U2-UFO Project.

[Clunk]

I've wanted a Mountain Mods U2-UFO case since I first saw them a few years back, and recently, I decided to sell my beloved Lian-Li G70 and have a closer look at what all the fuss was about.


From payment to delivery, it took just over 3 weeks.

At this point, I was going to do a detailed review, but the case arrived damaged, and we (me and mountain mods) are in the process of sorting it out. (See posts further down)

I will add the review here once everything is sorted, and Ill leave the pictures of the worst damage until then as well.

The U2-UFO comes shipped in a huge box.




Then another...this is where I started to wonder WTF!..the box has return to sender on it, and various U.S. post labels.



A sealed bag, with some pieces of polystyrene to protect *cough* the case *cough* from *cough* damage *cough cough*.



Almost in it's underwear.



Inside the plastic bag, the case is wrapped in a layer of thickish cling film.



From another angle.



A very disappointing bundle of "stuff", including 2x hard drive brackets (right), 4 x casters (centre) and a bag of screws for the casters (top left) and a bag of standoffs and screws for the motherboard tray, and thats it. On the website, it states that the case holds 9x hard drives, in fact it holds 6 with the brackets supplied, but they havent changed the website to reflect this for almost a year, make of that what you will.



There is a piece of plastic tied through the front of the case, and I think that the hard drive brackets and other bits had been tied to this, but unfortunately they had come loose, resulting in quite a lot of damage to the inside of the case. You can also see a mark to the front of the case, to the right of the centre fan, this one was underneath the undamaged cling film, and must have come from the factory like that.



You can see another scratch just above the upper most fan on the front panel, and a blemish in the paintwork on the front panel just above the 5.25 bays, this was also covered in cling film and had come from the factory like that.

You can also see the 5.25 blanks. These dont come with the case, they cost $5.99 and £7.49 for a single and a double respectively. Oddly, when I added these to the cart on their website, the postage went up by $20, so I emailed them to ask why, and they said that it was because they went in an extra box, but curiously, these came prefitted. The double one has been made wrongly, and is lopsided (see further down), the single one has some odd etching in one corner that wasnt supposed to be there.



Here you can see a few of the marks caused by the loose hard drive brackets on the inside of the window, there is also another mark on the outside, accross the paint, and onto the perspex panel.



Ever so slightly ill fitting/bent motherboard tray. The rest of it sits flush against the back of the case, and this corner sticks out by around 3-4mm.



At this point, I would like to say that, even though there is a lot of damage, you can still see that this should be a beautiful case, I mean look at this...



Mostly, the finish on the case is very nice, but there are some blemishes that look like the surfaces hadn't been prepped properly before the coating was done, which is a shame on a case at this price point.

Enough of the negatives, hopefully Mountain Mods will rectify the damage as promised, so on with the rest of it....

Motherboard in. This went in surprisingly easily, I had a feeling it wouldnt (see the last pic above), the supplied standoffs went in without any problems as well. Lovely



P5K deluxe, all fitted up with a pair of Thermalright HR-09u/s mosfet heatsinks, some Thermalright ramsinks on the Southbridge, I left the CPU in place so I didn't catch any of the pins in the 775 socket, and I left the Ballistix ram fitted because last time I did a retube, I did it without the ram fitted, and i didnt quite leave enough slack



I did a tool-less motherboard removal mod thing, which simply saves poking around with a screwdriver.



Hmmm, this wasn't in my plans. We all know that the Galaxy is a rather large PSU, but oddly, MM have opted to make the lower PSU bay, so that you can only mount it upside down. What I would like to have seen here, is a plate that fixes to the PSU, then the PSU slides through a rectangular hole in the case and fixes on with 4 screws, exactly like lian-Li do. As it is, I cant fit the Galaxy in the bottom PSU bay because the wiring loom is right in the way...on to plan B.



Here it is in the top PSU bay. Its not perfect, as the loom is on the outside, again, a plate would have worked brilliantly here. I put the PA120.3 rad in the front as well, just to see how things would be once the wires were in there.



continued below...

