Yes, of course. I still have all my hardware, I usually keep it around anyways. I have all the PSU's here to try, except the ones that blew up, or aren't operational otherwise, of course.
I have obtained basically a whole new setup, because I needed a CPU upgrade over my old 10900K (can't handle BF6 with >100 FPS), so I got a super good deal on a used 14700K with an ASUS PRIME Z790-P D4. Also, my 2080Ti died the other week, so I had to replace it with a used 4070 Ti. This setup still won't give me any problems, on any PSU that will fit the required wattage. I ran this setup for testing with a 150W power limit on the CPU with the 550W PSU, without any problems.
For now, everything still works and I didn't encounter problems ever since. If I did, I would've updated this posting already. Again, I'm not sure about what's exactly happening here and how it can be explained, but all it takes to make desync (somewhat) return, is for me to take the PC's power cord out of it's current socket and move it to the "last position" on the strip. However, it's not nearly as severe as it was before I figured this out.
All of this might be unnecessary, and the culprit might have been a faulty device at a neighbour's house, which has been removed exactly when I was testing stuff around. You never know, and I will continue to look into it, try to make sense of it and try to help best I can.
The point isn't about EMI/RFI/Noise. I might be totally wrong, but what I think about right now is more related to harmonics, and it goes like this: Your power company delivers you a somewhat clean sine wave, right at your service entrance / electrical panel. Depending on where you live and what's around you (industry, residential, etc), your sine wave might be more or less distorted already. However, it will always be within tolerance and within acceptable limits, so any electrical device that's been certified for sale will be able to handle it without problems.
If we "follow" this - acceptable - sine wave down the line in your house, it might get distorted. Switched-Mode Power Supplies (SMPS) will distort a sine wave, because of the way they're drawing power. Usually, power is drawn when the sine wave it at its peak. This will create a flat-topped sine wave, given enough distortion from SMPS'es. You can read more about how that works here: https://powerquality.blog/2021/11/22/wh ... hemselves/
Now let's say your power strip is the "first" thing that's encountered from the breaker box. I think here is where the difference lies within: If you plug your computer into the "first" position, it will still see the (somewhat) clean sine wave from the PoCo, as it hasn't been distorted along the way yet. However, if there's already one monitor, or maybe 3 of them, some audio equipment, routers, switches, anything "in front" of where the PC is plugged in, these devices (their SMPS) will distort the sine wave. By the time the PC gets to "see" the sine wave, it might already be distorted beyond the acceptable limits.
I doubt a single network switch, or a single router, will make a significant difference to the sine wave, but if you're rocking 4 monitors like I am right now, these can draw some substantial amount of current. Especially these gamer monitors with high refresh rates can draw some good power, sometimes even over 100W when you crank the brightness. Now imagine 4 of those, that's 400W of power draw. That kind of current might very well have the ability to distort the sine wave just enough.
There's a lot of "moving parts", I think it depends on the incoming power quality for the most part. If your power quality at the entrance is near-flawless, it's probably irrelevant if there's 4 monitors worth of distortions on the sine wave. However, if your power company already delivers a sine wave that just about scrapes by the limits, anything might tip the scales.
Again, I'm not an electrical engineer and I have no idea if what I'm supposing is actually real. I like this approach though, as at least the flat-topping of sine waves and its adverse effects on electrical equipment is a real phenomenon backed by science. I would love to be corrected on this by an actual EE and learn something new.
