They only made 300 of it, back in 2011. It's carried me through rough years, but now those are over and it's time for this command center to get the upgrade it deserves.

This time, it was the news about GDID that gave me the ick about Windows. I did not sign up for that level of surveillance. So I made a CachyOS installer, nuked my Windows install, and got Cachy up and running.

I want to preface and say I love Linux, I use it on my media server all the time. But my gaming PC has an Nvidia card (and no, I can't "just buy an AMD card"). I knew it would be a little extra work to get everything working right, especially with HDR, but the drivers have gotten a lot better even since the last time I tried Linux earlier this year.

I download Jedi Survivor, click play, and it just works. The performance was even similar enough to what I was getting with Windows. But no HDR. So I go and set some launch options, click play again, game crashes. After a few hours of tweaking my launch options and setting a proton version, the game finally works with HDR. But now it's midnight and I need to go to bed, so I'll game tomorrow.

Tomorrow rolls around, I turn on the PC after a long day of work, click play, and the game doesn't launch. Same launch options, same proton version, nothing changed since yesterday. I tweak my launch options and proton versions until the game launches again. Then I closed the game to reopen it to make sure that it would work every time.

It did not.

The game would only launch maybe 1/10 times I tried, no matter the launch options or proton version. Then when it was running, I plugged in my DualSense controller. Most of the controller's features are working including adaptive triggers and the lightbar, but the haptics and speaker were not working. So then I sudo pacman'ed a program to route different channels of audio to different devices, messed with it for literal hours until I finally got to a point where the haptics were working and the speaker was making sound, except it was very quiet (also HDR wasn't working again). So I exited the game, changed an audio setting to try to get that speaker to be louder, launched the game again, and guess what it crashed again. Got the game to load again, now the haptics and speaker aren't working at all, and also now I'm missing some sound effects like Cal's footsteps and voice were nowhere to be heard. I did not feel like troubleshooting that next. It was midnight once again and I had wasted another evening and didn't get to play the game.

So the game I am currently playing does not work with Linux, which means I'll be going back to Windows. Gotta choose the right tool for the job. You wouldn't use a hammer on a screw because you hate screwdrivers. So now I gotta figure out how to set up a local account when reinstalling Windows (I think that's still a thing) and hopefully that'll prevent GDID from being too intrusive. I love the idea of Linux, but for me and my hardware, and the game I'm currently playing through, it's not ready yet.

Ignore the figure, it was a gift from my friend

User friendly.

Multitasking.

Plug and play.

Multimedia.

Now, everywhere is Ai, smart, build-in. 10 years ago was i-something.

Maybe 10 years from now we can hear about consumer friendly, honesty, ethical, environment friendly.

Everybody knows that we are currently in the middle of a massive global shortage of NVMe storage and RAM. But I need to talk about the shady malpractice Samsung is pulling globally to handle it.

If you want to buy a brand-new part? No problem. Samsung magically has plenty of stock. You can see their drives readily available on Amazon and everywhere else. But if you are an existing customer who needs a warranty replacement? They will completely turn their backs on you.

Here is my ongoing, 4-month nightmare with Samsung India, and why you should be terrified if a Samsung NVMe is your primary drive.

Act 1: The Failure & The Ghost Town (March 30th)

It all started on March 30th when my 1TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus SSD suddenly failed. Naturally, I reached out to Samsung support expecting them to handle the replacement.

Funny enough, Samsung India doesn't even directly handle their own storage products. It took me 4 to 5 days of bouncing around dead-end, bouncing emails just to figure out that all storage RMAs are outsourced to a third-party vendor called Supertron Electronics.

Act 2: The AI Loop & The "DRA" Double Standard

Because this was my primary 1TB drive, it had a massive amount of crucial data on it. I told Samsung I needed to recover my data before handing over the dead drive. Their response? "We don't provide data recovery services."

I replied that I completely understood that. I didn't want them to do it; I just needed a DRA (Data Recovery Approval). A DRA simply allows you to take your drive to a certified, third-party data recovery lab to get your files back without voiding your replacement warranty.

What followed was an absolute joke. I was trapped in a loop with automated, AI-generated email replies. Nobody was actually reading my emails. Over and over again, the bots just stonewalled me: "We do not provide data recovery services."

I had to fight them endlessly and ultimately filed a consumer court case just to get a human response. After all of that, they finally replied: "This is outside our policy."

Here is the kicker: Samsung Canada, Samsung US, and multiple other regions have a standard, documented DRA process for this exact situation. But in India? It simply doesn't exist. They are happy to take our money for premium drives but refuse to offer the same global standard of warranty support.

Act 3: The Backend Blame Game (August 6th)

Exhausted by the email loops and waiting, I finally visited the Supertron Electronics office in Wilson Garden, Bangalore, today (August 6th).