[Clunk]

Heres a shot of the rad. I've had this one about 18 months and it was a pretty dirty. It had a good soak in vinegar, rinsed with plenty of clean water, and then I brushed the fins with a soft brush and then gave it a shower (yes, really ), it came out almost like new



Black fan grills, black screws and Yate loon fans. I couldn't find anywhere in the UK that stocked/had stock of these, so had to order them from the US (jabtech). Foolishly, I was two short on my order, so had to reorder, so grabbed a few more fans as they are only £1.50 at the moment



Here, you can clearly see that it isn't possible to flip over the PSU to fit it because of the way that the case is made. If they could make a plate for the PSU, it would open up a lot of possibilities for this case in my opinion. Also, why do Enermax think that anybody has anything gold in their case - ever? Sort your grills out Enermax



GTX and EK waterblock in place, sorry about the pic, had to use the flash as it had gone a bit dark.



A closer shot.



While I was messing around, I thought I would see if I could squeeze the top two SATA cables in, and I did, but it was a squeeze. At least it is possible with these cables



Three extra Loonies on the rad to give a push/pull effect, and hopefully better temps.



Next, a dry fit of the waterblocks, just so I can measure the tubing etc...Here's the D-Tek Fuzion CPU block.



Here is the Fuzion, loosely in place with the trusty Dangerden Chipset block.



Decided that I would be better fitting larger items like the DVDrw drive, that way, there are no nasty surprises once everything is tubed up. The blue plastic bag that you can see in the 5.25 bays has got the on/off switch and LED wires inside.



You can see the strange angle at which the drive bay blanks have been made...I think they need quicker setting glue ...I have also started to fill the 5.25 bays with stuff, starting at the top is a Scythe Karma Meter, which is just a fancy fan controller, more on that later.



I think this is how it is going to look, as far as the 5.25 bays go anyway. Top to bottom, Scythe Kama Meter, MM double blanking plate, Scythe Kama Panel, Samsung SATA DVDrw.



You may have noticed that I havent put the fan grill on that right hand fan hole. The only reason for this, is that it is easier to reach through the hold to grab stuff when doing the wiring and tubing. I was going to go for some black knobs for the Kama Meter, but I quite like the silver now.



to be continued...

[Clunk]

Here is the secret weapon, its an extra rad, a Thermochill PA120.2. This will be cooling the GPU and Northbridge in a seperate loop. The U2-UFO isnt made to fit one of these in the back, so all that is needed, is to fix the bottom fan to the rad, and the top fan to the case and it works perfectly.



With the final front grill fitted, it's starting to take shape. I remembered that the 5.25 bays come out as a full unit, so no need for the fan hole to reach through.



Fingerprints



Ok, round to the other side of the case, I needed to find a place to fit the two reservoirs, this proved much harder than I first thought, as they are an odd shape, and the barbs stick out at odd angles as well, so I was having a look through my box of junk and found a Zalman fan bracket..AHA! Well, not quite. Unfortunately, the bracket bolted onto the inside of the 5.25 bays, and as they are an open ended U shapem there was too much play, so had to think of another way.



So, back to my box of junk....I needed something that I could hook over the back of the motherboard tray and then bolt the reservoirs to...AHA! I found an aluminium bracket, cut one end off and bent it into shape, so that it would hook over the back, without touching the motherboard itself...



With the reservoir brackets attatched.



With the reservoirs fitted.



Side view - looks perfect, just needs painting black.



GPU and Northbridge roughly tubed up.



Back to the other side again, I decided to get a smaller, quieter and cheaper pump for the GPU and NB loop, it is a D-Tek DB-1, and I have to say that I am very impressed with it. It is completely silent, I couldnt hear anything at all from it, until I got right up close and there was a faint humming. Its not a very powerful pump, but it is ideal for a small loop like this, and I was able to have it suspended from the outlet of the reservoir, into its inlet, so the body of the pump wasnt actually touching anything, and so, not much in the way of vibrations.



Here you can see a top view of one of the reservoir's inlets, and how close things are. There were a few grazed knuckles here, and some choice swearwords &^%$£(&&.



