First Timer In Need Of Expert Help

[sirgamesalot1234]

well this started out as a upgrade for my hp with a MCP61PM-HM (Nettle3) mobo and the amd phenom 9500 2.2 ghz i finally switched to windows 7 64bit and only had 3 gb of ddr2 pc2-6400 and a geforce 8500 gt which came with the comp
i was planning on going to 8gbs of ddr2 pc2-8500 and i was thinking the gtx 480 intill i found out my mobo sucks and doesn't support oc'ing so my techie friend said that it would be a waste because the mobo and cpu would just bottleneck the whole operation so he and a few online forums said i should just biuld a new comp and im fine with that but i unfortunately have to replace all the brake and tire on my jeep so im just going to build a new pc around Christmas
so i thought id spend alittle cash intill them on this nettle3 comp so i replace the two 512 mb sticks that came with the comp to two 2gb sticks for a total of 6bgs
now ive foudn out about the gtx 460 which wasn't out yet when i was first planning to upgrade
now on a few reviews ive seen people are saying two of these in SLI run better than a single gtx 480 while also using less power and makes less noise/heat so would it be a good decision if i bout one gtx 260 now and just ran it on my nettle3 mobo
and come Christmas when i biuld my new pc i was going to buy another gtx 460 and run then in SLI

so do you think this is a good idea also i have a 400 watt power and gtx min is 450 so if i do buy it should i just buy the the power supply for my Christmas comp >800-900W< now and use that in my nettle 3 till i get my new one?

 

[ace700]

yes you should buy the power supply that you are going to get buy for Xmas now because your PSU wont support the watts for the the video card you are going to get. I would get the 900W PSU so you will have bit of room to work with when you build your new computer. Before you buy your video card make sure to see if your computer will have the right slot for it

 

[lowriderflow]

http://www.fudzilla.com/reviews/reviews/reviews/evga-gtx-460-sli-vs-gtx-480/page-3

If you read about the power consumption... the entire rig with one 460 output to one monitor drew 299w peak (with an i7 965). So as long as your 400watt power supply is a decent brand, you should be ok. However, if it's the one that came with your HP, it's probly not top notch. So i'd reccomend just buying the GTX460 and Powersupply now. I think tahts a great idea, then come christmas you can build somethign kick a$$. you really only need a quality 650watt for your future build with 2 460s'. The same article notes with teh SLI config the system useage topped at around 500watt with the overclocked cards