Hi,i'm a computer newbie,and i've jsut recently built my own pc. It has Antec Earthwatts 500w(17A on 12V1 and 17A on 12V2), asus m2n32-sli deluxe mobo,2 sticks of 1GB DDR2 800 OCZ platinum rev 2 RAM, Athlon X2 5000+ with ZEROtherm BTF90 cooler, a sata seagate harddrive,  a dvd burner, 2 120mm fans and a razer barracuda sound card. My question is,can the psu support  a 8800GT?maybe SLI? Also i'm looking at the new 9600GT that's suppose to come out on 2/21, and it requires "26A on the 12 rail". can my psu support that?i would much rather buy that instead of 8800GT. Also,can i SLI the 9600gt? Thanks for your answers!

I think it should be able to handle 2 x 8800GT, but I would consider that pushing it. It should be able to handle a 8800GT without any problems.

Yes to the single 8800GT and maybe to the SLI (I don't remember the requirements for SLI with them). Your unit has 408 watts being supplied to the +12v rails. Divide that by 12 and you get a combined 34 amps which is enough for any single card set-up. If I remember the preview correctly, the 8800GT was supposed to be better than the 9600GT by a little bit. I also see no reason why you wouldn't be able to SLI the 9600's.

thanks for your replies. I would perfer the 9600GT because they are cheaper than the 8800GT,even though a little inferior in performace. So running SLI9600GT is safer than SLI 8800GT?does 8800GT use more pwoer or something? thanks again

SLI 8800GT's can use approximately 360W at full stress.

Uh, IIRC, 8800GT barely tops 100w under load. Where does the extra 160w come from in a SLI setup?

Probably from mistakenly believing a chart showing total system power consumption is referring only to graphics consumption.