HP, Intel Roll Out New Green PCs

Hewlett-Packard and Intel on Wednesday jointly announced the release of two new HP commercial desktop PCs designed for reduced power consumption as per the Climate Savers initiative, including what the vendors call "the industry's first business desktop PC to feature a solid-state drive."

The new HP Compaq dc7800 Ultra-slim Desktop PC, which includes a solid-state hard drive (SSD), is "one of the industry's smallest enterprise-ready desktops," according to Palo Alto, Calif.-based HP. It features Penryn-class Intel Core 2 Duo processors with options for Intel's vPro remote management platform and HP's own Verdiem Surveyor network power management software agent. The dc7800 has been initially listed at $1,258.

High prices are just one of the barriers preventing more wide-spread adoption of SSDs by PC builders, the other major one being limited storage space. On the other hand, as HP and Intel are quick to point out, SSDs also serve up improved performance over hard disk drives in areas like power efficiency, durability and system start time.

The other new desktop released Wednesday, the revamped HP Compaq dc5800 Business Desktop PC, has added manageability and security features, and is available in a redesigned small form factor or a microtower PC design. Configurations of the dc5800 will be available on Feb. 11 starting as low as $579.

Both HP and Santa Clara, Calif.-based Intel are making a big deal about the environmental friendliness of the new desktops, saying that the need for energy efficiency and recyclable parts is as pressing in the commercial space as it is in the data center. But is there a demand for such products by enterprise buyers?

Yes, there is, says Rick Chernick, CEO of HP partner Connecting Point in Green Bay, Wis.

"Without a doubt, there's demand," Chernick said. He said the need to be green was especially noticeable among Connecting Point's medical industry customers.

"They say this is important to us, and we will not landfill anything. I mean, look at how many cell phones and monitors and computers and televisions we're selling all over the world. And where do they all end up? It's a problem," he said.