Power Regulations Cut Off Select Dell PCs from Certain US States (windowscentral.com) 151
Dell is no longer shipping certain PCs to a handful of U.S. states that have tightened their rules and regulations around computer power consumption. From a report: The headline and "what you need to know" box already summarize this, meaning you're 99% caught up on the current situation, but there are a few specific details to go over in the event you live in Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, Washington, California, or Colorado. As reported by The Register, Dell is no longer shipping the Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R10 Gaming Desktop to select states in the U.S. If you attempt to place an order and ship the machines to any of the blacklisted zones, your order will be canceled. In a statement to The Register, Dell clarified the situation. "[...] This was driven by the California Energy Commission (CEC) Tier 2 implementation that defined a mandatory energy efficiency standard for PCs -- including desktops, AIOs and mobile gaming systems. This was put into effect on July 1, 2021. Select configurations of the Alienware Aurora R10 and R12 were the only impacted systems across Dell and Alienware."
And the reason why... (Score:3)
was crowdsourced to the kind readers.
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
California is only hated by conservatives. Its a massive capitalist economy (fifth largest in the world) but has liberal laws and numerous worker protections. California contributes billions to prop up the poor red states.
Re:And the reason why... (Score:5, Insightful)
They don't, these states choose to follow California lead.
California while being the United States Largest Economy is also rather resource scarce and prone to many weather events. So California has a lot of self interest towards strong environmental laws. Other states choose to follow these laws, as to help ease most of the interstate trade to make sure there isn't necessarily a California version which may be more environmentally clean, and their state gets the crappy polluting version.
You are also aware this hate towards California is mostly from Conservative Propaganda because it really eggs them, that the United States of America largest Economy, and largest population, who gets the most electoral vote, is also rather solidly Democrat Voting, at least in state wide elections.
The left also likes to Dig onto Texas too (For the same reasons, just for the other party), however they have been easing off on Texas because it is slowly becoming more blue.
Re:And the reason why... (Score:4, Insightful)
The reality is CA is big market. If they make various product rules, manufactures are likely to follow for the entire America market because for a lot of products the costs simple make all units CA compliant is lower than the costs to make a CA specific version. There are some classes of product where CA compliance made/makes the product demonstrably less competitive where manufacturers would take advantage to gain market share elsewhere. Hence you see "CA" cars from time to time. The CARB compliant version would under perform and been less sporty.
The real issue is other states may not WANT to be de facto subject to CA's vision for product requirements. Simply because they are not as large a market. They either aggressively use legal power to counter it; ie set requirements that more favorable for them AND incompatible with CAs requirements while betting they are not such a small market a manufacturer will chose to not serve them or effectively control is yielded to CA. That is just the reality. Its not a party thing (not always) sometimes its about simple preservation of your own local influence. Sometimes you have to toss a wrench in the works simply to ensure you still have options in the future. Actually most of the smaller states probably don't do nearly enough to counter CAs influence.
Re:And the reason why... (Score:4)
The same goes for Texas. Why do these people never whine and moan that other states are following the lead from Texas when that occurs? Probably because it does not fit into their "liberals are taking over the world" scenarios.
Re: (Score:2)
Of course the same goes for TX, the parent even said as much!
Re: (Score:2)
There's a whole lot of complaining about TX's hold on the textbook market.
TX is a large state and buys the textbooks statewide, so they have a lot of influence in that market compared to places that have more district level control, and liberals do complain about it. The ones that live by the narrative "conservatives are taking over the world" narrative especially.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
So California has a lot of self interest towards strong environmental laws.
If that were true then California would be building nuclear power plants. Nuclear power is safe and low in CO2 emissions.
https://ourworldindata.org/saf... [ourworldindata.org] (Click on chart for a better view.)
