Very PC GreenPC 478 review

Energy efficiency and climate change are hot topics at the moment, if you'll forgive the pun, but even if you have been paying attention, have you actually done anything about it?

Replacing your light bulbs with those funny-looking energy-efficient ones is one way to ease your conscience, as well as to relieve your pocket of hefty wodges. A cheaper option would be to make sure that your electrical devices aren't left with their little standby lights flashing. But neither of the above are really going to make much difference if you've got a greedy PC switched on 24/7.

If you find that your PC is left on for most of the time, then one of the most ecologically-friendly things you can do is to invest in a low-power computer. Low-power doesn't, however, mean that you have to twiddle your thumbs while Windows takes three hours to get started. Indeed, with a mindful selection of today's energy-efficient PC components, you can have plenty of power and stay 'green' into the bargain.

Eco-warrior

Very PC is a new face in Buyer's pages and the company's GreenPC claims to provide dual-core processing power while using little more than 50W of electricity. When you consider that a powerful dual-core desktop PC uses about 160W while doing absolutely nothing in Windows and as much as 350W while gaming, those claims start to sound all the more impressive.

To keep the power requirements as low as possible, Very PC has employed a laptop processor - the Intel Core 2 Duo T5500. The T5500 is a dual-core processor which runs at 1.66GHz, but while it's not short on performance, its power requirements are far from greedy.

There's also 1GB of DDR2 memory installed, which is enough to keep Vista Premium running smoothly. However, as both memory slots are filled, upgrading the memory capacity will require you to replace the two existing 512MB modules - not a particularly eco-friendly move.

However the combination of a Core 2 Duo chip and 1GB of memory is enough to take our benchmarks in its stride. A score of 120% is a great result and while we've seen other PCs go far faster, we've never encountered one as quiet as the GreenPC. Press your ear against the case and you'll hear the hard disk gently whispering accompanied by the slightest murmur from the rest of the system. It makes the HP and Acer mini desktop PCs on review this month sound like hairdryers by comparison.

Power miser

Often you'll find computer manufacturers' claims to be generously exaggerated versions of the truth, but Very PC is pretty circumspect in its claims for the GreenPC. While the company claims this PC uses as little as 50W, we found that it was being a little too modest. Sitting idle in Windows required a paltry 36W, while running the demanding multiple application portion of our benchmarks saw that rise to just 59W - a powerful PC that uses less electricity than a 60W bulb is an impressive feat. The Acer Veriton 1000 reviewed on page 39 is actually far smaller than the GreenPC, but it's desktop Core 2 Duo processor used 53W when it was idle and 77W while it was performing a task. And despite the Acer's more powerful processor, it was 1% slower than the Very PC in our 2D benchmark test.

The GreenPC is genuinely difficult to criticise, but if we were going to be picky, the 100GB hard disk is a little bit on the small side. It's especially so when you consider the GreenPCs potential as a Media Centre - it's quiet, powerful and no bigger than a VCR. Although our test unit had Windows XP Media Centre edition installed, Very PC will be offering Vista Premium as standard by the time you read this. Add a TV tuner and a nice big USB or network hard disk for storing all your recorded programs, and the GreenPC will make the most of Vista's awesome Media Centre capabilities. Crucially, hooking it up to the latest LCD TVs and home cinema setups is easy, thanks to an onboard HDMI connection.

Author: Sasha Muller