The Nerd You Know - When ‘Off and On Again’ Just Isn’t Enough

03/23/2026

Sometimes, even the parts you design and dont use - are just good fun. And, you usually learn something new in the process.

02/10/2026

Ignorance is not an injury. Stop institutionalizing dependency. Thanks g.skill for all the amazing kits of ram you produce. Logic wand spell of the day, " reductio ad absurdum"

01/28/2026

"It's convenient", is Corpo speak for, " we don't want you to have it ( subtext: so we will make it inconvenient to own and incentives your reliance on us)" . You only become a multi million dollar company through extraction economics. Sovereign economics isn't that profitable but drives the independence of the individual. Keep that in mind when you hear certain people speak. Data sovereignty only continues when data reliance isn't profitable.

Jeff Bezos once outlined a future where owning computing power wouldn’t make sense. “That's not going to last. It makes no sense. You're going to buy compute off the grid. That's AWS.” Rising RAM prices due to AI demand could make that prediction feel increasingly relevant.

01/24/2026

Alright, this is a fresh AM4 Build. CAD designed internal plates work integrated cable management, GPU support, and Screen mount. 5800x3d/G.Skills 32gb 3600mts-CL16 Ram/Asus B550 Motherboard/PowerColor RedDevil 6950xt on Liquid Metal/1tb NvME/ 8 Asus 28mm thick Fans ( 3 intake are Reverse Flow)/Thermaltake 240 AIO/ Coolermaster v750 80+ Gold SFF Power supply /Windows 11 - Already debloated and under-volted for cool/fast performance.

Solid Proof that AM4 is still VERY relevant.
It's up for sale. Shoot me a DM if interested.

01/24/2026

Alright, this is a fresh AM4 Build. CAD designed internal plates work integrated cable management, GPU support, and Screen mount. 5800x3d/G.Skills 32gb 3600mts-CL16 Ram/Asus B550 Motherboard/PowerColor RedDevil 6950xt on Liquid Metal/1tb NvME/ 8 Asus 28mm thick Fans ( 3 intake are Reverse Flow)/Thermaltake 240 AIO/ Coolermaster v750 80+ Gold SFF Power supply /Windows 11 - Already debloated and under-volted for cool/fast performance.

Solid Proof that AM4 is still VERY relevant.
It's up for sale. Shoot me a DM if interested.

01/23/2026

Quick peek at a custom system that will be for sale soon !!

01/23/2026

Hi friends!
I get asked this a lot, so I figured I’d share it with the community 🙂

With the current AM5 RAM shortages at the consumer level, a lot of people are building AM4 systems again — and honestly, I love this. AM4 is still very viable, and most people do not need an AM5 system for daily use or gaming.

This is a simplification, but it’s a really solid rule to follow: when buying RAM — and it applies to both AM4 amd AM5
RAM setup matters more than people realize

For example:
Someone bought a system with 4×8GB sticks for a total of 32GB of RAM.
👉 This is actually the slowest configuration for most consumer systems.

When all four RAM slots are filled, AM4 systems usually won’t run at their advertised speeds, even if XMP/EXPO is enabled in the BIOS. The system often falls back to standard JEDEC speeds instead.

This setup is great for productivity workloads (Blender, rendering, heavy multitasking).
But it’s not ideal for gaming or daily use.

If gaming or everyday use is your goal, you want only two RAM slots populated, specifically A2 and B2.
( When counting slots starting from the CPU side, you want slot 1 empty, slot 2 populated, slot 3 empty, alot 4 populated).

This applies to both AMD and Intel systems.

👉 16GB in two slots with XMP/EXPO enabled will often outperform 32GB spread across all four slots.

If you want 32GB, get it as 2×16GB sticks, not four sticks.
What to look for:
Higher MT/s (memory speed)
Lower CL timings (latency)

A good example for AM4:
3600 MT/s
CL16–19–19–36

Quick way to think about it:
Lower MT/s (3400 / 3200) = slower communication with the CPU

Higher CL numbers (17 / 18 / 19+) = slower response between the RAM sticks

If you’re buying RAM second-hand:
Ask for a photo or video of both sticks installed and working together
Ask for a clear photo of the stickers on both sticks
(This shows MT/s, CL timings, and kit part numbers)

Why this matters: A lot of people are splitting RAM kits right now because of shortages. Others then try to buy single sticks and combine them into a “kit” — and later find out it doesn’t work properly - this shows up in Failure to Boot , or Random Crashes.

Even if two sticks have the same part number, that does not guarantee they’ll work together.

RAM kits are intentionally matched at the factory based on silicon quality and electrical characteristics.
This process is called "binning".

Final step (don’t skip this)
After installing new RAM:
Go into BIOS
Enable XMP (Intel) or EXPO (AMD)
Otherwise, you’re leaving performance on the table.

01/07/2026

Designing a new AIO pump cover for the 360 - design will mimic the zotac 5080 amp extreme (Fusion360).

01/06/2026

Here you go, the btf HS420 from HAVN. Moded by the Nerd You Know. Still deciding where to go from here, I'm thinking cyber brutalism.

12/28/2025

Decided to BTF mod the HAVN HS420 and run an x870 auros stealth ice - so good!