IMO hardware is hardware. What you get really won't have a performance hit.

generally the cheaper boards won't give you a whole lot of options for, say OC'ing, BUT they will get you by. look in the $100 - $200 range for a decent mobo. unless you want to spend $400 on one then that's up to you.

With that processor you don't really have too many options because you have a lower FSB. your FSB is only 800mhz. most common these days are the 1333mhz. So look on newegg and filter it down to the 800MHz FSB range and that will give you the best selection. I've always heard that ASUS makes great boards. a little on the pricey side but they will last a while

Sell the card on amazon or ebay and start over. You'll lose a bit, but you won't lose your shorts as you will if you keep the card and strike off in the direction of spending more money to correct your first unknowing mistake...

I don't know about that case cause the case that i have now has lights and a door to get to the power button and after opening and closing the door so many times the cables going to the lights on the front have broken, sort of. if you hold the door just right they come on but if you just leave it they won't turn on.

IMO you can find a better one than that. do you really need the gauges on the front of the computer? here is one that may be more practical not as big and has a 585 watt power supply should have enough room for your cables and drives. plus the rear fan can be changed to a 120mm fan rather than the 80mm that come with it

I can fit the 9800 GTX+, which is the same size as the 260, in a mini tower with only a bit of a space issue, it goes into my empty hard drive bay, but that's on it's side anyways, so I'm sure a mid-tower can handle it.

Mine is ATX.

Just stick in the motherboard first, then the PSU, then the components, then the HDD's, then the CD drives, I would believe.


Make sure you get the screws in the right place on the mobo!

Ok, well, the new case came.

Everything fit perfectly, except the motherboard  . The motherboard I got from Dell isn't ATX style, it's probably something they make themselves. So the motherboard is oriented wrong in the case, the video card slot ends up being on the inside of the case instead of the outside.

So....now for a new motherboard  . I'm not mad or anything, I sort of figured I would end up replacing most of the stuff in my computer just to get this video card to fit...I needed an upgrade anyway.

I don't really know how much I should pay for a new motherboard. There's one for like $220 that supports 3-way SLI. But I've heard that FSX doesn't support SLI or something...should I go that expensive. Or should I go with like a Micro ATX motherboard with only one PCI-E slot? Or more?

If anybody has a suggestions I would appriciate it.
Ferrari

I think this is what you're talking about. I couldn't find one by EVGA, but I think EVGA and Nvidia are the same thing.

I don't have an issue with it, I'll check around some more, but that looks promising. Thanks.