Could my PSU handle an upgrade?

[BigGlenn]

Hi all,

To cut a long story short.... I will be coming into some money in the next month or so, so was looking at treating myself to a new graphics card to replace the 8800GT I currently have

My question is whether or not my PSU could handle an upgrade bearing in mind what I currently have in my machine (see my spec)???
For those who can't see it, or are too lazy to look , it is the Antec Earthwatts 500W unit that came bundled with the Antec Sonata III case, with an E8400, 4gig RAM (just noticed that is not updated in my spec), 3 x HDD, 1 DVD drive and the 8800GT currently
Everything is stock, so would it handle a 58** series card or would you recommend replacing it?

Cheers in advance

Glenn

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The HD5850 has lower power consumption than an HD4870 1GB so in theory your Antec should be able handle unless it is considered one of their worse units.

[Ulti]

I'd say it would be able to handle it.

[scaryjim]

Simple answer: yes

500W is more than enough for a single gfx high end rig. And the Antec Earthwatts are good quality well made PSUs, so it'll be able to push out plenty of current. You have no concerns

[BigGlenn]

Cheers folks, just need to wait for the money to come through then

[Pob255]

Antec earth Watts were made by seasonic, I think the newer ones are CWT, combined with the relatively low power needs of a e8400 it should eaisly cope with a single high end card or a couple of lower power cards.

5850 would be good or maybe a 5870 depending on how much you can afford

[BigGlenn]

Cheers Pob,

I am in the fortunate position of being able to afford either of those cards (in fact, I could afford 2 x 5870 if I really wanted them) but also want to weigh up the 'best bang for your pound' as well, although running at the res of 1920x1080 I am leaning towards the 5870 so that I don't need to worry about anything not running too well for a little while