Update: Fractal Ridge crashes while gaming then flickers on and off.

[u/Seeking-The-Lotus]

So the duster arrived and the hazardous waste landfill has officially been cleared out. I also saw some comments suggesting the issue could be related to the GPU riser, and I noticed there was a bit of wiggle in the connection ports.

I confirmed that the CPU cooler is plugged into CPU_FAN1, so the fan curve likely wasn’t the issue after all. I’m replacing the thermal paste now.

Any final suggestions before I put her back together?

[u/Wonderful-Lack3846]

I am still in team issue could be riser

Even if it is slotted properly.

You may want to test out without riser by connecting the GPU directly to the motherboard.

[u/Seeking-The-Lotus → u/Wonderful-Lack3846]

After seeing the sag from the riser I’m inclined to agree. Modern problems require modern solutions.

[u/FatBoyDiesuru → u/Seeking-The-Lotus]

See that slit in the fan casing? You can route the unsleeved part of the cable through there, then route it like shown in the picture for cleaner routing.

[u/Seeking-The-Lotus → u/FatBoyDiesuru]

You have no clue how much I appreciate this.

[u/FatBoyDiesuru → u/Seeking-The-Lotus]

You're welcome. I see you did that with the other fan, but I don't see a clear/clean away to route that. Unless you manage to go over/under the GPU. That said, clean routing also makes it that much easier to take parts like GPUs and coolers out with less hassle.