Modern technology is great, don't get me wrong. But it does increase complexity and fragility, and pushes things closer to the limits. I didn't say the technolo

Modern technology is great, don't get me wrong. But it does increase complexity and fragility, and pushes things closer to the limits. I didn't say the technology was better but that it was simpler. Simpler components, simpler assembly, fewer assembly concerns for equivalent builds, fewer places to get it wrong, especially fatally wrong. You don't have jumpers, you have confusing connectors (mPCIe/M.2/miniSATA differentiated by keying), you don't have a thick ribbon, you have a 3 slot graphics card blocking the SDD. Reaching the GPU PCIe retainer clip on most MoBos is a terrible experience with modern (massive) GPUs. Reconnecting the GPU power cable comes with renewed risk of meltdown. These aren't just esthetic issues (cables look bad, inflexible, hang around, etc.). Yes, pins bent if you were really careless, pulled cables sideways, etc. And you'd straighten them and keep going, even with CPUs. They were more resilient. A bent LGA socket pin today probably kills your motherboard, and might take the CPU with it. Signal integrity and high currents don't leave room to (literally) wiggle. > Absolutely did have to worry if my after market cpu cooler will fit back then Weird, here [0] is a review of coolers of the time, I cannot remember a single time this was a concern, maybe short of a few fancier coolers in very special tiny cases. Today many cases put this on the label, gives away that it's a challenge for many. > And I'm just not ready to accept the argument that thermal paste or BIOS were somehow better in 2001 without some solid evidence I didn't say better, they were simpler/easier. The BIOS of 25 years ago had a handful of settings. A modern UEFI config and the amount of settings exposed to the users is crazy. Worse yet, today the defaults are no longer guaranteed aimed at safe long term operation, they're pushing for good bench results. They come set with high power limits, boost levels, voltages, etc. and this will bite the user later in longevity and stability. As for the paste, reviews added a score for "ease of application", this sends a message. Liquid metals, many modern versions of classic pastes, PTM sheets, there are way more options that are a pain to apply or clean, and in exchange you get top performance. Because there are way more CPUs/GPUs that benefit or demand this. [0] https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Can-t-Touch-This-A-Comparison-of-46-CPU-Coolers,324-11.html https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Can-t-Touch-This-A-Comp...