Potential Computer Upgrades YET AGAIN! Possibly either the Motherboard or Video Card.

Man, I seriously can't get enough of my Computer Upgrades eh? But there's a reason to put up as a topic. The potential upgrade that I'm pointing towards that is my motherboard. There's a reason for the needed upgrade. And it's all have to do with USB 3.0 layouts should I want to go SLI.

The biggest problem I have with my current layout on my motherboard is the lack of a USB 3.0 header on the motherboard. There were 2 USB 3.0s at the back but the USB 2.0s already being so populated could stress the heck out of the power draw needed. So I started to use those USB PCI-E Expansion cards. It has 2 USB 3.0 ports as I/O and a Header to plug in a USB 3.0 to the front bay that came with it. Then another problem came, The PCI-E USB 3.0 header can't reach the 5.25" front bay for the USB 3.0s. So I jury rigged one of my USB 3.0 header to 2 x USB 3.0 ports that came with a P8P67 Pro (The ATX version of the P8P67M-Pro) to the card, took out the PCI Bracket and route it outside the case. Ugly yes, I know, at least now I've 4 more USB 3.0s but THEN another problem came.

I want to go SLI on my ZOTAC GTX 780. However, the only free PCI-E is wired for 4X. And SLI doesn't support on a 16X and 4X. So now with the 3rd slot being occupied, my only room of expansion is either a Dual GPU 690 or the 790, both of which are very expensive and swapping out to a 780 Ti doesn't really net a huge difference in performance since my current 780 is heavily overclocked to match a Stock 780 Ti. It's all because of the lack of USB 3.0 that I need to forces me only on a single card.

The only probable solution is to use an ATX motherboard or any Z68/P67 ASUS Motherboard that has a working USB 3.0 header. I can't use my P8P67 Pro because the USB 3.0 header pins are broken. And I want to spend something on a cheap. So I'm trying to look for a cheap Z68 ASUS Maximus IV (Any one of those will do as long there's a USB 3.0 header on the board). Sacrificing 2 USB 3.0s shouldn't be no issue but at least it'll free me some room to do SLI.

Well, those are a couple of potential upgrades. Other maintenance things to do is to get some compressed gas to clean my computer, strap in a couple more USB fans and use a better thermal compound for my Corsair H70 instead of using the one that comes with the CoolerMaster Hyper 212 which I'm still using for my i5 machine.