Last Upgrade or do I chuck it and start over?

I have been thinking that maybe I should think about a greener PC to save on the ever climbing power bills I have. I read somewhere the PC is the biggest waste of power in a home. ~~Is this a false statement?~~

As you can see from my sig- It is a Dell Dimension 4100 with the original Dell Power supply. I use Linux, and so the box is not a drain for what I do on the web. I am not a gamer, I simply view webpages, and could care less if they play music or not.

Is it even worth considering putting the Dell parts in a new barebones green box, or do I salvage the DVD drives, Hard drives, GeForce Nvidia card and throw that in a greener PC?

 

I haven't seen any "barebones green box" yet, so I'm not sure exactly what you mean by that. Are we basically talking about a computer that's a lower powered system, one that could run on a smaller PSU than what's in your Dell Dimension 4100?

Where does the energy savings occur here?

From a common sense standpoint, I think some other points affecting power consumption should be considered first. Do you shutdown your system at night? Are you using power saving features such as standby, hiberation, and monitor off after a certain length of inactivity? Are you using a CRT monitor? They consume more power than LCD monitors.

 

A PC does not use that much power, look at other things that consume more power, heating/cooling, hot water use, refrigerator/freezer temps, tube TV's that have instant on, do you use compact fluorescent bulbs instead of incandescent etc. You will not save anything by using a 'green' case. Do as usafveteran suggested, you have all the tools needed already built in. BTW, there is a longish thread here somewhere where we discussed all this, maybe a month ago.

 

I have replaced about all the bulbs with Fluorescent. I do have 20 inch CRT's and they are destined to become Flat Screen.

If I could run less of a PSU, I am open to suggestions. I doubt if the Dell components would work on a smaller PSU. I did a search Augiedoggie, and did not see the other thread.

Thanks for the replies.

 

A PSU with a high efficinecy rating might help a bit. I normally have 3 desktops and one laptop folding (running at %100 24/7) at my house. My power bill is usually around $100 a month. Closer to $200 when it is really hot or cold. Place is not insulated very well.

So in my experience, the PC's do not take much power.

E

 

Speaking from what I learned in the year I did customer support for a large power company: Yes. That is utterly false. If you really want to save power, stop using your oven.