Warning on the PCI Express Power Cooler 550 tuner - wont fit on board

[JohnS]

Ive pretty much had it up to here with hardware problems on my recent
system. Problem after problem. Now this. My first MSI 550 had a
capacitor broken off in the package.

Now I get this PCI express TV tuner card. The freaking card -- the
end of the card , the nforce4 heatsink is completely in the way. I
mean theres no way you can make it fit. Its like having a huge
heatsink right in the middle of the card ! Both Slots are blocked.
In fact its useless. Its like you have to have very short PCI express
cards or you cant use it at all. Dont they have standards for these
things? Yeesh. Lets see what Neweggs much hyped customer service is
like. I had to pay $16 shipping to get this thing. Id hate to end up
eating that AND a restocking fee and then pay another $16 to ship
another card. End up paying $100 for a $65 card.

 

[JohnS]

Looking at other boards -- pictures on the net they have the nforce4
chip right behind the PCI express slots too. However it looks
slightly farther away from the slots vs the Chaintech board. Not by a
huge amount though.

With my board basically Im short over an inch. The entire heatsink
would fit under the TV tuner IF it could fit under it of course which
it cant. Other boards Ive seen may have half an inch leeway. Thats
defintely not enough and yet I see no one mentioning this as a huge
problem except one reviewer who says they had a slight problem bumping
into the heatsink. This is a MAJOR problem. I thought maybe they were
scraping the heatsink or something from the sound of it.

The POWER COLOR is made low and long for HTPC use for those small
cases. If they would have made it higher and shorter no problems. And
even then the clearance I now see is pathetic. Unless the standard for
PCI express cards is high very short these slots are completely
useless even if they come out with cards.

My only other solution would be to experiment with some heat pipe or
other cooling solution to see if I can get something that will fit
underneath the board but even that is a long shot. Im not even sure
anything placed on top of the nforce chip would have enough clearance
unless it was super thin.

 

[Noozer]

Ive pretty much had it up to here with hardware problems on my recent
system. Problem after problem. Now this. My first MSI 550 had a
capacitor broken off in the package.

Now I get this PCI express TV tuner card. The freaking card -- the
end of the card , the nforce4 heatsink is completely in the way. I
mean theres no way you can make it fit.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't one of the advantages of PCI-e is
that you can put a PCI-e x1 card into an x4, x8 or x16 slot if necessary?

Don't know the layout of your board, but do you have a x4 slot free?

 

[JohnS]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't one of the advantages of PCI-e is
that you can put a PCI-e x1 card into an x4, x8 or x16 slot if necessary?

Don't know the layout of your board, but do you have a x4 slot free?

Thats the problem theres no standard but my board is relatively
common. Its got 2 slots above the video card slot. Unfortunately BOTH
are blocked off by the nforce4 heatsink/fan.

My board is one of the worst in this area. Besides the rare ones which
have nforce above the PCI slots , many have varying degrees of
clearance past the end of the video slot. Thats the easiest way to
tell. Just look at the end of the video slot and see how far that is
from nforce cooler fan. With some you see an inch or so. With mine and
few others virtually ZERO. If you had line where the video slot ends ,
thats where the cooler begins on my board and a few other boards.
Others may have bit more clearance all the way to an inch or more.
Some have turned the square around the axis so its more diamond like
which gives both edges where the 2 PCI ex slots are a bit more
clearance.

The only thing that has even a remote chance of working is this and it
probably costs 20-40 bucks I bet. Plus I have no idea if it really
will fit. So given all that plus the hassle of trying it out and the
fact it doesnt seem to be selling anywhere --- forget it.

http://www.bigbruin.com/reviews05/review.php?item=jingting&file=1


I notice heatpipes are getting more popular as boards get starved for
more space now. They are on many of the higher end boards. I always
thought these things were dumb or for show but if someone made one
wafer thin that he tested on many boards that had problems and then
mkted it at a reasonable price it would sell as an essential item as
more PCI Express cards come out on the mkt.

Actually Chaintech and other board makers should come out with options
at a low price to correct their idiotic design mistakes or sloppiness.
Also the makers of the PCI express cards should know better and the
retailers too. Come on. And the reviewers ------Yeesh. That should be
right up front in their reviews in bold letters.