Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Going Green with your Laptops and Notebooks



How much do you find yourself concerned towards the environmental issues like global warming and the CO2 contribution in today’s environmental constraints?

With making one small change with your computing habit you can contribute and help the environmental concerns, but how? Just by going green, building a green PC to be a part of the global warming solution you can contribute on your part choose notebooks computers that are environment friendly and long on charge.

The "green laptops" have taken the idea of an environmentally friendly notebook computer even further. They are smaller than other notebooks, last longer on a charge, and comply with most environmental regulations. This ultra portable, small footprint, lighter weight notebooks are inherently "greener" than heavier, larger footprint products for a few reasons: They are designed to deliver the desired performance while consuming fewer materials for manufacturing and less energy for shipment and distribution. Packaging requirements are also reduced, saving materials and energy. Laptops don't use as much power as a desktop, mostly because the processor is only drawing about 35W or less, compared to about 65W or more for a desktop CPU. The added benefit is that your electrical bill won't be as high either.


Some of the new laptops in the market which really stand by the Go Green standards are


Lenovo's Thinkpad X300 :- It is the company's first Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Gold certified notebook. It is among one of the initiative by Lenovo in this direction as going by the records only 15 notebooks have achieved this rating to date.


The X300 uses mercury free LEDs to illuminate its display. This saves energy, and allows for a thinner display. It uses a solid state drive, which is much lighter, more reliable and faster than a conventional hard drive. It also contains a low voltage processor and has improved "battery stretch" software for energy savings. It meets the Energy Star 4.0 criteria and is 25% more efficient than Lenovo's previous generation notebooks. The packaging materials for the X300 are 90% recyclable and the use of toxic materials such as cadmium, lead, and arsenic have been reduced.


Apple has came a long way with its vision for green pc with its MacBook Air. The MacBook Air has a mercury and arsenic free display. MacBook Air has a aluminum case and as aluminum is easily recyclable and highly desirable by recyclers. All the circuit boards are bromide and PVC free in MacBook Air qualifying a Silver EPEAT rating. It's also Energy Star 4.0 certified.


Green Computing Is Here To Stay


Go green is now not only the buzz word the world has taken the things in stride and making it quite clear that Green Computing Is Here To Stay. With time the next generation Laptops will get more efficient, smaller, and safer for the planet. EPA estimates that in the next five years purchases of EPEAT registered computers could reduce hazardous waste by 4 million pounds and save enough energy to power two million homes. So, Is your computer going green
?
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Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Building a green PC to be a part of the global warming solution


The global warming today has taken the word on plunge it is caused by emissions of carbon dioxide, which absorbs heat and did not let it to escape in the atmosphere. The major contributor to these are cars, factories and power plants which do most of the damage, the computer is at least partially to blame.

A computer uses 200 to 400 watts of power supply, depending on its configuration and usage. By comparison, where as a refrigerator uses about 725 watts, but a DVD player uses only 25 watts, and your TV is right around 100 watts. A high-performance gaming rig with a powerful graphics card, multiple hard drives and optical drives, a flash memory reader, and a 30-inch LCD might consume as much as 750 watts! Leave such a swine running constantly and you might see an extra $40 to $50 on your monthly electrical bill. Jesus.

Still the consumption on the end of a PC is only part of the concerned problem. The manufacturing procedure for computer parts also has a consequence. The typical computer these days contains significant amounts of lead, which is used in soldering motherboards, processors, and other parts. Since the average lifespan of a PC is just three years—according to the EPA—the toxic effects of disposal are quite high.


But it is not that we are right there with only the concern to the global warming measures are being taken in Europe, set of laws for lead-free computing such as RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) and WEEE (Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment), are designed to trim down the effects of hazardous waste. Yet many U.S. PC makers have all but ignored the problem.


That's where you can help. Building a green PC means you can be branch of the solution by using all lead-free parts that are also more energy-efficient.

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