Linda posted on July 30, 2009 11:35
In the current economic climate, most of us are not looking to spend any money. But is it possible that you could actually save money by purchasing new PC's for you and your staff?
Well, probably not in the first few months, but over time you most certainly can save some money.
There has been a lot of emphasis lately on building PC's that are more energy efficient. You want your staff to be working when they are in your office, so much of the maintenance of their PC's has been set up to happen nights and weekends. While this does allow your staff to be more productive, it also means that the machines are likely on all of the time so that patching, virus scans and disk defragments can run when the machines are not in use.
So what should you be looking for if you decide to upgrade PC's in your office? Here are just a few tips to help you make the best purchase decision.
If you are buying from a major manufacturer, make sure the machine you purchase is EPEAT certified. This is your assurance that the machine is energy efficient and that it has been manufactured efficiently and without harmful materials. You can find out about EPEAT certification and find out which models are certified at www.epeat.net.
If you want to buy from a local system builder, like KI Technology Group, you can still have a machine configured that is energy efficient. Here are just a few of the questions you should be asking to make sure you get the most efficient PC possible.
- What is the most efficient processor for my proposed use of the system? If you are just interested in email and internet browsing, consider the Intel Atom processor, which is available for both notebooks and desktops and uses only 2.5 watts for the mobile version and 8 watts for the desktop version. For more demanding users, consider a faster dual core processor instead of the quad core you have had your eye on. Quad core processors will require more energy than dual core processors, and all but the most demanding users can make up for the processor difference by adding more memory. Any performance differences would be unnoticeable to the average user.
- Make sure that the power supply in your system is 80 PLUS certified. This indicates that the power supply is at least 80 percent efficient; some of the certified power supplies are over 90 percent efficient. I have tested some of these power supplies and just this one change can yield significant savings over time.
- Don't forget to pay attention to the hard drive. Western Digital now has a GreenPower Technology line that claims an average power savings per drive of 4 to 5 watts over competitors' drives. As a point of reference, standard 1TB drives use about 13.5 watts, so a 4 watt savings is significant. Western Digitial estimates that data intensive organizations can save up to $10 per year per drive in electricity costs. That may not sound like a lot of money, but multiplied by the number of machines and their expected life expectancy, it can add up for larger organizations. And the drives are not significantly more expensive than standard drives.
- If you really want to save power, and you have a data intensive operation, you could consider solid state drives. This is one power savings that is not inexpensive however, so I would not recommend it to the average user. As prices of solid state drives drop though, this recommendation may change.
So before you reject the notion of new PC's completely, you might want to look at what you might be able to save and consider the productivity gains you might realize. If your staff waits for files to open, a new system would likely cut the wait considerably. You could have more productive, happier staff members and be saving money on your electric bill!