Comments on: Advent Eco PC

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 09:48:52 +0000

I am considering buying this. Can the motherboard handle up to 4GB RAM if I choose to upgrade?

By: Bath restaurant reviews

Bath restaurant reviews — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:14:19 +0000

We are buying this at the moment; PC World have a deal on for £399 for monitor, base unit and keyboard.

By: oni

oni — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:09:19 +0000

@IgorAb: That’s my display connected to my MacBook Pro.

By: IgorAb

IgorAb — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 16:07:09 +0000

Why is there an Apple screen running macosx at the back

By: jellotots

jellotots — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 15:28:11 +0000

You got Engadget-ed if there is such a thing. I’ve just been reading some of the comments that have been left here and on the Edgadget site and most of them seem to be negative or cynical, which I’m not entirely certain why. Are we all automatically inclined to be sceptical about energy claims or the ‘greenness’ of any product?

What I’ve noticed is that most do not mention that the case for the Advent is made of 75% recycled material and they try to say that a notebook has better energy savings because of its screen. Well of course! A smaller screen would use less energy! If you’re going to connect up a 30-inch LCD to it then you’re not going to be saving the world. I can only presume that most people will either hook this machine to their existing screen or if they were to buy one, then most people are going for 20 to 24 inch displays. But then you’re just comparing oranges to rocks. A bigger display is a better experience so people should stop using that as an argument.

The Tomshardware link above shows that the most efficient machine they got benchmarked has an Athlon 64 2000 and even then its running at 39 watts with max power of 42 watts. I’m pretty certain that the Core 2 Duo, even at 1.5GHz will trounce an Athlon 64 2000 for performance. The Core 2 Duo at 25 watts idle and 50 watts max output is significant despite what people are saying.

By: Shnugi

Shnugi — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 15:13:35 +0000

The plastic from notebooks are hardly anything to be worried about. It’s the heavy metals that are used in the tiny components of all machines that are worrisome. Just drop your broken and used laptops at a certified electronics recycler if you’re worried about that. Make sure that the company recycling them does it in a developed country instead of shipping them off to a third world country to be picked apart by children.

Also notebooks typically consume FAR less power than this PC, and that’s including the screen. On battery, my Dell Vostro 1400 uses between 10-20 watts surfing the web with the screen at 50% brightness. My travel sized power adapter is only rated for a maximum of 60 watts.

This machine is basically just branding, aka greenwashing. Here’s a comparison of other fairly common machines with standard setups: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/Atom-Athlon-Efficient,1997-5.html . This ‘Eco-PC’ only performs marginally better or worse than those computers, it’s hardly a standout example of being environmentally friendly.

By: ting367

ting367 — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 13:17:43 +0000

Gianluca has a point about it essentially being a notebook in a desktop format. But what he fails to mention is that most notebooks are made of plastics that eventually end up in a landfill and decompose in to the nasty chemicals that organisations like greenpeace are trying to eliminate in products. This is why Apple have made a bit of a fanfare over the use of aluminium and elimination of toxic chemicals in their machines. Sure, this is probably more expensive but then most ‘green’ or ‘organic’ things are.

You’d find it hard to find a notebook that claims to be as eco friendly as this machine. I certainly don’t see any mention of it in the highstreet or online stores. Buying a notebook is not the same as buying this eco pc.

By: Gianluca

Gianluca — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 12:17:53 +0000

That’s basically a notebook in a desktop case. If you consider the price of a tft display even the total cost is about the same. You can’t expand it more than you would expand a notebook, also, because the small custom case.
The only advantage I can see over a notebook is the fact you can hook your own (supposedly bigger) display. Of course in the latter case the power consumption of bigger monitor+central-unit will be heavier than the typical notebook though, defeating a bit the purpose.

It’s good as a desktop because it’s quiet, and it doesn’t have a polluting battery. Otherwise I would reccomend just to buy any notebook computer to pursue the same performance, quietness, and power efficiency.

By: pitchblack16

pitchblack16 — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 01:39:23 +0000

25 watts and 50 watts is impressive. but how does that compare to notebooks?