Email was never, is never, and can never be secure... OpenPGP can help with some of that.

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 Most people do not think about security or privacy when using email. Email was never designed for security or privacy. From the beginning, email was not secure and was not designed for privacy. OpenPGP will make email more secure, but it cannot encrypt the subject or the metadata (essentially data about data, like who sent the message, and to whom it was sent).

 What OpenPGP does is it can encrypt the message body so that only the intended recipients will be able to read the message. OpenPGP uses public key encryption. This is different from symmetric key based systems in that symmetric encryption relies on the recipients (all of them) having a shared secret that the all know... obviously this means on would have to physically meet all of the recipients to securely share the secret... kind of difficult to do that for people you cannot physically meet with. OpenPGP uses a system more like what is used by your web browser to securely download this post (HTTPS). Asymmetric or public key encryption relies on very complex math that is really, really, really hard to reverse compared to how much effort is needed to calculate the function normally. Essentially you keep a set of numbers, these numbers are kept in a special file so you don't have to remember them. The special numbers are mathematically related so that if I encrypt with the public set of numbers as the key, only your private numbers can be used to decrypt the message and vice versa. In a nutshell, OpenPGP leverages some clever math and programming to scramble data that you wish to protect in a manner than can only be reversed by people who know the secret key used to encrypt the message. This means that if someone wants to read anything protected by OpenPGP without the secret part of the key files, they would need an insane amount of effort to understand the message. This is not effort needed to crack a vault... actually a vault would be about a trillion times less difficult to crack than an OpenPGP key. The amount of work a computer would need to do to reverse engineer your keys would use enough energy to bring the oceans to a boil... Hence the name Open Pretty Good Privacy.

 Using OpenPGP is actually fairly easy. The most difficult part is finding out how to use it... PGP users are not always good at explaining how and why to do things... though there are a few really good tutorials out there. Linux users usually already have an OpenPGP compatible program on their systems, their systems actually use OpenPGP to verify the integrity and source of their updates and installations of programs. OpenPGP can still be used on Mac and Windows based computers as well as most smartphones but it usually is not pre-installed on them like it is on many Linux systems. OpenPGP is not a program that you can install, this can be confusing to some but OpenPGP is the name of the standard that many good programs use. The program I would recommend is the Gnu Privacy Guard or GPG for short. The GPG website has a list of programs for most platforms that are fairly good as well as detailed instruction on how to safely and securely install their program.

 GPG like any other security program is best installed directly from trusted sources such as the repository on Linux systems (like an "App Store" but everything is free) or in the case of GnuPG (GPG) the developer's website is sufficiently trustworthy since the developers are trustworthy. The other thing that makes GPG trustworthy is that the source code is open to be viewed by the public, and there are people who are far smarter than anyone that most people will ever meet who do look at this code and verify that nothing suspicious is happening. OpenPGP also does not have any central key signing authority so there is no company one must pay to become verified, instead it relies on a model known as the web-of-trust which is a little like asking a trusted friend if someone online really is who they claim to be. Basically you may need to know if someone claiming to be someone really is that person and you have not been able to meet in-person to verify their identity... if someone you trust has met this person then they can vouch for this person's identity.

 This is slightly oversimplified and so sounds more complex than it is in practice. Many people may not think they need the security that OpenPGP can provide but another reason to use it is that there are users that genuinely need the security this system can provide and they can use OpenPGP with more success if more people can use OpenPGP. OpenPGP is like a telephone... it works best if you have someone else to converse with. One major example of a legitimate use for OpenPGP would be people communicating with journalists, not all countries are tolerant of journalism and a free press so they may use heavy handed tactics such as dispatching their police forces on perfectly peaceful civilians if they learn of their identities. If everyone or at least a large number of people are using OpenPGP then the one person needing the security it provides for life and death matters can more easily stay safe since they cannot be singled out of the crowd.

 Please consider using OpenPGP, programs exist that can integrate with most email providers and it can also be used for a vast array of privacy and security related tasks. Considering all the functionality OpenPGP provides it really is not that difficult to use. OpenPGP is far more than just email encryption, it also has the ability to function like a digital identity that is decentralized by design and still really secure. OpenPGP can be used to protect sensitive documents and also to and and remove something called ASCII Armour... which is a way to transform any file into a format that uses nothing but letters and numbers for transmission over mediums that cannot handle normal files (email usually does this internally because some email services will corrupt files that are not transformed this way).

