PC Upgrades!!

It has been some time since I've done anything to my PC..... Needed to do some upgrades in the graphics department so that I can at least play SOME of the graphics intensive PC games :)

Bought a new graphics card.... not the latest model by a far shot, but will serve my purpose. Its a Palit nvidia 9800GT 512MB card.


Very basic "stuffs" included....


The driver CD, manual, spdif cable, molex to pcie power and of course the card itself.

So all set??? No. Coz then I remembered I had to upgrade my PSU as well. The original 300W PSU wasn't going to cut it and so I bought a Acbel E2 510.


The real watage of this is around 450W and this will be enough to power the new card together with my 3 HDDs, DVD Rom and some fans.

With the basic stuff ready I began to dismantle my PC to install the new stuffs. Some pics so show the process....

PSU installed.... had to tidy up the "snaking" cables.....

TADA!!!! all neat and tidy..... but I HAVE NOT INSTALLED THE GRAPHICS CARD!!!! %^&%^^&%^$%$^$^$^$^^@##@@

So I took out the older nvidia 8600GS.... and tried to put the new card in.... OPS! Problem....
Apparently the manufacturer of my mobo either did not expect graphics card to be able to grow to the length they are now or the did not expect users of a mATX mobo to slot in a full length PCIe card. The SATA ports were in the way of the card!!

What to do???? In the end I had to bend the end of the new card a little so that it slots in between the 2 rows of SATA ports. Here's how it looks like:
A closer look......
Was advised its not good the bend the card so I'll have to shop for a PCIe 1x SATA controller. Found out where to buy it but have not done so :P At least the rig works.

But I am satisfied for the time being. :) 3Dmark06 gave a score of about 12k so I'm happy.