eco-friendly pc by PC World

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coconut
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eco-friendly pc by PC World

Post by coconut » Wed Jul 18, 2007 6:02 am

An interesting news item in today's Independent (UK). It appears that PC World has announced an eco-friendly PC to hit the stores in October. You cannot see the photos in the the digital version of the article but the keyboard, mouse and monitor will be finished in wood. Also, the pc will be fanless :D Unfortunately, there is no info at all about processor type, motherboard, etc.

http://news.independent.co.uk/sci_tech/ ... 780174.ece

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Wed Jul 18, 2007 6:10 am

very interesting. thanks for the link. fanless, low power, SFF...it's like they're reading my mind! CPU probably VIA or AMD, the Intel ULV chips probably too expensive at this price point.

AuraAllan
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Post by AuraAllan » Wed Jul 18, 2007 6:22 am

Very good news. Thanks for the link.
Low power, small, fanless, carbon-neutral and wooden. Hooray Image

qviri
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Post by qviri » Wed Jul 18, 2007 6:50 am

the article wrote:The whole system runs on 40 watts – normal tower PCs use up to 300 watts.
Right... Try 60 watts for an average consumer system these days.

(Well, unless that includes the screen. Then 90 watts.)

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Wed Jul 18, 2007 7:48 am

Right... Try 60 watts for an average consumer system these days.
yeah...at idle. considering the tdp of most current CPUs is in the 60W area, full load is going to be ~100W, assuming onboard GFX and a 3.5" HDD. yes, for SPCRers it's not difficult to build a system that draws a similar amount, but the unique thing with this is that it uses 40W max in stock form (at least I think that's what is meant).

scdr
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Post by scdr » Wed Aug 15, 2007 11:32 pm

PC might be interesting, but the article seems a bit poorly researched.

Aluminum takes considerably more energy to produce than steel - so touting the use of aluminum smacks of greenwashing.
(May be they use it for combo case/heatsink - which might make sense
because of thermal properties, not necessarily for environmental reasons.)

It is certainly not the first mass market PC to use wood parts.
http://oldcomputers.net/sol-20.html
http://oldcomputers.net/northstar-horizon.html
(Well maybe it is the first one in the UK.)
Wood is also not highly recyclable
(usually can't turn it back into another one of the same item.)

Kind of ironic that they talk about the problems of phantom power, then
tout the external power brick on this new machine. (Unless it is designed differently than most of the external power bricks around it will just
add to the standby/transformer power problem.)

jaganath
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Post by jaganath » Thu Aug 16, 2007 3:44 am

Aluminum takes considerably more energy to produce than steel - so touting the use of aluminum smacks of greenwashing.
recycled Al takes less than steel; the new iMac is made of recyc Al, so it's definitely not greenwashing. aluminum is such a great structural material, it's not wise to be too down on it. if all passenger cars were made of recycled aluminum fuel efficiency would probably improve 50% overnight.

scdr
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Post by scdr » Sat Aug 18, 2007 11:06 pm

Interesting - so if you take the initial production plus recycling energy into account, which comes out ahead (steel or aluminum)? (And losses in recycling, limitation on cycles, etc.)

Certainly for things that will be transported a lot, aluminum's lighter weight makes sense. But most PCs (as compared to laptops) probably spend most of their lives relatively stationary.

mb2
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Post by mb2 » Sun Aug 19, 2007 2:52 am

jaganath wrote:very interesting. thanks for the link. fanless, low power, SFF...it's like they're reading my mind! CPU probably VIA or AMD, the Intel ULV chips probably too expensive at this price point.
i would think of celeron M? I can't see them using that 9w sempron- 1ghz would scare too many people off with its low speed (and the fact they are not used to low-speed k8s).. a geode or something is surely pretty much out of the question (it says it uses 40W, not 14) and a c7 would be less powerful and less familiar than a celeron M. getting cheap motherboards shouldn't be a problem for someone doing PC world's volume.
PC World, claim [it] is the UK's first truly carbon-neutral mass-market PC
now, i don't really get how any PC can be considered carbon-neutral. or pretty much any of the activities which are endlessly reffered to as carbon-neutral.
PC World also intends to offset the carbon emitted in the production and delivery of the machines, and plans to offset some of its customers' carbon emissions by giving them an energy-saving light bulb or two.
hahaha, because everyone considering a carbon neutral, low-power PC wouldn't already have considered getting low energy light bulbs :roll: they could have atleast done the 'plant some trees' thing. "yes sir, or you could just buy this nice presscott pc, we'll give you this house full of energy-saving lightbulbs. and it will even lower your heating bills."
there are no instruction manuals - everything has been put on CD
amen. i wish they would make them a free option with *everything*. I'm sure there are a huge number of people who would be quite happy getting them off the internet. (which i personally prefer anyway due to lack of bulk)
The screen, mouse and keyboard casing are made from sustainable [wood] felled in Africa, Germany and the US.
er not so E.F. to ship loads of wood from africa or the US is it?.

i want to see an LED backlit display too, aint gonna happen though. ultimately, whilst its a long way from perfect, u can't knock them as no one else is doing it better..

rpsgc
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Post by rpsgc » Sun Aug 19, 2007 3:26 am

Maybe they're using this Intel mini-ITX board?

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