I just bought a Corsair 750D air so I could have some optical drive bays. got a zillion cd's dvds to rip yet. plus tons of software going back to the 90s that need an optical drive. also used one of the bays for a memory card reader usb3.2 thingy.
yeah that happened to me with the cooler on my wifes 3800X. pulled the wraith to install an H115I and had some seepage on the socket. an acid brush and a little deoxit cleaned it right up. no issues at all.
my first 486 I built had a Trident 8900 isa card with 512K on it. true POS but all I could afford at the time.
the Trident 9400 VLB i stuck on my next build was better but still crappy. was not happy until I got my first ATI All in wonder card.
Nice! . the last Intel CPU I had in a system of mine was a 486/25 SX
went from that to the K5 then K6 then the K6-2 K6-III then into the the 64bit chips all I have are shown here
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2 still in use. my current system is theFX8350 and wifes is the Phenom. new systems with 3950X for me and a 3800X...
well hell. been trying to get a 3950x close to retail for a few weeks now. I can wait but do wish I could backorder one someplace. in the meantime I will use the 3800X I bought to upgrade my wife's system and hold off doing hers until I can get a 3950 .
had an Auros Master,Corsair...
I see no reason to ever order another ASUS product. I have built thousands of pc's since 1993 and had my share of RMA issues but if everything the OP is stating checks out then I am done with them regardless of the outcome of this situation.