Mainboard and case compatibility question (case upgrade)

[AnthonyA85]

Hi folks, need some advice...

Ok, so, the other day I installed my new XFX 7950 Black Edition into my Akasa ZEN black Midi-ATX case....and the two PCIE power cable plugs are too close to where the side panel would be, so, on the advise of a friend of ours who does IT for a living, i've pretty much been told to look for a bigger case , it was generally agreed upon that i'd need one at least 12 inches wide.

I've taken a liking to the Cosmos 2, since i'm looking for a case that has good cable management, excellent airflow (my current case has neither when both side panels are on), room for expansion/easy hard-drive installation, and most importantly, hinged side panels.

Now onto the nitty-gritty...

My current system is an Asus LGA775 P5K mainboard (ATX), Q6600 cpu, Tuniq 120mm LED cooler, 8GB TwinMX DDR2 (4 DIMMs), DVD/CD+RW and a SATA 2 3Gb/s 400GB HDD, and of course, my XFX 7950.

Now, according to my motherboard manual, the board only has 3 fan connectors, and one of them is for the cpu cooler, the other two are case fans, so i know i'll have to pick and choose which ones i want to use, unless i can used use one of those Q-Connector things, but i doubt it.

So, my first question is this:

Is my main board really compatible with something like the Cosmos 2? And if not, does anyone have any suggestions?

Also, when my mother and I installed the new GPU, we had to push the back of the case inwards to make the screw holes in the case line up with the screw holes on the card's backplate, something my mother wasn't comfortable doing. Would i have that same issue with the Cosmos 2?

And lastly, I'm also thinking of upgrading my power supply, I'm currently using a Corsair VX550w, and yesterday, i had a couple of issues with this thing locking up on me, after a bit of messing around (and reading the "Overclocking failed!" message at boot-up), i've determined that my psu might be struggling with the more hungry card (I messed around with the OC settings, and setting it to 30% stopped Windows from starting up, so i had to set all my OC settings to AUTO), either that, or the PCI-E x16 1.1 (so GPU-Z reads it as) slot is bottle-necking the 3.0 card, though my gut tells me its a psu issue.

What would you guys recommend? 750W? 850W? Fully modular or semi-modular?

Thanks in advance.

 

[daveyg]

I'm about to get an Anidees Ai-06 mid tower case after reviewing the field. It not perfect but offers a good balance I think. You can take the HDD cages out so long cards don't become a problem. It offers 177mm internal width clearance but googling your GFX card I see why width is an issue, your connectors are on the side not the end.

Some of the Silverstones with unconventional layouts may help, but they are pricey.

If not just go for a huge full tower, I didn't really study these as they are to big for my needs.

I can however recommend my Corsair HX750 Gold, it ain't cheap but its seems really good. It is semi modular with only the 24pin and 8pin CPU connected and you need these anyway. The only reason for full modular I guess is if you want a Corsair single braided kit, which is sweet but expensive. When I bought my HX it was almost the same price as the AX but I went for the newer tech and the gold rating over modular plugs on cables I have to have plugged in.

I can also recommend a Thermaltake Dr Power 2 and a good multimeter to diagnose PSU issues. Don't trust software read outs, you need proper measurements if you are worried you are not getting the voltages you need.

 

[AnthonyA85]

Thanks for the advice for the PSU and diagnostic hardware, the TT Dr 2 looks interesting, i'll look into it.

What about my motherboard? I know it's old, but the thing is, is it too old for this case?