Fujitsu Siemens introduces "zero-watt" Esprimo 7935 PC
By Donald Melanson 
posted Mar 1st 2009 10:02PM
posted Mar 1st 2009 10:02PM
Calling it a "zero-watt" PC may be a bit of a stretch, but Fujitsu Siemens is nonetheless breaking a bit of new ground with its new Esprimo 7935 PC, which supposedly consumes no energy at all when it's powered off, as opposed to the one to four watts an average PC consumes unless it's actually unplugged. As you may recall, Fujitsu has already gotten in a bit of practice with its zero-watt monitor, although the PC takes things a bit farther by switching into in a low-power mode for a predetermined time period each day to get its necessary business done, after which it cuts the power off completely. According to Fujitsu, the PC also comes with a power adapter that's 89 percent efficient and, to add a bit more eco-friendly cred, it also conforms to the EPA's new Energy Star 5.0 standard. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any word of the PC's specs just yet, but we're assuming it's yet another variation on Fujitsu's current Esprimo 7935 PC (pictured above), which itself is available in a seemingly endless variety of configurations. Look for the zero-watt model to set you back between €600 and €700 (or $760 to $890) when it launches sometime around the middle of this year.
I don't know why, for the life of me, but that case is nice looking.
I think it looks rather plain.
yeah, im with connor. bleh.
I agree with you. Maybe I'm just glad to have a respite from overdone cases.
That's exactly why it's nice looking. A lot of other cases are far too over the top. Would you prefer something more like this?
http://i42.tinypic.com/htd10l.jpg
I agree on the whole guadiness/simplicity thing, although even for plain cases that's a bit meh. The Antec Sonata is amazing on the whole understated elegance thing. It's what I'm typing on right now (or well, it houses my computer ;)). http://www.antec.com/Believe_it/product.php?id=MjA=
actually Dafrety, thats a fairly popular case. bestseller on newegg for many years. easy to work in, nice features, and cheap as hell.
and they have more than yellow. most people get the black or blue model, where those meters on the front door look nicer.
to each their own. I prefer my MGE (XG) Quantum, but you won't find one anymore.
http://www.mgecompany.com/xg/products_cases_quantum.php
Screen instead of a side window is all the rage for taking care of heat.
it depresses me that hideous case is a bestseller
Agree. Nice aesthetics. I also personally prefer cases from companies like Antec. Form over function.
I personally equate the gaudy, over LEDed, big windowed, plastic chrome, 67 cooling fan monstrosities with the riced rocket Honda Civics a la Fast and the Furious. Lots of questionable bolt ons with zero gain in performance or usefulness.
I don't think Apple systems would be nearly as popular if they left their simple, clean look.
plain and simple is the new cool factor that has embraced many of apple's designed products...
Those are nice cases, it's a shame about that other one being a best seller though(yuck). I built mine inside a Centurion 5. I love the mesh front, and it's just very smooth to me. Maybe I'll get the Sonata III 500 for my next build. If I can ever find time...
Yeah, Esprimo's the business line. Amilo desktop/Scaleo's the new consumer line that's got the same design 'language'.
http://www.fujitsu-siemens.co.uk/home/products/personal_computers/amilo_desktop_p.html
This brings me to the question: How much watt does a reg. standard desktop use when it's powered off / standby (sleep *s3*) ?
My electric bill sky rocketed in both Jan n Feb... like you know traveling at the speed of light.....i'm pretty sure it's the cold weather.. the heater........God I hate that Nationalgrid charges for Supply and Delivery charges... more like saying you pay me to come and visit you....
Grrrr
According to the article, an average desktop uses 1-4 watts when it's turned off. It's probably the same or slightly more when it's in standby.
it's a lot more when its on standby
Actually JohnTitor, that's a myth. Check out this article:
http://www.ecoustics.com/pcw/howto/137328
The system (a power-hungry P4, much worse than today's machine's) used 9W off and 10W standby.
Lol you think a P4 is worse than a quad core? Do some research.
Why on earth do cases and mobos still come with FDDs... I haven't used one since 2002. Just phase it out already. Other than that it is a nice looking design I agree.
Floppy disks have their purposes... Two years ago I had to zero-fill one of the hard drives on a desktop of mine... The software needed to be booted from a floppy disk. So they have uses, just not for the average consumer, and certainly not for storage. But if something goes wrong, they can come in handy.
@Fruition, that's a lame excuse for needing a floppy. You can run that software from bootable CD/DVD/USB.