When calculating the deaths from nuclear power the numbers are highly influenced by Chernobyl. That is not representative of how nuclear power is done today, and is not representative of how nuclear power was done outside of the Soviet Union in the past. I'm fine with including Chernobyl in the calculations, so long
It doesn't. (Score:2, Interesting)
California leads the Union when it comes to writing standards attempting to prevent climate disaster. Standards are expensive to write, and it's cheaper for other states to adopt the first well-defined standard than to write another one. https://xkcd.com/927/ [xkcd.com] seems appropriate.
Also, Why the fuck would anyone care what some random dude's instragram followers think? A quick perusal of that chart shows the typical neighbourly interstate hatred tropes - VA and WV hate each other, as do TX and OK, TN and KY,
Re: And the reason why... (Score:3)
Because Texas signs one contract for the same textbook across all public schools in TX, presumably your school district lets the teachers pick the schoolbooks.
Thru consolidated buying power, Texas influences the textbook market.
If every school district in your state agreed to use the same textbook, your state could be a player when determining content.
Re: (Score:2)
And given California is the fifth largest economy in the WORLD, California decided to be special and dictate the rules in order to participate in that economy
Re: (Score:2)
Thru consolidated buying power, Texas influences the textbook market.
So there's the answer for Trump One, then: through consolidated buying power, California influences the computer market.
class them as workstations (Score:4, Insightful)
class them as workstations
Re: (Score:2)
Or just have a friend in another state order it, then have him ship it to you.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
When Touring-Complete programmable calculators came out in the late 60's and early 70's, manufacturers were hesitant to call them "computers" and sometimes even "programmable" in ads and brochures; otherwise they'd be subject to export restrictions meant to keep military-related tech from certain countries.
Re: (Score:3)
the can't be right: something that doesn't travel to other countries can hardly be "touring complete" . . . :)
hawk
Re: (Score:2)
class them as workstations
The class is dependent on the components. For that to work they would need to actually sell you better components rather than bottom shelf shit spray painted in a cool looking colour (this is Dell we're talking about).
It's not hard to meet the requirements. We should be thankful that there's one less piece of Dell garbage being sold.
or space heaters (Score:2)
space heater would be a more apt category.
Too bad (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
That would work better (Score:2)
> Why set gas mileage targets when we can just set carbon emission targets?
That would work quite a bit better. We'd have significantly lower emissions if the rules were based on average emissions (gallons) per mile, rather than mileage per gallon as the US does it. Here's why.
Consider the manufacturer sells two cars.
Suppose the corporate average mpg requirement is 25 mpg.
We have two cars, each driven 100 miles by their owners.
One car gets 49 mpg, so the other can get 1 mpg and the average is 25 mpg.
To g
Re: (Score:2)
What if I have solar panels?
Then you should still focus on not wasting electricity for no reason, backfeed the grid, get paid for your efforts, and with your help we can take yet another fossil fuel plant offline.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't think I will.
I make more using my excess generation to mine cryptocurrencies than I would if I sold it back to the grid.
If the power companies paid me dollar-for-dollar what I backfeed then I might stop cryptomining with my excess power. This pennies-on-the-dollar energy credits bullshit they currently do where they might pay me at the end of the year if my overage is enough is not really worthy.
Let me run my own little green energy company off my residential property and I'll cover every square fo
Re:Too bad (Score:4, Insightful)
There's no "we" you nutsack. Whatever I decide is reason enough, you don't decide. I intend to eventually go all-solar off grid, and I'm going to use the electricity for whatever I damn well please and that may include a PC that I leave on all day. When environmentalists start to argue that even going 100% carbon emission free isn't good enough, people will start to see you for what you really are: scolds and harridans.
Re: (Score:2)
At that point you don't buy a substandard Alienware laptop anyway.
Re: (Score:3)
Every watt used adds to global warming. Let's make sure as many of them used are useful and not wasted.
