Production PCIe 16x Gen 4 cable (3M) - Official support for Steck &🥪compatible

bbalex

Chassis Packer
Nov 30, 2018
18
1
Yes, you can choose to buy with USD but then I need to setup a custom order for you, you cannot just click on the online store to buy, as USD prices do not include EU VAT.
Ah, I was not aware the USD prices did not include VAT! In that case I'll just order using EUR. Thanks for your reply!

There is only one remaining question: do you happen to have the cable in stock in the European warehouse?
 

Nouvolo

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Sep 8, 2018
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Ah, I was not aware the USD prices did not include VAT! In that case I'll just order using EUR. Thanks for your reply!

There is only one remaining question: do you happen to have the cable in stock in the European warehouse?
yes, please check faq for delivery lead time. We do weekly batch shipment.
 

bbalex

Chassis Packer
Nov 30, 2018
18
1
I must say I'm disappointed in the way this order went.

I placed the order for the cable thinking it was going to be shipped from the European warehouse as it was said above, only to receive shipping notification from HK. I immediately sent an email asking for the delivery to be made from the EU warehouse, to avoid customs procedures, which are terribly delayed in my country. Got several replies from Nouvolo more or less claiming they know better than me what happens in my country, and I'll get the cable in 7 days even when shipped from HK. Guess what... the package arrived quickly in the country and got stuck in customs hell like I said. I got in contact with FedEx because their tracking message claims I have to provide additional papers for customs clearance only to find out I don't need to provide anything else, they tried to clear it through the express procedure (the order is less than 150 EUR), but customs are just queued to hell and back and I must wait. Just like last year I waited 2 months (I'm not kidding) around this time for customs clearance for another expensive "express" delivery from HK.

I don't understand why the cable is sent from HK to a EU country, when it's in the EU warehouse. And I'm not charmed when someone from the other side of the world claims they know better how busy customs are in my country than myself telling me "Anyway I don't know where you get the information from about delays. So far near 90% of my shipment arrives at our buyers within 7 days. We have not experienced any delays so far based on our actual data." A little bit more trust and respect in your customers would do you good, dear Nouvolo.
 

Nouvolo

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Sep 8, 2018
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I must say I'm disappointed in the way this order went.

I placed the order for the cable thinking it was going to be shipped from the European warehouse as it was said above, only to receive shipping notification from HK. I immediately sent an email asking for the delivery to be made from the EU warehouse, to avoid customs procedures, which are terribly delayed in my country. Got several replies from Nouvolo more or less claiming they know better than me what happens in my country, and I'll get the cable in 7 days even when shipped from HK. Guess what... the package arrived quickly in the country and got stuck in customs hell like I said. I got in contact with FedEx because their tracking message claims I have to provide additional papers for customs clearance only to find out I don't need to provide anything else, they tried to clear it through the express procedure (the order is less than 150 EUR), but customs are just queued to hell and back and I must wait. Just like last year I waited 2 months (I'm not kidding) around this time for customs clearance for another expensive "express" delivery from HK.

I don't understand why the cable is sent from HK to a EU country, when it's in the EU warehouse. And I'm not charmed when someone from the other side of the world claims they know better how busy customs are in my country than myself telling me "Anyway I don't know where you get the information from about delays. So far near 90% of my shipment arrives at our buyers within 7 days. We have not experienced any delays so far based on our actual data." A little bit more trust and respect in your customers would do you good, dear Nouvolo.
Please note that your order was processed for shipment from HK on 7 Dec and arrive at your country/port on 11 Dec. It took 4 days. We don't know how much faster you expect. We have no control over the hold up at your local customs, though all duties and taxes are paid by us (the seller). We did offer to cancel your order in case you are worried about delivery lead times, we have experience dealing with many different cases and customers.

We have instructed our shipping agent to check and try resolve and outstanding issues with your delivery. If you had contacted us directly earlier we could have helped earlier. We think your expectation is not inline with most online sales delivery, and you are probably new to SFFF.
 
