Unresolved Z-AXIS Ribbing

Okay, so now I'm pretty confused. I got my new couplers today and I thought I'd print out a before and after print. Weird thing is it didn't turn out that bad...

How come my test look like this:



When my actual prints look like this:



The only major thing I can think of that is different in the settings are the perimeters. The test was printed with the stock MC setting of 2 perimeters while my other part was printed with 4 or 5 I thing. I want thick walls because they are going to be sanded a bit. Can that make a big difference?

I'm going to install the couplers and keep testing...