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Powerful PCs to eat less energy

Powerful PCs to eat less energy

Elsa Wenzel

If you're in the market for a new computer, you probably wouldn't mind if it used half as much energy as the old one, making your electric bill less dreadful. Finding a PC that's not so power hungry will get easier late next year, when the Energy Star program updates its specs and demands that desktops brandishing its blue-and-white logo be 80 percent energy efficient. You can already find computers, servers, and power supplies that fit those "80 Plus" standards here.

That's an improvement over desktops that run hot enough to double as footwarmers, though maybe these are just baby steps. Might your new computer, circa 2016, run on solar power? Check out this Worldchanging story predicting that "as Moore's Law marches on and computers commoditize, consumers will become pickier about being green. (This means you!)"