Discussion My current Velka 3 Experience

jeesgalaxy

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
Oct 9, 2021
8
8
Hey all. I am currently doing a Velka 3 build. I have assembled all the parts, but I ran into two issues, faulty riser cable and rattle/coil whine from the custom black ENP-7660 PSU from Velka.

My frustration is probably aggravated by how Amazon or many online retailers has spoiled me with returns and with timely responses.

I emailed the Mike on Thursday night and he responded the next day in the noon. As soon as I got a response from him, I tried to reply with all the necessary information he needed (at least for the PSU portion). I sent him videos to prove I had an annoying high frequency coil whine and weird rattling noise from the PSU. I feel like the video was conclusive enough, but I've been waiting on his reply all day today.

As for the PCI riser, the build requires you to bend the riser cable in a way that is very sketchy (see Linus build on it). I don't know if my bending caused the issue, but my screen randomly goes blank sometimes or my computer just freezes. I don't know how this will be handled... I guess the seller can claim customer error. Idk...

I am trying to be understanding though. This is a small in house type of operation. I want to support the proliferation of the sff adoption and diverse builds. SFF cases need to get more love and the small/single person manufacturers types are the only ones doing this This comes with "cons" from a customer view when you get bad parts.

Currently, I am on a time constraint build before I move (I move a lot for work). I want to build something small for gaming when I live in hotels. If I had to opportunity to re-plan my build, I think I would just buy the case only from Velka. I do admit, the case is beautiful and really sturdy. I really like it. However, for the ease of returning faulty parts, I think I would just buy the Enhance 7660 PSU from servercase on ebay. That way, if I had any issues with my PSU, the returns would be handled through ebay. I heard a lot of good reviews on the seller from Amazon and Ebay.


**** Also, please know, this was more of a "spoiled kid" rant. I was just super pissed. Honestly, I would still recommend the Velka 3 case. The case is really well built. The installation of the riser cable is still suspect for me, but otherwise, it's well designed. I think finding the right PSU will be the biggest difficulty. Flex ATX PSU are small in diversity and low in the wattage. I still think the Enhance 7660b is the way to go. However, you will get some low quality, coil whining, rattling noise if you get unlucky.****

Update 10/13/2021 -
I received the Riser Cable from Mike and refund for the PSU.

Update 10/14/2021 -
I got my Enhance 7660b from servercase. Guess what... COIL WHINE!!!!!
Man, time is running out for me and looks like Enhance 7660b have a history of bad coil whines. This really saddens me. It's seems to be the only good choice for this unit. Servercase seems to be very prompt with the replies. The seller messages you back within 30 second.
I dont have a instrument to measure coil whine, but it looks like its in the 13000Hz to 16000Hz range. It's just high enough to NOT be drowned out by you computer fans. It often reminds me of the time I downloaded the frequency generator app to annoy my teachers and friends.

Update 10/18/2021 -
Just got my PSU from servercase. It no longer has coil whine.... but my power button is broken now..
Power Button Broken
This has to be my unluckiest build ever.

However, I was able to get the PCI Riser cable in the same way I did last time. It did not seems to have any issues this time. This is how I installed the Riser Cable.
PCI Riser Installation
 
Last edited:

confusis

John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
SFF Network
SFF Workshop
SFFn Staff
Jun 19, 2015
4,129
7,057
sff.network
It's the weekend, and you're expecting a timely response from a small vendor? It's not even Sunday yet in parts of the world 😂

Most vendors don't have the sales, aftersales, and support teams of large stores. Patience is a virtue often overlooked these days.
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
Revenant Tech
SFFn Staff
Apr 21, 2017
1,670
2,698
Hey all. I am currently doing a Velka 3 build. I have assembled all the parts, but I ran into two issues, faulty riser cable and rattle/coil whine from the custom black ENP-7660 PSU from Velka.

My frustration is probably aggravated by how Amazon or many online retailers has spoiled me with returns and with timely responses.

I emailed the Mike on Thursday night and he responded the next day in the noon. As soon as I got a response from him, I tried to reply with all the necessary information he needed (at least for the PSU portion). I sent him videos to prove I had an annoying high frequency coil whine and weird rattling noise from the PSU. I feel like the video was conclusive enough, but I've been waiting on his reply all day today.

