[-Sandman-]

Hey guys. Was thinkin it might be time to upgrade my rig. I'm gonna get a thousand recommendations for cable management after you see the pics, which is fine. Any suggestions appreciated. Here's current rig:

Coolermaster Cosmos 1000
XFX 780SLI MB
Core 2 Duo E8400 (stock speed)
Stock cooling
OCZ DDR2 4 gigs
Seagate 500GB
eVGA GTX 260
Coolermaster 650W PSU (80 rated of course)
Auzentech X-Fi Prelude
Samsung 22" (1680x1050)
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit

I mainly use the computer for games. I'm not a graphic designer and not necessarily looking to max out my settings. My MB doesn't seem to have any room on it for an SLI setup. I could barely fit the GTX260 in there.

I haven't overclocked any of the components at the moment. So far I only have 2 weird problems. First is the back fan sometimes needs a push with my finger to start. Once it's started it stays on though.

Second problem is on a cold boot-up, it takes about 20 seconds to detect the IDE drives. This doesn't happen on reboots or a power off/power on. Only when the PC has been off for 5 minutes or more. Really strange, but no effect on performance that I can see.

So, any suggestions on upgrades? I was thinking MB/CPU/RAM but not anything else. Or maybe it's not necessary? What are your thoughts?

Also, any help on cable management would be appreciated. I don't have a modular power supply, so that's part of why it looks like a rat's nest in there. Tried to feed as many cables around to the back as I could, but some of these cables are real thick and not long enough to go around the back.

I must have a good camera because the computer was actually on when I took these pictures about 10 minutes ago. Fans look still...

 

[LiNERROR]

ha, that looks almost organized compared to this monster...

 

[Nuginu]

Well, if you're gonna upgrade, I suggest you tell us your budget. At this point, keep your video card for now and once fermi gets launched, buy a ATI 5000 Series. but for now here's what you should buy...

ASUS P6TD Deluxe LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16813131403

Intel Core i7-930 2.8GHz
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16819115225

Noctua NH-U12DX 1366 120mm SSO CPU Cooler - Retail
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16835608012

CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16820145260

Kepp your case, your PSU, soundcard, HDD and monitor.

Also, if you're in a hurry, and want to upgrade your video card now and not wait for fermi to bring down ATI's price's.
Here:
XFX HD-587X-ZNFC Radeon HD 5870 1GB 256-bit DDR5 PCI
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814150476

 

[-Sandman-]

Good suggestions, but a couple of things. What's your thought on Gigabyte MB vs Asus? I personally have an XFX, but it's about 2 years old, so not sure where they stand these days. I try to stay away from Asus if possible due to my own experiences with bad customer service. This may have changed though.

Also, with the ram, how your position on another brand like OCZ, Gskills, etc? I haven't liked my Corsair XMS sticks that I've had in the past. The price is nice, but the other types of RAM seem much better.

Not sure on going with the i7. Is the i9 out yet? Figured prices on the i7 would fall quickly when the i9 comes out.

I can wait on the vid card. Right now my GTX 260 seems to be fine since I'm only at 1680x1050 res.

Any suggestions for cable management? Will the board you suggested have more room than my current 780SLI board?

 

[Nuginu]

Sorry for awnsering so late mate, I'm in CostaRica right now on vacation. I love it. Now to your questions.

> What's your thought on Gigabyte MB vs Asus?

I've never owned an Gigabyte buy I've owned an Asus. Even tough I have never used their support, just by looking at google I could bring up theses factes of both.

Quote:

ASUS is probably best known as a motherboard manufacturer. They are the largest producer of motherboards in the world and supply many of these parts to other big name companies to use in their full PCs. ASUS is also a fairly large producer of laptop computers. Sometimes these notebooks are rebadged by other companies, but most are sold under the ASUS name. So just what kind of support does ASUS offer for their wide variety of products?

Quote:

i had a asus P5P-800SE board that ran great for over 2 years, it started random reboots, narrowed it to the board. so i figured it had done me well.i bought a P5N-d to replace it. it was bad right out of the box. i put in a tech inquiry, got a response, called the support number,got a case number,from there i got an RMA number and had to bay shipping! ok what ever to get it done.they sent me another retail board, the ps2 ports did not work,did the whole process again, got a third board, this time no post at all,repeated the process,spent about 400 in other parts trying to solve the issue,no help. repeated the inquiry,case#,rma process. in the mean time my original board was also in RMA. they lost that board altogether.just lost it.the sent me what they called an “upgrade†an old single core oem board that would not even support my processor,a pentium d 930. they informed me they sent a “free†vga card. i recieved this oem board which was pci-e, the vga card was AGP!before the package arrived i told them i would send it back seeing as how it did not match my CPU.it has been 7 weeks and still i do not have a board i can use! my experience with them has been nothing short of fraud. the made lots of promises and turned out to be very dishonest.if you bought a bad asus product save yourself the grief and anger and just throw it in the trash and write it off as a learning experience. asus itself makes decent products but their RMA staff are the worst people on this planet. liars,cheats,con-artists.they care nothing about their customers,they got your money already,why should they care now? 7 weeks and the largest motherboard manufacturer cannot find a board that supports my processor. (in their scrap pile they mean)they stole my property, i let them do it.ASUS is dead in my eyes.i will never buy their products for myself or the people i build pc’s for again. if your reading this they got probably got your money and property too. 7 weeks,two diffrent boards. wow. i’m going to contact my states attorney generals office to see what can be done. thanks for the vent. i can’t believe they lost my board. i can’t believe i have another 3 weeks till the next previous customers RMA is shipped to me. all they do is ship you other peoples junk with very little cleaning, my last board they sent still had someone elses dust on the side of the ram slot. if i clean the next one and spend 20 dollars on a clock kit i’ll have a 200 dollar ASUS wall clock at least. that’s the best i can even hope for. don’t RMA just pitch it or opt for a clock kit from your local craft store.

Theses two are from http://compreviews.about.com/b/2009/...rt-profile.htm Look in this site, you may find it useful
;

Gigabyte

http://www.resellerratings.com/forum...r-service.html
All I could get for Gigabyte.

I'll post more later, I got to go. Scubadiving

 

[-Sandman-]

Any thoughts on cable management?

 

[Nuginu]

Sleeving your cables would be awesome, just don't clutter your case with wires. if you can, get a modular powersupply.