 Given how long OpenPGP has been available, I am somewhat disappointed that most people have never heard of it. Even if you have not heard of OpenPGP until today, you can be sure that it was one of the technical inventions that make the modern world possible since it was one of the foundations that allowed us civilians to use strong encryption that we take for granted such as the HTTPS standard that most websites support, and is a necessity for things like online banking. Encryption is not just for the so called "bad guys" but instead is the best tool (and often only tool) to protect the general public from said "bad guys". With strong cryptography, even the full power of an enemy nation-state cannot break even the keys of the average civilian in any reasonable time frame (reasonable being in less than 100 000 years running the attack on a large super computer).
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Dell XPS 7590 review after one year of usage.

Last summer I bought a new laptop because my ASUS K501UX was literally falling apart. This new laptop was the Dell XPS 7590. Good but has some room for improvement. I flashed the SSD to an external image file on an external drive so that I would be able to flash the machine back to factory defaults if I ever needed to. This is my personal standard practice when getting a new laptop. I am happy with the machine and while it is not the very best of machines it was the best decision I could have made at the time given the constraints I had to work with. I hope someone at Dell sees this and will consider some of my suggestions.

I installed Linux Mint 20 on the machine immediately after confirming it all worked and that I would not be sending it back for any defective parts related reasons. It actually ran Linux mostly fine but the graphics chip just would not shut down and was burning through a battery in less than two hours that normally lasts for eleven hours. Oddly enough I solved this power draw issue when I installed the Nvidia drivers and set the GPU to maximum performance... not sure why. The best battery life I get is when the laptop has the graphics driver set to "ondemand" mode and for some reason the GPU starts drawing its full power whenever constantly whenever the "powersave" mode is selected that should in theory power off the Nvidia GPU and only use the Intel one.

Compatibility is good. It runs Linux almost the way I want and this unit has been a far better experience than my ASUS K501UX has ever been... though it did cost a lot more to buy so that might have something to do with that. However, the number of USB ports could be improved because I only have three ports total if I include the USB type C port. I would have liked to see a second USB A port or USB C port on the right hand side of the machine where the battery meter is located (love that meter though, quite handy).

I have a few issues I want to see on future models moving forward if they're not already in current XPS models.

1. The display while not bad for color once calibrated should - ideally -  not have a strong green tint to it. Displaycal was not happy with me about that... but it does look alright once calibrated.
2. The display in the base model is really slow for a modern laptop. Fine for office work or photography but anything with significant motion is going to show slight streaks on the display even at the relatively slow but standard 60hz refresh rate. Please make the display pixels a little faster because even at 60hz the mouse makes trails rather than discrete images of the pointer.
3. Cleaner audio circuitry would have been nice to have, the included headphone jack is not bad and not exactly to be taken for granted these days but I would like to not be able to hear a hissing in the background when a quiet but not silent sound is playing (the amp cuts out during silence to mask its hissing, clever but I can hear it cut in and out a little too much)
4. Ports. We need ports. USB A is not yet dead which is why I got the last model with both USB C and USB A (both the rounded and square USB ports for the less tech savy). Please add another USB port either type A or type C for a total of four ports because that makes things so much easier when trying to keep a mouse dongle plugged in.
5. CPU. The Intel CPU was king in laptops for a while but now they have fallen behind AMD for power usage and performance. If at all possible please make a model with either an AMD or ARM CPU even if that means scrapping the Nvidia graphics for those models.
6. Graphics. The GPU from Nvidia is not slow and performs well in my limited use case but there is a huge amount of lag on the screen. This is not present when something is running on the Intel graphics. Please either wire the GPU to either the HDMI or to the USB C DisplayPort Alt mode or use a MUX chip (allows both GPUs to talk to all displays and switches them for you) so the GPU can draw directly to the screen and there will be no noticeable lag.
7. Linux. The 13 inch version has a "developer edition" model that ships with Linux preloaded. Even if price is the same I would love to see officially supported Linux preloaded on the 15 inch version preferably with some basic optimizations for the graphics and battery life.
8. Keyboard. It's not bad but I would prefer more key travel and some slight tweaks even at the cost of one more millimetre extra thickness.
9. Basic ability to tune the fan curves would be nice since I would prefer to have the fans more aggressively ramp up for more performance when plugged in but keep their current and quiet profile when on battery.
10. If possible I would like some Ethernet port even if its a folding port or something. I rarely use Ethernet when not gaming because the Wifi 6 card is really fast but there are rare times where Ethernet makes my life so much easier but if I forget my dongle then I cannot use Ethernet... Even a low quality connector for Ethernet would suffice for me for the once a month I need Ethernet.
    