You can kind of see the way its going here. Apologies for the quality of the last few pics, the batteries in the camera were on the way out and I forgot to retake them.



It was at this point that I ran into another rather annoying problem, partly MM's fault, and partly mine. When I ordered the case, it clearly said on the website, that it held 9x hard drives, I asked MM for some better pics, and they said they didnt have any, and to look at reviews and forum threads etc, so I did, and I saw the 9x hard drive brackets and based my ideas round them. Unfortunately, the case is now only supplied with brackets for 6x hard drives, but still says 9x on the website, which scuppered my plans, as the reservoirs were going to go in the empty drive bays, so I decided to try one set of brackets on the front lower fan.

The main problem with this, was that by the time any drives were fitted, they completely obscured the area where the tubes pass through to the front, which was no good, so those brackets had to come back out.

I mounted a set of the brackets onto the top rear 120mm fan, and they just caught the reservoirs...grrrr. With a bit of adjusting of the position of the reservoir brackets, it all fell back into place, but I had to retube a few bits because of the move.



Filling the GPU/NB loop. Interestingly, it bled really quickly, within a couple of mins, but the other loop for the cpu with the more powerful pump (DDC Ultra + Petras top.) needed bleeding with the bleed screw on the rad.



Here, you can see the difference in power from each of the pumps, look at the huge vortex from the DDC pump inside the right hand reservoir, compared to the miniscule one in the left..pah!



Bled, leaktested, and ready for fitting.



5.25 bays removed, ready for tidying the messy wiring...



A bit tidier, after some spiral wrapping and cable tying.



Top view of the wiring loom, hard drive brackets attatched to the top rear 120mm fan holes on the radiator, not much clearance for the reservoirs, may change those, still plenty to do yet...



To be continued.....

[Colossous]

Heard one or two people say there case turned up a bit mashed from MM !! I got mine 2nd hand (but unused and the perspex has got quite a few scratches !! The side panels are the only bit i dont like to be honest ! They're a bit flimsy and i'm thinking of making custom ones from 3mm aluminium ! Dunno yet !!

[chuckskull]

Great looking case, shame it arrived looking like someone had played football with it.

[OV3RCLOCK3R]

Nice case, hopefully the problems will be sorted soon

[Funkstar]

Inside the plastic bag, the case is wrapped in a layer of thickish cling film.

Thats pallet wrap by the looks of things

Good write up Clunk. Hope you get everything sorted out with the case.

[tigerboyce]

Whoa, how many fans does that fit????

That case looks reall nice, cant wait to see it when its all together

[No.72]

nice hands clunk

[Clunk]

nice hands clunk

I have two

[Steve B]

did you get that manicure then

[Clunk]

did you get that manicure then

No, but I added a load more pics

[SadikP]

Very nice case & some superb work Clunk

[Clunk]

If anyone cares, or if they are wondering why I haven't updated this, it is because I was waiting for the replacement parts from Mountain Mods. It's been over 2 months now since I first ordered the case, and I'm still not close to having an undamaged case yet.

I will start at the beginning.....

Placed an order on the MM site, where it clearly showed that the U2-UF0 with original panels and as having capacity to hold 9x hard drives, and still did, up until a couple of weeks or so ago. Screenie available here.

I also ordered a couple of perspex drive bay blanks, but curiously, the postage increased by $20 as I added them, so I emailed them to ask why, as the postage was already $140. They said:

"when the plexi plate is added it is registered as a second box, thus the increase."

5 days later, I hadn't heard anything, so I emailed them to ask if the order had gone through ok, and, they said they had some back orders to do, and mine was shipping the same day....

Around 3 and a half weeks later, the case arrives.

The outer box is as you would expect from a long haul flight, the inner box has someone else's address and return labels on it, then a sealed inner bag, then some pallet wrap, so the unit was sealed in pretty well, and hadn't been tampered with by customs at all.

I carefully removed the pallet wrap, which incidentally was completely undamaged, to find a lot of scratches, marks, streaks of what appear to be a glue like substance, mostly on the inside, but there were marks, scratches and "glue" on the outside as well, that had been sealed over with the pallet wrap - not good.