Solar panels are great, but owning them hasn't stopped me searching for ways to reduce my electricity usage. We need to do both. Every watt that I don't use ends up on the grid for someone else to use, and reduces the need for it to be generated by a nuclear/oil/gas generation plant. That will remain true until every watt used is generated sustainably, which unfortunately is unlikely for a long time yet
There's always Microcenter... (Score:2)
Besides, who buys gaming PCs from Dell? If you want a good gaming PC there's no other choice... build it yourself!
Re: (Score:3)
If you live in California (I pity you!), there's always Microcenter.
The only Microcenter in the SF Bay area closed nine years ago. The closest Microcenter is a 6+ hour drive away.
With Fry's gone too, just about the only in person computer parts stores that remain are Central Computers and Best Buy. Central Computers is pretty good, if a little pricey,and Best Buy is more competitive than it used to be, but neither is as good as Microcenter.
Besides, who buys gaming PCs from Dell? If you want a good gaming PC there's no other choice... build it yourself!
The severe parts shortages seem to finally be clearing up, but in the past year the issue has been GPU availability. Usually for anythin
Re: (Score:2)
Gaming laptops are hard to build yourself, though.
Re: (Score:2)
Well-intentioned but idiotic and unworkable (Score:3, Insightful)
There are so many problems with laws such as these (in terms of actually achieving the desired outcome of lower power consumption) that it boggles the mind.
What if you buy the PC components separately?
What if you buy a cheaper PC and upgrade your GPU?
What if you buy your PC in Arizona and drive across the border?
What if you live off the grid with your own solar panels?
What if you're buying this to research protein folding at Stanford or something?
If they want to reduce power consumption, then increase the price of power. This law will achieve nothing.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
This has to do with IDLE power usage not total usage. It is also about using an 80Plus gold power supply or better. It also means turning on sleep mode by default (which the user can turn off). None of the stuff here is onerous in any way at all.
Re: (Score:2)
Don't get too used to that, that will have to change soon. For your own good of course.
servers and workstations are not desktops (Score:2)
servers and workstations are not desktops
Re: (Score:2)
This law will achieve nothing.
Just because the restrictions aren't particularly useful for some discrete edge cases you can think up, doesn't mean that the restrictions won't have some intended effect for the majority of sales in the state. The law appears to primarily be aimed at businesses, and will likely only be assessed on larger-scale imports.
Re: (Score:2)
What if you buy the PC components separately?
Not sure about your PC but in mine individual components meet the requirements.
What if you buy a cheaper PC and upgrade your GPU?
That's allowed. Why wouldn't it be. Read the rules.
What if you buy your PC in Arizona and drive across the border?
Not a problem. Just don't sell your computer.
What if you live off the grid with your own solar panels?
If you live off the grid do what you want, open the windows with the AC on for all anyone cares, you'll just need to drive out of state to buy your PC. Mind you if you are still on the grid I recommend getting a compliant computer. It saves power maximising the energy you sell back to the grid and helps get us one step closer to shutti
Re: (Score:2)
What if you can't find an 80Plus or better power supply?!?!?! Those are so incredibly hard to find!
Oh wait, it actually takes effort to find one that isn't 80Plus or better. Which would comply with the relevant law.
IOW, the vast majority of your questions aren't actually a big deal. This is Dell using shitty power supplies in their high-end models. Better PSUs aren't hard to find, and aren't going to be a large difference in unit cost for these high-end models.
The reason why power costs alone aren't goi
Reminds me of toilet flush rules (Score:5, Interesting)
Politicians shall never decide the solution, but make incentives to solve the problem. I.e. tax water and CO2. Then the market will figure out solutions.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
I can remember from my stays in the US that the toilets didn't flush very well. I later learned there were rules maximum size of the water tank.
Actually the problem is that no one puts any effort into designing to meet regulations. It's a classic case of "rules say X so we'll just make X" rather than thinking if reducing the tank size means we should spend 5 minutes changing the bowl dimensions as well.
