Green PC: Greener, Leaner Components

The green PC uses all lead-free components, starting with the Antec Solo case. Made mostly from plastics, this light-as-a-pillow case uses the ATX form factor, but the Intel DG965SS motherboard fits into it just fine. In fact, there's an added benefit to using microATX components in an ATX case: The airflow is just a notch better, letting me set the adjustable-rate case fan on the slowest speed without any worries about the CPU overheating.

I installed a Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 160GB SATA hard drive, for two reasons. First, this single-platter drive uses less energy than a two-platter drive would. And second, SATA uses slightly less energy than IDE. The 7200.10 drive is lead-free, of course, and smaller, so it will leave less hazardous waste when it's thrown out. Next year, both Samsung and Seagate will introduce new drives with more power-saving features, cycling down faster when not in use. They'll be more energy-efficient, too. If you've got the money, upgrade your green PC with a better drive once they are released.

The Sony DRU-830A DVD drive was my top pick for optical storage and playback, mostly because this dual-format burner let me get away with just one optical drive. It consumes a little more energy (just a few watts) than a SATA drive, but you can write both DVD-R and DVD+R discs, as well as CDs, and it's lead-free. For RAM, the system gets two 1GB Crucial DDR2 modules. I debated using just one module, which would use slightly less energy and is certainly possible with the DG965SS motherboard, but decided that would reduce performance too much and make the system less useful.

Finally, I used a trendy Thermaltake Big Typhoon heat sink and fan combo, which looks like a souped-up motorcycle engine. Once again, it's all lead-free, and I wanted to make sure this PC never stuttered or faltered. Also, unlike some Zalman fans I've tried, the Big Typhoon really is whisper-quiet; hence my system should sound as lean as it looks and operates. All told, the box is definitely a bare-bones machine with no fancy memory card ports, no multiple drives for high-end RAID configurations, and no power-plant depleting DX10 graphics cards. But, honestly, it's a PC I'd use for most everyday tasks. And, as we said before, this PC can be easily upgraded at any time to a more powerful configuration.

Source:extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2099782,00.asp