New Desktop Computer - Part 2 (Modifications)

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I've decided to keep the computer.

Last night, I couldn't get to sleep because my hands were aching from working on the USB "hub" so I got back up, took a couple of Aleve (with a small TV dinner), then putzed around with one problem the computer had: the useless graphics card support bracket.

This is how the bracket was installed when i got the computer.

The vertical part of the bracket is all the way to the left where it doesn't do anything except get in the way. It needs to be moved to the right but System 76 left out the holes that were needed to move the bracket to the right without running afoul of the graphics card PSU cable. the only fix was to add the holes that should have been there from the factory.

First, the support bracket needed to be removed. It was a tight fit due to the horizontal part of the bracket interfering with the PSU mounting bracket. Then I laid out the hole locations and center punched them.

Next, I drilled pilot holes with a #50 drill bit, the drilled to the final size with a #29 drill bit (0.136), which is slightly oversized to compensate for any slight inaccuracy in the hole layout.

After deburring the holes, I reinstalled the support bracket parts.

Again, it was difficult because the horizontal part of the bracket interfered with the PSU mounting bracket. There is still another problem due to bad design. The vertical part of the bracket has two plastic tabs: one that supports the bottom of the graphics card and one that supposed to support the top of the card when in transit is roughly 1/2" above the card. The easiest fix for that will be to shim between the tab and the card. I'll deal with that later.

I still haven't fired up the computer yet (I don't know why I didn't before modifying that bracket). I ordered it with Ubuntu installed but, once I'm sure the computer's hardware is working correctly, I'm going to replace the boot SSD with a better one along with the three data SSDs. To do all that, I'll have to remove the graphics card support bracket, the graphics card, and the CPU cooler fan shroud just to get to the heat sinks covering the SSD ports on the MOBO (motherboard).

I think I have a couple of ways to fix that stupidly designed PCIe blanking cover clamp. I'll first try to replace it with a piece of aluminum angle drilled and either tapped or rivet nut inserts added so I can individually screw blank covers into place (the way pretty much everyone and their dog does it). If I can't make that work, then I'll try drilling and tapping the "lower" part of the clamp for screws. I hope I won't have to go that far since that part of the clamp is either cast zinc or cast aluminum and drilling it will weaken it. But that will keep for until after I have tested the current installation.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I just powered up the computer and ran most of the setup for Ubuntu to make sure the computer was working.

Keyboard ✓
Wireless Mouse ✓
WiFi ✓
Ethernet ✓
Updates ✓
Graphics Card ✓ (Kinda sorta; I just ran an HDMI cable from Monitor 3 to the HDMI port on the graphics card. I'll deal with the full monitor/splitter setup after I swap and add drives and install Mint.

I didn't check sound since I use a DAC dongle to drive my speakers and it's in use on my laptop.

Ya gotta love my "professional" test setup. Whatever works, I always say sometimes.

Next: get a few hours (quite a few) hours sleep (I'm getting punchy), then start dismantling the computer so I can swap boot drives and add data drives (joy!).

[MurphCID]

Very interesting bracket. I have not really seen the inside of that computer at the level you’ve posted photos, so it looks definitely interesting. Please keep us posted on the continuing adventures.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Very interesting bracket. I have not really seen the inside of that computer at the level you’ve posted photos, so it looks definitely interesting. Please keep us posted on the continuing adventures.

Well, since you asked... All seriousness aside, since I was up all night and only just now woke up (a little past 2PM my time), I'm going to wait until tomorrow to start tearing out the graphics card support bracket, graphics card, and CPU cooler shroud so I can get to the MOBO to install the four SSDs. While I've got everything out of the way, I'm also going to deal with that stupid PCIe blanking cover latch (whoever designed that thing is so half-arsed, they must get twice the wear from a toilet seat) It's a shame that this computer is so poorly documented (even as bad and out of date the documentation for my laptop was, it's still better than for this desktop). The service manual online is out of date so I'm having to suss out all this myself. For example, the graphics card support bracket shown in the online manual is nothing like the actual one inj

