Let me preface this by saying that I have nothing against OcUK, I recommend them to anyone who I build for, any friends or nerds that I know and have done so for the past 4 years, I also read the forums on a daily basis. This isn't related to their service or the quality the store has provided.
Short Story: 3 OcUK branded GPUs have failed within months of the warranty period expiring, any suggestions, anyone had similar issues?
Long Story: So my OcUK brand 8800GT just packed its clogs. I ordered them (x2) last March to replace my OcUK brand 8800GTX that I had purchased - some time around bioshock demo coming out - for performance and E-peenery reasons. The 8800GT cards that I received were both Pallit brand with a mild factory overclock on both cards and the 8800GTX was simply OEM brown box fodder. Anyhow - the 8800GTX that I sold off to a close friend (friend A) of mine who was happy to receive a friends price on still hot hardware. Shortly after this an old school friend (friend B) whom had garnered an interest in higher end computing was building his first PC, he asks me if I have any hardware around or that I could cannibalize and give him a nice price, I like the guy and sell him one of my 8800Gt cards ( only after having to realize the lack of performance from SLi in my major gaming interests! (source engine))
Four months pass and he comes to me (friend A) telling me that his computer won't work - in actual fact the 8800GTX had ceased to output any video signal (he was rather peeved) at this juncture I had bought the card around 14 months prior to it failing so I bit the bullet and attempted to send the card -which had a 1 year warranty - for an RMA or possible repair to OcUK. Understandably they declined to provide such a service resulting in my friend having to purchase a new GFX card (nv260).
Cut to now and the crux of the matter, my warranty has passed and my card has died today - while I was on Team Fortress 2 all the textures went into a hypnotic watercolor collage on my screen and my pc froze, upon reboot I find that I get artifacts in BIOS, windows no longer recognizes my card and 3d applications are a solid no-no stairway to crashdom. Heat was never an issue and the card had been airblasted a couple of months ago for dust - as I generally do for most of my PC components on a quarterly basis. I worry, and contact my friend whom I had sold my 2nd 8800GT to (friend B) to find that he had purchased a 7600GT after his card had stopped to function while he was at Uni earlier in the year (he said June) He didn't have much of an issue as I had given him such a good price - but he did question my motive to give it at such a low price until I explained that I had also lost my GPU.
The cards were 15 and 17 months old respectively. I know it is not OcUK that manufacture the products and at the time several parties were having their GPU distributed under the OcUK Value tag (8800GT),do OcUK give the cards a 1year warranty because they know such parties and OEM products have a more limited shelve life due to binning and such, is it just bad luck or is there any science or reason to this. The only other card I have had fail was a 7950GT - after an RMA with EVGA and a reselling its been living happily with a twin brother in a hotboxed apartment playing arrested development reruns. Also - I'll broaden this a little is this an issue with G80 architecture in general, am I reading too much into this.
Anyway; warranty up, card broken again just after the warranty has passed, 650quid down the swanny in 2 and a bit years, no chance of RMA, fed up, not wanting to trust those low prices that are offered here on - let me be specific - just the OcUK brand GPUs and feeling guilty after promising my sister she can have an 8800GT to play facebook on as soon as I upgrade.
Anyone else have this issue or similar tales from bad luck warranty expiration / product failure, relevant or not - post fast the mods'a' comin!
*hides* please don't ban me *wince*
Short Story: 3 OcUK branded GPUs have failed within months of the warranty period expiring, any suggestions, anyone had similar issues?
Long Story: So my OcUK brand 8800GT just packed its clogs. I ordered them (x2) last March to replace my OcUK brand 8800GTX that I had purchased - some time around bioshock demo coming out - for performance and E-peenery reasons. The 8800GT cards that I received were both Pallit brand with a mild factory overclock on both cards and the 8800GTX was simply OEM brown box fodder. Anyhow - the 8800GTX that I sold off to a close friend (friend A) of mine who was happy to receive a friends price on still hot hardware. Shortly after this an old school friend (friend B) whom had garnered an interest in higher end computing was building his first PC, he asks me if I have any hardware around or that I could cannibalize and give him a nice price, I like the guy and sell him one of my 8800Gt cards ( only after having to realize the lack of performance from SLi in my major gaming interests! (source engine))
Four months pass and he comes to me (friend A) telling me that his computer won't work - in actual fact the 8800GTX had ceased to output any video signal (he was rather peeved) at this juncture I had bought the card around 14 months prior to it failing so I bit the bullet and attempted to send the card -which had a 1 year warranty - for an RMA or possible repair to OcUK. Understandably they declined to provide such a service resulting in my friend having to purchase a new GFX card (nv260).
Cut to now and the crux of the matter, my warranty has passed and my card has died today - while I was on Team Fortress 2 all the textures went into a hypnotic watercolor collage on my screen and my pc froze, upon reboot I find that I get artifacts in BIOS, windows no longer recognizes my card and 3d applications are a solid no-no stairway to crashdom. Heat was never an issue and the card had been airblasted a couple of months ago for dust - as I generally do for most of my PC components on a quarterly basis. I worry, and contact my friend whom I had sold my 2nd 8800GT to (friend B) to find that he had purchased a 7600GT after his card had stopped to function while he was at Uni earlier in the year (he said June) He didn't have much of an issue as I had given him such a good price - but he did question my motive to give it at such a low price until I explained that I had also lost my GPU.
The cards were 15 and 17 months old respectively. I know it is not OcUK that manufacture the products and at the time several parties were having their GPU distributed under the OcUK Value tag (8800GT),do OcUK give the cards a 1year warranty because they know such parties and OEM products have a more limited shelve life due to binning and such, is it just bad luck or is there any science or reason to this. The only other card I have had fail was a 7950GT - after an RMA with EVGA and a reselling its been living happily with a twin brother in a hotboxed apartment playing arrested development reruns. Also - I'll broaden this a little is this an issue with G80 architecture in general, am I reading too much into this.
Anyway; warranty up, card broken again just after the warranty has passed, 650quid down the swanny in 2 and a bit years, no chance of RMA, fed up, not wanting to trust those low prices that are offered here on - let me be specific - just the OcUK brand GPUs and feeling guilty after promising my sister she can have an 8800GT to play facebook on as soon as I upgrade.
Anyone else have this issue or similar tales from bad luck warranty expiration / product failure, relevant or not - post fast the mods'a' comin!
*hides* please don't ban me *wince*
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24 Months is a rather enticing prospect, any time beyond that is gravy