Green machines
Within the PC industry, the sector probably hardest hit by the global recession was business, as corporate buyers concluded it would be better to extend the life of their old kit while the bad vibes unfolded.
It has generally been anticipated, however, that business spend would pick-up again this year and it's no coincidence that we've seen a lot of server launches in the first quarter. This is now being followed by the workstation and business notebook markets, with HP, Lenovo and Gateway launching new products this week alone.
The The HP Compaq 6005 Pro Ultra Slim desktop PC is a small form-factor desktop running AMD's Vision Pro platform. On top of that, HP has tweaked it to optimise energy-efficiency, with an 87 percent efficient power supply, power saving software and no BFR or PVC. HP has also launched a new consumer all-in-one.
Lenovo's new ThinkPad L series notebooks also stress their green credentials by integrating the most post-consumer recycled material of any on the market, claims Lenovo.
The L412 and L512 come with Intel Core i3 and i5 CPUs and seem to be aimed at the lower half of the business notebook market. The come with the usual ThinkPad tough build and Lenovo's ThinkVantage software suite. There are also video-conferencing features and the option of Qualcomm's Gobi embedded 3G module.
Last but not least we have Gateway - now Acer's business computing brand - which has launched the DT and DS series of workstations, the latter being an SFF offering. The DS50 and DS70 still offer up to a Core i7 CPU, despite its small size and, you guessed it, it has been certified as nice and green by the people who do that sort of thing.