I got a scare before I went to sleep this morning. I was laying in bed, unwinding by reading before going to sleep (I read from my TV screen that's patched into my computer) when the TV screen suddenly went dark. I got up and checked the computer; dead as the proverbial door nail. I checked the power cable since it's easily dislodged; nope, it was fine. While mumbling "sweet nothings" not exactly under my breath, I started to dig out a spare laptop when it dawned on me to check where the power supply was plugged into the power strip I use so I don't have to crawl under my desk to get power. The plug had been slightly dislodged (it was amazing it hadn't fallen out) while I was moving things around while working on the new desktop. I reseated the plug and the laptop fired right up. Disaster averted. Panic over. Zzzzzz.

Well, lupper beckons (if the meal between breakfast and lunch is brunch, doesn't it stand to reason that a meal between lunch and supper would be lupper?). Tootles.

[MurphCID]

Lupper is perfectly acceptable! I had lupper today myself. Still no eta on mine, so I am living vicariously through you guys.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

It dawned on me while I was watching a movie a short while ago that I need to install only the boot drive tomorrow and wait to install the data drives until after I install Mint. That means I'll have to remove and replace half the hardware in the machine twice. Joy.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

While the forums were down for maintenance, I still kept working on the new computer so get ready for a flood of posts and photos.

I needed to replace the boot SSD with Ubuntu installed with my own SSD to install Mint 21.1 on. After lunch Wednesday, I removed the case housing from the computer case and moved it to my bed where I had more room to work and could lay it down horizontally.

There is a lot of hardware in the way, though. First, I removed the graphics card support bracket I had modified the day before.

In this shot, the piece that’s supposed to cradle the graphics card can’t be adjusted to fit the thickness of the card. The best way to fix that will be to put a shim on the inside of the finger sticking up on the left in the photo that’s a bit less than 1/4” thick. I’ll deal with that the next time I have to remove the support bracket. The upper finger is necessary only when transporting the computer; otherwise gravity will keep the card resting on the lower finger just fine.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Next the graphics card needs to be removed. I first loosened the Michael Mouse PCIe blanking plate clamp (it will get removed and modified later). Next, there is a latch that has to be release before pulling the car from its socket.

In the past, MOBOs (motherboards) had the lever that releases the PCIe slot latch in line with the PCIe slot, resulting in the latch being under the end of longer cards, especially graphics cards, making them a bugger to get at to release. I would have to make Michael Mouse tools from bent pieces of sheet metal to get under the card to push that stupid little latch lever down to release the card.

On this MOBO, Gigabyte made the latch lever offset so one can use a long screwdriver or similar rod to push down the release lever. In this shot, the lever is pretty much impossible to see but you can see the screwdriver being used to push it down.

This shot shows what the release lever looks like.

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The black piece on top is what gets pushed toward the MOBO to release the card. I hope the person who came up with this brilliant idea made a lot of money from it; she or he richly deserves it!

This is what the inside of the computer looks like after removing the graphics card.

The M.2 port the replacement boot drive will go into is under the heat sink that’s above the PCIe x16 slot the graphics card had been plugged into. Although it doesn’t look like it in this photo, the CPU cooler shroud is in the way of removing the screw.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

To remove the CPU cooler shroud, the two fan cables coming out of the shroud and are plugged into the MOBO need to be unplugged. There are two screws that fasten a bracket on top of the shroud to the case that need removing. There are also four thumbscrews on the back of the case and two fan cables coming out of the shroud that need removing (a screwdriver is needed to break the thumbscrews loose). Then the shroud can be lifted out of the case.

Now it’s possible to remove the screw at the end of the heatsink of the top M.2 port where the boot drive resides.

After removing the screw and the heatsink, here is the boot drive...wait...where the heck is the boot drive?

The remaining three M.2 ports are under this large heatsink between the two PCIe slots that is held down with three screws.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Removing the three screws and lifting off the heatsink reveals...well, “sunnuvagun”, there’s that elusive little boot drive .

