View Single Post - What is the worst luck you have ever had building a system?

Das Capitolin · Rated R

I'm just curious; I have built hundreds of high-end systems, and it wasn't until very recently that I felt like giving it up. Has anyone else had luck as bad as I did on this project?

About three months ago I had a client want a D830 system with SLI 7900 GT's. Okay, fine. I shared with him the pro's and con's of the various components, we compromised, and I started ordering the parts. Generally, I give clients a 5-day turnaround. This would turn out to be a bad decision.

The first problems began when both the BFG GeForce 7900 GT's arrived. The retail box was prestine, however the plastic inner holding box was a bit roughed up. Both of these cards would be found to have missing/broken away surface joined capacitors. Fine, RMA them and add one week.

Next came the Raptor 150GB gaming hard drive. It began fine, but about an hour into loading the O/S it locked solid (onfirmed via see-through window). Fine, contact WD and get a replacement. Add two weeks.

Then once the next set of BFG GeForce 7900 GT's arrived, to my very surprise, the exact same problem was seen: capacitors rolling around inside a perfect retail box. F*ing fine! Research the card and find that I am with the majority on the problem. RMA, substiture eVGA card instead.

Next came the motherboard. It uses Realtek's High Definition Audio. Unfortunatly, only the latest driver from Realtek (whom I must add has realeased six driver revisions for their hardware from the start of this project to the end of the entire nightmare one month later) will keep this system from seeing BSOD's.

Finally, I get the WD Raptor in and all looks well. The eVGA 7900 GT's are in and look good. The system has a solid O/S and has been overclocked to 3.6GHz without additional voltage or cooling. It's even running the DDR2 at 800MHz without a problem. Then, without any warning, during an hour of FEAR demo testing the 600w power supply goes up in smoke.

I swear, getting a deposit on this system was the only thing that went right. Thankfully the client was understanding (but only believed me after I showed him all of the RMA forms and smoked PSU).

Share your horror stories.