I've been looking at some higher-end psu's lately, with my imminent purchase of an 9800gtx or something along those lines. The thing is, my mind almost hurts when looking at these 600-750 watt power supplies. The prices just seem really high. Would it be possible to get something like an antec 430 watt for my graphics card? How would I get it to boot along with my other psu?

I was planning on getting a full tower case pretty soon anyway, so I should be able to find room for a second one.

If I could spend less on a secondary psu, I could spend more on the case.

*also*
I've seen some of these dedicated gpu psu's, but they all seem to be of questionable quality, so I hesitate to do that.

And what do you have at the moment?

Just common up the black 0V lines with some reasonably thick black wire and connect the green wire from your existing power supply to the green wire on the new.

If you are going to use only the 12V line on the extra power supply it will probably, but not always, switch on when you switch your PC on. Some power supplies require minimum loads on the 3V3 and/or 5.0V lines to operate properly.

I have a 500w currently. It works fine aside from not having enough general juice, lol.

More detail?

If it's a half decent 500W it should handle a 9800GTX just fine.
You certainly don't need anywhere near 700W to run a single GTX.

It's a coolmax cp500t. It's been handling all of my components fine so far. I know that it probably could do one gtx, but I just have this feeling that I'm kind of pushing its limits with all this stuff I have in there so far. I could be wrong, but I really don't want to max it with a gtx and have it possibly blow out.

I know I don't need 700 watts or more for one gtx, but I hope to eventually go to dual gtx's.

If you can handle 7900GSs in SLI you can handle 9800GTXs in SLI. I doubt you're even pulling over 300 watts from that supply...

Whoa, seriously? That'd be awesome. Then what's all the fuss about having these monster power supplies to power these cards?

If you are afraid of pushing your PSU high (even though I agree with everyone else when saying you should be fine) you can get a good-sized Corsair PSU for cheap, and they are very reliable. I currently have the 620HX, its modular so its pricey, but the 'egg carries a 650w version, non-modular, for $100 w/ $10 rebate.

Again, your current PSU should be fine, this is just to give you some more head-room.

Not necessarily true.
Even though running 9800GTX SLi doesn't use as much power as you might think we are still probably talking about double what 7900GS SLi will use.
The CP500T can supposedly output 400 of its 500W on the 12v lines, which should be OK.
It's a situation where I would be more comfortable with a proven PSU with 2 dedicated PCIe power connectors though.
Even something like the VX550 (492W on the 12v line) I'd be far more comfortable with.

My psu does in fact have 2 dedicated pcie connectors.

I was looking at that Corsair, myself. That looks like a pretty solid psu.

And thanks for all the help so far! You're really helping me out

You could sell your old psu and use the money for the new lesser psu to buy a 600w or so...

Hmmm, that's not a bad idea. Except for the fact I'd be without my main computer for awhile

I'll check around with my friends.

Or buy it, then sell it, no loss

So it does (I took a quick look on Newegg before, but just checked the Coolmax website).
As I said, it's possible you could be perfectly alright with it. The two 12v lines are rated at 16A and 18A.
That's where there could be potential problems.
If the limiting circuitry kicks in close to those values and the two cards have to share one of those lines you could be in trouble.
Unfortunately OCP triggers can vary wildly between PSUs, with some having OCP set so high it essentially behaves like a single rail PSU.
Others could potentially shut off if you try to pull a couple of amps more than what is stated on the label.

So I guess what I'll do is just keep this power supply for the single gtx, then when I get a second one down the road I'll get a new psu just to be safe. Well, it's good knowing that I don't have to upgrade just yet, heh.