How to deal with OcUK on this issue

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Let me start this thread by saying that the OcUK staff have been very good with me so far and I appreciate their efforts to help, but this is the first time that I've had the luxury of having a bit of cash to spend on a computer and all I want is a functioning piece of kit that does what I paid for...

Without going into all of the details of just how many issues I've had over the last 3 weeks, RMA's, swapped components and still a non functioning PC I've now also found that the Mobo that was supposed to allow me to Tri-SLI is actually not really capable of such, not without losing every other slot on the board, having to remove front case connections from the motherboard and throw away my Tuniq Tower that is.. so to say I'm p***ed off is an understatement.

I spent a £160+ on an MSI P7N Diamond mobo because I felt that a nice steady upgrade path would be to drop in extra 8800GTX's as time went by, first SLI and then Tri-SLI.... I would also add whatever was the latest and most powerful socket 775 CPU that there was available at the time, thereby hopefully giving me incremental upgrades in GPU & CPU power..

This seemed like a reasonably good idea to me and I explained this to OcUK sales and the guy seemed to agree, I asked if this mobo was indeed capable of such a thing and was told yes of course, no problem..

I currently own a £900 paper weight (thanks to other as yet undefinable problems, I'm currently awaiting newly purchased RAM) but I now find that once I actually do get the thing to install an OS, that it then isn't even capable of doing that which I bought it for, Tri-SLI... I could have saved a lump of cash and gotten a cheaper SLI board.

GTX8800 in first slot means that I can't use my Tuniq Tower as its fan speed control can't reach the 3rd fixing bracket position, it needs to fit in either one of the first 2 positions taken up by GTX card... I also lose one of the short PCI-E slots

GTX8800 in second slot means that I lose my only PCI slot and cannot use my S/card, this motherboard does not have onboard sound and anyway I want to use separate card, thats another reason why I bought a mobo without onboard sound.

GTX8800 in third slot means that I lose last remaining PCI Express slot but worse than that I have to unplug my front case connection for firewire, and it would appear that I would crush the wires going into JPF1 and JPF2 (HDD Light, Power, Reset Switches etc) I didn't try pushing the card all of the way in for fear of damaging them...

So if I were to try to fit 3 x GTX's in my PC as things stand now, then I would have my CPU fan speed control loose inside the case.. I would not be able to have my souncard fitted as it does not fit the only remaining option on the board which is a 1 x speed short PCI-E slot and even then it would be jammed tight up against the middle GTX card even if it did fit... I would have no connection up front for firewire and maybe even power/resets etc

I'd like to return this board and exchange it for another, it doesn't even have to be cheaper, infact I don't mind paying more if the board that I'm getting is value for money, but what really bothers me, is paying over the odds for a board because I believed (and was told) that it would be capable of doing what I wanted it to do without it effecting all of my other components... It plainly doesn't..........

So... I'd like to know your thoughts and suggestions if you would..

Do you think that I am entitled to be able to exchange it for another board that will actually do what I paid for, I don't actually care now if its Single or SLI, just a good board that does what it says on the tin??

Thanks for any input fella's

Dave.
 
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To be fair, you should have looked at reviews etc. I don't seem to recall any board that allows you to have Tri-SLi and be able to use the additional PCI slots at the same time if you havent got single slot cooling solutions for your GFX.
 
Soldato
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you can see each slot would be blocked just by looking at photos online. you surely must have noticed this when you read the reviews and looked at the pics?


they could (and might) be really nice and take it back for you, but if they didnt then it'd only be your own fault for not checking first.
 
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i've been having a few problems with getting my PC to boot up past the BIOS screen without freezing. i'm currently on my 1st RMA board. so i own £800+ paper weight also. :o

i find they are very good with RMA's if they are faulty, but if you wanted to swap it in effect i believe their policy is only after 7 days of reciept of the item you may exchange it. :rolleyes:
 
Soldato
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"we do not guarantee compatability" is something you will find on every single seller of computer components.