As for the PCI riser, the build requires you to bend the riser cable in a way that is very sketchy (see Linus build on it). I don't know if my bending caused the issue, but my screen randomly goes blank sometimes or my computer just freezes. I don't know how this will be handled... I guess the seller can claim customer error. Idk...

I am trying to be understanding though. This is a small in house type of operation. I want to support the proliferation of the sff adoption and diverse builds. SFF cases need to get more love and the small/single person manufacturers types are the only ones doing this This comes with "cons" from a customer view when you get bad parts.

Currently, I am on a time constraint build before I move (I move a lot for work). I want to build something small for gaming when I live in hotels. If I had to opportunity to re-plan my build, I think I would just buy the case only from Velka. I do admit, the case is beautiful and really sturdy. I really like it. However, for the ease of returning faulty parts, I think I would just buy the Enhance 7660 PSU from servercase on ebay. That way, if I had any issues with my PSU, the returns would be handled through ebay. I heard a lot of good reviews on the seller from Amazon and Ebay.
First, thank you for trying to support the smaller SFF community.

When it comes to smaller companies, the people there wear a lot of hats. They can’t always answer right away, and often have to have designated email hours. It can get frustrating for those of us used to Amazon like service. However, the benefit is your talking to someone who knows the product top to bottom, and actually cares.

Being on a short schedule is tough. I’ve been there myself. Just keep pushing forward.

As for the cable, you might need to swap it.
 
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jeesgalaxy

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
Oct 9, 2021
8
8
Update* i dont know how to change original post: Mike has reached out to me for a PSU refund and riser replacement.

Also, please know, this was more of a "spoiled kid" rant. I was just super pissed. Honestly, I would still recommend the Velka 3 case. The case is really well built. The installation of the riser cable is still suspect for me, but otherwise, it's well designed. I think finding the right PSU will be the biggest difficulty. Flex ATX PSU are small in diversity and low in the wattage. I still think the Enhance 7660b is the way to go. However, you will get some low quality, coil whining, rattling noise if you get unlucky.
 

Revenant

Christopher Moine - Senior Editor SFF.N
Revenant Tech
SFFn Staff
Apr 21, 2017
1,670
2,698
Update* i dont know how to change original post: Mike has reached out to me for a PSU refund and riser replacement.

Also, please know, this was more of a "spoiled kid" rant. I was just super pissed. Honestly, I would still recommend the Velka 3 case. The case is really well built. The installation of the riser cable is still suspect for me, but otherwise, it's well designed. I think finding the right PSU will be the biggest difficulty. Flex ATX PSU are small in diversity and low in the wattage. I still think the Enhance 7660b is the way to go. However, you will get some low quality, coil whining, rattling noise if you get unlucky.

No worries. Thank you for stepping up and saying that. I'm glad Mike did right by you. I'm sure we can get a mod to close this thread. Maybe you can post a build log of your build? You most likely won't be the last person to run into these issues, and having a go-by from someone experienced would help other users. 😁
 

rfarmer

Spatial Philosopher
Jul 7, 2017
2,588
2,702
From what I have seen @VELKASE Michael is really good at customer support and works hard to have happy customers, but as others have said here this is not a big company with a customer support team. If you think this is bad put in a support ticket with Louqe, get back to me in six months when you get your reply.
 

VELKASE Michael

King of Cable Management
VELKASE
Gold Supporter
Oct 7, 2018
742
913
Just to recap and provide my thoughts on these sorts of issues. @rfarmer thank you for tagging me and your kind words

A course of action was decided for this issue in one business day plus one weekend day with all associated shipping charges covered. The shipping process will take a few days but hopefully, the PC will work after that. The PSU will be refunded instead of being replaced because any replacement that I could issue would unfortunately have identical noise characteristics. Ideally, the PSU would be replaced as well, but that is not possible when everything is in short supply and there simply is only one replacement to choose from.

In my view, this is not some sort of small business weakness. Most large businesses would gladly make the customer pay for return shipping, at best send a refurbished part after a few days/weeks or at worst, send the part back as-is and make them pay shipping a second time. They may have a dedicated customer service representative whose entire job is to provide hour-by-hour "your request is still being processed" updates, relay responses from other staff, but they certainly will not reply outside of work hours.