On closer inspection, there was a thick layer of brown dust, which, when wiped away revealed some really deep scratches on the base of the inside that were right down to the metal.

These scratches had clearly been there before the dust settled, and the dust had settled before it left the factory, and from that, I concluded that they hadn't checked the unit for damage before it left, or knew it was there, and sent it anyway, I will let you decide which.

Aside from the gouges on the inside, the interior of the case looked like a kid had gone on the rampage with a glue gun, and that is no exaggeration. All of the windows, and part of the base of the case had smears of this glue stuff.

As if that wasn't enough, the brackets that hold the hard drives were left loose in the case, wrapped in nothing but plastic, and had been flying around inside, and that is what had cause *some* of the damage.

But wait a minute, those aren't the brackets that hold 9x hard drives They are two sets of brackets that hold 3 each, which isn't what I ordered, so I checked the website, sure enough it still says that they hold 9x hard drives, so I mention it in my email about the damage, they said:

"It is indicated on the front page that all U2-UFO’s now include 2 sets of hard drive brackets."

Ah yes, my mistake, I should have read the news section of the website from August 2006, instead of relying on the information that is on the page that you actually buy the case from

And regarding the damage, they offered to either replace the case, or send out replacement parts, which was great until I realised that they wanted me to pay to ship it back to the US at a cost of around £80.

I wasn't happy with that at all. The case was clearly damaged when it left the factory, and they hadn't bothered checking it properly. At first I thought that they could have somehow sent me a return by accident, but then I realised that the drive bay blanks (yes, the ones that they charged me for an extra box for) were pre fitted, so whoever did that MUST have seen the layer of brown dust and the glue streaks.

MM were adamant that they weren't going to pay for the return postage, so I informed them that I was going to get a refund on my credit card, and that they could come and pick it up, or I would accept their offer of replacement panels/parts, plus a part refund of £60 to cover the cost of having the main chassis and front of the case repaired.

They said no to the £60, but offered $60, which I accepted, on the understanding that they sent me the replacement parts consisting of;

Left hand side panel, including plexi.
Top panel including plexi.
Right hand side panel including plexi.
5.25 cage.
2 x hard drive brackets (the ones that hold 3, or the 9x one that is advertised with the case.)
Motherboard tray.

6 days later, I hadn't heard anything, so I emailed them, they said that the parts were shipping that night (12th june), and that they would send me the shipping info as soon as it was done.

On the 14th, I still hadn't heard anything, so I emailed again, and it eventually shipped on the 15th (as far as I'm aware).

Roll forward to the 29th of June, I checked the shipping info, and the parcel had been sent to customs for charging...Ummm, but this is a replacement part, it is supposed to be exempt, so I emailed them again to tell them, and they said that sometimes customs charges apply when the item is sent as a gift. A gift eh? hmm.

I got a letter from Parcel Force saying that I owed them £21.xx, so I paid it, and rang customs to see if I could get it back, and they said no, because the sender should have marked it as warranty replacement or "returned items", or "other" and specify. Great. I emailed MM again to see if they were going to pay this, as it was their cock up again, and they said no, so I said that I wasn't happy with that, as I had already compromised in taking replacement panels instead of a new case.

In the meantime, the parcel was delivered.

I carefully opened the box, there was the motherboard tray in a plastic bag the bottom of the case, sat on a layer of foam peanuts, then the other three panels leant on an angle in plastic bags with nothing between them . This is a fundamental rule of packing, you just don't leave anything that is sharp next to something that is painted or that scratches easily...common sense! HELLO?

There was also a set of hard drive brackets inside, not the 9x ones that I wanted, but these will have to do.

The first panel, is ok, with some minor scratches, I can live with that.

The second panel has several marks from the rivets in the previous panel, but I can also live with that.

The third panel is covered in the glue stuff at one corner and also has the scratches from the rivets from the previous panel.

The motherboard tray is incredibly unharmed (at least it looks to be).

And the 5.25 cage is..erm...well, its not there, they forgot to send it. By this time, I am quite miffed. over 2 months down the line, and yet more waiting, so I emailed them again.

I wrote;

"I have received the parcel you sent.