This isn’t the first time System 76 has pulled this stunt (they also did it in my laptop...twice ). Ideally, when installing a boot drive, it should go into the first port, usually labeled 0. However, instead of going to the extra trouble to put the boot drive in the correct port, they picked one that was easier to get to. On this MOBO, the top port, the one the boot drive should have gone into, is harder to get to because of the CPU cooler shroud being in the way. It is rated for PCIe 5.0. The other three M.2 ports are rated for PCIe 4.0. Granted, the boot drive I’m going to use is only rated for PCI 3.0 but still…

The next two shots shows a little clip that holds an SSD in place until the heat sink can be screwed down.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

The SSD that System 76 put in the computer is a WD SN770 which as been replaced with the WD SN850. The WDs are only TLC drives whereas the Samsung 970 drive I’m installing is MLC. The 970s were the best Samsung MLC drives made; the 980s and 990s that replaced the 970s are TLC (which has less write life than MLCs) and have been having some firmware issues. The WD SSDs are also TLC. System 76 doesn’t tell you what drive you are going to get when you order a computer; you only get a choice of size (and you have to order at least one drive). Since I have plenty of Sammy 970s (I stocked up on them when the 0980s came out and I found out they were TLC instead of MLC), I just ordered the cheapest one they offered and planned on swapping in a better 970 (also,the 980s and the newer 990s have been having firmware and/or caching issues).

Here, I’ve installed a 512GB Sammy 970 (its capacity is overkill for a boot drive but it’s the smallest 970 made) in the correct port.

The controller chip (the one that runs the hottest) is 0.5mm thinner than the NAND chips. I had ordered a 1.0mm and 0.5mm thermal pad to use with the Sammy so all the chips would contact the heatsink but Gigabyte had a thicker thermal pad already installed (it measured 1.66mm, an odd size) so I was afraid if I replaced it with thinner pads, there might not be enough pressure to ensure good contact. So I left the Gigabyte pad on the heatsink and put a 0.5mm pad on the controller chip area directly onto the SSD.

I also cut the excess length from the pad on the heatsink. The retention clip was digging into the pad and I was concerned it might affect how pressure was applied to the pad over the SSD. The extra length isn’t need on 2280 SSDs, the largest length consumer SSDs currently available.

I then reinstalled both heatsinks. I’ll install the three data SSDs later, after I have Mint installed and running on the boot SSD.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Since I’m such a glutton for punishment, I decided, while things were somewhat apart and the graphics card was still out of the way, to modify the idiotic PCIe blanking cover retention bracket so I could use normal PCIe blanking cover plates instead of system 76’s idiotic ones. Although I had some concerns about drilling holes in the bracket bar since they could weaken the bar, I decided that would be the best approach.

I had all kinds of “fun” trying to figure out how to lay out the holes and finally settled on using the graphics card’s PCIe cover plate as a template to outline the holes with a scriber, then, after some careful measuring, used my El Cheapo digital calipers as a marking gauge to mark the hole centers. My drill press would have been best for drilling the holes but I didn’t want to risk further hurting my back by lugging it out of storage so I used my Dremel instead.

The standard screw size for securing PCIe brackets is 6-32 which I have a gazillion of (give or take a few bazillion). The tapping hole drill bit size for 6-32 in aluminum is #36. Before drilling with the #36 drill bit, I drilled a pilot hole with a #50 bit (number drill bits get smaller as the number gets bigger). Here is the Dremel with a #36 bit chucked up and a #50 bit laying in front of it.

Here, I’ve laid out and center punched the hole locations, then drilled the first hole to make sure everything was laid out correctly since the holes were going to be so close to the edge of the clamp bar, I was concerned the holes or the threads would blow out the side of the bar.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Here, I’ve started tapping the threads into the holes.