This case here is no different. It's not hard to meet the efficacy requirements. What Dell is no longer allowed to sell is literally it's single most garbage tier piece of shit inefficient custom components.
I joked years ago that the shit Dell passes
Re: (Score:3)
snip
I joked years ago that the shit Dell passes off as a "computer" should be illegal, and I'm pleasantly surprised that California is here to help.
GamersNexus has been doing reviews of pre-built gaming machines lately, and the Dell one was referred to as "a warranty with E-waste attached". Partly because they were billed for a warranty they explicitly declined, and partly because the computer sucked so much. A separate review of an Alienware model is labeled "Hilariously Bad Alienware R10 Ryzen PC: $1800 Pre-Built Review" (here [youtube.com]).
Re: (Score:2)
Yep, seen them both, fully agree. Remember how in both reviews they commented on the ugliest part looked like the powersupply, but that they were actually alright? Yeah well that power supply actually meets the CEC Tier 2 requirements as well (80+ Gold).
Just how crappy do your components need to be to actually fail.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, basically the standard American toilet at the time was using 13 gallons to flus
Re: (Score:2)
Great comment.
Two flush options are generally available on toilets in the US, but it amounts to "very little" or "little" water. Just hold down the handle longer for the larger "little" option.
I would very much appreciate the approach you mentioned, but then we wouldn't have a comical episode of a show called King of the Hill where the character goes in search of underground illegal high-flow toilet sellers...
Re: (Score:2)
The UK has low flow toilets too, and they turned out to be an environmental disaster. They leak more water than they save.
It seems to be a market failure. Japanese toilets use less water and flush better because they accelerate the water and swirl it around. But they cost a bit more so people in the UK won't buy them.
Good (Score:2)
I really wish we could go back to the days when game developers cared about gameplay and fun, not just pretty graphics. I have probably over 600 hours in Stardew Valley, which is SNES level graphics at best, but it's fun and was originally created by a single developer on probably a shoestring budget. Unlike plenty of more recent games where aside from looking much prettier, they don't really offer anything new in terms of gameplay over something like Stardew Valley.
I, for one, am tired of nothing but remas
Re: (Score:2)
The real waste is ever-increasing screen resolutions (while sub-par framerates are still common...). High-DPI is nice for text, but there was just no need for the rush to 4K gaming (8 million pixels vs the 2 million pixels of 1080p!)
Re: (Score:2)
128 bytes of RAM and 4k of ROM was good enough for my grandson's grandfather, and it's good enough for me!
oh, wait . . .
Re: (Score:2)
What has your rant got to do with anything? This law doesn't ban high end gaming PCs or pretty graphics. In fact quite the opposite, it would appear that throwing a high end GPU into a PC would now provide it an additional power budget that could make another completely garbage piece of shit actually pass.
Re: (Score:2)
As for high power using laptops, my solution is to attach them to a treadmill. If you need the best graphics then you need to literally run faster. Think of it as an additional realism mode as you become tired and need extra hydration as you parkour across the game world.
THESE MACHINES ARE TOO POWERFUL! (Score:2)
they are idiots if DELL's marketing dept. doesn't run with this.
DELLS to hot for CA (Score:3)
DELLS to hot for CA
Re: (Score:2)
Except they aren't. They are just really inefficient. Actual powerful computers would pass the tests.
Re: (Score:2)
Its not just PCs... UPS units as well (Score:3)
I noticed that some of these states also ban shipments of UPS units with sealed lead-acid batteries. If you want a UPS in vermont, it has to be equipped with the more expensive Lithium Ion batteries.
Idiots.
next mac pro to suck and have way less max ram (Score:2)
next mac pro to suck and have way less max ram
Criteria are complicated (Score:2)
Looking at the criteria, it looks like computers must have efficient components for their class, but not necessarily components that will make your system more energy efficient.
For example a system with a particularly efficient mechanical hard drive may pass while the same system with a SSD may not, even though the SSD uses less power overall. That's because SSDs are expected to use less power and therefore, systems with SSDs have a smaller power budget.
