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Build an Environmentally-Friendly PC
ThinSkin writes "While gas-guzzling cars are greatly to blame for releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, computers play their role in warming up the Earth too. ExtremeTech has an informative how-to article on building a green PC that will not only help save the planet, but will also slim down that energy bill. An important component, or culprit, to consider is the power supply, so investing in an 80 PLUS PSU is a step in the right direction. The article also discusses how to configure Windows Vista to utilize its power-saving options."
1. The monitor uses a lot of energy, so a laptop is better as it uses a flatscreen panel - or a PC with a flat LCD panel.
2. The power supply on most PCs is designed for a full draw, so it is far better to get a laptop which has a power supply for a smaller draw than a giant 300W PC power supply.
3. Memory is cheaper than CPU, so it is far more efficient to buy a PC with a decent AMD chip that has low power consumption and then cram it full of as much RAM as it can address, than it is to buy an Intel quad core chip you don't really use with minimal RAM. And remember your graphics card has it's own power draw. Basically, RAM is usually 1000 times faster than a hard drive, and can be used for swap files, and to speed processes, so cram it more full of RAM if you want to extend the life of your system and avoid power-intensive disk access. Consider a flash USB drive as well - very low consumption. And use rechargeable batteries for your optical cordless mouse and other devices - ignore the warnings, they work fine.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Several times he said something like, "It's lead free and RoHS so you can throw it away guilt-free!" That's just not true!
RoHS does not equal guilt-free trashing. It attempts to equal a full cycle approach.
RoHS stuff is low lead, true, BUT it is marked with a little trashcan that has a line through it. That icon is telling you DO NOT THROW THIS IN THE TRASH. Have it properly disposed of or return it to the manufacturer. While it contains no lead, it may contain OTHER hazardous materials (eat some no-lead resistors and a slice of PCB, tell me how that makes you feel). It needs to be reclaimed, and NOT end up in a landfill. That's what RoHS is ALSO about.
I'm not a super greenie (I *am* wearing a green shirt) but even I know that trash is a part of the green picture. He had a shred of info about low power and efficient power supplies, but green does not equal guilt-free trashing. Ever.
I'm thinking about it, therefore I might be.
Via Technologies, Inc. is shipping a new processor and starting a "Clean Computing Initiative" aimed at offsetting the chip's environmental cost. They claim it is the worlds first "carbon-free" CPU.
Space and Computers.
As of 2005, the energy cost of manufacturing a car is 3 MWh (0.6 tons of CO2 equivalent), partially thanks to the fact that many parts of a car are recycled. Your mileage my vary, but that is equivalent to burning about 300 liters of gasoline. Replacing a gas-guzzling SUV (12 liters per 100 km) by a compact (6 liters per 100 km) will pay back in just 5000 km, energy-wise.
Another site says that 94% of the CO2 emissions of a car are related to fuel production and consumption.
Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
Energy uses of Macs:
h tml
iMac(17-inch): 180W (56W idle)
iMac(24-inch): 220W (120W idle)
Mac mini: 110W (21W idle)
Macbook Pro (17-inch): 85W (26W idle)
According to Apple's specs: http://www.apple.com/environment/resources/specs.
Who needs stories when you have obvious defects and intentional crippling of the operating system, taking control out of the administrator's hands for the sake of microsoft's business partners. None of the customers wanted their audio and video quality to be degraded unless the met certain requirements and the system was working perfectly, so who was that added for?c ost.html
On the off chance that you're not trolling for the sake of trolling and are legitimately ignorant, read this and try to point out just what is "made up". http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/pubs/vista_
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
FYI, conventional non RoHS solder, used in optical drive PCBs and PSUs does contain lead, and RoHS isnt just about lead
not to say this guy isnt a retard, i mean a power efficient PC with a top of the range cpu? sure core 2 duo is far better then pentium D, but thats like saying a school bus is a good racing vehicle because its better then a dump truck