CG8565 How to remove video card to access SATA ports

[ratavaz]

Hi guys,
in CG8565, but i bet in all the ROG CG models using the same case, the video card (mine is a full size GTX590) has a metal bracket at the extremity (close to the disks cage) that is stuck on the back of the case to provide some additional support to the card.

The problem is that the bracket makes impossible to use the additional empty SATA ports located next to the 6 already used ones. The ports themselves seem to be unobstructed and could be used but due to the bracket there is no room left to manage to plug in the SATA cable.

Now the issue is I couldn't find so far any way to remove the bracket (or the video card) to connect SATA cables before replugging the card.

I can unscrew the video card, unlock the latch of the bus connector and unplug the card from the bus quite easily but then the bracket remains connected to the case and there is no way (at least I found none) to set it free.

The bracket itself is screwed to the card with some 3 or 4 screws but the location makes it practically impossible to unscrew them without removing the disks cage.

This setup could be a problem even for a future video card upgrade.

I am quite puzzled by this setup 'cos overall the machine and case seem to be quite "serviceable friendly" ad most ASUS products (I have disassembled and fixed a good amount of ASUS laptops quite easily), only this bracket on the video card looks quite "user unfriendly".

Has anyone managed to solve the issue, or any guru at ASUS can help me with this?

Thanks in advance
Paolo

[HiVizMan]

Sorry mate besides removing all the bits and bobs to get at the sata ports there is no quick way of getting there.

I do not think these systems are sold with the expectation of people upgrading them. They are completed units so to speak. The bracket is there as a stability and safety feature during shipping and day to day use. So not much that I can suggest beyond what I have.

[ratavaz]

I can agree with you, that probably Asus as any HD vendor imagines such systems as not serviced by the great majority of users.
On the other hand the sistem is not "sealed", it is easily possible to open it up and to access disk bays and to add cards too. If Asus really wanted to make it "user unserviceable" could have found ways to do it for sure.
Besides I am pretty sure that Asus support itself has a way to unmount the video card to service replace it in case of failure without having to send it back to the factory (Taiwan or mainlaind China by the way? Have not checked that) or to use a Dremel cutter to release the bracket ;):).

Hope someone can find out how to do it, or maybe discover somewhere a service manual with disassemble information.

Best Regards
Paolo

[X-ROG]

Hi ratavaz,

I think (I'm trying to visualize it as I haven't seen inside the CG8565 sorry) the bracket has to be included to prevent the card from warping or falling out during shipping. You're using more than 6 HDD?? There's more SATA ports?

[ratavaz]

Well, the system comes equipped with two SSD in raid 0 with the OS and recovery partition, then there are two 1gb disks in Raid 0 for data.Finally one Sara port is used by an external removable he bay and one for the memory card reader (compact flash, sd etc.) for a total of 6 Sara ports from intel chipset used.The motherboard, which as far as i know belongs to ASUS P8Z68 family has additional SATA ports connected to an additional controller, can't remember which brand, but it is listed by windows and shown from BIOS at boot. Those ports, which should be 4, are exactly covered by the bracket, with enough room to have a cable plugged but not enough room for plugging it in.I'm presently trying to use such controller to install an HD on which install OS-X mountain lion, which seems not to detect correctly the Intel controller due to the raid configuration.Apart from that I'm also wondering what option i might have if I decide to update the video card in the future and cannot disconnect the bracket.CiaoPaolo

[X-ROG]

ratavaz wrote:
Well, the system comes equipped with two SSD in raid 0 with the OS and recovery partition, then there are two 1gb disks in Raid 0 for data.Finally one Sara port is used by an external removable he bay and one for the memory card reader (compact flash, sd etc.) for a total of 6 Sara ports from intel chipset used.The motherboard, which as far as i know belongs to ASUS P8Z68 family has additional SATA ports connected to an additional controller, can't remember which brand, but it is listed by windows and shown from BIOS at boot. Those ports, which should be 4, are exactly covered by the bracket, with enough room to have a cable plugged but not enough room for plugging it in.I'm presently trying to use such controller to install an HD on which install OS-X mountain lion, which seems not to detect correctly the Intel controller due to the raid configuration.Apart from that I'm also wondering what option i might have if I decide to update the video card in the future and cannot disconnect the bracket.CiaoPaolo

You could remove all the ATX cables, the 12V CPU power cable, the graphics card and any other PCIe cards... and then unscrew the motherboard. This should give you leverage to plug in the SATA cables, then just re-screw in the motherboard again and work backwards to plug in all the cables.

As for the RAID config - go into the BIOS and in advanced mode save an OC profile (last tab) name it 'Windows'. I hope the option is still available. This will preserve your exact config for the Windows install. Then change the SATA config from RAID to ACHI and save this profile as 'OSX'. Do NOT use/read from the RAID HDD/SSD in OSX, but it should ignore it anyway as they are NTFS formatted. Simply install the extra HDD into the case and point it OSX to that. You might want to change the SATA connections for the external bay and memory controller to use the extra ports (not Intel ones), as I think OSX will only work connected to the Intel SATA ports. Whether OSX works with the rest of the motherboard chipsets I've no idea though sorry.

I can't visualize the limitation of the bracket entirely so I'm not sure about the graphics card replacement sorry. If you can remove the card you can upgrade it - you shouldn't have to use the bracket as long as it can be secured at the back of the case.