“Once you get past the obvious, shaving watts becomes more difficult—but we’re hear to help. You can get by with fewer fans since your system runs cooler, and a smaller case means fewer materials and resources used in manufacture—many of which are recyclable. Integrating everything into the motherboard means fewer add-in cards on PCBs, but again, that may only go so far. Not everyone can turn to integrated video, particularly gamers and multimonitor power users, and “ridiculous” comes to mind when one is obsess over the number of fans in a system, as a low-flow/low-noise fan is typically less than 2 watts.If you can get by without a desktop, a $499 laptop today typically has power consumption in line with a low-power PC. Even more economical alternatives such as Asus’s Eee PC are also worth considering, but such choices call for significant compromises in screen size and performance.”
Here are some more Systems articles from around the web:
- Uberclok Reactor Gaming PC Review @ Digital Trends
- Kinky Luxury: Intel Skulltrail Platform @ X-bit Labs
- Building an Affordable “Skulltrail” System @ Techgage
- Apple goes to Harpertown: a review of the new Mac Pro @ Ars Technica
Low carb computing
Ars Technica has put together a green system guide, for those energy conscious PC users out there. They cover a lot of the basics and also offer a pair of systems builds. The first is for the gamer, and while it doesn’t have Crossfire or SLI, it should still be able to handle almost anything you throw at it. The second is a more extreme system built around an EPIA processor, but with a draw of 58.4-97.3W, it certainly won’t add onto your power bill, or your carbon footprint.