The 5.25 cage is missing.

Two of the panels are scratched again, one of them on the plexi as well - This I will accept if we can sort the other stuff out quickly.

I will refer you to an earlier email (see further down) of what should have been replaced.

"Left hand side panel, including plexi.

Top panel including plexi.

Right hand side panel including plexi.

5.25 cage.

2 x hard drive brackets (the ones that hold 3, or the 9x one that is advertised with the case.)

Motherboard tray."

I have also been charged £21 by customs. I have spoken to customs, and they said that there is nothing they can do, as you should have marked the paperwork as "warranty replacement".

So, I will need that refunding, and the missing cage sending out please.

I also, haven't received the agreed $60 refund from the first order.

Please let me know if you need any assistance."

No reply for 4 days, so I emailed again, and got this reply;

"We included all the items that you requested in the parcel.

We also marked the parcel “GIFT” there is no “warranty replacement” category for marking.

With that we will not refund for any importations associated with the package.

As for the 5.25 bay, perhaps you are perceiving something different than what we call a 5.25 bay.

Can you provide a picture or link of what you were requesting as our records indicate we included one.

Regards"

Now then, I'm not being patronised when I'm in the right, and I am rather miffed, but they dont seem to actually answer anything that I ask, so I emailed them back;

"I didn't mention a 5.25 Bay, I said the 5.25 cage. The same cage that I mentioned in the list of damage parts.

Just to clarify, a 5.25 cage is the part of the case that all of the 5.25" drives (or whatever else) fit. It holds to the front of the case with 6x thumbscrews, holds 5x 5.25" devices.

Looking at the label, there is a "returned items" category. I think that this is what customs were talking about.

I would like to refer you to an email that you sent to me (included further down the page that says;

"Yes, unfortunately that is standard policy. We of course would pay the shipping back to you and send as a gift to avoid further importation costs.

That is why we gave the second option of sending replacement parts.

You can create a list of the items that you feel are badly damaged and we can send you these out.

No further costs would be incurred to you.

Regards,"


That wasn't quite true was it?

You didn't mention the $60 refund either.

You didn't mention the replacement scratched panels.

My patience is wearing a little thin now, it has been two months, and still no sign of the goods that I paid for.[/B]
"

And they replied;

"You state that your patience is wearing thin, I must say that so is ours. You have not gone with our normal policies from the get go, which would be to return the damaged parts. We were willing to send you replacement parts that you said were damaged, and offer you a refund of $60 this is true. I’ll have to check our records to verify that we either have refunded you this $60 or not. If not, we will. We live up to our word. However, your non compliance with company policies then your statement of missing parts and damaged replacements is ridiculous. I myself filled your request parts and made sure all panels and windows were in pristine condition before shipment. Now your requesting more money and another part that was included in the replacement shipment according to memory recall and according to our documentation? At what point should we say enough is enough?

I’m willing to send you one more 5.25 bay at our cost and if we have not paid the $60 we can do that as well, but anything more I’ll have to just draw the line as we’ve already lost over $200 on your order in attempts to satisfy you as a customer."

I could hardly believe what I was reading here! They are angry with me for asking for a part that they sent in an appalling condition the first time, and that they forgot to send the second time, incredible!

Continued below...

[Clunk]

All I want is the case that I paid for, that I then agreed to compromise on to save time, is that really too much to ask? So, I emailed them again;

"You are sounding like you think that I am the one that is at fault here, and I can assure you, that I am not.

The only reason that I am having to complain, is because you sent out a glaringly substandard case in the first place, had you sent me an undamaged/new/clean unit, there wouldn't be any of these problems.

What is ridiculous? The fact that you sent me damaged parts twice? Or the fact that twice they were allegedly damaged in transit? The packaging was ridiculous, and to pack painted metal panels together for an overseas journey, with nothing more than some plastic bags and some polystyrene peanuts in the bottom of the box to protect them is absurd.

You say that I am going against your companies policies? Is it your companies policies to send out dirty/damaged goods and then request that the customer foots the bill for the return shipping? Now that is ridiculous.