Overall this machine is not bad even though it does not have a Linux preloaded option. I have not tested on Windows nor do I intend to run Windows on it ever again. My next machine will likely be a gaming machine though for their superior cooling systems that allow the CPU to run faster for longer and also for their usually slightly better keyboards with more travel due in part to the thicker case they have to make room for airflow. I may buy another Dell in the future because I like to support them releasing a service manual and selling parts like the battery. The ability to repair a device even in theory makes the device feel like it's yours rather than a leased unit the belongs to someone else. I like that it can charge on USB C PD power adapters so I can leave the full power charger at home and save on weight and space in my bag. Even though it only does 60 watt USB Power Delivery from a non-Dell adapter, just having the option to use a universal power adapter than can replace my phone charger is really handy. Mind you it still uses the old style barrel jack for most of the charging which I really don't mind so long as it has 30 or 60 watt USB Power Delivery compatibility for those times I am unable to lug around the included charger.

I did not mention the webcam because like most laptops it is unusably bad. I have been on video calls with others using their laptop webcams from all different manufacturers and they are generally low quality thanks in part to their pitiful size optics and sensor along with the generally poor lighting that most people have near their PC... I never use the included webcam in my devices and generally disable them in the BIOS settings so the system and programs are not even aware there is a webcam. I plan to remove the wires powering the webcam if I ever find out where they are in the machine at some point.I recommend using your phone camera instead of a webcam since everyone has a phone these days and their cameras have smarter computer algorithms and better optics behind them than a laptop webcam. Personally I use a Nikon Z5 mirrorless camera with its massive full frame sized sensor (FX format in Nikon land means full frame). Because the sensor is the size of a 35mm film exposure and the lenses were made to specs that professional photographers can use, my camera will decimate any and all webcams in any and all lighting. However I do not recommend people drop a few grand on photography gear just to do a video call... even if everyone notices how much clearer and cleaner my video feed is compared to their phone's "selfie" camera or their laptop webcam. The rear camera on a modern phone is good enough for most video conferences and doesn't cost you anything extra to use since you already bought the cell phone for other reasons. I use the large camera so I can get away with dimmer lights that I find more comfortable and also because I already bought the camera because I got interested in photography so for me the cost to use the camera was essentially zero.

I would have preferred Dell add a second NVMe slot for a second SSD so I could maybe keep a copy of Windows on a small SSD and keep Linux on the main SSD or keep a Windows virtual machine on the second SSD and Linux of the main SSD or even just use the second SSD as a media and bulk storage slot with a cheap SSD to keep my main (and expensive) SSD free from my media library thus allowing more write cycles on the main SSD before failure. SSD drives last a long time but each cell wears out a little each time it get written to, most SSDs have a ton of cells due to being hundreds of gigabytes to a few terabytes in size and also have smart wear leveling programming that extends their lifespan by spreading out all the wear so no one area fails before the entire drive is pooched. Empty SSDs can spread wear out easier and thus will be able to write data faster than a full drive and will also survive more data being written before they wear out... it also allows me to keep my media and games on one drive and just move that from laptop to laptop without having to actually copy anything over... even with my network where files are stored on a local NAS and not on "the cloud" this is a significant time savings because most of my network is standard gigabit speeds... or Wi-Fi which is even slower than normal Ethernet, but most people store their files on "the cloud" which is really just a fancy way to say their data is stored on some server farm somewhere in the world and would have to be downloaded at the painfully slow speeds most people call residential internet. A local NAS is faster than the traditional cloud but even it is far slower than the time it takes me to transfer the data that could be stored on a large secondary SSD by physically moving the SSD into the new machine.

