Please help me! new...ish build.

[shortbushero]

I successfully completed my first gaming build XD!!!! but suddenly, tragedy struck

specs:
Phenom II x4 695
8GB ripjaws x 1600
(my last MOBO before it failed) gigabyte 970 UD3
XFX dual fan Radeon HD 6950 (this card is huge, will it F*** up my sata ports?)
crappy WD 230GB HDD (because newegg sent me DOA refurb PoS)
Coolermaster hyper 212 evo (had to use stock cuz it doesn't work with the 970 UD3 ^^)
NZXT Phantom 410
Corsair 650TX (is this enough wattage? could my PC have shut down from not enough POWER?

Soooo, I was really excited because I could run virtually any game on ultra and i built it myself but after about 2 weeks it shut off randomly i checked the wiring and everything looked fine. I turned it back on and the LEDS and fans flashed on for a few seconds then turned off again. I was told this was a motherboard failure. I got a refund for the motherboard and now i'm thinking of which one to buy as replacement. should i pay an extra 25 bucks for the gigabyte 990fx? what setup processes will i have to redo as far as like BIOS and drivers and such? BTW my cpu has been sitting it its box ontop of the manuals. it won't get damaged right? same with a few other parts- my ram sticks are just sitting ontop of a box in the open, and my video card is in the static proof bag, but it requires a lot of force to install and unistall it to my last board( i think because its so big and it kind of hits the sata ports)

If someone could help a young builder in his quests to build a nice rig, I would be forever grateful. There was a lot of questions embedded in this post so try to answer all of them.

Thank you,

 

[TheBigTroll]

its suppose to require a good amount of force for installation of the video card.

if you want to get teh 990fx, go ahead. no performance boost whatsoever

it couldnt be your power supply not supplying enough wattage

 

[inzone]

With only one video card the 650w psu will be enough, if you had two of the 6950's then I would have said the psu might not be enough.

ASUS M5A99X EVO AM3+ AMD 990X SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard with UEFI BIOS
$134.99 and a $20 rebate makes the final price $114.99.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131754

This is a higher priced board that has a good rebate right now and it's a chance to grab a good board for $10 more than the one you just had.
As long as your parts are in a safe place and not being handled a lot then they should be ok. The video card should not take a lot of force to go into he slot.
The Hyoer should not be having problems with working with any board as long as your using the correct bracket.

 

[shortbushero]

thank you!! but if i get the same motherboard doesn't that mean i dont have to do any software installation because its on my HDD? is it worth it to get the 990? would it be more stable?

 

[TheBigTroll]

its about the same

 

[inzone]

It's not absolutly necessary it just makes it easier but there is no problem with switching motherboard brands you just delete the drivers for the chipsets and load the new ones. Once you get it all sorted out there will be no stability issues.
I just changed cpu , motherboard, video cards and ram and kept the same hard drive and after fixing all the drivers and software I'm still using it and haven't had to reload Windows and is very stable.