WSJ has an article about the growth of Green Desktops.
Computer manufacturers, chip makers and software companies are developing "greener" products for environmentally conscious consumers. While some tech companies are developing more energy-efficient product lines, others are releasing software to make existing computers consume less. And electronics manufacturers are expanding ways to make new computers out of recycled materials, as well as encourage customers to recycle old machines. Consumers may pay a slight premium for some eco-friendly electronics, but many prices will be comparable with traditional offerings.
Several factors are pushing companies to be greener. Many want to stay ahead of environmental legislation and to garner favor with green investors, says Christopher Mines, an analyst with Forrester Research Inc. And with energy prices high, they trying to appeal to people like Ms. Conrad, who are looking for ways to chip away at expenses.
Forrester surveyed 5,000 U.S. adults and found that 12% are willing to pay extra for electronics that use less energy or are made by an environmentally friendly company. Companies think this number will grow, Mr. Mines says. "They are looking to polish up their image with consumers," he adds.
The exception to the Green movement is the gaming community as news.com points out with machines requiring their own circuits to keep from tripping breakers.
There is an ungreen revolution taking place in enthusiast game PC circles.
A 1,250-watt power supply--this one from Cooler Master--is the largest a game PC maker will install today.
(Credit: Cooler Master)
The eye-opening graphics possible on today's game PCs come at a cost: light-dimming power consumption. The trend, rooted in the perennial quest for more speed, bucks the overall greening of the PC industry.
Green PC designs have become more than just practical; they're cool. Power-sipping Netbooks are in, as are small desktops like the Dell Studio Hybrid and Hewlett-Packard Pavilion Slimline.
This is not the case for high-end gaming PCs, where bigger is better.
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It's an ominous trend, according to box makers. "If this trend does continue, then, yes, it will give us problems," said George Yang, an engineer at Los Angeles-based game rig maker IBuyPower. "A regular home user would have to have an electrician come in, get the outlet out, and plug in a higher breaker," Yang said. Today, some of the higher-end systems with big power supplies require a special wall power socket, according to Yang.
Other game rig makers are equally concerned. "I swore that I'd never break 1,000 (watts)," said Kelt Reeves, president of game PC maker Falcon Northwest. "Unfortunately, that's been the solution for the past several years. Bigger, bigger, bigger power supplies."
"A regular home user would have to have an electrician come in, get the outlet out, and plug in a higher breaker."
--George Yang, IBuyPower engineer
Reeves says that 1,200 watts is now essential for gaming systems based on multiple boards from Nvidia or AMD's ATI graphics unit. "With three GTX 280s or two of the R700 cards, we're recommending they go with a 1,200-watt power supply," Reeves said, referring to the newest graphics chips from Nvidia and ATI respectively.
Many of these gamers are unaware that 1.34 lbs of CO2 are generated per kW hour. So their 4 hour gaming session could generate over 5 lbs of C02 on one of these high end 1,000 watt machines.
For reference, driving is still one of the worse carbon emitters with 20 lbs of C02 per gallon of gas.
Wouldn’t it be interesting as time goes on that the same way some countries tax cars with big engines, a government decides to tax high power consuming desktops. What is the effect on society if a desktop over 300 watts was taxed?
