u/HTWingNut

I ran some benchmark tests comparing the BC250 running three different OS, and Steam Machine running SteamOS and Windows 11.

The BC250 was running 40 CU's unlocked at 2000MHz, CPU with 6 Cores / 12 Thread at 3900MHz. I currently have my setup running in open air with a Jiushark JF13K (white) cooler, and during gaming, it rarely ever exceeds 55C. Steam games were installed and run off an external USB 2.5" Samsung 870 EVO SSD.

Systems Tested:

1. BC250 Bazzite 44
2. BC250 CachyOS 7.2.9.1
3. BC250 Steam OS 3.8.28
4. Steam Machine (SM) Steam OS 3.8.28
5. Steam Machine Windows 11 26H2

I ran seven games, all at 1080p, no frame gen, no super sampling (ie FSR, DLSS, etc), no ray tracing:

1. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced - Low
2. Black Myth Wukong - Medium
3. Cyberpunk 2077 - High
4. Doom the Dark Ages - High
5. Forza Horizon 6 - High
6. Gears of War E-Day - Medium
7. Horizon Zero Dawn Complete - "Original" setting

The charts are of the actual FPS throughout the test, as well as an inset with the average FPS and 1% low FPS at the end of the run. Dark colors represent 1% low, brighter color represents average fps.

There are no clear winners here, really. I did find that CachyOS was more stable and better 1% lows and generally "felt" better. SteamOS perfomed well, but surprisingly was not very stable for me. Bazzite was good, but I did have a couple crashes, weirdly only in the Steam Game Mode menu, not during gameplay.

was also interesting to see how well the BC250 handled a day 1 AAA release game like Gears of War E-Day. Medium settings seem a bit too demanding, although low didn't improve FPS by a whole lot. I'm sure some FSR and frame gen might help a bit. But even at medium settings it was only consuming about 4.5GB of VRAM.

Windows 11 on the Steam Machine was the most interesting as it seemed to perform remarkably well despite using aged drivers from Valve.

It is interesting to see how well a BC250 holds up against the Steam Machine though.

I have more data and may post a video of some gameplay or at least benchmark runs to see how it looks, but I think these charts tell a fair story on their own.

I am doing some testing with the JF13K heatsink/fan on the BC250.

I added some aluminum heatsinks to the VRM's and other IC chips that originally had thermal pads on them from the stock heatsink.

If I stress just the GPU with Furmark, it runs fine at 2000MHz and around 60C with low fan speeds.

If I run the `stress` command and stress just the CPU, no issues either.

If I run both simultaneously, even with fans at 100%, it eventually drops CPU clock to 571MHz. Even with fans at 100% it still does it. I know this is a worse case scenario, but it didn't do this with the stock heatsink.

Is this due to poor cooling of the VRM's? Any recommendations on alternatives to these little aluminum heatsinks? Or is this something else entirely?

EDIT: Shoutout to MODDIY Rep Carrie for clarifying that they do indeed fit. You need to trim off the clip.

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Here I was making my own adapters and hating myself how horrible it was going with those tiny terminals and questioning if I would burn my house down with my shoddy workmanship.

Then I found MODDIY offer the adapter on their website: https://www.moddiy.com/products/6837/Standard-8-Pin-EPS12V-to-2-x-MicroFit-8-Pin-Cable-for-ASRock-BC250.html

I just wanted the center four pins populated so I wouldn't accidentally plug it in the wrong connector, but I can always push out the two pins I don't want I guess.

So if anyone is interested, grab one of those if you're as bad at this as I am (or even if you don't want to spend the time). It'll cost you about $25 shipped, but by the time I bought a new crimping tool and adapters and terminals and wire, I spent double that already.

I was thinking of changing the fan in my FSP500-30AS with a Noctua. But I was curious how I would power it?

Does the stock fan use a 2 pin JST PH connector? If so was thinking of this adapter: https://www.performance-pcs.com/products/4-pin-standard-fan-connector-male-to-mini-2-pin-gpu-fan-connector-female-mdy-4fm-2mff-cab012?variant=45715430834391

Or a better way? Just connect to a splitter to the onboard fan header and pwm speed change with the main fans?

I spent a lot of time testing Thermals and noise between two different BC250 units.

Unit 1: Came without a gap in the heatsink and I removed the top of the heatsink all the way across

Unit 2: Came with a gap in the heatsink and I removed only the center area

Both units were repasted with PTM7950 on the APU, I used UTP-8 on the chips under the heatsink and used 2mm thick Thermal Grizzly minus pad advance on the vram chips underneath.

