Questions about the AOpen CustomPC. Also, where the hell have I been?

Well, that month FLEW by... Feels like it's been about three months. Sooo, where have I been? I had to take some time off to finish adapting to recent life changes. In addition to moving, I've also switched jobs. Its been a whirlwind... Sorry to anyone who might have been worried. Both changes were completely voluntary, not done under any duress and are overwhelmingly positive. Despite that, they still have my head spinning. Life is now almost completely unrecognizable, and I'm still not totally comfortable with the financial risks involved. The new house is crazy expensive (this is one of those post-COVID boom-towns), but the new job is a HUGE upgrade! Nearly double my old salary, so it neatly took care of the expense anxiety. I've had my head buried in it, figuring out their systems and trying to make an impact (I sure hate being the new guy). It's also far more flexible schedule-wise, so it should ultimately allow me to better focus on hobbies like this channel. Taking some chill-time has been enormously helpful in normalizing this new habitat. I even managed to pick up the guitar for the first time in almost a year, and got the gym room back together. Also, I've been waiting out the weather. Summer heat lasts ridiculously long here in Florida (sometimes into October), but finally the garage has been at survivable temps lately. I was able to jump back in and resume work on this AOpen CustomPC.

I'm having a hard time finding any info on these systems. It certainly doesn't help that 'AOpen CustomPC' sends search engines and LLMs into a marketing buzz-word tizzy. I'd love to know what the story is with them, and where the custom-ness comes into play. It seems like this particular system was put together by a small PC builder, which raises even further questions. Does anyone here know about these? Even Catty couldn't figure it out. She FINALLY jumped up on the bench, and of course the camera wasn't rolling. I rushed over to start it, which spooked her so she left. I managed to capture only like 0.1 seconds of it because in my haste I must have double-tapped the record button. But we are making progress!

Thanks so much for sticking around! It's been a crazy year for me, but finally starting to feel normal.