The motherboard doesn’t quite fit into the tray / slot. When I went to screw it into the tray, the left most edge of the mobo was sticking up above the tray, and none of the screwholes lined up at all. I tried to just rudimentarily put it on there with a few loose screws, but when I inserted the mobo tray back into the case, the AGP/PCI slots wouldn’t line up correctly.
In addition to the motherboard not fitting, my DVD and DVDRW drives don’t fit into the 5.25" external drive bays. They can somewhat fit in there if you jam em in a bit, but not with the included guide rails that are supposed to be screwed on to the side.
This is only my second time building a computer and I’m kind of worried and not exactly sure what to do. The only problems I’m having is with the motherboard not fitting and the external drive bays being too small. I didn’t see any sort of indication that this was how it was on the Newegg product details, but now looking deeper into the reviews on the Newegg site I see that some people had problems with the drive bays fitting some DVD drives.
Is there some sort of defection with my case, and can I get a working one from Newegg? Or did I just get screwed by not knowing quite enough about how cases fit with motherboards?
If the external drive bays are like that naturally, I wouldn’t have too much of a problem with the case, because that would mean I’d be able to get a smaller DVD drive, but with this motherboard thing, I got no idea what to do. Is my case defective?
(BTW, if the external drive bays are normally that small, how can I distinguish the correctly fitting drives from oversized ones, like those that I currently have?)
Newegg won’t exchange your case for anything other than another of the same model, so you can try that first and hope you get one with better tolerances (although you’ll pay the shipping). Unfortunately, the first answer is “you should have done better research,” but I feel your pain – who does research on a standard ATX case? If the new case doesn’t fit any better, make lemonade from your lemons as follows.
You could seat your PCI and ATX cards and use them as a guide for where your motherboard should go; from there, forget case screws and use adhesive-backed foam board, plastic zip ties, or something similar to mount your motherboard in the right place. Stay away from styrofoam, which stores up static, or any metallic materials that might create ground faults. Elmer’s glue and pencil erasers might even work – YMMV.
As for the drives, they’re probably steel, and your case is aluminum. If you’re sure you want that drive in that case, there’s a way to fit it in, but it’s semi-permanent and basically a terrible idea. I suggest it here as a mere curiosity, and suggest that you do not do this. Put your drive in a Ziploc bag with a few little bags of dessicant (should be included in recent shipments of packing foam). Squeeze as much air as possible out of this bag and seal it. Place it in your freezer. Now leave your case next to the heating duct for a few hours. Leave the case by the heater, grab the drive, and quickly strip it out of its bag and slip it into place. In a few moments the two parts will reach thermal equilibrium and you’ll never get them apart again. :eek:
And of course, if that doesn’t work, there’s always the option of “press fitting” the parts. That’s engineering slang for “jam 'em together real good.” Also not recommended, and also nearly permanent.
Is it possible my case motherboard tray could be messed up? I just tested a motherboard that’s from a completely different manufacturer and it has the same fitting problem, in the same place. It seems like the motherboard tray is slightly angled or misshapen.
Does the Antec P160 not support Socket 754 K8T800 mobos? I was under the impression that the ATX form was standardized. I’m hoping this case is merely defective so there isn’t some sort of more severe problem.
As far as the DVD players go, I guess mine are oversized, how can you tell which will fit into the smaller slot?
If the motherboard tray seems misshapen, it probably is. Measure diagonally from corner to opposite corner like this. The two measurements should be exactly alike. If it is tweaked, call NewEgg and ask what their return policy is.