Dell was not my first choice but they were an okay choice. Lets hope they improve their line up in the future. The XPS is good but not as great as I would have wanted for the price I paid... though its not like there were any better options for me at the time... at least in the under $4000 CAD price bracket. I prefer not to spend four grand on a laptop if I can avoid doing so. I would rather save that money for something more meaningful like a camping trip with friends or something.

Electronic voting. WHY!?!?!?

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 I live in Alberta, Canada, I have lived here since the day I was born. Canada has a sort of democracy for our government as many people know. Despite our elections being lower stake than those for our southern neighbor (The USA), our elections are still to be considered a target for those with evil intent. I do not understand why we should support E-Voting, I do not understand what possible advantage there is to an electronic election. More importantly, lets assume the security of an electronic election is higher than a traditional one... how do explain this security to someone without a background in technology like many senior citizens and also most casual users? It's impossible. Not only are electronic elections a bad idea for security and trust reasons but also they are not solving any problems with regards to elections that I am aware of. Tom Scott with Computerphile has done a better job of explaining this than I ever could. I value both privacy and security, my family has been in the security industry for four generations (Great grandpa, grandpa, and father are/were all locksmiths for most of their lives). My mind is geared to see flaws in systems and find ways to make them more secure, and the attack surface on physical ballot voting is far smaller than electronic voting.
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When you feel droopy, have a puppy.

 My dog doesn't exactly listen when taking photos... she usually looks directly away from the camera. Here she is after her trip to the groomer and a few weeks later when she had a nap in the sun.

I'm not looking at the camera, but I am fluffy from the groomer.

 

Ok I will look at the camera this one time but only because there might be a squirrel inside it.

 

Ummm... Are you going to give me a belly scratch or just point that camera at me all day?

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After a few weeks I found her napping in the sun. Here she is feeling like dozing off at my feet. Fortunately I had a camera close by.

 

I'm dozing in the sun. 

 

I sense a disturbance.

And back to dozing in the sun

My eye is drifting awake... I sense you moving.

 

Roll a little to my side and now back to dozing. 

First city skyline photos.

 A while ago I purchased a Nikon Z5 camera and a few lenses for said camera. I have since been trying different types of photography. A short while ago I took a few shots of the city of Edmonton which is the closest city to my home. 

Fixes on my apps

It has come to my attention that some things in my apps are not working. I am working on some updates that will fix most if not all those issues. I thank anyone who has sent in a bug report because I cannot fix problems I don't know about. Due to my busy schedule I do need some time to actually build and test the new patches but they are making progress.

To those using my apps and having some issues I ask that you try them again after their next update as that should fix most if not all the issues I am aware of.

I also ask anyone using my apps in another language than English to report any errors in translation since I am unable to afford professional translators.

I would also like to give credit to certain customers of mine that have voluntarily translated some of my apps both in part and as a whole. You deserve recognition and I willing to put your names in a credit if you permit me. However, I will not publish your name or other information without your consent. If you wish to have a credit either on this blog or imprinted on your translation then all you need to do is send me an email specifying what to publish.

If anyone has bug reports I want to hear them. Though I would prefer said reports in an email rather than a review so I can converse with you and replicate your issue on my bench where I can begin working on a patch.

I am open to suggestions and requests as always. My contact page is here.

I appreciate your patience as I balance this development, University, and my current employment.

An open letter to fellow Android app developers

Dear Android App developers,

    As all app developers find out eventually, the app manifest file specifies certain properties about your application, one of these things is where the application shall be stored on the users device. As some users know, Android supports using external storage such as an SD card, but they soon find that only some apps are able to be moved to the SD card. This is completely up to us, we decide how our apps are stored. The user may not be aware of how this works but aside from rooting their device they have no choice if we don't allow them.

