Hardware & Technical New gfx card won't fit case

[Gamersince77]

I bought a 2nd hand 770 but it won't fit my case because the damn metal drive bay is in the way! I can't move the bays as they are riveted in place and the metal is very hard as I tried cutting a hole in it.

Contacted the seller and he won't take it back and I can't afford a new case

HELP?

 

[Zargor]

From my experience getting out that drive bay is almost impossible without wrecking the case, it's probably bolted or soldered. I don't think you will be able to cut it without industrial tools.

You could try to see if you can take off the graphics card plastic cover BUT it will probably void your warranty and there is a chance it's not possible or could cause damage to the card.

The best thing to do would be to get a new case - you could take everything out in the meantime and run the computer with mobo sitting on the desk - very rough but works

In case you do something like that, just make sure not to put anything conductive under your motherboard, plastic spacers/supports would be the best.

 

[Tomtom]

If a new case is absolutely out of the question, you could maybe buy a PCI-E extender ribbon (such as this one for example) but then you still have the issue of mounting the card somewhere securely inside (or even outside!) the case. Not an easy job.

 

[Asp Explorer]

Depopulate the case, measure, mark and put an angle grinder, dremel or hacksaw blade,to work

Just remember to clean it all up.

 

[Brian]

You could rebuild your PC on a wooden board and mount it on the wall like a portrait?

Brian

 

[Zephyriel]

Brian > That is soooo geek ! Shut up and take my money!

 

[Brian]

None of those are mine, but it does look pretty simple to do. My rig is in a boring box..

Brian

 

[Gamersince77]

They are cool but my cat would use it as a climbing frame

Re: my problem, I have found an old black packard bell case which doesn't have lower drive bays so I was going to switch my PC to that case until I saw the plug for the front bay (ie power on/off, reset, HD light etc) but the plug is 10 pin block 5/5 with one pin blocked off. Whereas my current case has all little separate 2 pin plugs. The mobo pins aren't 5/5 but more like 10/10 with a couple missing near the middle, so I really wouldn't know exactly where to plug the new case plug that's 5/5.

 

[Brian]

Can you remove the buttons from your old case and just mount them in/on the new case? Hot glue would be great for that.

Brian

 

[WeirdCulture]

WHat is stored above the Harddrive case?

 

[Brian]

That'll be optical drives, DVD BluRay etc.

Brian

 

[WeirdCulture]

I mean directly above the HDD bay... looks like an old floppy bay, where the HDD could be mounted so there would be place for the new card

 

[Gamersince77]

WHat is stored above the Harddrive case?

DVDrw.

 

[Commander Jameson's Ghost]

With Asp Explorer -the simplest solution is for the drive bays to be cut out to the extent that the card fits. If the metal can't be easily cut with a saw, maybe mark out the case and see if it is possible for a garage/auto shop to cut it out with an acetylene/plasma torch without damaging the whole case too much.
Failing that maybe approach one of those places that recycles computers/refurbishes them for third world schools and see if you can get a deal on a suitable second hand case.
Seems to me it is essential you get that card installed as soon as possible to ensure it works OK.

 

[Asp Explorer]

The bay stuff in PC cases is usually plain stamped and spot welded mild steel. It's really soft as far as metals go, and can be cut with tin snips. Taking it to a shop for oxy-acetylene or plasma cutting would be overkill, but fun to watch

 

[Patrick_68000]

Always measure before buying a graphics board. A good solution is that of Asp Explorer

 

[Brian]

There's not many problems you cant sort out with a 2lb ball hammer.

Brian

 

[alexios]

If a new case is absolutely out of the question, you could maybe buy a PCI-E extender ribbon (such as this one for example) but then you still have the issue of mounting the card somewhere securely inside (or even outside!) the case. Not an easy job.

That thing looks unshielded and cheap. You'd have to deal with the added noise, ringing, overshoot/undershoot and signal skew of the lengthened bus, which might result in reducing the bandwidth between the computer and GPU as the bus retries failed transactions. Worst case scenario: it may even cause cheap hardware to fail. Maybe not though, I don't know how PCIE is laid out electrically, and it may have really good signal conditioning making this entire paragraph one big lie

Plus, the board will vibrate a lot because of its fans and it was designed to use the motherboard's slot for mechanical stability. Vibration eventually breaks things.

I'd cut an GPU-shaped hole on the drive mounting bays, or I'd empty out the case, then take a drill to the rivets to remove the lower part of the disk mounting bay. The rivets and bays are often quite flimsy and easy to pull out, sometimes even without power tools.

 

[Tomtom]

Plus, the board will vibrate a lot because of its fans and it was designed to use the motherboard's slot for mechanical stability.

Yes, well, I did mention the issue of secure mounting

Those PCI-E ribbons usually work fine, very useful for positioning a large card in a small case but a move to a bigger case is the much preferred option. But yes, if I were doing a wall-mount PC (like the pics that Brian posted) I would certainly opt for the more expensive shielded ones!

Cutting out a piece of the HDD bay to make room is an option, but that might be a structural piece and you could end up with a pretty floppy case as a result! And that PCI-E socket looks quite close to the case bottom so there might not be much room for decent air flow. Kinda hard to tell from the pic though.

 

[Surfinjo]

Cut the drive bay out

But don't use a saw. Use tin-snips. Less chance of shards lying around.