Made use of some Memorial Day deals and ordered parts to rebuild and update my computer.

For the tech junkies out there that want the specs, my current rig (actually picture in my last post getting a good cleaning...) is rocking a 12 year old AMD FX 8350 CPU, Cooler Master V8 CPU cooler, Asus M5A97 R2.0 motherboard, HyperX Fury 32gb DDR3 RAM, a pair of XFX RX480 8gb GPU's, a single Crucial 1tb SSD, a Corsair 750w PSU, wrapped in an Antec 902 case.

I'll be keeping the case, PSU, and 1tb SSD (to use for extra storage), and one of the RX 480's as I've found that crossfire is pretty useless, and a single RX 480 actually serves my needs well enough for now.

Ordered and will be installing a Ryzen 7 3700X CPU, Asrock B450M Pro4 motherboard (same board I put in my wife's Ryzen 3 build and it's been working great), 32gb Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200, and a WD Black 500gb NVME to use as my boot and OS disk.

I'm not into overclocking any more like I use to be some years ago, I've been using my FX 8350 at stock speeds for YEARS, so I plan to leave the 3700X alone too.

The upgrade is long overdue...

 

To go with my computer upgrade, I have some RGB fans coming in. Wanting to mount them in the front of my case, the original design would cover up 90% of the RGB lighting, so 3D printing to the rescue! Modeled up a simple bracket to allow me to mount a 120mm fan behind the original front grills, while leaving the front of the fan otherwise unobstructed so there's no blockage of the RGB lighting.

Just waiting on the fans to come in, but preliminary test fitting with a random 120mm fan proves the bracket fits at least! This is absolutely my favorite thing about 3D printing, the fact that you can whip up a useful product for a project that does not exist anywhere else

 

With all this talk of 3d Printing, i've been thinking about 3D modeling some of the interior trim pieces for our trucks. Such as the brackets for power seat controls (heater and lumbar switches), ash tray trim bezel, coin holder inserts on column shifted S10s, etc. all the little pieces that are prone to bending or breakage for constant use/abuse that nobody makes. The fact that the interior is all plastic kinda sucks but with the advent of 3D printing it may actually be a saving grace.
Send some ideas over for what parts may benifit from having a model on hand and i'll see what i can do.

 

I've always wanted to turn the CD tray in the center console into something more useful. Not sure what to be honest...

Even just a blank open hole without the slots would be nice, as my phone is JUST too wide to fit flat in that storage hole because of the slits. Being a CD holder is absolutely useless for me... I haven't used a CD in I don't know how long now... Between using music stored on a USB drive, bluetooth streaming, and now just using an Android radio to run Spotify, I don't think I even OWN any CDs lol.

Would even be cool if it were sectioned off to have an upper and lower opening within it


I did make a CB radio mount a while back that fits in where the factory tape deck would go. It looks neat, I have yet to actually hook it up though lol

 

My business is all about communication with people and potential clients of our company, and talking to them just online - is not so bad, during quarantine.

 

Threw a cheap Harbor Freight winch on my 2wd ATV today.

Hopefully it'll help at least a little the next time I find myself in a sticky situation with it...

 

Got my computer "rebuilt". Between the old platform and this new platform, there's simply no comparison on raw speed... it's almost stupid...

The new lighting looks pretty sweet too

 

I got laid off as of this week from my pipe fab company. Good thing is they already submitted our unemployment info last week so it's already being processed. Got two months of the increased stimulus payments to catch. Gonna use this time and take a two month vacation before looking in earnest for work. Let the corona virus piddle out.

In the mean time I have some house projects to work on. Also when I bought my wife's blazer last year the dealer broke the a/c clutch plug from behind the clutch. I have a spare compressor from another pull I'm gonna swap out and have the a'/c recharged. Right now both systems are holding charge. (yes the replacement was taken out of another blazer complete, charged and intact)

 

If you just replace the clutch, instead of the whole compressor, you won't have to worry about recharging it.

 

I've looked into it. Looks beyond my skill set.