    This feature of Android was intended to allow developers to ensure certain applications are on storage that is typically soldered into their device. This is really good for applications such as custom launcher screens, live wallpapers, custom keyboards, and background services. Apps that need to be accessible at all times should be stored on the user's internal storage, however this storage is very valuable because it cannot be upgraded. Most applications such as games, many social media apps, web browsers, some media players, and most utility tools like databases and tutorials should allow the user to store them on their SD card. My two apps for instance are very tiny to install but they are set to prefer the user's SD card, the user is allowed to move them but by default they shall not take up any valuable space on the user's internal storage, we developers should allow the user to move the app to their preferred storage whenever possible and some apps should prefer the external storage as mine do. Most users won't move our apps to the external storage but for the users with limited space, a large SD card, and/or basic technical knowledge the option to move apps to the SD card is a welcome freedom and will allow them to keep your app even after their internal space is used up.

    The SD cards are getting cheaper and many Android phones and tablets accept them as storage. Allowing the user to choose which storage will hold our apps is a basic courtesy in my view and most of the time the user will leave the apps installed to their internal storage so there is little reason to force the user to keep their app library on the internal storage unless the app is something like a background service program or a keyboard. Developers don't need to rebuild their apps to allow users to store it on the SD card, I can conform that you merely need to change one line in the manifest file. Here is a link to Google's documentation.

    Please allow users to move our apps to their SD cards, it's easy in nearly all cases as you only need to change one line in one file. Allowing users the option to move the app to the SD card but installing to the internal storage by default won't harm their performance in any way but it does allow them to use cheaper storage on apps that take a lot of space. The only time a user would have an issue is if they unmount the SD card or put the phone into USB storage mode (to my knowledge this is deprecated by MTP), in this case the app would be temporarily unavailable until the SD card is mounted again along with everything else on the SD card such as their media library. Most if not all users who know how to put an app on the SD card will also know about this issue with the SD card when it's unmounted and would not find it an issue, and with MTP the majority of users won't ever have their SD unmounted unless they are swapping it for a larger one, in which case they would also be copying all their data to the new card.

    If we allow users the option to save their stuff to the SD card then they can save their valuable space for apps such as keyboards and will be able to keep our apps longer than apps that hog the internal storage. Since I have made this point, I will continue to allow users to move my apps to their SD card, with the exception of certain services which need to be always there. Any games and apps I make that can be stored on the SD card will be either set to prefer the SD card or merely set to allow the user to move them at their digression, and other than a keyboard or launcher there really isn't much out there that needs the internal storage. It doesn't take very long to add a single line to the manifest or gradle file that allows the app to be moved to the SD card.

An open letter to hardware manufacturers

Computers run on electrical energy, and most if not all the energy that runs their processing circuitry gets converted into waste heat. A computer with an under-powered cooling system is at risk of failure from overheating if it ever runs a program that puts a load on it. We don't see machines burning out often under load anymore because modern components have protections built in that will throttle down their speed if they run too hot and shutdown if they cannot keep themselves below the rated maximum limit. This does not give you a license to be lazy and pair a powerful component like a high end CPU with a poorly designed cooling system because the component will be slowed by thermal limits and the user will have wasted their money on an expensive part that will never reach its full potential. Users are not always told by sales people to consider their cooling solution and will therefore buy a computer that is heavily bottle-necked by a poor design, and any attempt by people like me to explain this is met with skepticism and in some cases accusations of brand loyalty against their decision. Users deserve to get their full value from their purchases and they aren't always educated on the complexities of picking the best product, this is not their fault as few people are an expert in all fields and most typically defer to those they trust such as you, the manufacturers.

I get that many users want thinner and lighter machines that are more powerful, but these are mutually exclusive traits. Most users will think that a MacBook Pro with a Core i9 will be faster than my desktop Ryzen 5 1600X due to the fact the laptop has a Core i9 but they'd be surprised when they end up thermal throttling and my much cheaper desktop takes the lead. You can have a powerful machine but if it cannot run at full speed due to thermal throttling, not only will it be a waste of money but it will also have a shorter service life and lose performance per watt ratings and therefore get less done with a given power supply. Many users are unaware of this fault of their gadgets, and won't notice until a properly built machine is shown to them. This ignorance it not their fault, and it's something we all need to help with. This however does not mean that you should sell them a shiny machine that won't perform at its full level.

