Ultima System Build Quality

BigBazz · 14 Sep 2008 at 15:16

Ive had my OCUK Ultima system now for just over a year and its been a peach of a system, very stable, reliable and fast. In that time ive added a second hard drive and an extra 2gig of ram, but the time has now come to upgrade the 8800GTX so ive chosen the BFG GeForce GTX 280 OC 1024MB GDDR3, even though i have been inside the case to intall the new HDD and ram i havent really taken a good look at the quality of the build until now.
Ive found the GFX card is so tight against the main IDE and power cables that it puts pressure on the GFX card itself and the expansion slots on the motherboard do not align with the case properly.

The system is
Antec 900
Abit 1p-35 Pro
4 gig Crucial Ballistix 8500
Western Digital 500 gig sata II
OCZ Game extreme PSU
OEM 8800GTX

If the GTX and the 280 are the same dimensions then there is no real problem if the new card is bigger then its going to be a little more work to install. OCUK do build great systems but this particular one looks as if its been rushed on the build which lets its down if only a little....

Grimley · 14 Sep 2008 at 15:22

If its any help, I'd change the Optical drive to a sata model. It may free up enough space behind the card & may help to relieve the alignment on the board.

BigBazz · 14 Sep 2008 at 15:34

Having just ordered the new GFX card plus another 500gig HDD and a 320gig drive for my PS3 today i am now currently kicking myself as changing the optical drive from IDE to SATA was on the to do list.... Cheers Grimley

Delvis · 14 Sep 2008 at 15:48

For starters that IDE cable should not be crimped like that...

tigerstyle · 14 Sep 2008 at 16:08

Delvis said:
For starters that IDE cable should not be crimped like that...

for data curruption? It doesn't matter....

but yeah, looks a bit *tight*

Berserker · 14 Sep 2008 at 16:45

Agreed. I've had IDE cables twisted up worse than that and they've been fine. It could accelerate degradation of the cable though (as could the pressure from the graphics card).

Mark A · 14 Sep 2008 at 16:51

Could the IDE cale not be tucked behind the hdd bays?

Strife212 · 14 Sep 2008 at 16:54

A nice SATA optical would sort you out

btw

Delvis · 14 Sep 2008 at 17:05

Regardless really, you shouldnt have kinks like that in the cable.

And for a system that's brought pre-built you just wouldn't tidy it up like that.

tigerstyle · 14 Sep 2008 at 18:00

Delvis said:
And for a system that's brought pre-built you just wouldn't tidy it up like that.

blame the OcUK monkeys

but yeah agreed, poor form really, unarguably so

Wiggins · 14 Sep 2008 at 18:04

Do you have anyone you can rob a rounded IDE lead off?

BigBazz · 14 Sep 2008 at 21:42

As the system is getting some new toys eg HDD and GFX i may aswell go for a new Sata optical drive, thanks for the input fellas.

BigBazz · 16 Sep 2008 at 16:45

Well the card arrived Tuesday (today) I re-routed the IDE cable behind the main power cable so it enters the IDE socket flat with no twists, The card now has about 2mm clearance from the cables which run down the HDD bays. The motherboard alignment though is another story, it seems as if the case is twisted ever so slightly because the screw holes for the expansion cards are about 0.5mm out of line.. To fix this i will have to dismantle and rebuild the system... (which i am about to start)