Advent Eco PC dials down your power meter

PC World has branched out its Advent brand, offering the Eco PC through its UK online store, aiming to best the average desktop power consumption by 78 percent. The system is priced at just under what you might expect to pay for a slightly dusty super computer -- £599.99 (or about $1100) -- but the specs don't quite match up: 1.5GHz Core 2 Duo T5250 CPU, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, 802.11b/g, and Vista Home Premium onboard. The environmentally-friendly PC is made from recycled materials, so don't be surprised if it starts to reek of old banana peels after a while.

[avester @ Sep 20th 2008 10:14AM]

£599 = $599, gotta love them taxes.

[thatrotierkid @ Sep 20th 2008 10:19AM]

that statement makes no sense. taxes dont reduce the cost in USD.

also, stephanie, could you maybe be a little more open minded about eco-friendly products. your last comment makes you look extremely naive and uneducated.

[Flashpoint @ Sep 20th 2008 10:56AM]

That's WAY TOO MUCH for this.

You could buy an HP DV series Laptop for $700 with a Core 2Duo, 3GB Ram Nvidia chipset and built in n-wifi and then connect it to a monitor.

[giuliop @ Sep 20th 2008 11:44AM]

@thatrotierkid

I agree. When I saw the first posts by Stephanie I thought something was changing at Engadget: it's the first time I see a girl, and all the more, she doesn't have the attitude.
But this post is a quite a letdown: making jokes for the sake of it and a dumb kind-of-irony is typical of Engadget. Stephanie, please, don't fall for it.

[avester @ Sep 20th 2008 1:07PM]

@thatrotierkid, no they don't, but the lack of it does.

[thatrotierkid @ Sep 20th 2008 1:51PM]

check your math. 599 pounds = $1,098.74

[avester @ Sep 20th 2008 2:47PM]

I know how the math works, I was just pointing out that in europe, hardware gets so overpriced due to the taxes, so that we have to pay 100£ for a product that costs $100.


Am I using the wrong words or something?

[thatrotierkid @ Sep 20th 2008 3:48PM]

i understand what you mean about the taxes being high now, but still the cost of the product is $1100 USD, not $599 USD, which is why your first comment made no sense. if you had said 599£ + 500£ in taxes = $1100 USD it would have made more sense.

[Dopefish @ Sep 21st 2008 2:50PM]

My GOD!

He's not talking about if you imported it he's talking about if it was sold in the US it would more like $599.

Exaggeration maybe, but not far off:

[finnith @ Sep 21st 2008 10:32PM]

./agree with Dopefish

Yes, I believe he's talking about stuff like the VAT that usually factors into products sold in Europe.

[whowhatme @ Sep 20th 2008 10:17AM]

If you use this computer for 5 years, the energy savings pay for itself!

[telepheedian @ Sep 20th 2008 10:22AM]

By the end of the 5 years, you'll be incredibly frustrated because the specs won't be near enough to stay current by then.

[avester @ Sep 20th 2008 10:35AM]

Shuttle K45 barebone is 100$, and it draws around 50-100Watts (Has 100W PSU) with E2180 and 2gb of RAM.

Of course you need to get the other parts separately, but it is going to be a lot cheaper.

[allislost @ Sep 20th 2008 11:09AM]

I'd hate to be the guy/girl that gets the one made from recycled baby-diapers

[1Adam12 @ Sep 20th 2008 11:25AM]

Why do I have to pay more for something that's been recycled? Ah, because eco-friendly is in style.

[happy_penguin @ Sep 20th 2008 2:41PM]

Because recycling costs more than just sending it to a dump in China.

[Mr.Ironic @ Sep 20th 2008 4:06PM]

And one day they'll be sending it back to you.

[arkady @ Sep 20th 2008 11:34AM]

Also despite it being nearly a year late (it was in last years Christmas magazine) they still managed to ship it with foreign keyboards....

[Wolfticket @ Sep 20th 2008 11:43AM]

I don't see any reason for it to be that expensive, except maybe to take advantage of stupid but rich upper-middle class eco freaks.
It's actually quite a lot more expensive than an equivalent spec laptop also sold by PC World.

[Chris @ Sep 20th 2008 11:46AM]

It already does reek, the Dell Studio hybrid is a way better deal and I can't imagine that it consumes that much more power.

[Jason Litka @ Sep 22nd 2008 1:10PM]

The Dell looks a lot nicer as well. This thing looks like a $19 UPS.

[marc @ Sep 20th 2008 11:53AM]

no, no, no. that banana peel smell is just the built in Mr. Fusion. How do you think they keep power consumption so low?

[mattclarkie @ Sep 20th 2008 12:07PM]

Eco Friendly = Out of Date product sold at huge profit.

[ethana2 @ Sep 20th 2008 12:30PM]

PowerTOP version 1.9 (C) 2007 Intel Corporation

Cn Avg residency P-states (frequencies)
C0 (cpu running) ( 5.1%) 2.21 Ghz 4.2%
C1 0.0ms ( 0.0%) 2.21 Ghz 0.0%
C2 0.3ms ( 0.1%) 1.60 Ghz 0.0%
C3 3.3ms (94.7%) 800 Mhz 95.8%

Efficiency starts with hardware, but it ends with software.

[joeroddis @ Sep 20th 2008 5:04PM]

I work at PC World, the cutomers first question is always some where along the lines of 'why should i pay £600 for this machine when i can get one a lot more powerful for the same price'.

I'm not complaining about these eco friendly products as such, they are just a little too pricey for the average consumer who wants as much bang for buck.

[expecto @ Sep 21st 2008 9:28AM]

I guess the point is that it's not meant to be super powerful and offer incredible bang for buck as it's designed not to consume a huge amount of power.

Its for more 'energy-conscious' consumers I expect.