EggXpert

Long story short - I purchased a Dell XPS 710 H2C for a lot of money in 2007. The nForce 590i motherboard has gone bad and Dell wants to sell me a new one for $400+ bucks. Not gonna happen. I plan to scrap my existing system and slightly upgrade using parts that I can reuse. Please let me know if you have any thoughts, thank you so much!

 Original System:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Dell_XPS_710...-32305739.html
QX6700 3.2ghz Core 2 Extreme
2x 8800 GTX in SLI
Dell 710 H2C Case (you can see in the above link)
nForce 590i BTX mobo
4GB of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
1 KW power supply (http://support.dell.com/support/edoc....htm#wp1052309 )
500GB WD Barracuda
150GB WD serial ATA/150 hard drives (RAID 0)

New Parts I have purchased (or ordering soon unless you stop me!)
Case: COOLER MASTER HAF 932 RC-932-KKN1-GP Black Steel ATX Full Tower Computer Case (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119160)

RAM: CORSAIR XMS3 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TW3X4G1333C9 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145218)

Motherboard: XFX MBN790IUL9 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 790i Ultra SLI ATX Intel Motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813141009) - a little concerned I can't return this...

Cooler: ZALMAN CNPS9500 AT 2 Ball CPU Cooling Fan/Heatsink and ZALMAN ZM-CS4A Socket 1366 Clip Support Kit for CNPS9500/9700 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118003)

As you can see - I have spent a fair amount of money already. I was expecting to spend a decent amount of money but beyond just fixing my motherboard issue, I was hoping to upgrade my system somewhat.

I was suckered into paying dell $50 bucks for technical support and ended up buying an extra power supply that I didn't need (and apparently won't fit with any of the new motherboards). On a side note: if anyone needs one of those 1KW power supplies, let me know.

their motherboards are generally built by someone like gigabyte, msi, etc.  Have you tried searching for that motherboard to buy?  And see if the case mounts are standard, otherwise just get a new mobo.  Unless you want to spend more . . .

I would also try holding dell for that un needing power supply. You shouldn't have to pay for a part they tell you is broek, but isn't.  Your cedit card company can fight that fight for you.