The riser ships nationwide from Evetech: what to inspect on arrival before the GPU goes on

Evetech ships this riser nationwide. On arrival, the things worth inspecting are the slot end, the ribbon and the gold contacts. A card should not go on an unexamined cable, and checking takes a minute.

Build Lab · 05 Oct 2026 · 5 min read · GPUGuru ·

A riser cable arriving by courier has usually spent time in a truck, a depot and a delivery van before it reaches your door, and none of those stops are gentle on a thin ribbon connector. Before a graphics card worth several times the cable's price goes anywhere near it, a short inspection is worth the two minutes it takes.

Quick Answer

Evetech ships the AsiaHorse riser nationwide, and on arrival the slot end, the ribbon and the gold-plated contacts are what to check before fitting a card. At R1,299 including VAT, the cable is inexpensive next to the card it will carry, which is exactly why it deserves a proper look first.

📦 What to check at the slot end

Start with the right-angle slot connector, the part that plugs directly into the motherboard. It should sit square, with no visible cracking, bending, or debris lodged inside the connector pins. Anything that looks knocked out of alignment during transit is worth flagging before it ever meets a board slot.

🔍 Checking the ribbon itself

Run your eye and a light touch along the full length of the ribbon. Creases, cuts, or sharp kinks are the kind of damage packaging sometimes fails to prevent, particularly on a folded flat cable like this one. A ribbon that has been bent too tightly during shipping can develop a weak point even if it still looks functional at a glance.

And the gold-plated contacts

The contacts themselves should be clean, unmarked and free of any discolouration or debris. These are what make the actual electrical connection at each end, and any contamination here is the kind of fault that shows up as an intermittent connection rather than an obvious failure.

💡 Why this is worth doing before fitting the card

In most builds, the graphics card is the single most expensive component sitting in the box. Fitting it to a riser cable that has not been properly checked is an avoidable risk for the sake of a two-minute inspection beforehand. If something looks wrong on arrival, the 1 Year Local Warranty means that claim is dealt with locally, right here, rather than being couriered abroad and back again.

It is also worth holding onto the original packaging until the riser is fitted and the machine has run successfully at least once. Returning an item, should it come to that, is considerably simpler with the box and any inserts still on hand.

🧪 A quick way to test the connection before committing

Where possible, it is worth doing a short test boot with the riser in place before the case is fully closed up and the build considered finished. Powering on with the graphics card connected through the riser, checking the display comes up normally, running a couple of demanding applications briefly, and letting the system idle for a few minutes catches most connection issues while everything inside the case is still easy to reach and adjust. A cable that passed a visual check can still have a marginal contact somewhere along its length, and a short test boot is the more reliable confirmation that the connection itself is solid before screws go back in and cables get tucked away for good.

Once the cable itself has passed inspection, the bracket is the next thing to sort, and it does not come bundled with the riser. Case accessories is where that hardware lives, sized for whatever chassis the card is going into, and it is worth having on hand before the riser goes anywhere near the board. Graphics card accessories fills in the rest of what a vertical mount typically needs, since an inspected cable and a card with nothing to hold it are only half the job done.