In a laptop or small PC, keep thermals and power usage as a top priority and use parts with a lower TDP and increase the performance of the cooling system. Doing so will allow the machine to run faster, quieter, and more energy efficient. My PC for example has a CPU cooler that's about double what's required as that was the only cooler in stock at the time. Due to the overkill nature of the cooler, my CPU fans never spin up past 20% and my machine is quieter than an otherwise equal machine with a smaller cooler. This also leaves headroom to overclock and squeeze out a tiny bit more speed. My laptop suffered from overheating and a similar cooling system to the MacBook Pro line, I modified the cooling system, replaced the thermal compound, wired the fans together, and separated the intake and exhaust vents, and the result is a machine that is 10 degrees Celsius cooler, quieter, and more stable than the factory configuration. I should not have had to modify my laptop but it shows the gains are not only for an enthusiast machine as my laptop is never used for heavy loads now that I have a desktop. Users typically don't have the skill to pull off such a modification (I barely did), it's up to you to make a good product that won't need such a drastic step to keep it running as advertised.

I'm not asking to have the thin and light machines and tablets discontinued, I get that people like them, and I may buy one someday. What I'm asking for is appropriate design that takes engineering over a check box an a spec sheet. A user will be better served by a product that has a less powerful and power hungry CPU and GPU if their machine cannot cool the more powerful one. Maybe a user is better off to go with a dual core CPU on a small laptop than the six core inferno that will bake after a second or two of moderate load. Please design your products to run cooler and more efficiently before you slap a hot running CPU inside to check a box. I humbly ask that you be transparent about how and why devices run and why a more powerful CPU is not always faster. It makes the job of local nerds much easier when we don't have to explain the laws of thermodynamics to explain why a machine is running loud, hot, and slow.

I am humbly asking that you put engineering above the spec sheet, market cooling and/or real world performance as much as you market the weight and size. And maybe you'd consider making enthusiast and professional grade machines again, but maybe more professional or enthusiast grade with matching cooling, power, and balanced part selection. What used to be common sense should be common once again.

Two apps on the store, one to go.

I have been posting lately about my apps being placed on the Play Store. I have now released my second app through the store. First I released Crypto Helper to the store and despite having no advertising it got downloads in countries I forgot I released it in, Although I have yet to make a single cent on it because I put it on sale from the beginning. I then released my second app, Genetic Helper, which is now available through the Play Store.

While I made these applications for private usage amongst my friends I decided that I would share them with the world free here on my blog, and then I figured I would invest a few dollars to buy a developer membership with Google and release the apps on the store where they would be easier to download. I am hoping to eventually make my initial investment back on my apps, but I am unsure if that will happen. I the mean time I hope to have them up and in view of any employers I may work for in the future as a means to demonstrate my progress.

Here is some images linking to the store pages for Crypto Helper and Genetic Helper:

My first Play store listing.

I found my app Crypto Helper on the Play store, it's not exactly easy to find unless you know what to type in but perhaps with time and search engine optimization I can move it up a few in the listings and maybe get a few downloads.

I have decided to put it on sale for free, I can always make it free later but I cannot go back to paid so a solution that allows me to weigh my options while allowing early users to use it is to make a sale.

Download it on the Play store here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.dalton.cryptohelper

Lessons from building a PC.

For a while now I have been using my desktop PC as my main system, I prefer my laptop to my phone, and my desktop to them both which seems backwards compared to the popular trend of smaller and lighter computers and favoring phones and tablets running phone software over traditional computing powerhouses. As a programmer, hobbyist, enthusiast, and gamer I cannot understand this trend of ditching traditional computers for phones, though I can understand wanting a small and light laptop at the expense of power, though I cannot understand why a PC is neglected in that case as a general work horse to cover for the lack of power in the laptop.

I built my PC long before I needed it, this was due to all the parts I wanted going on sale at the same time for deals that I could not pass over. I built it with expansion in mind as things like RAM are very expensive right now and I don't need them just yet.

