How green is your PC?

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We discuss when gamers will destroy the planet

Some PC component and peripheral creators are making moves to shrink their carbon footprint. Creating a 24kg PC with a monitor requires at least 240kg of fossil fuels to provide the energy. Add water and chemicals, and your friendly neighborhood desktop has consumed the weight of a car in resources before it even leaves the factory. While this state of affairs is mostly ignored, a few tentative steps are being taken in some quarters. A Swedish company called Swedx sell wooden mice, keyboards and displays, all sourced from ecologically managed forests in China. Local Cooling is free downloadable software that optimizes a PC’s power savings, and Dell has announced two new “green” servers that have been tweaked for performance per watt.

Gamers can also green their PCs by buying energy-saving components, but the information is often misleading. Wand points out: “Almost all PCs now come with ‘Energy Star’ stickers, but the requirements for being considered green and part of the program haven’t changed since 1992.”