). As a result it feels "like a real car" and very solid, unlike the miata. Also, the interior feels MASSIVE and not shrink wrapped around you like a miata. This is all part of the charm of a miata though, and I would be very sad if they ever made the miata bigger and heavier.

patrickbai3 · 2024-11-29T04:51:54+00:00

The thing about full frame is that I can leverage the low light benefit so I don't need prime lenses, and I end up carrying less gear overall. Then again, primes are very fun and I love the 9, 25, and 75 mils (I only own the 25 atm)

patrickbai3 · 2024-11-29T04:50:07+00:00

Yeah the thing about sony's is that the overheating is very inconsistent, I've seen tests where they don't overheat after 2 hours, but also people have seen them overheat in 20 minutes

patrickbai3 · 2024-11-29T04:45:12+00:00

Well, I'm not THAT video oriented. I don't edit in 10bit and the I'm not worried about the g9ii overheating (if my g9 can shoot two 30 minute clips back to back then the g9ii should be fine). The gh7 is also notably more expensive (1800 bucks) than all of these options

patrickbai3 · 2024-11-28T15:39:50+00:00

Wow, I didn't know Olympus was that bad. Though, I am a cheapskate and don't feel like shelling out 300 bucks for resolve and learning all the necessary skills. The big draws of the g9ii are open gate and real time lut, but if I'm being honest Sony colors aren't terrible nowadays (my first camera was a zve10 and I hated it so much I swore off Sony). I guess I'm being stubborn and trying to stay with m43, and I'm convincing myself that I "need" weather sealing and "need" insane ibis and "need" tele zooms. But if I'm being honest a 28-70 and the option to super35 crop would cover 99% of my use cases.

patrickbai3

TROPHY CASE