TL;DR: Ordered two Voyager IV Ultimates ($15,140.83 USD / $21,572.62 CAD). After an "on track" email, a "production" email and a KYC check, Starforge cancelled 11 days later with no explanation. The refund came back $381 CAD short because of the exchange rate, and the same PC is now $1,000 USD more. International buyers, be careful.

I'm posting this to warn anyone living outside of the US who is considering ordering a PC from Starforge. I feel like I have been totally wronged, and I hope this post might gain enough traction for them to reconsider their stance.

Some backstory: with RTX 5090 prices climbing every week and the rumor that Nvidia was discontinuing them, I decided to buy two Starforge Voyager IV Ultimate rigs, one for me and one for my girlfriend, before it was too late. The total came to $15,140.83 USD after taxes and shipping or $21,572.62 CAD at the time of order (Oct 16).

5 days later on Oct 21, I reach out via email just to ask for an update on my order as I am eager to receive and there hasn't been any updates since my order. They confirm that my order is on track.

Order Status Inquiry From Me

2 days later on Oct 23, they send a production check-in email confirming that my PCs are "in production or fulfillment and is moving through [their] normal processes". Okay, great, everything is going well and my expected delivery date is within the next 2 weeks. I am patiently waiting during this time and honestly quite excited.

Then out of the blue 3 days later on Oct 26 (yesterday), I am sent an email where they say that my order was flagged for additional verification and KYC. They sent me a plaid link where I was to scan my driver's license and take a video of myself for processing and validation. I wasn't thrilled about having to do that, but I understood it was a large amount of money to be processing so I complied with it. They also asked me to confirm I am using the computer for myself and not resale, which I did confirm.

Today I received an email stating that my order was cancelled because it did not meet their
"payment security verification requirements" or whatever that means.

Obviously I was totally caught off guard by this, I paid for the PC using Shop pay with a credit card I have used for numerous purchases on Shopify. They were so vague in their wording and I couldn't understand what flagged my order and moreover, how I failed their verification. The only thing I can think of is that I used my preferred first name "James" on the order as opposed to my legal first name. This was autofilled on Shopify as I have used James on all my online orders before without issue. And also my shipping address was a bit different that my billing as I had since moved out from my parents house (however we are in the same city and only 10km away). Conveniently, the price of the same Voyager IV Ultimate has also increased by $1000 USD since I ordered and is now out of stock.

At this point I was pretty furious and wanted an explanation on what exactly caused me to fail their verification, I asked for my case to escalated.

The response from their Customer Service Director was no different, and they couldn't give me any more details on why my order was cancelled. The cherry on top is that the CAD strengthened against the USD in the past 11 days, and when I received the refund notification an hour ago, I ended up received nearly 400 CAD less than I originally paid (mind you, my CC has no FX fees, so this is just exchange rate).

This whole experience was just abysmal. Having no phone support either is rough when there's over $21K on the line. Every reply was a short canned email, and nobody would tell me what actually went wrong.

I think what really irks me is their timing. On Oct 21 they told me my order was on track. On Oct 23 they told me it was in production. Then on Oct 26 they suddenly needed a KYC check, and the next day it was cancelled. If my order looked risky, why wasn't it flagged the day I placed it? Had they cancelled within a day or two, I'd have been annoyed but whole. Instead they held my money for 11 days, the exchange rate moved, and I'm the one eating about $381 CAD for their delay.

If you live outside the US and are thinking about ordering from Starforge:

- Know that if they cancel, the refund comes back at whatever the exchange rate is that day, not what you paid.

If anyone from Starforge sees this: I'm not asking for anything unreasonable. Either let me re-order at my original price with my legal name and matching addresses, or cover the $381 I lost on the exchange rate. Or at least give me a call!

Has anyone else had an order cancelled like this, or gotten Starforge to reverse it?

https://x.com/llIllIIIlII1/status/2115189180087374331

My CPU was throttling and running hot, but whenever I opened Task Manager, usage instantly dropped to near 0%, making it impossible to spot.

