When you build or upgrade your computer you can purchase parts that save energy and help the environment. There are also ways you can save energy on your current computer or computers.
Ways you can go green:
System Standby or Hibernate
Use system standby when not using your computer. Even better you can let your computer hibernate. Standby stores your computer state into memory that requires some power. Hibernate stores your computer state to the hard drive and then cuts power to the computer. Of course you can always power your computer down too.
Turn off your Peripherals
Whenever possible you want to turn off any peripheral when not using them.
This includes things like your printer, monitor, scanner or any other device plugged into your computer. When your devices are in standby they are still drawing power. You can get something like the Smart Strip that monitors your computer's power state and automatically shuts down other peripherals when you turn off your computer. As another option you can plug all your peripherals into the same power strip and switch the power strip off when not in use.
80 PLUS Power Supply
80 PLUS power supplies are energy efficient power supplies. They convert more power into energy which intern produces less heat. Less heat means a quieter power supply because it doesn't have to spin the power supply fan as fast. Reduced heat and lower cooling equal increase computer reliability.
There are four different 80 PLUS power supplies. 80 PLUS, 80 PLUS Bronze, 80 PLUS Silver and 80 PLUS Gold. It goes from efficient to the most efficient.
| Fraction of Rated Load |
20% |
50% |
100% |
| 80 PLUS |
80% |
80% |
80% |
| 80 PLUS Bronze |
82% |
85% |
82% |
| 80 PLUS Silver |
85% |
88% |
85% |
| 80 PLUS Gold |
87% |
90% |
87% |
Green Hard Drives
Green hard drives use less power and produce less heat. This equals less heat buildup in the computer case and parts will last longer. One way some manufactures make the hard drive use less power is have variable rpm. Most desktops have 7200 rpm hard drives that use more power. What the variable hard drive does is spin between 5200 and 7200 rpm depending on the load on the hard drive.
Low Power Processors
If you want to save even more energy when building a new computer or upgrading motherboards, you can go with a 45 watt processor. They don't lack power as they are still dual core processors. These are great in Home Theater PCs and other applications.
Onboard Graphics
Unless your into gaming or some other graphic intense application you don't need a high end, high power consuming graphics card. A gaming graphics card can be the highest consumer of power in a computer. You may be better off just using the onboard graphics processor. Some of today's onboard graphics, like the HD3200 on the 780G motherboards, can handle full 1080P of blu-ray. They can handle some light gaming too.
LCD Monitor
Upgrading from a CRT to a LCD display can be one of the easiest ways to save energy. LCD displays use fluorescent bulbs and some modern ones use LED's to save energy. It's kind of like going from a regular light bulb to an energy efficient fluorescent light. Not only that, but LCD displays come wide screen and in larger sizes than CRTs.
