Turns out: Tech problems become infinitely more annoying once you have a fulltime job.

• PC does fucky shit when under full load, like
  • completely freezing
  • ignoring all USB input, such that even replugging doesn't help until reboot
  • audio being muted / crackled / etc
• Used to only happen very rarely, but it's getting noticably worse
• PSU dies
• oh, maybe it was that old thing, not able to deliver enough power
• Get a new one with plenty of power to spare
• Same shit
• try CPU stress test
• everything works fine, so I guess it's the toasty GPU
• I have a small PC case, so the temps are bad. I know they should downclock if too hot, but maybe the hardware is a bit fucky and overheats?
• transplant the pc parts into a new case
• new fans, new CPU cooler
• way nicer to work with
• do testing
• problem is less pronounced, but still there
• try GPU stress test
• PC consistenly freezes or kills the driver
• oh so the gpu is fucked
• Severely powerlimit GPU
• performance is fucked, but problem doesn't arise
• try old gpu
• similar symptoms, audio is fucked, but no crash
• ?????
• so it's not the GPU I guess?
• check RAM, lower frequency (disable XMP profile)
• still fucked
• try various motherboard settings
• still fucked
• when just focussing on the switched parts, it has to be one of the following
  • motherboard
  • CPU
  • storage
• But:
  • Storage doesn't make any fucking sense
  • CPU could be possible I guess, but feels unlikely given that stress-testing the CPU doesn't do anything.
• so I feel like it has to be the motherboard
• Remember that I have a second CPU laying around, which even fits in the socket, but I cannot test it due to incompatible BIOS versions
• Fuck it
• Ordered a second motherboard

I didn't want to spend my weekend on this shit. I'm going to be so fucking pissed if it ends up being the CPU after all, especially because the CPU I use (5800X3D) isn't being sold anymore, so I'd either have to

• buy used
• downgrade
• buy a new motherboard, RAM and CPU to upgrade

And now my entire room is filled with cardboard bullshit / packages / screws / tools and shit aaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Update 2024.11.19

I switched the motherboard, PC is working properly now.