I just wanted to put an update before I went to bed.
I'm not normally one to admit defeat when it comes to building PC's and such, but I give up, and I think I lost an X2 in the process. (Too damn tired to troubleshoot anymore).
After hearing about the X bracket possibly needing to rotate I took the 1 X bracket I got mounted, off (so I could put the springs back in), and started to fiddle with remounting. I had no such luck...only 1 corner would go in at a time. (the screws are starting to strip at this point). After F'ing with it for what seemed an eternity...I got 3 of the 4 mounts on each GPU to attach. Unfortunately, the 3rd connection on each GPU bracket required the use of the similarly threaded, but microscopically longer screws I found in my screw bucket yesterday. Since I only have the 2...I could only get 3 of the 4 sides to hold back in...again JUST enough space to prevent the screw from catching in the cooler....hole.
so...F it...its on...its solid..its not moving...mount it in the motherboard. I have the Intel BX 38 Extreme (she and I both). Low and behold...screwed again. Since I had to replace the stock flat screws with the 2 provided M2 screws to hold on the new cooler, they arent flush with the video card..so they stick up. Well the design of this motherboard's RAM slots makes it so the white clips HIT THE DAMN SCREW, preventing it from sliding into the PCIE slot all the way.....Sum Bitch...
So...pulled the card out, pulled the HDD's out, as I also found out that since this is now a 3 slot card, it now covers 4 of the 6 SATA ports...great...now I have to reroute SATA cables. Well...with everything outta the way I reseated the card, and was able to get past the RAM clips BARELY since now the vid card has a little flex to it. (Not that I'm happy with that idea after reading the Bake your Video card back to life thread. Ya know...micro fractures and such....Sum Bitch...)
SO...Lock in the vid card, remount the HDDs to thier new homes, re route the sata cables. Power on the PC...and shuts off....WTF?
Power it on again...boots. Check the BIOS to see that its happy with the new SATA slots the HDD's are in...all looks well, reboot. PC turns off...WTF?! Hit the power again...boots. Gets to Starting Windows...hangs....Blue Screen - ATIMKDAG.SYS...you gotta be shittin me.
Boot to safe mode - says its done installing hardware...guess that was the HDD's - WTF ever...reboot. Starting Windows...hangs...Blue Screen - ATIMKDAG.SYS...I hate computers...
Uninstall the driver in safe mode. Boots to normal mode, proceeds to auto install the ATI driver..requests reboot...Starting WIndows....hangs...Blue Screen - ATIMKDAG.SYS.
Uninstall the drivers again...this time I tell it to delete the driver as well. Boots to normal mode...CCC bitches about no ATI driver installed (so this whole time I have no idea if the card is melting cause I cant get a damn TEMP reader up!!! Launch HWMonitor -71c ...shit. I look at my PC, stock cooler...70% fan....44c. This isnt good.
So...I run the install for the 9.5s...installs fine...reboots...Starting Windows...locks...power off/power on...starting windows...locks...F it...i give up.
SO...the only thing I can think of that is pissing the card off, is the 8 to 6 pin adapter that came with the cooler, which to my understanding shouldnt make a damn difference according to the ATI manual, since I'm not running CrossfireX - 2 PCIE 6pins (my means of an adapter) should suffice. Apparently not?!
So...as stated before the OP was able CRAM THE SHIT out of the 8pin PSU connector into the Vid card...so...i guess that's next. This is only of interest to me so I can see if I can get a solid ATI driver install boot done, so I can open up CCC, so I can crank up the damn fans! Given what I know however, I'm guessing that since I cant get the screws installed, I have a bad seating of the sink...which means the thermal paste that came with the cooler is probably smeared to shit by now...and I can only imagine WTF the condition of the thermal pads are.
So...if I do put the work into reseating the cooler...without stripping the remains of these POS screws...I have to hope to the Computer Gods that the thermal pads are in tact. Putting the stock cooler on isnt an option as most of the thermal pads/paste was destroyed/removed when I took the damn thing off to begin with.
My ultimate conclusion is that I royally jacked this up...somehow I didnt get a good original seating or maybe the GPU pads took a good hit in shipping and bent...bending them away from the GPU's on the card, thus giving me this GD gap so the stock screws will not reach anymore. Add to that the 8 to 6 pin adapter which I think is bogus as well.
SO...now I have an X2 I cant use cause the stock cooler's thermal pads are shot, and the new cooler wont install. I do have a 2nd Cooler in the box...but WTF do they expect me to do with it. I mean...I couldnt install 1...I can only expect that I'll F up my card as well. I'm already screwed that I have to give the GF my X2 so she can game, and I have go back to my 2600XT just so I have a display...BAH!
So...lucky me...I get to disassemble the whole Fing thing and start over...as if my fingers havent bled enough already.
TL;DR version: First attempt at modding a vid card = EPIC FAIL. Would not recommend this product to others...
OH...to confirm CrossfireX - not happening. 2nd PCI Express slot is FULLY covered by the fans.
