Product Reviews

The average PC consumes more power than you might think, and that's bad for the environment as well as your electricity bill. VeryPC's GreenPC 940 BE is designed to consume considerably less power than a standard PC. The energy-efficient GreenPC is also whisper-quiet, while power-hungry PCs tend to be distractingly noisy.

The GreenPC uses energy-efficient components such as a 2in laptop hard disk and a low-power version of AMD's dual-core Athlon processor. As a result, it wasn't particularly fast in our application benchmarks. It's more than fast enough for everyday office tasks, though, and managed a respectable score of 177 in our video-editing test. However, high-definition video clips stuttered during playback, and it also proved unsuitable for playing demanding games.

A typical £600 PC consumes 84W when idle and around 120W when running our demanding benchmarks suite. By contrast, the GreenPC uses only 34W when idle and around

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70W when working flat out. This may sound impressive, but Apple's Mac mini, reviewed last month, uses even less power: only 20W when idle and around 50W when churning through our benchmarks. This is because it uses laptop components throughout (including the mobile Core 2 Duo T7200 processor), while VeryPC's Athlon processor and memory are desktop PC parts. We tested the Mac mini with Windows XP and Vista installed and found that power consumption was no different than it is with MacOS X, so even if you're averse to MacOS, the Mac mini is a greener PC.

The Mac mini is smaller, too, but the GreenPC still uses less desk space than a standard midi-tower. Another advantage is the potential for future expansion. The GreenPC 940 BE can accommodate two full-height PCI cards and a full-height PCI-E x16 graphics card, although length is limited. There's even enough room to add a second optical drive, a 3in hard disk and a memory card reader. Upgrades could make the GreenPC noisier and almost certainly reduce any savings, though, as they'll consume more power.

The 100GB hard disk is large enough for storing office documents but is small by today's standards. Alongside the D-sub output is an HDMI port so you can connect the GreenPC to an HD TV or a DVI-equipped display with an appropriate adaptor.

Like the Mac mini, the GreenPC is sold without a monitor, mouse or keyboard, which are available from VeryPC's website. However, the Mac mini is vastly better looking, uses less power and can run Windows, so it's the better choice.