I use a cutting oil designed for tapping called Tap Magic EP-XTRA (no, I’m not sponsored or otherwise affiliated with Tap Magic; I just like their stuff). It’s designed for use on a large variety of metals (you can’t use just anything with some metals, such as aluminum). The can is hilarious. It specifically lists 17 different metals on the can followed by “All Metals” that it's compatible with.

Tapping holes that small makes me nervous as a squirrel in a treeless dog park since it’s so easy to break those taps. However, I managed to get all the holes tapped without any problems (I turned the tap in reverse to clear the chips far more frequently than I normally would with larger taps). After deburring the holes and cleaning up the cutting oil, I reinstalled the clamp bar onto the back of the computer.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Next, I reinstalled the graphics card. All I had to do was align it with the PCIe slot and push it in (the latch engages automagically) then screw it down. I also installed proper blanking plates and screwed them down.

The screws in the blanking covers appear to be inside the case in the above shot but are actually outside the case (the camera is a liar). I'll later be installing additional USB ports in the two covers just below the graphics card and connect the ports to unused front I/O headers on the MOBO.

Here is another shot of the screws securing the blanking covers and the rear cover of the graphics card. Normally, two screws would be used to secure the graphics card but there was only room for one hole on the clamp bar. One screw is plenty to secure the card and any other graphics card I may ever use will also be double height.

I had to remove the “upper” part of the clamp so I could use a screwdriver to install the screws, but I replaced it afterwards to cover the big hole in the back of the case.

I then plugged in the power cable for the graphics card and reinstalled the card support bracket. System 76 claims the bracket is needed only for shipping and is optional afterwards but I don’t agree. Even the short card I have sags a little at the outer end which can be hard on the card’s PCB (Printed Circuit Board) and the PCIe slot. Longer cards will sag even more.

When removing the bracket, the two screws in the front panel of the case should be removed first, then remove the two screws in the back panel. Do the reverse when reinstalling. This helps to compensate for the bad fit.

I had hoped to adapt the 2.5” drive bay into a hot swap bay for backup drives but it was getting complicated in a hurry. It occurred to me while I was fooling around with the support bracket today that it could be modified to mount a couple of Startech dual trayless hot swap bays below the factory 2.5” drive bay (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B001CYZC38?re ... tails&th=1). I would abandon using the factory 2.5" drive bay and connect its SATA cables to the new hot swap bays (I would have to use different power cables since the ones going to the back plane of the factory 2.5" drive bay also control turning the computer on and off). Although Gigabyte claims the SATA ports are hot pluggable (as claims System 76's documentation on their website), a System 76 rep claimed they had trouble getting hot plugging to work with Linux so I’ll have to do some experimenting.

[kenetics]

Seeing all you've gone through, It's almost easier to assemble one's own desktop or tower computer. A lot cheaper too.

My current desktop was built in 2006 and is on it's third motherboard and set of components.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Seeing all you've gone through, It's almost easier to assemble one's own desktop or tower computer. A lot cheaper too.

My current desktop was built in 2006 and is on it's third motherboard and set of components.

I had been working on building a modular case pretty much from scratch for several years but kept getting interrupted for long periods because I would screw something up badly enough that I needed a break, I burned out, other projects (a lot of them) would crop up that had a higher priority, and I kept getting older and weaker and the case got heavier so I got rid of the boat anchor...er...case and bought the new computer.

Despite it's flaws, it's been easier to get going up to a short while ago when I managed to break the OS. I removed the data drives and put it back together enough to let me reinstall Mint (I'm working on it right now) and try to get back to where I was when I broke it using Timeshift (I have Rescuezilla images but I have made too many change since the last one and I don't feel like doing all that work again).

Some days, it doesn't pay to get out of bed.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Well, restoring Timeshift bombed out. Rather than go all the way back to square one again, I restored the "latest" image I had, then redid all the work I had lost (setting up the panel and installing programs). Then I made another image. After that, I reinstalled the data drives and put the computer back together.

I mentioned earlier that I had taped a shim to the top "finger" of the graphics card support bracket but didn't take a picture so, while the bracket was out of the computer, I took a quick shot.