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bbalex

Chassis Packer
Nov 30, 2018
18
1
My expectation was for a shipment to a EU country to be done from the EU warehouse, as you said it will be done in the post above on this page. There are no customs procedures or delays for shipments between EU countries. I don't understand what you gained by shipping from HK instead, but I will likely not see the package this year because of that. Don't really know why you advertised the EU warehouse, if you're not shipping from it.

Regarding contacting you earlier: I did, I even asked this using the contact form on your website before asking here on the forum. I asked whether you will ship an order placed for that cable from the EU warehouse using the contact form on your website twice, Wednesday before placing an order, and Thursday after placing the order. My inquires using the website contact form were ignored, that's why I also asked here on the forum. You replied here on the forum very quickly instead. You said on the forum Friday the cable will be shipped from the EU warehouse. Then you finally replied to my contact form inquiries on Monday, where you said I will get the cable from HK. I replied to your Monday email right away asking to have the shipment done from EU. I explicitly mentioned custom delays. You questioned my claim there are custom delays, like I quoted above, and sent the cable from HK anyway. Great service, thank you!
 
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bbalex

Chassis Packer
Nov 30, 2018
18
1
I unexpectedly received the cable Friday. Just two hours after I made a phone call to FedEx asking what was the status and I was told it's still in customs. Before calling I checked the tracking status and it was unchanged, in customs with papers required to be provided by the importer (that's me). After the delivery I checked the tracking status again and noticed they retroactively modified the tracking state, to show the cable departed customs six hours earlier that day. I'm happy I got the cable, it would have been nicer if it would have been a less eventful experience. If this was due to your inquiries into what was the state of the shipment, thank you!
 

Nouvolo

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Sep 8, 2018
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To all who will decide whether to buy or not based where it will be shipped from. Please check the product page terms. Although we do use EU distributors, but they are sometimes not 100% reliable and/or they may not have the items in stock. This post is to officially to announce that we reserve the rights to use whichever shipping nodes we feel deem best for the time around the shipment, though this has been the case all the time.

We have our internal operation guidelines in terms of bulk arrangement for shipment, and it may not always be possible to handle a single individual shipment separately, so that we can offer a relatively lower shipping rate.
 
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bbalex

Chassis Packer
Nov 30, 2018
18
1
I finally had time to take the cable out of the box, and had another surprise... what is sold here on the Nouvolo website as a 3M Gen 4 cable does not have the 3M branding anywhere on it.

The cable looks like a 3M cable, but instead of the 3M label placed on the cable and 3M text printed on the cable, it has a XSQ label on it and XSQ branding printed on the two connector PCBs. The PCB connectors have a different shape from the ones on the 3M cable as seen in the official photos on the 3M website, too. And the color of the two larger braids is orange-pinkinsh while it's gray in the 3M official photos. Another thing is that the 3M PCIe Gen 4 cable whose official page is this one mentions it uses 31 AWG wires. That's different from their Gen 3 cable which uses 30AWG wire. The cable I received has 30 AWG wire, so besides being branded XSQ instead of 3M, it may not be a Gen 4 cable.

I looked online to see what XSQ is and the only related thing seems to be a company in Singapore that sells cryptocurrency related mining hardware - which I assume includes PCIe riser cables.

It looks like I got a 3M Gen 3 clone cable instead of an original 3M Gen 4 cable after all. Would you please comment on this?
 

Nouvolo

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I finally had time to take the cable out of the box,...
Please to know that you got your package before new year, as you wanted.

The wire itself is not from 3M. But the cable makes use of the same twin axial cable technology. Whether 3M licensed out this kind of wire design or it is a trivial configuration in the cable industry, we don't know. The manufacturing process for the PCBs termination also makes use of the same process as 3M, which gives an overall cleaner signals than regular riser cables. Our product page states the cable uses 3M twin axial cable technology, and we did not claim the whole cable is from 3M.

It fully supports Gen 4. We have sold over a hundred of these cables and no one has any issues so far. If you have any issues with running at gen 4, please email us the details for your specific order. As stated in our threads before, this thread is only for community sharing build ideas, but not for solving individual's issues.