9600GT or 9800GTX + PSU advice?

[Fox Blade]

Hi. I'm in the process of wanting to upgrade my computer's graphics. The current specs:

Run-of-the-mill HP A6230n Desktop.
ASUS M2N68-LA mobo
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ (@2.8GHz dual core)
3GB DDR2 RAM
500GB Seagate 7200RPM Hard Disk
# of optical dives: 1
nForce 430 GeForce 6150SE 128MB Integrated graphics (Yuck!)
Available PCI Express16 1.0/1.1 slot
Stock Bestec 300W PSU

So, I was in Best Buy the other day (Circuit City and CompUSA are sadly both closed down in my area :(), and while I browsed their graphic card section, I noticed that the 9600GT and the 9800GTX were on clearance and were both priced at $99 a pop.

BFG - NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT OC Graphics Card
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8719041&type=product&id=1200702767829
PNY - NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX OC 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express Graphics Card
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8813901&type=product&id=1206749395825
But one thing that bothers me is, the 9800GTX is a dual-slot design. If I were to install it, the card would also occupy my PCI-E 1x slot. There's a possibility I also might add a sound card in the future.

Here's the catch: I would most likely prefer to only buy this upgrade from B&M stores. Simple reason is, I am uncomfortable giving out my information online.

Anyways, I'm in this dilemma of these two cards, and I would like advice on which one of these would suit best.

I will be playing games mostly. The max resolution my monitor supports is 1440x900 (Which is a wide-screen ratio), but I have go down to 1280x1024 to maintain aspect ratio.

Some of the games that I would very much enjoy MAXED OUT are:
-Burnout Paradise
-Race Driver GRID (sp?)
-Half-Life 2: Lost Coast
-Need For Speed: Undercover

Also, what PSU would be recommended from Best Buy's selection? Again, I prefer B&M stores.

I hope this post wasn't overkill...:headexplode:
Many thanks! :afro:

PS. ATI cards are also very welcomed to be added to my dilemma list... ;)

[CaptNKILL]

Holy crap... that's an expensive 9600GT. :eek:

The 9800GTX is a nice price though. That'd be an excellent card for your system. It would be more than twice as fast as the 9600GT in most cases.

As for the sound card, you should have PCI slots available for that. They're more than sufficient for something like an X-Fi. If you don't have any free PCI slots you should just stick with your onboard audio and get the dual slot card anyway.

As for the power supply, BestBuy doesn't have much of a selection but Corsair are excellent. This would probably be great for your system:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9358296&type=product&id=1218090910766

There is also a 550W for $15 more which I think would be worth it in the long run if you decide to upgrade more of your system, but either will run your current system with a 9800GTX.