Anyone else have issues with their PCIE cards not sitting flush? The cards are bottoming out in the PCIE slot. I’m thinking the standoffs are too tall. What are yall thoughts? The motherboard is a Asrock Rack Romed8-2t.
With motherboard installed:
Without motherboard installed:
Standoffs installed:
Overview:
My cards sit a little lower but also don’t properly sit in the slot really. Almost looks like they are not fully seated in the motherboard.
I have the fully-built version and with the pre-installed motherboard they fit fine.
stand-offs look a little too long, were they included in the kit?
Yes, these are the standoff that came with it.
Personally, I think the entire PCI design of the HL15 needs to be re-designed for a Rev.2 or something. My cards also do not sit flush, I am left with punch-out burs, the case doesn’t come with blanks if you swap hardware out. And the holes strip easy.
I talked about it a bit in my first impression post. Other than the PCI situation, I love the case!
I had the same problem. Vikram sent me an email asking how the first case was working and I mentioned that but he didn’t respond to that.
The threads that are made to screw PCI cards into are pretty flimsy indeed. Also not very well deburred on mine. Actually the cutout for the PSU might also not be up to spec as my BeQuiet PSU has an on/off switch which hits the case a little bit causing the metal of the case to bend out when I screwed the PSU in.
I purchased these [black PCI blanks on Amazon](5pcs Black PCI Slot Cover Dust Filter Blanking Plate Hard Steel with Screw Amazon.com).
Hi Everyone,
Thank you for bringing this to our attention.
I would like to investigate these PCIE card issues a bit more. If you are continuing to experience problems regarding the seating of your card or have this problem, please email me at info@45homelab.com to confirm if your PCIE card fits in the slot on the base panel.
I have attached a few images below for your reference.
I prefer these screws to the ones with the case for the pcie slots, guess they are the standard screws in the industry. All my cases came with them. For what we paid for the case, those tabs are terrible.
How come those slots didn’t come with standard vented tabs with screws. I had a very hard time twisting those tabs, my fault, I fell and hurt my hand and wrist. 
Hi @Pro-X and thank you for your feedback. We are looking into this and will be implementing this change in revision 2 of the HL15
It is currently like this because we borrowed the design from our enterprise servers which looking back now, was not the greatest choice as homelabs change and require you to change the PCIe cards etc., which we now realize.
I had to use a small file to clean up the burr left after removing the pice slot cover, as well as clean up the slot for the edge of the card… not something I expected to do on such an expensive case…
I would recommend removing all the slot covers BEFORE installing the motherboard for better access and to keep metal fillings from getting on/in the motherboard.
@Hutch-45Drives Any time frame on when revision 2 would come out?
I would also ask is there going to be a retrofit for v1 to fix some of these issues?
No, Not at this time. we are concentrated on getting the production of the HL15 caught up as well as our new thin client we will be making
If your are having the same issue as me, try these standoffs: McMaster-Carr
They worked perfectly for me.
I am noticing too that there isn’t much clearance between the motherboard and the back of the case. I noticed this on the AV15 too. it’s hard to know if the cards are seated properly if at all.
I found that if i loosened the nuts and pushed back the outside of the case I could fit my card in without it scraping on the motherboard, but the card doesn’t fit into the slots in the bottom of the case. I too still have a small gap.
Good images! I found while installing my motherboard I had to do exactly the same. In a standard PC case I normally snug it up as close to the rear as the standoffs will allow. It appears the tolerance for that is looser here.
In expensive PC cases you also can expect to see the center motherboard standoff as an actual peg to allow for properly lining the motherboard up.
