thanks again, mate ;-) my online education indicates that the main focus when powering graphics card is the 12v rail. so, with that in mind, the 12v rail for the stock shuttle 250 watt PSU specs at 1A to 16A, with a peak of 18A. the XFX 9500 GeForce GT card, that i absolutely must have, "recommends" 18A for the 12v rail. so, oddly enough, this particular card fits within the power range of the stock 250 watt PSU. let's not forget that the battery has "80 Plus" efficiency, so the true wattage is more like 333 watts. so, i should be fine for awhile, as my only usage will be for video and editing video of my radio control truggy. i mean, i'm not a gamer, so i won't be running the card all out for hours. so for my usage, the worst case scenario is that perhaps the 9500 card will shorten the lifespan of the PSU, say, from three years to two. however, i plan to upgrade the PSU, as soon as i see fit. those options being the 300 watt shuttle PSU or an istar 400 watt PSU, which oddly enough, is one of the few, if not, the only battery that i've found online that is pretty much the same size as the stock battery. it's almost like an aftermarket battery made of the shuttle xpc line... or maybe it's for HTPC's? it's very close in size, but if i get it, i might have to make a few mounting adjustments.


almost forgot... hard to believe, but my calc came to 188 watts, total. that includes the 9500 card, 4gb's of ram and everything else. so again, i feel confident that i'll be okay.

thanks for the calc link... once again, you must've read my mind. i was going to post here regarding my PSU challenges.

^^^Just to be safe, I would get a larger psu with more room to spare. I mean its not wrong that you're choosing the psu you like. But its always "safe" when you get a little headroom there.

And you're right, 12v is what matters the most. This is a common overlook by many pc builders.

cool

if you dont have much money you chould have windows xp rather than vista because if you look all the reccomended requirement need more ram, cpu, gpu ect. so the best thing to do is get windows xp