Home-built or Energy Star computer?

[blackhead]

I have a 9 year old AMD 300 computer running Windows 98 that I am in
the process of replacng mainly because the components are power
hungry. Otherwise it's fine for running business applications,
browsing the internet and viewing YouTube with.
So what would you guys recommend as the components necessary for a
computer that is energy efficient as possible? Do you know any makes
from Dell etc that are recommended? I am open to laptops and have less
than $1000 to spend.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Ed Cregger]

I have a 9 year old AMD 300 computer running Windows 98 that I am in
the process of replacng mainly because the components are power
hungry. Otherwise it's fine for running business applications,
browsing the internet and viewing YouTube with.
So what would you guys recommend as the components necessary for a
computer that is energy efficient as possible? Do you know any makes
from Dell etc that are recommended? I am open to laptops and have less
than $1000 to spend.

Thanks for your time.

--------------


Some laptops are sold as being very green. I would look for those, were
I you.

Frankly, it is going to take a lot more energy to build and transport
your new green computer than you would ever have come close to using
with your old computer. Something to think about.


Ed Cregger

 

[Ed Cregger]

I have a 9 year old AMD 300 computer running Windows 98 that I am in
the process of replacng mainly because the components are power
hungry. Otherwise it's fine for running business applications,
browsing the internet and viewing YouTube with.
So what would you guys recommend as the components necessary for a
computer that is energy efficient as possible? Do you know any makes
from Dell etc that are recommended? I am open to laptops and have less
than $1000 to spend.

Thanks for your time.

--------------


Some laptops are sold as being very green. I would look for those, were
I you.

Frankly, it is going to take a lot more energy to build and transport
your new green computer than you would ever have come close to using
with your old computer. Something to think about.


Ed Cregger

 

[Paul]

I have a 9 year old AMD 300 computer running Windows 98 that I am in
the process of replacng mainly because the components are power
hungry. Otherwise it's fine for running business applications,
browsing the internet and viewing YouTube with.
So what would you guys recommend as the components necessary for a
computer that is energy efficient as possible? Do you know any makes
from Dell etc that are recommended? I am open to laptops and have less
than $1000 to spend.

Thanks for your time.

Everex TC2502 Green gPC w/ Via C7-D Processor (Linux)
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7754614

Everex Impact GC3502 Desktop PC w/ Via C7-D Processor
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7754613

The GC3502 comes with 1GB of memory, but with memory at $25
per 1GB, you can upgrade to the maximum of 2GB pretty easily.

http://www.everex.com/gc3502/index.htm

The C7-D draws 20W or less, but clocks at 1.5GHz, and compared
to a Pentium, might give "less than 1.5GHz" performance.

http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/processors/c7-d/

If you want to build your own, a good building block, is
a Conroe-L. It is a 35W processor and is a single core.
I picked the fastest I could find, which is 2GHz (equivalent
to a 3GHz P4 roughly, but without Hyperthreading). There is
supposed to be one speed grade higher than this, but I couldn't
find it for sale.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819116038
http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SL9XL

For a motherboard, find a design which does not have a very
big heatsink on the Northbridge. That tells you the expected
power dissipation is not very high. This board only has room
for a single DDR2 stick of RAM, so you'd spend the extra money
to get a 2GB stick and fill it out. (There are two RAM slots, but
you can only use one of them at a time.) This has integrated graphics,
so you don't even need a graphics card to get started.

MSI P4M900-X LGA 775 VIA P4M900 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130134
http://images10.newegg.com/NeweggImage/productimage/13-130-134-05.jpg

On the MSI site, the MS-7364 internal model number, seems to take me
to the PM9M-V, and it looks visually similar. It could be just a
model number different for North America. The board is slightly
smaller than microATX. There is only one PCI slot, so you cannot
(easily) upgrade the graphics. But it should be very good on
power consumption.

http://global.msi.com.tw/index.php?...rod_no=1219&maincat_no=1&cat2_no=170&cat3_no=

HTH,
Paul

 

[Jmod]

--------------

Some laptops are sold as being very green. I would look for those, were
I you.