I had to remove the plastic cap from that finger before I taped the shim to it since that was the only thing I had that came close to being the right size and that was only with the plastic cap removed. The tape isn't totally redneck; besides holding the wood to the finger, it also protects the card from getting scratched up.


This finger is horizontal when the support bracket is installed in the card and is positioned against the top of the card. The other finger that is vertical in this photo goes under the card to keep it from sagging. The fingers can be adjusted vertically but the next adjustment down from the top for the top finger would be too low to fit any graphics card made. Brilliant.

Another mod I want to make, assuming the four SATA ports on the MOBO are hot pluggable, will be to install a pair of these dual hot-swap bays, using the graphics card support bracket to support the bays. Here, I have the one dual bay I have sitting on top of the bracket to give an idea of how the bays will fit through the bracket after modifying, which would consist of notching out the bracket and adding some angles to hold the bays.

I would prefer to mount the bays vertically but that may block too much airflow from the bottom case fan. I might make a dummy set of horizontal bays (such as a horizontal piece of wood screwed to the support bracket and see what it does to internal temperatures before I make up my mind.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

This shot shows how the drives go into the hot-swap bays. Just open the door, slide in the drive, then close the door. Removing the drives is just as easy, opening the door partially ejects the drive so it can be easily be easily removed.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Since I'm kinda sorta stalled while waiting for new HDMI splitters, I tested the USB "hub" to make sure all the ports worked correctly and correctly label the cables by connecting the cables into my laptop, then plugging a USB flash drive into the ports in the "hub". All worked fine (and the cables got labeled) except on of the two USB C ports; only 1/2 of it worked (the drive would mount when I inserted it one way but wouldn't when I flipped it 180° and reinserted it. I spent the next 1.5 hours trouble shooting and fixing the problem.

First, I had to separate the cable for the faulty port from the "umbilical" cord (the bundled USB cables coming out of the back of the "hub" (that was a chore). The USB C ports were the ones that had only a 3 foot cable attached so I had added a 3 foot extension cord to and secured the connection with a heat shrink sleeve. After separating the cable from the others, I cut and peeled off the heat shrink (another chore). Then, hoping it would be the problem, which would have been an easy fix, I tested the extension cable. It checked out fine so that meant the cable with the port was the part that was bad (darn!).

Fortunately, I had a spare USB C port (and I tested it to make sure it worked correctly) so, after removing the bad port (I cheated and cut off the cable part first to make removal easier), I replaced it with the extra port (that also was quite a chore due to tight fits), then tested it to make sure it still worked OK. I added the extension cable and tested it again (I was really paranoid by now). Then I slipped a heat shrink sleeve (my last one in that size) over the cable, and shrunk it. And I tested it again.

After bundling the cable back into the "umbilical" cord, I tested it one more time (did I mention I was paranoid?). Now, I have to decide if I'm going to use Velcro to attach the SD/microSD card reader to the top of the "hub" or just stick on with double sided tape.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

While I'm nursing my blown back and the pulled muscle(s?) in my torso just under the left side of my rib cage (again, old age sucks!) and waiting for the new splitters (they won't be in until Monday), I removed the remaining cables from the old splitters, temporarily labeling them with painters tape (easier than putting on the correct labels at the time), then removed the splitters and their wall wart PSUs (that clamp I made almost did too good of a job; it was "fun" getting it off). This is the empty platform where the new splitters will go.

Next was to correctly label the remaining cables (I had already completely removed the cables going from the graphics cards to the splitters and relabeled them). To make getting to them easier, I draped them over the top of #3 monitor so I could work on them sitting down at my desk (it was easier on my old carcass).

I should have turned off the monitor before taking the picture. Sorry.

I first installed the new, better label on a cable, then removed the temporary blue tape label.

Putting the new label on was frustratingly tricky because, after removing the release paper, the darned thing would curl up. That was why I used temporary cables while removing the cables since it was hard to reach them.