I don't speak xaml... but I can order a beer and ask where is the bathroom

Is this along the lines of what you want to do? (hexy.jpg)

Indeed, concept only.

I believe if you make three identical display pages, each with a different background color, you will be able to switch between them using global profiles triggered by the parameter you want to control it

This is an interesting idea. I don't know if you can vary the color of a background image based on sensor data values. If the image is an XAML construct, I think this would involve dynamically changing the XAML code in real time. I am not proficient in writing XAML code but I can at least go into the code that AQS presets generate and figure out how to move things around, and change basic things like size and color. What you are trying to do is probably possible. Infoeseeker's idea of switching display pages to versions with a different color background image based on sensor data values should also work. My concern with this approach is that loading the overview pages can be rather slow and clunky, depending on how many and what type of items are in the page. Things like gauges and graphs take some time to load.

I played around with a preset that has a spinning fan in it. I figured out how to change the spin direction and speed up the rotation rate but it was jerky and inconsistent. In a separate effort to make a real-time clock, I made a gauge that counts up from 0 to 59 and tied it to seconds. I wanted the gauge needle to advance to a new position each second, and then fall back to 0 when the seconds counter went from 59 back to 0. It worked, but it was also slow and jerky. During the count up, sometimes the needle would not move for 2 or 3 seconds, then it would jump to catch up to the current seconds count. When the seconds counter went from 59 back to 0, the needle would fall from 59 to 0 but it was so slow that it never got to 0 because while it was falling, the seconds counter was advancing again. At about +18 seconds the falling needle would stop falling and start moving up again. The very slow needle fall may be due to the way the gauge is built in XAML but this does not explain the jerky count upward. These observations are why I suspect that switching overview pages with different colored background images may work but it may be slow to load.

Infoseeker helped me with the real-time clock but I abandoned the effort after Aquacomputer added some Date/Time XAML presets that accomplished what I was trying to do. Here is a LINK to a thread about this if you are interested. Here is a LINK to a video I made of the seconds counter gauge that shows the jerky upward movement of the needle followed by the very slow fall back towards 0.

Looks like you found the spinning fan. Good luck, and please post your progress. I am very interested in your findings.

AIDA64 also allows custom "sensor panels" to be set up. There is a THREAD on their forum dedicated to custom sensor panel layouts. Some people have built very complex and impressive displays - custom fonts, moving backgrounds, etc. You can do way more with an AIDA64 sensor panel than you can with an Aquasuite Overview Page. I have played around with it but I don't want to have to run AIDA64 because I am already running Aquasuite and HIWINFO, which is importing data into Aquasuite. Adding another program that is polling sensors is not a great idea because it increases load on the system and the chance of polling collisions. Since I use Aquasuite to monitor and control all of my cooling hardware, I decided to use their Overview pages even though it is much more limited than AIDA64's sensor panel feature. If you can't accomplish what you want in Aquasuite, you could consider using AIDA64 for your sensor panel instead of building an overview page in Aquasuite. Then use AIDA64 to poll sensors instead of HWINFO, and disable all direct sensor polling in Aquasuite. If I ever decide to use AIDA64 sensor panels instead of Aquasuite Overview Pages, that is how I would set things up.

Thanks for the link to your build. I have bookmarked it.

I have never had the patience to document a build like that. Last time around I did start an Excel spreadsheet that notes the date of installation for various hardware, first boot, OS install, etc. Now I use it as a log that tracks every program install, and every BIOS, OS, program, and driver update, with version numbers and notes as appropriate. It also has charts that show what each PSU cable is attached to, which SATA port each drive is attached to, what device is plugged into each USB port on 2 internal hubs, etc. I have thanked myself for maintaining the log more than once.

Good luck with the rest of your build!

It can be a PITA sometimes, especially when there is some sort of problem and I am going through a bunch of troubleshooting. I get impatient and don't feel like taking the time to document the problem and the steps taken to resolve it. Since it's a spreadsheet I can sort by date, program, driver - whatever. Say I wanted to see every video driver that has been installed. I just sort the list by GPU Driver and BOOM - I can see every GPU driver update I have installed in chronological order.

Speaking of reinstalling Windows - The log comes in really handy for that because every piece of software has at least 1 entry. If I sort by Programs, I get a list of every program that has ever been installed. Then I can decide what I want to do for each one. The columns are Date, Action (Install, Update, Delete, etc.), Category, Program, Version, Download or In-App Update, Description, and 4 general notes that I can use for whatever. I also document system changes like changing the Power Plan or USB power settings, or manual changes to the registry. All in all I think its worth the effort because once its set up, it does not take much effort to keep it updated. Maybe I am crazy but the log has saved me a lot of trouble several times.

I've been using AIDA for an external panel for quite a while. It has several advantages, but also serious disadvantages:

+ You can render it anywhere, including a webserver, which allows you to practically connect ANY device (like an old tablet or a RASPBERRY PI driven display). I've used both and it works great, especially since you don't have to use a Windows display which causes all kinds of headaches and it doesn't have any noticeable effect on the PC's own power consumption.
+ There is a huge community around AIDA64 creating panels, even for money if you want to spend some

- You're reliant on what AIDA64 imports and the value it provides. That's sometimes piss-poor. HWInfo has way more values, and even the Aquasuite is better in that regard
- With the Aquuasuite you can calculate and derive values yourself, like the "max" or "average" of any value (very useful with many cores). That's not possible with AIDA64 at all
- In the end, the rendering engine is really limited. You can do a lot with additional (transparent) overlay images, but in the end, you are really restricted. To get a pleasing panel is LOADS of work.
- If it detects and imports data from the Aquasuite, AIDA64 becomes extremely slow in updating data. The AS only provides a new dataset once a second, but that means that AIDA64 polls *ALL* values of the whole system only about once every 1.5 - 2 seconds, as soon as the AS is polled as well.

In comparison my take on the Aquasuite panels:

+ WAY more flexible rendering engine. With the XAML you can do about anything, but you really have to get inside of it. For example, I wanted to have a custom background based on the AS profile that's currently active, showing a color grading. I was able to get this to work in about an hour with XAML.
+ In comparison, it's much easier to create a pleasing panel, than in any of the other tools out there.
+ One word: Playground. You can calculate and derive almost any value. For example I combine the SDD / M.2 activity of all my drives into a single display. Same with all the cores (max and average) and so on
+ It is possible to use transparency to overlay two or more elements on top of each other to create a panel full on information on little space. I heavily use that for temperature and power usage graphs, as well as for various average/max gauges.

- It only runs on the Windows desktop. That is always problematic in some way when Windows decides to change the display id numbering, display sizes, etc, and it can cause your mouse to get lost on the wrong display etc.
- Additional load on the PC itself. If you render an AS panel on the desktop, the amount of resources it takes is simply CRAZY. Even with the new X6x versions. It's way better if you let it run inside the AS window, but that is really problematic in itself, as you basically lose the rest of the AS to work with without fiddling with the window's placement again.

Here's my panel I've created. It's packed with information, just the way I like it. The three background colors correspond with my three global AS profiles which switch based on the water temperature (blue: idle, red: load, rainbow: extreme load):