I believe in providing reasonable service and will accept suggestions on how to improve it. Maybe implementing some sort of self-service or auto-replies to support inquiries. Giving no-questions-asked returnless refunds or auto-replacements at any time of the day, or whatever the expectation is, is not reasonable.
 

jeesgalaxy

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
Oct 9, 2021
8
8
No worries. Thank you for stepping up and saying that. I'm glad Mike did right by you. I'm sure we can get a mod to close this thread. Maybe you can post a build log of your build? You most likely won't be the last person to run into these issues, and having a go-by from someone experienced would help other users. 😁
I definitely will be posting my build after I am done. My whole build was based on fitting a 27in monitor, keyboard, mouse, headset, xbox controller, and the Velka 3 into a Monoprice 33in hardcase. I travel a lot. Some airlines in certain countries just dont give a S**T about your luggage.
 

jeesgalaxy

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
Oct 9, 2021
8
8
Just to recap and provide my thoughts on these sorts of issues. @rfarmer thank you for tagging me and your kind words

A course of action was decided for this issue in one business day plus one weekend day with all associated shipping charges covered. The shipping process will take a few days but hopefully, the PC will work after that. The PSU will be refunded instead of being replaced because any replacement that I could issue would unfortunately have identical noise characteristics. Ideally, the PSU would be replaced as well, but that is not possible when everything is in short supply and there simply is only one replacement to choose from.

In my view, this is not some sort of small business weakness. Most large businesses would gladly make the customer pay for return shipping, at best send a refurbished part after a few days/weeks or at worst, send the part back as-is and make them pay shipping a second time. They may have a dedicated customer service representative whose entire job is to provide hour-by-hour "your request is still being processed" updates, relay responses from other staff, but they certainly will not reply outside of work hours.

I believe in providing reasonable service and will accept suggestions on how to improve it. Maybe implementing some sort of self-service or auto-replies to support inquiries. Giving no-questions-asked returnless refunds or auto-replacements at any time of the day, or whatever the expectation is, is not reasonable.
Mike, like I said, it was a spoiled rant. I'm on a time constraint built. In the end, you being in Tx and me visiting TX will help me complete my build in time. I am happy with the service you are providing.

I was really bummed to hear that the PSU could not be replaced. The design really fits well with the black design of the case. Also the wiring length is perfect for the case. I am going to be super annoyed with silver colored PSU w/ colored wires that are extremely long.

Hopefully, after getting the replacement Riser Cable, I can complete it by this weekend!
 

VELKASE Michael

King of Cable Management
VELKASE
Gold Supporter
Oct 7, 2018
742
913
Mike, like I said, it was a spoiled rant. I'm on a time constraint built. In the end, you being in Tx and me visiting TX will help me complete my build in time. I am happy with the service you are providing.

I was really bummed to hear that the PSU could not be replaced. The design really fits well with the black design of the case. Also the wiring length is perfect for the case. I am going to be super annoyed with silver colored PSU w/ colored wires that are extremely long.

Hopefully, after getting the replacement Riser Cable, I can complete it by this weekend!
I understand. The intent of my reply in this thread was to provide others a brief summary of how this is being handled and why it is being handled the way it is. It was not meant to start a public argument or anything of the sort as we have already decided how to proceed.
 

GuilleAcoustic

Chief Procrastination Officer
SFFn Staff
LOSIAS
Jun 29, 2015
2,967
4,390
guilleacoustic.wordpress.com
Please delete this thread, or please change the title to "My current Velka 3 Experience"

Title changed. By the way, if you can edit your posts, you have to edit the very first post of your thread if you want to modify the thread title.

I won't delete this as other users might have similar issues and it also shows that "patience is mother of all virtues" 🙂
 
Last edited:

jeesgalaxy

Cable Smoosher
Original poster
Oct 9, 2021
8
8
Title changed. By the way, if you can edit your posts, you have to edit the very first post of your thread if you want to modify the thread title.

I won't delete this as other users might have similar issues and it also shows that "patience is mother of all virtues" 🙂
Thanks man... This build is really testing my patience.
Just got my PSU from servercase and it has the same issue of a high frequency coil whine. It's lower in decibel than the VK 7660, but still enough to annoy me...