I used both Arctic P12 Pro and Noctual NF-A12x25 fans both single and dual configurations.

Measurements taken:

• power draw from the wall (Watts)
• GPU temperature (deg C)
• fan noise (dbA)

Stress tests:

• Furmark (2 minute run)
• Doom the Dark Ages benchmark (I found that benchmark can really push the CPU and GPU).

Details:

• CPU: 3600MHz 1050mV
• GPU: 40 CU's unlocked, 1900Mhz @ 880mV
• PSU: FSP500-30AS
• Fans: Arctic P12 Pro, Noctua NF-A12
• Thermal interface material: PTM7950 on APU, UTP-8 on chips under heatsink, TG Minus Pad 2mm for vRAM
• Same clocks and voltages applied to each BC250
• BC250 was in open air, not enclosed in any case
• Self designed 3D printed fan brackets were used for single and dual fan configurations
• dbA measurements were taken ~ 1ft from the fans
• Power draw measurements were taken as Watts drawn by the PSU from the wall
• All measurements represent maximum sustained value. Not necessarily maximum or average.

I also took measurements at stock, 40 CU's unlocked with stock GPU clock/voltage, and 1900MHz GPU OC but with 24 CU's. But that's a lot of data to disseminate, so I am just sharing the 40CU 1900MHz overclocked results.

Bottom line result is this:

Dual fan configuration did not help temperature at all, it only increased noise and power consumption (slightly)

P12 Pro performed better than the Noctua NF-A12, albeit running a bit more noisy, but in gaming, it wasn't that noticeable

I also ran an alternate "PUSH-PULL" configuration, where one fan blew on the heatsink and the other drew air away from the heatsink. That was not very successful.

EDIT: Formatting. ERROR IN IMAGE 5. SAYS "SINGLE FAN NOCTUA" when it is clearly dual fan, LOL. Sorry about that.

EDIT 2: Running Noctua fan at 100% results in about 41dbA. This resulted in similar temperature profiles as the P12 Pro. For Furmark, this means it's quieter at max load. But in gaming it was a wash. I can provide some data when I get a chance to do so more testing.

I have a power button with the mating connector but want to but a couple more connectors for my project. Anyone know where I can buy them? The one off the PSU is on the right. I want the mating one on the left. Thanks.

This was from ETA Prime video but no links there.

I bought a 3D printed case with a PSU from eBay a while back. One thing I was wondering is the fan shroud has this slit in the middle: https://i.imgur.com/bOdzxDV.jpeg

I was wondering why this is the case? I am assuming for focused pressure over the CPU, but I'm not sure that's how fans work?

Also, after removing the backplate from the BC250, I was wondering why the back of the CPU doesn't have a thermal pad touching down to the backplate. It seems that also could use some cooling. Has anyone successfully done this? Is it a good idea?

I notice in all the images and videos, users have a clean cut on their heatsink like along the red line in this image: https://imgur.com/a/vBDV43o

and the other image shows my heatsink and it's completely closed. Do you cut that line, and how so clean? Or are there some that come with that opening already? Also, I cannot for the life of me get these strips to come off clean. I have tried pull method with different pliers. I have tried with scissors, it's horrible:

I bought my house about 10 years ago. It's a two story, and when you walk into the front of the house in the foyer it's open up the full two stories, so I have this chandelier hanging from the ceiling like 23 feet in the air.

Image here: https://i.imgur.com/ZLosAYF.jpeg

I haven't touched it since I moved in, mainly because I don't know how to. I need like a 20 ft step ladder or some scaffolding just to get up there. It has a dimmer switch and always left it on low light, mainly for night time. Surprisingly it's lasted this long. But only two bulbs remain of the six.

They're traditional incandescent but I'd probably have to replace them with LED and that means also changing the dimmer.

Since I have no idea how to get up there to replace the bulbs and probably have to hire someone to do it (seems so stupid to have to hire someone to change a light bulb lol) I want to just replace the chandelier altogether with something more practical.

A number of years ago, I saw one of our neighbors had a chandelier and had a really long pole that would latch on to a screw on the base of the chandelier and you twist it and it would lower the chandelier so you could clean it and replace bulbs. That came with his house when he bought it so he didn't know where it came from.

I haven't been able to find anything like it.

Any suggestions on what I should do?