If the product is faulty then thats fair enough, your product isnt faulty however, it just doesnt fit with other items you have. Thats not the fault of the shop, its upto you what parts you wanted.

This sounds harsh but if you arent not upto the task of choosing and building your own custom pc then you can purchase a pre built system that will do everything it says in the tin.

If i were going to build a new pc i would extensively research all the components i had chosen and plan carefull where each thing would go. I would have gotten a photo of the mainboard and actually thought about where everything was going to go and what was plugged into where. I would also have not chosen a board unless i had read reviews and also trawled the manufacturers forums in search of problem like the pci one.

In short you choose to take the rap for compatability problems when you choose to build your own machine. Thats just how it goes im afraid.

If you buy components then its upto you to return the faulty one, if you cant tell whats faulty then how is that the problem of the shop... they sold you parts not a full working pc.

I would imagine however that they would let you exchange the board ( with a restocking fee ) assuming its in mint condition. Remember they will now only be able to resell it as a "B" grade for a lower price through no fault of the shop.

You also mention that the sales chap said it would do tri-sli... it will. You want a pci soundcard as well as SLI with dual slot cooling, did you mention that as well? for all he knew you were going to use an external USB soundcard.
 
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It's also worth noting that it will do tri-sli very nicely with single height cards.

I'm not sure there ARE any motherboards where double height cards don't throw a gigantic spanner in the works.

They are a nice bunch by all accounts, but I'm not sure that what you require is in fact possible.
 
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The "Creative® SB X-Fi Xtreme H/W Audio Card" for the MSI P7N-D use's one of the PCI-E x1 slot's?

So that can be put in to the second PCI-E x1 slot that isn't be blocked?

Bluiding a Sli rig has these problems, but thats the fun :D

Get on top of the problem or the problem will get on top of you. :p
 
Soldato
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This thread will almost certainly get deleted as it breaks forum rules about discussing issues you may have with the shop.

I have some sympathy with you about promises made by product specifications - very often it is possible to run things like tri-SLi but the compromises involved make it unrealistic, however that doesn't remove the onus on you to check that parts you buy are compatible and will all fit together properly.

Sorry dude - but if all the parts work as promised it's not OcUK's fault that you bought incompatible parts, and certainly not their fault that you didn't do your research and check out the ins and outs of using three double slot cards on an ATX motherboard. Learn the lesson, sell the bits and buy something that does what you actually want.
 
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The "Creative® SB X-Fi Xtreme H/W Audio Card" for the MSI P7N-D use's one of the PCI-E x1 slot's?

So that can be put in to the second PCI-E x1 slot that isn't be blocked?
Which second PCI-E 1 slot should he put the audio card in :p

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1363/2/nvidia_geforce_9800gtx_in_tri_sli_tested/index.html
trisli_04l.jpg


trisli_05l.jpg
 
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Soldato
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All the pics I can find are

PCI-E x16
PCI-E x1
PCI-E x1
PCI-E x16
PCI
PCI-E x16
PCI-E x16
(http://www.it-review.net/uploads/images/Images_OLD/stories/M/MSI/MSI780i/msip7n_diamond.jpg)

(I know all the slots are not x16 but are probably x8 electrical / x16 physical etc)
So the Sound card will go in the 3rd slot, while all the others are obscured by the dual slot design of the GTX. The motherboard is capable of Tri-SLI, just not the way you want it to be. Shame about the Tuniq, but you dont need the speed control at all, let the BIOS do it. Though there does seem to be a slight design flaw if the kk headers are obscured by a card. That just seems a bit stupid to me.
 
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Regardless of whether he did any checking if he made it clear to a salesman what he expected the system to do at any point in the future and the salesman said "yes this system will do that" then the salesman and therefore the company he works for is at fault and the customer has a right to recourse. That only applies if you can prove you clearly stated what you expected the system to do and can clearly prove a salesman said "yes". Though by not checking the situation for yourself which was easily done on the net you were putting yourself in a position where you could be mislead and i would say you were a little naive but if you can prove the above the company will have to sort it out.
 