/pissed off rant
I'm not normally one to admit defeat when it comes to building PC's and such, but I give up, and I think I lost an X2 in the process. (Too damn tired to troubleshoot anymore).
After hearing about the X bracket possibly needing to rotate I took the 1 X bracket I got mounted, off (so I could put the springs back in), and started to fiddle with remounting. I had no such luck...only 1 corner would go in at a time. (the screws are starting to strip at this point). After F'ing with it for what seemed an eternity...I got 3 of the 4 mounts on each GPU to attach. Unfortunately, the 3rd connection on each GPU bracket required the use of the similarly threaded, but microscopically longer screws I found in my screw bucket yesterday. Since I only have the 2...I could only get 3 of the 4 sides to hold back in...again JUST enough space to prevent the screw from catching in the cooler....hole.
so...F it...its on...its solid..its not moving...mount it in the motherboard. I have the Intel BX 38 Extreme (she and I both). Low and behold...screwed again. Since I had to replace the stock flat screws with the 2 provided M2 screws to hold on the new cooler, they arent flush with the video card..so they stick up. Well the design of this motherboard's RAM slots makes it so the white clips HIT THE DAMN SCREW, preventing it from sliding into the PCIE slot all the way.....Sum Bitch...
So...pulled the card out, pulled the HDD's out, as I also found out that since this is now a 3 slot card, it now covers 4 of the 6 SATA ports...great...now I have to reroute SATA cables. Well...with everything outta the way I reseated the card, and was able to get past the RAM clips BARELY since now the vid card has a little flex to it. (Not that I'm happy with that idea after reading the Bake your Video card back to life thread. Ya know...micro fractures and such....Sum Bitch...)
SO...Lock in the vid card, remount the HDDs to thier new homes, re route the sata cables. Power on the PC...and shuts off....WTF?
Power it on again...boots. Check the BIOS to see that its happy with the new SATA slots the HDD's are in...all looks well, reboot. PC turns off...WTF?! Hit the power again...boots. Gets to Starting Windows...hangs....Blue Screen - ATIMKDAG.SYS...you gotta be shittin me.
Boot to safe mode - says its done installing hardware...guess that was the HDD's - WTF ever...reboot. Starting Windows...hangs...Blue Screen - ATIMKDAG.SYS...I hate computers...
Uninstall the driver in safe mode. Boots to normal mode, proceeds to auto install the ATI driver..requests reboot...Starting WIndows....hangs...Blue Screen - ATIMKDAG.SYS.
Uninstall the drivers again...this time I tell it to delete the driver as well. Boots to normal mode...CCC bitches about no ATI driver installed (so this whole time I have no idea if the card is melting cause I cant get a damn TEMP reader up!!! Launch HWMonitor -71c ...shit. I look at my PC, stock cooler...70% fan....44c. This isnt good.
So...I run the install for the 9.5s...installs fine...reboots...Starting Windows...locks...power off/power on...starting windows...locks...F it...i give up.
SO...the only thing I can think of that is pissing the card off, is the 8 to 6 pin adapter that came with the cooler, which to my understanding shouldnt make a damn difference according to the ATI manual, since I'm not running CrossfireX - 2 PCIE 6pins (my means of an adapter) should suffice. Apparently not?!
So...as stated before the OP was able CRAM THE SHIT out of the 8pin PSU connector into the Vid card...so...i guess that's next. This is only of interest to me so I can see if I can get a solid ATI driver install boot done, so I can open up CCC, so I can crank up the damn fans! Given what I know however, I'm guessing that since I cant get the screws installed, I have a bad seating of the sink...which means the thermal paste that came with the cooler is probably smeared to shit by now...and I can only imagine WTF the condition of the thermal pads are.
So...if I do put the work into reseating the cooler...without stripping the remains of these POS screws...I have to hope to the Computer Gods that the thermal pads are in tact. Putting the stock cooler on isnt an option as most of the thermal pads/paste was destroyed/removed when I took the damn thing off to begin with.
My ultimate conclusion is that I royally jacked this up...somehow I didnt get a good original seating or maybe the GPU pads took a good hit in shipping and bent...bending them away from the GPU's on the card, thus giving me this GD gap so the stock screws will not reach anymore. Add to that the 8 to 6 pin adapter which I think is bogus as well.
SO...now I have an X2 I cant use cause the stock cooler's thermal pads are shot, and the new cooler wont install. I do have a 2nd Cooler in the box...but WTF do they expect me to do with it. I mean...I couldnt install 1...I can only expect that I'll F up my card as well. I'm already screwed that I have to give the GF my X2 so she can game, and I have go back to my 2600XT just so I have a display...BAH!
So...lucky me...I get to disassemble the whole Fing thing and start over...as if my fingers havent bled enough already.
TL;DR version: First attempt at modding a vid card = EPIC FAIL. Would not recommend this product to others...
OH...to confirm CrossfireX - not happening. 2nd PCI Express slot is FULLY covered by the fans.
/pissed off rant