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

Well I did a search on 9800GT/Vista issues and only came up with this: "freezing on startup".  Apparently the pesrson didn't uninstall the drivers for the previous card and there was a conflict.  However, the issue was resolved with Nvidia's 'driver stripper' tool and a clean install of updated drivers.  Apparently, this can be true of any graphics card upgrade and not just the 8800 - 9800... it's always best to clean out the old drivers first.

starkers, pc p&c rates their psu's at the constant ouput not the maximum. I know myh pC P&C 750 tops out between 850 and 900 watts. I'm pretty sure corsiar does now, also. don't judge a unit's value based on the number given for the output. i'm not the least bit familiar with the other brand you mentioned so i can't comment on their value. either way, good luck in your search. i hope you find parts for your rig that last quite some time and you're very happy with them.