Replacing Dell's stock motherboard & case!

[Daveinuni2k4]

Hi all - I hope someone can answer the following few questions before I part with my hard earned wonga!

I purchased a Dell Inspiron 570 last year and am looking to pretty much replace everything that came with the PC.

I have replaced the GeForce 310 that came with the computer for a GeForce GTX 550Ti. Due to the size difference of these graphics cards, the 550 doesn't seem to fit in the case very well. Also, because of the way the Dell case is designed, I can't screw the 550 in. The holes in the case don't seem to be compatible with the screw holes in the 550.

I've been looking at the Antec Three Hundred Midi Case and was wondering if this will accept the 550 as well as be versatile enough to accept a better Motherboard and Processor?

I am also looking to upgrade from the standard Motherboard that came from Dell. I'm not sure what make the current one is - Belarc Advisor says the following:-

Board: Dell Inc. 04GJJT A00
Serial Number: ..CN7016301S01BU.
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Dell Inc. A01 01/25/2010

Would the Gigabyte GA-880GM-UD2H AMD 880G (Socket AM3) microATX DDR3 Motherboard be a worthy upgrade from this?

Also, my current processor is a 2.90 gigahertz AMD Athlon II X3 435. I am looking to upgrade to a AMD Phenom II X6 Six Core 1055T 2.80GHz. Would this be a worthwhile upgrade and would it be compatible with the Motherboard I've chosen above?

Lastly, my current RAM is the 4GB that came from Dell (4 x 1GB DDR3 sticks). I'm running Windows 7 64 bit and I remember someone saying to me that by replacing my RAM with 4 x 2GB sticks, I may not add any performance to my PC - can someone confirm?

In summary, I'm looking for a new PC case, new motherboard and new processor that should help me play the latest games for at least the next year or two.

Any advice anyone can give would be much appreciated

Thanks!

 

[Reaper 392]

to answer a lot of your questions i need to know what your going to be doing with the PC (gaming, video editng, CAD/CAM, etc)

however, what i can answer is:
if you plan to upgrade the processor as well as the motherboard there is very little reason to go AMD. equivalent intel processors wipe the floor with AMD's.

the antec 300 will work fine with what you have, but the antec 100 is cheaper and a lot better.

if you have win7home premium 64 bit then the maximum RAM that can be recognised is 16GB (including graphics card VRAM). if you have professional or ultimate then the computer will recognise up to 196GB RAM. wether this will give you a performance increase or not depends on what you are doing with the PC

 

[scrlk]

Do not spend more money on a dead platform (ie. AMD AM3 CPUs and motheboards). Intel completely outstrips everything that AMD sells with Sandy Bridge - AMD is going to launch their new Bulldozer platform in the next few weeks on the AM3+ socket.

The Gigabyte 970A-UD3 or Gigabyte 990XA-UD3 will be good for your current CPU and for the future due to the AM3+ socket and allows overclocking capabilities so that you can push your current CPU higher until Bulldozer is released. As for your RAM, the 4x1GB sticks will slighly strain the memory controller more which will require more effort to overclock. If you do want to overclock, buy the Gelid Tranquillo as your CPU cooler.

The Antec 300 was a good case back in the day, but is completely archaic these days. Go for it if you like the plain, understated styling though. Better, modern alternatives in the same price bracket include the Antec 100 (direct replacement for the 300), BitFenix Shinobi and Zalman Z9. Many people highly recommend the Zalman Z9 (like stulid) due to lots of included fans.