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Thread: Packard Bell Cases - Poorly designed

  1. #1
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    Packard Bell Cases - Poorly designed

    My cousin has given me her old Packard Bell PC for a modest amount of money, I was initially going to use it for my NAS box project however when I looked inside I realised why I couldn't use it.

    It has one spare 3.5 inch drive bay, and while I could remove the card reader, ideally I need it to take more than 3 hard drives. So I made the decision to strip the thing and then buy another case in a months time as hardware wise it was fast enough for what I had in mind.

    I set about removing the hard drive, normally in itself a simple task - wrong they have put the thing is using four screws which normally isn't a challenge. Normally you'd remove the other side panel but on this you can't, its riveted on and also forms part of the top of the case so effectively one sheet of metal.

    Now this isn't the only design flaw, try disconnecting the power connector for the motherboard, infact I dare you to disconnect it. It sits DIRECTLY under the hard drive, and unless you have very small fingers your bang out of luck - there was no way that connector is coming off, there just isn't enough room to get good leverage to get the connector off.

    Now you'd think this would be the end of the matter, but no there still more. If you do manage to get the hard drive unscrewed (which I still haven't) then you will also have to remove the CPU cooler because it's so far forward on the motherboard that it obstructs where the drives goes in.

    In light of this, I decided I was going to put it all back together, noticing it only had a 250 watt and wanting to add another hard drive that I had spare to make it more sell-able the 250 watt isn't man enough and I'm unable to fit a 300 watt which I have spare doing nothing because there is no way of getting that power connector off the motherboard.

    So whoever designed this case, needs shooting, picture to follow later.

  2. #2
    Splash
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    Re: Packard Bell Cases - Poorly designed

    I used to work for DGSi in Sheffield (and later Nottingham) about 10 or so years ago: from my experience then I'd say that just about all of the OEM kit was put together in such a way as to make upgrades night on impossible (including but no limited to gluing molex cables into devices and motherboards). If I were a more cynical person I'd suggest it was done to increase traffic to PC World stores where the company could make more cash from their in-store "techs"

  3. #3
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      • Graphics card(s):
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    Re: Packard Bell Cases - Poorly designed

    Having also worked in DSGI for 7 years, I know exactly where your coming from. Thankfully I escaped them nearly a year ago

  4. #4
    Jay
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    Re: Packard Bell Cases - Poorly designed

    I have to say its not just the cases that are badly designed
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  5. #5
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    • Behemoth's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte mATX
      • CPU:
      • Phenom 2 X2 555 BE
      • Memory:
      • 8 Gig DDR3 Corsair XMS 3 1600 MHz
      • Storage:
      • 4 TB's Storage
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Gigabyte GTX 460 OC2
      • PSU:
      • OCZ StealthStream 2 600 Watt
      • Case:
      • Silverstone TJ08-E
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 7 64 Bit
      • Monitor(s):
      • HP x23LED
      • Internet:
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    Re: Packard Bell Cases - Poorly designed

    Indeed, I agree its not just the case thats a poor design, its the whole thing.

  6. #6
    Senior Member Pob255's Avatar
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    Re: Packard Bell Cases - Poorly designed

    Pic's

    And I think their cases are made by HEC, I know their psu where

  7. #7
    Fried Chip Extremist alsenior's Avatar
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    Re: Packard Bell Cases - Poorly designed

    no to mention that the chipset is usually some sort of via or sis pos. had a machine in with a celeron and a sis chipset the other day despite the machine beng certified for windows 7 the latest drivers could not run aero
    Quote Originally Posted by Jay View Post
    What kind of emergency would need Windows 95? I think you are already in a bad state of emergency when your backup plan is Windows 95.
    Beginners guide to raid Beginners guide to raid post edition Hexus.Social - FAQ

  8. #8
    Registered User
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    • Behemoth's system
      • Motherboard:
      • Gigabyte mATX
      • CPU:
      • Phenom 2 X2 555 BE
      • Memory:
      • 8 Gig DDR3 Corsair XMS 3 1600 MHz
      • Storage:
      • 4 TB's Storage
      • Graphics card(s):
      • Gigabyte GTX 460 OC2
      • PSU:
      • OCZ StealthStream 2 600 Watt
      • Case:
      • Silverstone TJ08-E
      • Operating System:
      • Windows 7 64 Bit
      • Monitor(s):
      • HP x23LED
      • Internet:
      • BT Broadband

    Re: Packard Bell Cases - Poorly designed

    The PSU in this says FSP Sparkle group. I've overcome the power issue I had, it would appear it was me being a tool by ot setting a jumper correctly on a DVD drive lol

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