Very PC's Bonsai system is 'the greenest'

[HEXUS]

Sheffield-based Very PC is readying to launch what it describes as its greenest PC to date - the Bonsai - and claiming that it will be the greenest in the entire PC marketplace!

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[unrealrocks]

Quite cool although doesn't say anything about the energy required to buid the thing! Or recycle value

[Chimaera_5]

It's an admirable piece of work but i really don't think that the average PC user cares about power consumption, most system builders put together a machine for performance, be it either a gaming, video editing or home theatre machine.

I can't see many people buying a PC purely because its eco friendly, i'd rather just satisfy the guilt by recycling a few coke cans.

[[GSV]Trig]

Eco places like them dome things in cornwall (forgot the name) would be interested tho as they could run demo's n stuff on them

[verypc]

On the topic of Manufacturing & Shipping Energy:
Yes the manufacturing energy of a PC is significant, which is why we make our GreenPC's fast, so they are a viable solution with a full lifetime.
Also, we make the PC out of small form factor components, minimising material used and shipping energy.

As for who would want such a PC
A responsible individual, who was environmentally ethical,
Someone who wants smaller electricity bills,
Businesses could save 10's of Thousands of Pounds in electricity.
Businesses like M&S, they like to be Green. Maybe they will buy some?

[vrykyl]

Pffft, my cpu uses more energy than that whole pc....I wouldnt mind cutting my energy useage....but im not prepared to sacrifice gaming power

[StoX]

respect

I'm environmentally conscience, but my PC is outside of this eco box
(A PC generally doesn't use that much electricity anyway: perhaps the government (world) should be promoting cleaner energy sources properly, reducing coal power plants etc...)

Another note - why not just buy a laptop, modern lappys have low power consumption (remember they include everything inc Monitor) anyway...

[charleski]

(A PC generally doesn't use that much electricity anyway

I'll have to differ there. A reasonably-loaded desktop and monitor will draw over 300W on idle. So that's 2.4KWh for an 8hr working day (assuming that your workers power the machine down when they leave, or that your IT has configured it to hibernate properly). Now multiply that by 100 for a medium-sized business and you're using a lot of power over a day.

Of course a really green PC would run by fermenting compost and sewage

[Ray Chung]

It will depend on the situation of the purchaser. For example universities need only purchase the base unit and leave their monitors alone.

[verypc]

I'll have to differ there. A reasonably-loaded desktop and monitor will draw over 300W on idle. So that's 2.4KWh for an 8hr working day (assuming that your workers power the machine down when they leave, or that your IT has configured it to hibernate properly). Now multiply that by 100 for a medium-sized business and you're using a lot of power over a day.

At this rate of consumption, assuming 10p per unit (and 5 days per week), the customer would pay £62.40 per year per PC in electricity. By comparison the GreenPC would cost the same customer £6.24 per year per PC, and assuming they use an energy efficient monitor less than £5 per year for that.

This means a customer (with exampled consumption by charleski) would save over £50 per year in electricity.
Assuming that they have the PC for 5 years thats £250 per PC!

[StoX]

A reasonably-loaded desktop and monitor will draw over 300W on idle. So that's 2.4KWh for an 8hr working day (assuming that your workers power the machine down when they leave, or that your IT has configured it to hibernate properly). Now multiply that by 100 for a medium-sized business and you're using a lot of power over a day.

There's a good link here which has some info and also shows how you can reduce that figure with your current hardware configuration: http://www.localcooling.com/facts/

A PC powered by a fermentor/ bioreactor would be impressive stuff!

[Chimaera_5]

As for who would want such a PC
A responsible individual, who was environmentally ethical,
Someone who wants smaller electricity bills,
Businesses could save 10's of Thousands of Pounds in electricity.
Businesses like M&S, they like to be Green. Maybe they will buy some?

Nice to see someone following up the story, i really hope the project succeeds.

It would be interesting to see the potential cost savings for an enterprise level company. I assume that your PC would be slightly more expensive than the standard Dell/HP Compaq machines that companies go for, and if so would that price increase be offset by the energy savings? I imagine it's a short term cost, long term benefits system, which could sell to the right people.

[alanwarwic]

not sure where this 300 watts comes from.

My Sempron 2500+ with an added Ati 9000 Pro graphics card averages at 80 watts.
(using a LIDL £7 power meter that on testing is accurate to 2%.
29 watts is good but dont quote 300 watts.

[verypc]

Hi Alan,

The 300 Watts is likely from a Pentium 4 machine (don't ask me I didn't write it), the processor alone would burn 130 Watts plus.

Yep the Sempron is quite efficient, but of course its only got one core, you have to bare in mind that the Bonsai is dual core at 2.1GHz!

Dell has a new 'Green' computer (the optiplex 755) and that unit uses almost twice the base electricity as the Bonsai (47W), boasting only 2.0GHz dual core.

[StoX]

Well it's definitely a step in the right direction; especially if you think of the savings (cost & environmental) if every business, or even every home used one rather than their current PC!!

[charleski]

not sure where this 300 watts comes from.

From Hexus forums:

I've just picked up a cheap plug-in power meter (on special for £6.99 at Aldi this week) and can now see that my particular setup is pulling an average of 305W out of the wall socket when the PC is in a fairly idle state.