Right now I can only think of one reason someone would absolutely need a floppy: HDC/RAID drivers. Even then I think most people would integrate the drivers into their installation media...
LET THE FLOPPY DIE
Even drivers don't need floppys anymore. Vista and Windows 7 allow loading drivers from a USB drive.
Why on earth does anything still come with VGA out? http://www.bronosky.com/?p=54
While on that note, why do mobos still come with PS/2 ports, do they even make non-USB mice/keyboards anymore? Who will be the first to release a mobo without an FDD, VGA and PS/2s... It'll free up space for more useful stuff.
hmm.... is it a super floppy the 128mb kind???
it'll be nice to replace the floppy drive with a multi-card reader
i've not used a floppy disk for a long time.
I used one today, though granted it was as a drinks coaster.
Yeah, they level out desks real nicely, too.
MoBos ought to be made so that they can do bios flashes from a USB or optical drive. Then the FDD can truly die. Every other need is just laziness on the part of some software developer.
Err...I just flashed my bios through a USB drive. Am I missing something?
ho........................wait for it..................................hum
So, this will save me, what, $5 on my electricity bill?
Think about how long your computer is plugged into the wall, but not using power.
For the whole year.
Then for the lifespan of the computer (might be up to 5+ years depending on circumstances).
That's how much you save, also, don't forget the planet
how much is one mega watt hour costing you? it would take you about 200 hours to use one at 5W. assuming i did the math right.
and I thought it was a zero WAIT machine
that would be cool
sudo boot up NOW and get me a sandwich while you're at it
ha +1
So wait... If it's 4W and you figure it's off for 16 hours a day x 260 work days per year / 1000W/KW/h * 0.56$/KW/h = $9.31.
That's incredibly useless. That roughly equals your computer (@250W) being on for 0.7% of the year.
Didn't really understand your figures, so I redid the calculation. First you have to understand that office workers don't unplug their computer - ever. (Not when they go on holiday and definitely not at the weekend.) Now, there are approx 104 weekend days in the year, plus probably another 5 or so days in statutory holiday, call it 110, plus let's assume a minimal 20 days holiday, so that makes 130 days/year when the computer's off all day, and 235 when it's on for 8 hours.
In total that's 130*24+235*16 = 6880 hours of off-time per year. At 4W that's 27.5 kWh per year. Not a lot, but if the computer is moderately efficient when it's on and only uses 100W on average, the when-it's-on usage is 188 kWh. Still using 4W when off would then account for about 13% of power consumption.
So anyhow - I agree that the first thing to concentrate on is average power consumption when the computer's on - first order of business would be to drop that to the 30W region for a typical office-use PC, which current nettops achieve. These things are running Word (and probably Word 2003), not Crysis. But once you get the 'on-power' down you want to make sure it doesn't waste power when it's off, too, because the 'off-power' will be a higher proportion.
Where did your 250W come from btw? Are there really common office desktops that average (not max) 250W consumption? That's pretty scary if so...
nobody turns their computer off anyway
you could also probably achieve this by using a power bar
It seems to me that this isn't about a special computer, it's about a special power supply. So, why aren't there more PSU makers doing this? I'd be more impressed with a MoBo that suspend to RAM and still wake up to handle network requests. This would allow a decent OS (Linux) to consume next to no power when left unattended, but you can still ssh/ftp/http connect as needed. This solves the "my computer is never turned off" issue.
Everyone seems to be missing the point here. High efficiency computers aren't for home users. Home users really don't care about saving 4 watts when the PC is off. These PCs are aimed at business customers. When you manage thousands of computers 4 watts savings starts to become a decent financial savings. Especially when you've already implemented power savings features to turn machines off when when employees are at home (the majority of the day). This isn't going to swing someone over to buy a PC from a particular company, but I can say from experience that this is definitely something that corporate American (and public sector) considers when purchasing computers. Slimline PCs with very low watt power supplys, laptop processors, and laptop hard drives are quite popular in the business world as they can easily take up 1/2 the power of a traditional full sized PC. Taking off another 4 watts for 15 hours a day times a few thousands PCs only makes it better. Now I'd just like to see the integrate this power supply design into a small form factor PC. HP makes some nice models like the dc7900 and Dell has the Studio Hybrid although the Dell model lacks management features that would be required for a large scale business deployment.
hmm.
more like "zero-want"
What's new??
".....as opposed to the one to four watts an average PC consumes unless it's actually unplugged....."
When I unplug my pc, it consumes zero watts also. I think this is either a typo, or making news of
nothing new.