Read up a little before posting stuff please happy_fanboy
Every power supply wastes a certain amount of power. This amount is based on the power supply efficiency. Power supply efficiency changes with load ALL transformers reach there highest efficiency(least power wasted) at about 100-110% load. Computer power supplies run transformers much higher(up to 200 percent of that they could without the fan) than this with the aid of a fan(so passive psus reach max efficiency in the 90-100% load). so a 1000 watt psu thats 60% efficient at 260-300 watts will take more power then a psu thats 80% efficient at 260-300. the point is a bigger psu CAN use more power due to waste...
260 + 40%(yes thats 40 percent of the power wasted in heat, or more the point 40 percent more power then the pc it self uses...) = 364 watts at the wall
260 + 20%(20% waste typical of the earthwatts units) = 312 watts at the wall.
52 watts does not sound like allot. but thats 50 watts of heat that the psu has to pump into your room and 1.2 KW/H you add to your power bill every 24 hours the system is on....
Since the Pentium dual cores use less power due to less cache i do not see 3.0 being a massive power drain.
- CPU @ 3.0 on stock volts 108 watts(Extreme psu calc) this is WAY over since a E2160 does NOT use 64(after all a e6600 is supposed to) watts at stock(but the PSU calc uses that as the base). The over clock should add about 40 watts to what ever it already takes. my estimate 80-90 watts max
- Hard drive 12-15 watts(more accurate of modern drives)
- Video card 30 watts
- Fans about 4 watts for a fairly powerful 120mm unit
- Board 20-45 watts in most cases
So
108 - CPU
24 - 2 hard drives
12 - DVD(wild ass guess)
30 - video
12 - 3 fans
45 - Board with all the goodies
----
231 add 20(wild ass guess) or so for ram
Note that would be a max power situation. most machines do not reach that even when gaming(unless you defrag burn and so on) and what not....
Links
Tomshardware.com - $89 Pentium Dual Core that Runs at 3.2 GHz - Shows even lower power even with a 8800GTS 320(like i say the cpu is over estimated by a fair bit) - See the bottom of the page
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/09/12/pentium_dual_core/page10.html#power_requirements
Seagate hard drive specs- for average power
http://www.seagate.com/docs/pdf/datasheet/disc/ds_barracuda_7200_10.pdf
Adda high speed fan for fan power
http://www.techaddicts.net/reviews/trio650w/trio6516.jpg
The Truth About Graphics Power Requirements V2 - for video card power use
http://www.atomicmpc.com.au/forums.asp?s=2&c=7&t=9354
SPCR - AC power draw on older less efficient psu and newer 80+(earthwatts) psu - this is just an example....you will also see that the efficiency is at its best about 50-60 percent of full load....
220 watts from the wall to make 150 watts on at 68 percent efficient
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article61-page2.html
186 watts from the wall to make 150 watts on at 81 percent efficient. despite being a 430 it has similar properties to a EA380
http://www.silentpcreview.com/article684-page4.html
Corsair - an image with typical curve of efficiency(a little over done showing such high efficiency, but it does show the right curve...)