Also these are "desktop computers", not workstations o
Re: (Score:2)
The criteria is complicated but not hard to meet for components. Also it only applies to large companies which can manage complex requirements, and you can bet that this is something an intern could whip up on a spreadsheet.
The focus here is on the bulk suppliers who fill office spaces in corporate America with thousands of computer with horrible garbage tier components.
Those standards were not easy to find (Score:3)
Dead link at the California website, there ought to be a law about that... found this though: https://energycodeace.com/down... [energycodeace.com]
One requirement seems to be a 90% efficient power supply. Gamers Nexus reviewed the Alienware R10: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
The power supply is at 11:46 in the video, is an 80+ gold, which is 87% efficient.
There were more regulations about annual power usage, which were very hard to understand.
Re:Those standards were not easy to find (Score:5, Informative)
No there's no requirement for being 90% efficient. There's a requirement about having a 0.9 powerfactor which is a very different thing. The efficiency requirements from the law (from you own link, just follow the link on the front page of the PDF) actually align with an 80+ gold PSU, and frankly these days most PSUs on the market are 80+ gold anyway. Since that standard originally came out they had to revise it multiple times and add several more tiers as the industry collectively actually got good at designing PSUs.
The law is hard to understand but it focuses almost exclusively on power efficiency and would be met by anyone not assembling a computer from garbage tier components (so I understand why Dell is having problems). Also the law only applies to big volume sellers. Small volume and component sellers only need to meet the default configuration requirements e.g. ship the computer so that windows goes to sleep after 30min of inactivity (which a default install of Windows 10 does anyway).
They are trying to stop office buildings sitting full of computers inefficiently idling away burning power for no reason.
This is pretty asinine (Score:2)
So person A can't have their 1000W (running around 550W at load) PSU computer, even if they only play on it on weekends, but a quicki-mart can cheerfully run a 1500W microwave 24/7 to warm burritos? Or person C a 1000W hairdryer for an entire 8 hour work shift?
Don't these people PAY for power? ..raise the price per unit power ?
Isn't power priced per unit consumed?
Wouldn't a fairer allocation of the actual environmental costs be to simply
At a certain point people have to tell their government to fuck off mi
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This has to do with IDLE power usage and efficiency of components. You just need to use more power efficiency PSU and have the system configured by default to idle and sleep when not under load. Under load the system can use as much power as it needs. The problem is lots of computers are on all the time and they suck down a lot of power which is a real problem because they use a lot of power but provide no value. This is designed to address that issue.
Re: (Score:2)
So person A can't have their 1000W (running around 550W at load) PSU computer,
No they can. It just needs to have an 80Plus or better power supply. It takes some effort to find a power supply that isn't 80Plus or better.
This story is about Dell using shitty components in a "top of the line" computer.
Wouldn't a fairer allocation of the actual environmental costs be to simply ..raise the price per unit power
The marginal cost for an individual running an 80Plus PSU or a piece-of-shit PSU isn't all that large. Thus power cost alone can't provide sufficient incentive unless you reach punitive levels of pricing. Especially since this is a high-end model of computer from a manufacturer who mak
Which Californians does this apply to? (Score:2)
I know some have posted about "how great CA is" for telling people what (certain folks) can and cannot buy. Doesn't sound great to me.
Re: (Score:2)
Just one crappy Alienware laptop that you can't get. It's not really marketed towards the high end market anyway, and if your kids are whining that they need a gaming laptop you can get a better one that's cheaper anyway.
Re: (Score:2)
The requirement that Dell is failing to meet is they need an 80Plus or better power supply in this computer. This isn't a difficult requirement to meet. Dell is just making a piece of shit and pricing it as top-of-the-line.
Those friends and family are probably getting better computers, but that's because these models from Dell are crap.