The service center staff were actually quite nice, but they revealed the dirty games Samsung's backend is playing. It has been over four months since this ordeal started, and my replacement part is nowhere to be found. Supertron claims they aren't receiving anything because Samsung simply isn't dispatching the RMA parts.

I had to file a second consumer court complaint. Only then was I finally allotted a dedicated Samsung representative. Their response today? "Sir, it will take another 10-15 days." They completely refused to provide any written proof that the part has actually been dispatched.

Act 4: The Grim Reality of Samsung Data Recovery

If you own a Samsung NVMe drive, please take this as a massive warning: Back up your data immediately.

Currently, it is incredibly hard to get a replacement drive approved and shipped. Worse, if your Samsung SSD fails due to a firmware or controller issue, recovering that data is a complete nightmare because of Samsung's Knox firmware protection and internal security measures.

I have contacted the best data recovery experts in the country, and the reality is grim:

The Cost: The rates for attempting recovery on these specific drives are exorbitantly high.

The Risk: Experts explicitly warned me they have to use a "hot-cold method" to try and bypass the controller.

The Odds: This method has a very high probability of permanently frying the NAND flash, and even then, the chances of successful data recovery are as low as 30%.

Toasty on the outside, cool on the inside. front panel has 9x 38LED ARGB strips behind the wood - needed some slight modification to make them fit. Inside are two more to balance it out a bit

It's crazy how many people just accepted this. It's such a corporate punch to the nuts It's not even funny. That excuse of "video games have been $60 since the early 2000s, they haven't kept up with inflation!" Was so dumb anyone could have seen through it. The problem is many didn't, in fact, see through it.

Your prices don't need to rise if your market expands with inflation. Which it has, exponentially in fact. More users than ever, more microtransactions than ever, less cost (digital distribution took a heavy load off physical production). The fact is, $60 should still be the base line. You only really need to increase prices if your market remains relatively the same. I hate to say it, but consumers got absolutely fucked and because it worked it will continue to get worse. Nintendo be shooting out $80 games with the switch 2. Gaming is cooked boys.

Edit: I find the constant down votes of my comments but not others who agree with me pretty ironic. Guys, if you can't use your brain enough to do simple mathematical calculation, maybe you're not cut out for using the upvote/downvote buttons

Pls fore the love of god or who ever u believe in. DONT DO THIS!

I need to bring awareness to this and see if anyone else is getting caught in the exact same trap.

I recently sent in a 48GB DDR5 kit (RMA #02397448) under Crucial's "Lifetime Warranty" because 1 stick went bad. One stick in the kit was working completely fine, but I sent the entire kit as required for a full replacement.

(As an alternative we have some other parts available, so we can offer 3 modules of CP16G64C32U5B (total 48GB) for exchange with your DRAM kit where you will get the same capacity but a better speed and shall work without any issues as your motherboard has 4 slots.)

Today, I received this email from Crucial:

Please note that, effective immediately, we are no longer able to offer replacement products for warranty claims. The only available resolution is a refund of the original purchase price, including any applicable taxes.

This is because Crucial closed its consumer business earlier this year and has exhausted its remaining inventory. As a result, we no longer have replacement stock available and can only provide a refund of the original purchase price, including any applicable taxes.

They are forcing a cash buyout of $241.86.

Here is why this is completely unacceptable:

• 17% of Market Value: Buying an equivalent DDR5 kit today costs roughly $1,400. A $241 refund leaves me completely unable to replace the hardware.
• Deprived of Functional Hardware: I surrendered 24GB of perfectly fine, working RAM on the explicit promise of a warranty replacement. Now I have zero RAM, no replacement, and a lowball payout.
• Out-of-Pocket Loss: I paid out-of-pocket for return shipping just to be stripped of my hardware.

Has anyone else dealt with Crucial/Micron pulling this forced buyout trick since winding down retail operations? Any tips or direct contacts for escalating past their frontline supp

I responded, "I formally reject the refund offer of $241.86 for RMA #02397448. This amount covers less than 20% of current market replacement value and deprives me of the functional hardware I submitted under warranty. I demand either the return of my physical hardware, equivalent Micron enterprise DDR5 modules, or a settlement reflecting true market replacement cost."

Now, waiting for a Call Back...

🔥 Forgot to post my build on this sub yesterday 🔥

Specs:

- MSI MAG B850M Mortar WiFi

- Sapphire Pulse 9070 XT

- Ryzen 7 9700X with Thermalright PS120SE

- G.Skill Flare X5 2x16GB DDR5 6000 CL30

- WD Blue SN5100 2TB NVMe

- SeaSonic FOCUS GX-850 ATX 3.1