Notice that the ATI 4850 (the card that Xarthor said he was looking to get) was going to consume 290 at IDLE according to the link you provided.
Ehm, no you must have misread something - it's 290 under load and 157 when idling. Also remember that on the one side the test system consist of a Core 2 Extreme QX9770 clocked @4GHz (!) and on the other side the given values already include the power supplie's inefficency (so you have to subtract quite a bunch to get the
REAL consumption)...
If so, then he spends more money because he has to replace the one he already has (if he purchases something now that is less than 500 watts).
Well my recommendation would be around 450 watt - to go up one step to 500 also woulnd't be a disaster but more than that would be quite a waste (because of the reserves you now see it has)...
Also, RAM can slow down if the power supply is not quite sufficient for the system. More RAM: more power draw.
Well RAM really has a tiny consumption - regular modules should take like 2-3 watt each so nothing to worry about...
Enjoy your meal
Toast
