I NEED SOME HELP TRYING TO FIT ALL THE STUFF I WANT TO USE ON THIS NEW BOARD.

I HAVE THE:

XFX NFORCE 680I LT
ZOTAK GEFORCE 8800GT 512 MB - 2 FOR SLI

I WANT TO ADD IN A USB CARD SO I CAN HAVE ALL THE FRONT USB PORTS & BACK PORTS ENABLED AS WELL AS A RAID CARD FOR THE OS & STORAGE. BOTH ON RAID 5 OR RAID 1. I DONT KNOW WHICH IS BEST.

I MAINLY DONT KNOW WHAT I CAN USE TO HAVE ENOUGH ROOM AS THESE CARDS BLOCK SOME OF MY PCI-E PORTS.

ANY SUGGESTIONS WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.

SLI is going to get in the way no matter what you do... just put your two 8800GT's in, attach the SLI bridge and see what else you can fit in there. That's all there is to it... You may be able to fit a PCI-E card between the 8800's and put the SLI bridge over top of it.

As for RAID... do you need either? RAID 5 is more redundant, but requires 3 physical HDD's. RAID 1 only requires two disks, but you lose one disk in the process. (Since everything is mirrored)

I REALLY WANT AT LEAST RAID 1 SO I DON'T HAVE TO CONTINUOUSLY HAVE TO RE-INSTALL MY O.S. IT'S JUST SUCH A PAIN TO DO. I HATE TAKING DAYS & DAYS TO RE-INSTALL & RE-DOWNLOAD UPDATES & PROGRAM & ALL THAT.

ANY OTHER BOARD YOU CAN SUGGEST THAT MAY GIVE ME MORE ROOM?

I ALSO HAVE A TV TUNER TO INSTALL. FORGOT ABOUT THAT.

WHY DONT BOARD MAKERS GIVE YOU MORE ROOM? I COULD GET A BIGGER CASE - BUT I CAN'T SEEM TO FIND A BIGGER BOARD WITH MORE ROOM.

ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS?

HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT USING THE ON-BOARD RAID ON THE BOARD?