Lets also be clear, I haven't asked for anything unreasonable, I haven't asked for anything that I wasn't entitled to, I simply want an undamaged, clean and new case, which is exactly what I paid for, but didn't receive. I have also compromised, in accepting replacement panels, none of which I had to do.

If you checked the panels were pristine yourself, tell me, how did a trail of glue (similar to what was on the other panels) get all over one corner of one of the panels? Unless, your idea of pristine is wildly different to mine, that is not pristine.

Again, the missing 5.25 cage, is not my fault, it was on the list of replacement parts and you forgot to include it.

As for being $200 out of pocket, see the reasoning above, if the case was sent in an undamaged/clean/new condition in the first place, you wouldn't be out of pocket. To me, that is very easy to understand.

Please process the refund and send out the 5.25 cage as soon as possible."

Slight change of tune now from MM, now they reckon that they DID send the drive cage. Aside from the fact that there is physically no room in the box for it, and the fact that the box hadn't been tampered with, and I unpacked it myself, I know they are lying, so what have they got to say? They emailed me back;

"I’ve discussed some of this with you before.

You are under the impression you received a used case. This is an INCORRECT ASSUMPTION.

We are environmentally conscious and thus may re-use a shipping box for internal packaging. You received a New case – Unused with an interior box that had been used, but an exterior box that was new. Double packaged. You chose the cheapest shipping method, which most people do, however a lot can go wrong with the USPS shipping method oversees. First it goes to the US Postal service, gets trucked down to San Francisco – flies in a plane to the UK, then gets put in the hands of another courier to travel to customs, then customs plays around with it then another courier picks it up and delivers. A lot of hands touch the unit. The glue in which you are speaking is most likely leaking from other containers. Our packaging is not substandard – we’ve shipped thousands of cases oversees without a reaction like yours and very low damage ratios.

“You say that I am going against your companies policies? Is it your companies policies to send out dirty/damaged goods and then request that the customer foots the bill for the return shipping? “


We did not ship out damaged parts. If there was some dust at the foot of the case as was stated before the units sit in a warehouse and are assembled as ordered – dust is in the air and settles in the cases from time to time. We blow out the case with compressor air during assembly. It is our policy as it is every other online company’s policy that damaged or RMA goods are returned by the recipient. It is a universal policy. We bent these policies in attempts to satisfy you and with understanding that oversees shipping is costly. If you go to a store pick up a unit and drive it home, open the box and find something missing or damaged do you request the store to come pick it up and exchange it at your home? Do you request they compensate you for your travel expenses back to the store? No you pay for the travel fees?

I’m trying to stay open minded about this, as perhaps you are. We show we shipped everything, I know the replacement panels went out in excellent condition as I hand picked from a stack the ones that were in best condition. We shipped out on our dime and committed to refunding you $60 – to us we see that making some great attempts at satisfying the customer. It is discouraging, to after doing all that, to still have dissatisfaction. I will once again hand pick a 5.25 cage wrap it up in plastic wrap and ship It out via Fedex INT economy you should have it in 3-5 days."

Partial result, I haven't got the refund for the customs charges on the second parcel that they stuffed up, and I dare say that Ill be charged for the next one as well.

Note how they are still trying to make out that they are doing me a favour. What they seem to loose sight of, is that it was their poor quality control, lack of updates on their website, and comedy packaging that caused the situation in the first place.

One thing is for sure, I cant/wont recommend Mountain Mods to anyone. Aside from their cases being poorly built and finished, their pass-the-buck-customer-service leaves a lot to be desired. I cant help thinking that some people would end up with a bashed up case and put up with it, rather than cause a fuss.

I really hope that my experience with MM was a one off, but I have a funny feeling that it wasn't.

[Whiternoise]

Ouch.. sounds like they don't want to admit they're wrong.

That seems incredibly rude of them to complain about having to pay for replacements for damaged goods.

One thing though, surely if they're going to send out cases with plexiglass windows, wouldn't it make sense for them to be covered in a layer of that sticky plastic stuff so that it won't get scratched to bits in transit? Or even better.. package the spare bits and bobs in a separate cardboard box..?