Specs:

1. CPU - AMD Ryzen 5 1600X not yet over clocked
2. GPU - AMD Radeon rx 580 8GB GDDR5 - Sapphire Nitro version - You need a GPU to add a screen to Ryzen at least when I bought it
3. 16GB DDR4 RAM configured as 1x 16GB Corsair vengeance RAM with the lowest latency I could find
4. 512GB Samsung PRO M.2 SSD, NVMe based
5. EVGA 1000 watt PSU similar to this but the mother board connector is not detachable.
6. All resting on the ASUS ROG Strix B350-F full ATX motherboard which was the cheapeast in stock at the time due to the sale.

Although I should have used 2 or 4 sticks of RAM with less capacity if I wanted to stay within recommended configurations, I left 3 slots open for expansion when the cost falls, and I bought 16GB when I only really need 6 or 8GB because 16GB sticks should have plenty of capacity for my future expansion once prices fall.

My CPU came without a heat sink and the only one in stock large enough to handle a future over clock was the Corsair H100i v2 AIO water cooler, the sale made it the same price as an air cooler so I was happy to take the aesthetic upgrade. Six cores are nice but I only ever use 3 so accidentally leaving a heavy application running makes little to no perceivable dip in performance for me.

About six months before building the machine I purchased the power supply, this was because I had some cards to try out in a loaned machine with a power supply barely big enough for its modest CPU. I had no idea how big I needed for this rig I would build but I knew I going to have multiple GPU's installed so I went overkill with a 1000 watt unit. The advantage despite the price of a vastly over sized power supply is the unit's eco mode which powers off the fan below a temperature threshold rarely powers up the fan unless the entire system is under an artificial stress test load. It's also got plenty of room to expand and remain in the most efficient part of its efficiency curve.

The SSD was the right price, thats the only reason I bought it. As a 512 GB pro model with very good speeds it has a hefty price tag normally but I got it for less than my vastly inferior SATA based SSD. It was less to buy this SSD than to buy the consumer model which was not on sale at the time.

My GPU handles loads quite well, I notice buttery smooth game play even with a spare monitor connected for other programs like recorders with noise levels low enough my CPU fans drown out the GPU fans. The only game it has trouble with is Factorio, I don't think this is a fault of the card or my CPU because my vastly inferior laptop is exactly the same with the stuttering and 56 FPS maximum. This was not an issue until a certain upgrade, and the game is in preview so I expect this is an optimization issue and not a hardware or software issue. I purchased an AMD graphics card because although the gap between AMD and Nvidia is narrow I hear more efficiency in computing on GPU from AMD than Nvidia, and since I built this rig as a work station and not a gaming machine I prioritized computing over gaming. I also purchased an AMD unit because of crossfire which is more friendly to me than SLI due to less restrictions on hardware and software. I am impressed with the cooling system but I feel my airflow needs tweaking as I can feel hot spots under the card where there should be cool, fresh air. This issue will be rectified once I get some new case fans and move one cable that is blocking one of the card's exhaust areas.

My only issue with the motherboard is the placement of the PCIe slots, I wish they moved the SSD space down and moved the full sized slots up exactly one spot so that I could physically fit 3 cards in my case without an extension cable. Moving the PCIe slots would also allow a better view of the LED lit chipset heatsink which is decorative and would be nice to see rather than hidden by the video card.

I learned that sometimes following the manual is a bad idea, my AIO cooler manual says to hook the two fans into the pump block and plug the pump into the CPU fan header but this draws too much current for my motherboard and it's better for BIOS fan control to hook the two fans into the CPU fan headers and the pump block into the dedicated AIO pump header. I also learned how much more pleasant gaming hardware is to work with than the hardware in typical consumer computers, my memory was not installed correctly when I pulled it to work on something near by to lower risk of damaging my only memory module, and some POST code lights helped me figure out it was a memory issue and re-seat the module, there was no video output so those lights saved me a lot of trouble. A luxury I did not have on any consumer machines I've worked with.

This project taught me about cable management and airflow, and I'm about to make a serial port and SATA bracket for my micro controller programming and RAID with my hard drives in their external enclosure. I also learned to check ho many drives physically fit into a computer case before buying it but I still did not have much choice at the time. the case i have will only hold 4 desktop drives but it would fit 5 or 6 mobile drives.