Is the GPU fan control supposed to have 3 wires? Is that required to control the fan?

[soccerballtux]

My 8800GT (Galaxy) that I ordered only has 2 wires-- red and black. It's wired to 100%. It is LOUD.

So I send NCIXUS a huge message about how much BS they've been giving their customers--
1). Customers were not notified (at any time during their purchase process) of their seasonal processing delays at checkout time (from the time I clicked order to the time the package was picked up by Fedex was 6 of their business days.
2). They continued to sell this Galaxy 8800GT product knowing it did not function correctly (that it was wired to 100%, fanspeed not controllable by card BIOS/drivers, and LOUD).
3). That to rectify the problem, they did not offer to cross ship, did not offer the customer a choice-- they only gave us the choice of giving up our graphics card for 2 weeks while we RMA it to them and wait for another replacement to come. Note this card had a rebate which requires the original UPC label to be mailed for the rebate.

I threatened to post all over the internet about their terrible service if they did not send me an Accelero cooler and Fan, and ship it to me for a total price of <$10.

I get his as a response:

Unfortunately we can't fulfill your request as we only have enough stock of the Accelero to fill back orders and it is an EOL product for Arctic Cooling so we can't order any more in. If you would like to pick a different cooler we can look at that, otherwise we can cover the shipping back to us to get it replaced with the correct version of the card or Galaxy will cover shipping back to them directly as they are aware of the problem they have created by not informing us that they changed the cooler design. We stopped shipping as soon as we found out about this and have since received a new shipment from Galaxy with the correct cooler.

(not in this message they sent but in another, they say) They'll ship me a replacement and I don't have to go without a card (and therefor computer) for 2 weeks; ok I guess that works.

I get the new card, and I look it over-- IT'S ALSO hardwired to 100%; only this time it's with the original cooler they had started this product out with. I look over the above message I quoted and note that they didn't say the card was fixed or anything, but that they simply changed the cooler back.

I look closer, and not only does the fan only have 2 wires, the PCB only has 2 pins (!). So even if I got an Accelero cooler with a fan, I would not have been able to connect the fan to the board even if I soldered the wires to it myself (was planning on doing this).

Also, this change back to the old fan (that is apparently more quiet) does not have any heatsinks for the RAMs. These are the Samsung type RAMs, which I hear are better, but I've also been reading this card (with this cooler) locks up sometimes because the RAMs get too hot.

So what should I do? I'm considering simply sending both of these back to NCIXUS, buying another card elsewhere, and never coming back. The first cooler on the 8800GT I got was nice because it was dual slot and exhausted air out the back. But it was wired to 100%. This newer one is also wired to 100%, is quieter (my main concern), does not exhaust air out the back, and has no ramsinks.

Here's a link to the card:http://www.ncixus.com/products...X/Galaxy%20Technology/
They've pulled pictures of the older version; oh well. However note this card in the picture has 3 wires going from the PCB to the fan. The one sitting in front of me (that they say is fixed) only has 2.

 

[Skunkwourk]

I'd just keep the second one and ask for a large discount on an aftermarket cooler. They already mentioned your original was an EOL product meaning discontinued. Sucks, but I mean there isn't much you or they can do if the manufacturer isn't making that card anymore. Pretty much comes down to how much you care about getting heat exhausted out of the back. An aftermarket cooler would keep your GPU cooler than any reference cooler unless you just return both and get the 8800GT with the preinstalled Accelero S1. I also don't think 6 days is horrible unless you paid for next day shipping or something.

 

[Syntax Error]

If the Galaxy 8800GT is that notoriously bad, you could buy some RAM sinks yourself and put them on...but I would prefer to just return it and get a proper 8800GT, take off the stock fan and mount an Accelero S1 + RAM sinks + 120mm fan.

 

[nitromullet]

I'm considering simply sending both of these back to NCIXUS, buying another card elsewhere, and never coming back.

That's what I'd do. For what it's worth, in the future I'd stay away from non-reference PCB designs. There's a reason the major AIB partners like EVGA, BFG, and XFX all stick to the reference design: NVIDIA knows what they're doing.

That being said, it does look like NCIXUS is trying to do the right thing so you might reconsider ditching them for good. Up to you really...

 

[soccerballtux]

Originally posted by: nitromullet

I'm considering simply sending both of these back to NCIXUS, buying another card elsewhere, and never coming back.

That's what I'd do. For what it's worth, in the future I'd stay away from non-reference PCB designs. There's a reason the major AIB partners like EVGA, BFG, and XFX all stick to the reference design: NVIDIA knows what they're doing.

That being said, it does look like NCIXUS is trying to do the right thing so you might reconsider ditching them for good. Up to you really...

Well I've installed this new card and I must say in spite of the fan being at 100% all the time, it's just as quiet as I would like-- *barely* any louder than my 3 120mm fans that are inside and those are really, really quiet already. So I'll stick with it; and I think I will not get a non-reference PCB from now on heh. Never imagined they'd ditch the fan controller. At the end of the day, I saved ~$30 buying from NCIXUS; and in spite of the nasty handling times they've tried really hard to rectify this...I guess I wouldn't mind buying from the again; I'll just be sure to not do it around the holiday season next time (I hear during the normal year their time to ship/handling turnaround is much less than the 6 days I experienced, more like 3. I just wish I had been notified at checkout it was going to be this long).

Is there some reason a company would go non-reference? Does it save them money somehow from not buying the reference board layout from nvidia?

 

[taltamir]

I don't see anything bad in how NCIXUS treated you, if anything they are going towards you...

Tell them that the new one is even worse, ask them to refund you the price so that you can buy a different card. And get the asus one instead (also aftermarket cooler).

not ncix's fault that galaxy made a crappy product.

Also, threats typically come AFTER they have failed to address the situation, not before...