Frankly, it is going to take a lot more energy to build and transport
your new green computer than you would ever have come close to using
with your old computer. Something to think about.

Ed Cregger

that makes no sense ED.

 

[Dave]

I have a 9 year old AMD 300 computer running Windows 98 that I am in
the process of replacng mainly because the components are power
hungry. Otherwise it's fine for running business applications,
browsing the internet and viewing YouTube with.
So what would you guys recommend as the components necessary for a
computer that is energy efficient as possible? Do you know any makes
from Dell etc that are recommended? I am open to laptops and have less
than $1000 to spend.

Thanks for your time.

Generally, you should AVOID buying a laptop for any computer that does not
NEED to be portable. With technology being out-dated in less than two
years, even a cheap laptop today will be expensive in the long run, due to
the fact that you need to replace the whole darn computer just to upgrade!!!

However, if you are content to use the same computer for 9 years and want
energy efficiency, then a laptop might be the way to go. If you do buy a
laptop, get a well-known name-brand, and an extended warranty. Repairs on a
laptop can be ultra-expensive, and it's not something you can do yourself,
so make sure that your warranty will cover your laptop for a minimum of
about four years.

Other than saying "buy name brand", and "buy extended warranty", it would be
a waste of time to try to recommend a particular laptop. Just about any
laptop sold today will be extremely energy efficient and more than capable
of handling what you want to do with it.

If you want to go the desktop route, you can build a very energy-efficient
model yourself. HOWEVER, any "desktop" machine you build today WILL use
more power than the machine it is replacing. That is unavoidable. Any
current microprocessor will likely draw more power (all by itself) than the
power supply of your 9-year-old computer can produce. That means that
your -current- power supply would be overloaded just trying to power the new
CPU, and no power would be left for mainboard or video card or hard drive or
....

Of course, you could always go mini-itx build with a via(cyrix) processor,
but if you're going that route, might as well just buy a laptop.

If you want to stick with intel or amd, and build as energy-efficient as
possible, try the following:
SeaSonic S12 Energy Plus SS-550HT power supply
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817151027
The power supply, more than any other component, will affect how energy
efficient your system is. Note that this one is up to 88% efficient, which
is awesome. It's also a good name-brand, and plenty powerful to handle any
current low to mid-range desktop build.
To that, add an all-in-one motherboard. You want sound, LAN/ethernet, and
video adapter all built into the motherboard, so that there are fewer
individual components to power. Also, video adapters built into mainboards
are going to be low-power (non-gaming) type video solutions that will be
very energy efficient. For further energy efficiency, try to find a
motherboard WITHOUT a cooling fan installed on it. Fans draw a lot of
power.
You'll still need a cooling fan on the CPU, and at least one case fan. For
these cooling fans, look for "quiet", low RPM fans. If they are running
fast and generating a lot of noise, they are wasting electricity.
For a hard drive, you might want to look at Seagate brand drives, as (from
what I've read anyway), they seem to have some of the more energy efficient
designs.
That's about the best you can do for an energy-efficient desktop, other than
programming the power settings of your OS to shut down the system when not
in use.

Again, anything you build today will use more power than your old system.
No matter how efficient the new system is. Unless you go the laptop
oute. -Dave

 

[Ed Cregger]

that makes no sense ED.

------------


The OP said that he is satisfied with his old computer and how it works. So,
he was going to change out to a newer computer to save energy and be
greener.

I said that he would not consume less total energy by going to a newer
computer, even if it used considerably less energy because of the amount of
energy needed to make the new computer (energy used during manufacture),
plus the energy required to get it here, will most likely be considerably
more energy (in toto) consumed than the energy consumed by the already
existing computer, even though the existing computer is an energy hog.

Ed Cregger