Does not meet energy spec; also considered junk. (Score:2)
Luckily... (Score:2)
Luckily, no retailers in California are selling KW power supplies or the lates dozen-plus gore CPUs, so Californians can't build their own power-wasting computers, right?
time vs speed (Score:2)
Won't slower computers just take longer to render out content?
Does it make a difference in energy consumption if I'm using 1000W for one hour, or 500W for two?
Re: (Score:2)
Individually? No. At scale? Maybe. That's what demand side management is about. It's often better to spread demand out to avoid high peaks that require either extra capacity be built for only occasional use, brown-outs, or spinning up inefficient/more-polluting sources to satisfy the peaks.
Easily bypassed (Score:2)
And yet, I can still buy... (Score:2)
...a 50A 240V oven (and air conditioner to keep the kitchen cool). That's over 20 times the power as the PC they're complaining about.
I can get as many electric clothes dryers and refrigerators as I want too. There's probably no restriction on grow lights either.
OK, granted, I'm not going to run the ovens more than an hour a day and I could play video games for 12. But point being, a lot of us use a lot more electricity in other home appliances than their gaming rigs.
Re:I don't want to live in a state I can't get Del (Score:5, Informative)
These sound like some pretty junk states. Thanks for the warning about them. Glad I moved away from one of them.
The rules are pretty benign. The problem is likely that these specific models have large power supplies, which causes them to be subject to this set of efficiency rules (here [energycodeace.com]). Desktops with a power supply under 600W aren't subject to these rules.
The actual rules basically say that if you have certain kinds of computers that use a lot of power, you must use an 80Plus Gold (or better) power supply, and the computer must go to sleep (ACPI S3) after 30 minutes. It doesn't say that the user can't change the sleep settings after they get the computer, it just has to ship with power-saving defaults.
There are some listing requirements (similar to being "Energy Star Certified"), but since the law has been in place for 3 years, Dell could easily have registered these models if they wanted to. Unless they're using crap PSUs that aren't even 80Plus Gold.
Re: (Score:2)
Sounds reasonable to me. I see no reason to go into "damn commie hippy regulators!" mode on this.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: I don't want to live in a state I can't get De (Score:2)
Re: I don't want to live in a state I can't get De (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
No, because they have a valid public interest in having certain regulations. "How dare a state insist that I not have a campfire in the middle of a forest during fire season?!?" The issue here is that energy is not free, and that means not free just to the consumer. Conserving electricity is most certainly within the public interest. Now maybe your bar is lower than many others, but I would hope you agree that you should not be able to buy a NEW refrigerator that uses 1GW/hr a year. The question then i
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
I dunno.
I am shocked to hear that a state has become so intrusive into a private citizen's life that they can tell him what computer he can/cannot buy....
Does that not stike you as a level so low as to sound unbelievable at first?
Maybe because I"m older but this seems WAY past levels of acceptable intrusiveness on what I want to buy and use of legal products offered for sale in the US.
You're entitled to feel however you like, but...
At some point, if too many people exercise their constitutional right to do stupid stuff, that right needs to be curtailed. The stupider the stuff, the more important that is.
At some point, too many companies were making baby toys with lead in them, and consumers were buying them, so that had to change.
At some point, too many people were unwilling to wear helmets while riding motorcycles, so that had to change.
Just two examples of serious issues. Regu
Grow Up, Grog (Score:2)
That's misleading. Part of it is requiring default power-saving settings that you as a user can readily override using the OS's interface.
Living in civilization requires compromise: you don't get everything you want, because your behavior can impact others. The cave days have ended[1], grow up.
[1] There are deserted islands where you can make all your own rules and nobody will protest except birds and snakes, w
Re:I don't want to live in a state I can't get Del (Score:4, Interesting)
What's interesting is that it's entirely based on the power supply that the machine ships with. So we'll have a bunch of manufacturers trying to get around it by shipping power supplies that aren't actually powerful enough for the hardware inside. Be prepared to have power supplies even more underspecced than they already were. Even my 7 year old desktop with an AMD APU with 65 w TDP has a 600w power supply. Because it only cost marginally more than a less powerful unit and it enabled future upgrades should I choose to. We just end up with more e-waste instead of actually trying to do something to really make a difference.