I had an AI agent write a quick PowerShell script to sample process states differentially over time. Turns out it was constantly polling for Taskmgr to hide itself.

It’s a 5070 and some iPhones and iPods

Now that the 5090 is discontinued, 5080s have now soared in price. They’re not 3x+ MSRP on Newegg now. This is actually getting frustrating. I saw this coming a mile away where I heard the 5090 was getting discontinued, but actually seeing them climb up even more hurts to see.

Looks like things are moving at a crazy pace. A user named erlou created a fork of KytyPs5 and posted a video on Twitter showing Ghost of Yotei running at an average of 18 FPS.

I wouldn't be surprised if within a month we're playing this at 4K 120 FPS, just like Demon's Souls.

Big thanks to everyone taking part in this amazing work!

Source: https://x.com/BrutalSam_/status/2115092191332958667
https://x.com/BrutalSam_/status/2115053255625732402

Special thanks to u/BrutalSam_ for sharing this on Twitter.

I'm tinkering with my AM4 machine and I want do do something funny. For this little project, even an old 1060 6GB would have been enough, but I saw a 1070Ti for a really nice price and bought it. Call me surprised when I saw, that this was not a 1070Ti, but a 1080 (not Ti tho).

Already tested it. Yes, it works perfectly fine. Yay!

Literally just yesterday most of these Powercolor cards and the Steel Legend were $200 than they were today.

From what I've heard Microcenter never had great BF deals anyways, but something tells me those that they do run this time around is literally just going to bring these back down to ~$899.

Hey folks. When you see a good deal, you better believe that something is up, even from a trusted retailer.

Yesterday while I was browsing Amazon.ae for an RTX 5090, I found an Aorus RTX 5090 White Edition listed under Amazon Resale for 14,916 AED.

Knowing that Amazon does reinstate returned items under resale category, and I have bought resold items before, I didn’t think twice to snatch this. It’s 50% below current market pricd and sold by the official Amazon Resale channel, heck yeh!

Thinking I’ve won the jackpot, I rushed home to see the delivery.

Box was looking bit scuffed, but this was expected from resold items.

So I opened the box, saw the accessories intact. Very good so far.

Then came the card. It was in the ESD bag, so I took it out. Then…

Biggest blunder! A tiny loose connector emerging near the card’s power connector.

I flip the card, and more bads news. Multiple connectors probably for the fans are disconnected.

Oh no….

This only means 1 thing. Chips have been harvested and already half way through China.

I immediately applied for an item return. Booked for next day to be picked up.

Lesson learned.

We avoided the fake chinese sellers, but fell for official Amazon resale listing. Watch out folks it’s getting trickier by the minute to source a 5090 on a good deal.

So, asking myself, what does a naked 5090 look like?

Curiosity hit me. I had to know, I had to see.

Flipped the card and started removing the screws. They were so loose, the guy that took it apart didn’t even bother to hide his shenanigans. Just a lousy job.

Behold, card clean as a whistle (figuratively). Then he dumped the thermalpaste on the heatsink like the monster he is.

Hope you enjoyed the journey. Let’s see how the return goes, will update you all.

Later!

I'm talking everything outside of the case: headphones, mice, keyboards, cables, chairs, monitors etc etc.

I'm still using stuff like my Corsair RGB Strife Mk2 keyboard and Secret Lab Titan chair(albeit with a pvc pipe and clamps bracing the gas lift), both from 2019.

I'm curious to hear how many of you guys also have stuff that refuses to fail the test of time and keeps just working.

I love Emulation so much! Especially Newer Console Emulation. I posted a few days ago 1 video of UFC 5 barely running struggling to even run, Then another video where it could reach 30 to 40 FPS. Now only a few days later, We have UFC 5 Running at a Almost Consistent 60 FPS.

This is Incredible. Enjoy the snippet. Full Video Here