I recently built my first PC and noticed that the anti-sag bracket was pressing against one of the GPU's fan blades, which stopped it from working. Instead of removing the bracket, I adjusted it for clearance. During boot, the fans started briefly but then stopped, and everything seemed fine. I used MSI Afterburner to run the fans at 70% speed, but one fan began grinding against the bracket again. In panic, I shut down the computer through Windows, but as it was powering down, the fan speed increased and a blade snapped completely off. I'm devastated! My specs are a Lian Li O11 Vision Compact case, a Gigabyte RTX 5070 Ti Aero OC 16GB GPU, and an MSI Pro X870E-P WIFI motherboard. I want to know what my next steps should be. I didn't buy warranty coverage from Micro Center, but I was told I could return items within 30 days. Do I have any chance of a return, and what can I do now? Here's the damage: [https://imgur.com/a/qai3YLg](https://imgur.com/a/qai3YLg)
3 Answers
You could try an RMA process, but if that doesn't work, a quick fix would be to break off the opposing blades for balance. It might not be pretty, but it'll keep things running until you decide what to do next.
Why not go all out and build a custom water loop? Alphacool makes waterblocks that are compatible with your GPU. Who needs fans when you can make your build look amazing without them?
You might be out of luck since it sounds like it was a user error. If you didn’t buy it with credit card protection, warranties won’t cover that kind of damage. Your best bet could be looking on AliExpress for a replacement fan—it's often cheaper than getting a whole new GPU.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Honestly, it’s a tough lesson, but at least now you know what to avoid for next time!