Netbooks are better than Notebooks – Green Computing

Posted by BA on May 22, 2010 in Green Computing | 9 comments

We have been discussing the green-computing advantage of Laptops over the Desktop computers when it comes to power consumption. Today we’ll take the discussion one step further in our green-computing section.

All of us have heard about net-books, the miniature versions of the laptops/notebook PCs. Capabilities of the Netbooks are good enough for normal use, desktop computing and web-surfing etc. The advantage they give you is the size, handling and power consumption.

We discussed the power consumption advantage of Laptops over Desktops in a previous post. We discussed that Laptops typically take around 60 to 65 watts of power during normal operation. An average Netbook running on Intel Atom processor consumes around 30 to 35 watts of power during normal use. This is actually around half of the power consumption of Notebooks and Laptops.

So if you are not a power user and desktop processing, chatting, Internet surfing is all what you have to do on your PC, prefer a Netbook instead of a Notebook.

I know a number of Netbook haters out there not because of their capabilities in terms of specifications but due to their small size, very small screen and no optical drive. You can purchase a few components and make a good desktop docking station for your Netbook to overcome these issues. For example, you can buy a larger LCD screen, a USB Keyboard, Mouse and a USB external optical drive. While you are on the go, you live with the small components and when you are back home, you can enjoy a full fledged computing experience right out of your netbook with a lower power consumption.

Green Computing Bottom Line

Don’t use desktop computers at all. Use either laptops, notebooks or netbooks for a green-computing advantage. You should prefer a netbook over the notebooks and laptops as well as they consume the lowest power of them all.

Power Consumption – Laptops are better than Desktop computers

Posted by BA on Mar 6, 2010 in Uncategorized | 3 comments

If you have been a desktop computer user and are planning to upgrade your machine in near future, please do consider the fact that the power consumption of a Laptop Computer is way less than that of a desktop computer. So we recommend you buy a laptop instead of a desktop, not only to give you more mobility, convenience of use but also to save power and support green computing. Lets look at the topic in a bit more detail.

Whey laptops are inherently power efficient? 
From the initial days of laptops or notebook computers, they have been including chargeable batteries that allow the computers to run without power supply for some time. To increase the operating time on a given battery, the computer components have especially been designed for laptops to consume low power.

How power efficient are laptops compared to the desktop versions?
Laptop computers are as powerful as their desktop versions in capability, but they normally save more than 85% power when computing at their maximum capacities. This graph shows a typical comparison:

For example, the laptop I’m typing this article on, is costing my 65 watts of power. While average desktop computers cost more than 450 watts of power. It also depends if you are using an LCD or a CRT monitor on the desktop. CRT monitors take significantly more power than LCD monitors.

Justifying the initial cost difference
So if you are planning to buy a new computer with latest specs, laptops are available in all latest performance parts and components. Only factor that hinders your decisiont of purchasing a laptop is the initial cost. Though, these differences are also diminishing constantly, here is a simple analysis to convince you further.

A typical desktop computer with a monitor screen costs around $600 and lets say will be useful for next two years. An average laptop with similar specs will cost you around $900 and will have a similar useful life of two years. So the laptop costs you $300 more than that of your desktop.

If you run both the computers for five hours a day, you will definitely save more than $300 in electricity costs in two years so in the longer run you will save money as well as power on laptops.

Netbooks are even a lower cost and lower power variant that will be a good option if you are not a power user. Netbooks have longer battery life, smaller screens, optimized processing and are even more convenient to use for some users.