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So what the manufacture has basically done here is made no sound available for this motherboard once in Tri-Sli?

Am sure the layout is different for the reference board than that MSI.
 
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Thanks for the input guys

I actually did do a lot of research, it's something that I always do but nowhere did I find a review of the board that showed it with 3 x cards in it nor one that mentioned that I would have to remove onboard plugs (Firewire and front case connections)

The reviews extolled the virtues of the board but I don't think that any reviewer actually tried to Tri-SLI or do so with the board actually in a case.

I asked many questions too, even on these boards, my threads are still there for all to see, so I genuinely feel that I did try to get a handle on everything before I spent my hard earned.

In my defence, I've never had hold of a GTX8800 before or any similar card as its about 4-5 years since I last upgraded a PC and all of the new equipment is beyond anything that I've ever dealt with before, I couldn't even envisage that this 8800 bad boy was going to be such a big beast, so understanding just how much they encroach on every other part of the system was something that I've had to learn by experience, I don't really know what more I could have done than ask the experts (OcUK sales) if this board was ok to take another two 8800GTX's

Please remember that my main issue here isn't losing all of the slots, it's the fact that with the best intent in the world it will NOT take 3 x 8800GTX's without losing funtionality.

Even with only one GTX I am already having issues, I can't fit it in the slot closest to the CPU as this means that the big volume control/fixing bracket of the Tuniq Tower is loose inside the case as the wires feeding it from the fan aren't long enough to strech over the GTX and reach the third fixing bracket along.

I can't fit the GTX into the middle slot as that covers over the only PCI slot available so nowhere to fit my s/card.

I can't fit the GTX in the last slot as it means removing the plugs that feed the firewire and front case buttons which of course is not really an option, I can live without firewire but not Power/Reset etc..

Bin Boy, the reason I have a PCI s/card is that the one that came with the motherboard had a manufacturing fault and was returned to OcUK, it was agreed between both parties that rather than break open and destroy a whole motherboard package that they would send a standalone PCI card instead, unfortunately neither of us were aware that installing the GTX in the middle slot would remove the option of the PCI card..

My only option at this moment with only one GTX is to fit the card in the first slot and leave the big fan control/fixing bracket inside my case which is bloody awful, so in reality its already a mess a mess and I haven't even considered buying GTX's 2 and 3..

I think that there are fair arguments for both sides here, but I genuinely feel that I made a concerted effort to make sure that everything would work together and that this board would do as I wished (future upgrading) I can only hope that the guys at OcUK can look at this kindly, as I say they have been great so far, and although i'm incredibly frustrated at trying to find whatever problems are causing me to currently own a non functioning pc for the last 3 weeks I know its not the fault of the resellers and appreciate them trying to help me fix it....

As far as this mobo issues goes though, I was advised that it would indeed to what I described I wanted it to do...

Anyway, fingers crossed as I will be approcahing the guys and explaining my dilemma..

Thanks again
Dave.

Edit: Wow in the time it took to write this there has been numerous posts added and even pics... LOL, thanks lads, glad of your input.

chaparral, that is some set-up dude....

Dave
 
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That's not my rig.....(See tweaktown Link above pictures)

Ah right.... nice link..

Right, the motherboard return discussion may yet be a moot point as tonight I've recieved and fitted my new RAM, I've swapped out 4GB OCZ 800Mhz Reaper HPC for Corsair 4GB DDR2 XMS2 Dominator 1066Mhz and still can't install Vista as the machine reboots or locks repeatedly during installation...

All that is left now that hasn't been swapped out of this whole system is the graphics card and the motherboard..

The machine that I'm now using to type this reply has a 7900GTX in it, so I will try that in my new build later tonight and if it still reboots/locks then it just has to be the motherboard.... doesn't it?? :confused:
 
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