Re: (Score:2)
The fact that it's 600W isn't the problem. The fact that it's 600W and not at least 80Plus is.
Really not that hard to get a 600+W power supply that's at least 80Plus. In the build-your-own market, it takes some effort to find one that isn't at least 80Plus.
Re:I don't want to live in a state I can't get Del (Score:5, Interesting)
The thing is: PSUs certified to 80 Plus Gold comprise the largest group available at Newegg. Of those 600W+ PSUs sold directly and currently in stock, 64 do not meet that standard (Plus or Bronze) and 197 meet or exceed it (Gold, Platinum or Titanium). Gold is not exactly a demanding standard today, and on a high power gaming PC should be considered the base.
Economically: The difference in efficiency between Bronze and Gold is 5% for a 115V non-redundant PSU across its operating range. So for 500W of actual consumption, that's 25W. Looking at just Corsair 650W models, the cheapest Bronze (CX650) is $85 and the cheapest Gold (TX650M) is $110. At 22c/KWh electricity cost that $25 difference will take 4500 hours, or about 3 years of 4hr/day usage, to pay itself off. That's not exactly compelling by itself. The choice of Corsair 650W models was arbitrary, but I suspect the math would hold up within a factor of 2 in most comparisons within any given brand and power range.
HIstoricly though, Dell has a good reputation with 80 Plus. They were fairly early adopters of the standard, and were the first to introduce a Titanium certified PSU: https://web.archive.org/web/20... [archive.org]. They are motivated by their commercial customers to achieve good efficiencies, and many of their server PSUs are 80+ Platinum. 25W soon add up when you have rows of 42U racks filled with servers. Every wasted Watt in a data center needs to be removed via chilling too, so it's paid for twice. I know of data centers in Virginia that a few years back were power-constrained by the local grid capacity where every Watt was accounted for.
So this announcement is a little out of left field. I would have thought that Dell would have forced Alienware to get with the program by now - it's been 15 years since the acquisition. Chalk this one up as a reason to not buy Alienware PCs.
Re: (Score:2)
It occurs to me that consumers also pay for heat removal - especially in California. That 3 year payoff becomes 2 when you consider AC costs.
In other news (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Those rolling blackouts, surge pricing on electricity power, polluted air by that nearby coal power plant is so worth dealing with, so you can can a sub par gaming computer.
Re: (Score:3)
None of those things apply to Washington State, where I live. We have no rolling blackouts or polluted air, and we get our power mostly from hydro.
I'm not opposed to conserving power. I think it's fine for things like appliances to have reasonable energy targets, so long as you don't hinder the functionality of the machines (US toilets are a good object lesson here). But this is such a weirdly specific regulation, I don't quite understand the point. As far as I can see, nothing is stopping me from order
Re: (Score:2)
I would argue that toilets are a very good example. Modern low-flush toilets are every bit as good, or perhaps even better, than the older toilets that use far more water. Yes, the first low-flush toilets were not very good, but the manufacturers have stepped up and fixed them.
Re: (Score:2)
As far as I can see, nothing is stopping me from ordering a workstation with whatever specs I want.
It would need an 80Plus or better power supply if it's over 600W....which is really damn easy to find. This is very much on Dell wanting to ship shitty power supplies.
Re: (Score:2)
Where did you move to, Texas or AZ?
Mississippi or West Virginia?
Away from blue states doesn't mean much.
On the various 50 best state lists is it at least in the top 10?
And although this is a state law there are many aspects of Calif. that are more local.
The north-east part of the state is very different than the SW part.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah but I'm happy to live in a state where I can't get Alienware.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)