When you check into PSUs most will tell you if they're rated for SLi or crossfire.....With just a little looking I'd say that's gonna put at or above 600W

Yeah, I was looking yesterday at a Zalman 650-80 watt PSU for a bit under AUD$200.00.  It may be a little more than I need for now, but it would allow for the power loss due to heating/over time that I've been reading about, as well as possible future upgrades.

There was also an Antec 550w that would pretty much do what I need if only running a single GPU card, but as the SLI/Crossfire option hasn't been settled yet, I may as well go with a higher powered PSU and remove the guess work.

Oh well, you could have gotten 2x 4870 n a crossfire config for the same price...

And for PSU selection, go for quality, not price. i use the Corsair TX 750w w/ a single 12v rail. My system is substantially overclocked so im good to go for power. A fantastic choice for PSU brand would be PC Power and Cooling Silencer series. They're some of the best out there. You shouldnt need to go above a 650w at most with that card.

Well I've narrowed it down a bit with the graphics card.. I will either go with the Galaxy or Palit GTX 260 - or the Hightech ot Palit HD4870.

They're all a much of a muchness regarding price... with the Leadtech 4870 cheapest, coming in at AUD302.50.

There's also a Leadtech HD 4850 IceQ 4 GDDR3 @ 1gb with reasonable specs for AUD$287.00... but is it much/enough of of a step up from the 8800GT @ 512mb?

Not outside the US, me thinks... definitely not in Oz.  The cheapest x2 4870 on Pricespy.com.au is AUD$795 +

I'm thinking the Corsair TX650 @ S190.30; the Zalman ZM600 HP @ $179.30; the Antec EA650 @ $159.50.

There's also a Gigabyte 720 @ $159.40.. but that says peak 720w power, not under load and I'm a bit dubious.  I know Gigabyte make decent mobos and etc, but what about PSU's?

really depends on your current system, no point in buying the-greatest-gfx-card-ever if the rest of your machine is old skool and can't keep up with it, then your better of buying a sligthly weaker card if you don't upgrade your whole system

Well my system is fairly modern (14 -16 month old) and is still fairly decent, even by today's standards.  OK, it mightn't be top end, but it's no slouch and certainly not old skool.... and I'm sure it'll cope with a GTX 260 or an ATI 4870 just fine with a PSU upgrade as well.

Well I settled for a Galaxy 9800GTX @ 1gb for AUD$210.90... with price fluctuations over the last couple of days, the GTX260 and ATI HD4870 would have been an extra $120 - $150, thus reducing my ability to upgrade my CPU and PSU with something decent.

Dunno what's going on with the Phenom II 940's... most places I checked have no stock and don't know when more will arrive, and those that do have it have jacked up their prices.  The best local price I could find was AUD$499.95. (interstate prices were a little better, but with shipping it worked out roughly the same) so I've settled for a Phenom II x4 920 for AUD$310.  Oh well, while it's around an 8% performance hit to the 940, it's still a 70% - 80% performance increase on my AMD Athlon x2 6400.

The PSU I've also been looking into is the AcBel 800w.  I don't know anything about this brand, but a couple of PC builders have said they've never had issues and recommend them.  If anyone could provide some info regarding the reliability, etc of Acbel PSU's I'd appreciate it.

Starkers... The 9800GT has known conflicts with Vista. It simply shuts down and reboooting is required. Something to do with WDDM drivers and AGP drivers.

Hmmm, that's the first I heard of it. Thanks for the heads up, NT.

I will do a search to see what I can find on the matter, but if you could clarify or link me to the info I'd appreciate it.

get the corsair or a pc power & cooling unit if they're available in oz. you can't go wrong with either brand.

I am using a EVGA 9800GTX+ and I run the game on all high settings @ 1680x1050 on a 22" widescreen.  Runs flawlessly, and my card was under $200.

wat about a nvidia Geforce 9800 or one thats a 6800

It's about $200 more actually. I'd go for a 4890, rivals the GTX275, can OC very well and in a bunch of games comes within 3 fps or so of a GTX285.

@Night Train: I've got a few friends with a 9800GT, neither have any of those issues. I wouldn't classify them as "known issues". Also the card is PCI-E not AGP.

I would also not bother with a GTX295, not until they release the single PCB version anyway, sandwiched GTX260s is pretty fail.

oops, I have the 8800 GT, sorry. Sorry for my mistake and sorry I got the 8800 GT. Running winows experience score crashes Vista. Tis quite the " experience"!

Yeah, I was looking at a Corsair 620w for AUD$172.00, as well as others, but the AcBels are slightly better price-wise and thus would allow me a more powerful unit for the price...

An Acbel 660w (True Rated) is AUD$126.90, and the 800w (Total Output) is AUD$189.90, and a couple of techies told me they've had no major issues with the AcBels and that some OEMs use them also.. they're also certified by Intel, so I thought they might be worth a look.

Nothing is set in concrete, however, and if the AcBels are proven to be not so good I will go with the Corsair 620w if it powers the new 9800GTX and Phenom II 920 (@125w) OK... otherwise I'm looking at an extra 45 bucks on a tight budget for a 700w