Low Power Consuming Computer Video Card – ATI Radeon HD 4350 and Radeon 5450 – Green External Hard Drive

We were looking for a PC low power consumption PCI Express video card for Windows 7. No need for the latest super fast gaming video card,  just one that has good performance for Windows 7 and its fancy new user interface.

If you are buying or building a new PC, consider a machine utilizing the Intel Ivy Bridge processor. The processor is more efficient and incorporates graphics processing that is significantly faster than previous processors. It is difficult to create a PC that uses less power with an add-in video card. A recent review using a Intel Core i7 – 3770k showed that it uses about 8 watts less power than a low power ATI Radeon HD 5450 PCI Express video card.

Low power consumption ATI Radeon Video cards

The ATI Radeon HD 4350 consumes less than 20 watts under full load.  Its bigger brother the Radeon HD 4550 uses just a little more power but delivers faster performance.  Both support DirectX 10.1 games and are capable of smooth HD media playback. Most implementations of this chip are fanless, making them extremely quiet, perfect for a HTPC or Home Theater PC. State of the art video cards can consume at most 700 watts of power under load!  Amazon sells the Radeon HD 4350 for under $40.

The Radeon HD 4550 benchmarks under Windows 7 Experience Index at 4.7 for graphics and 6.1 for gaming.

A newer, faster card is the Radeon HD 5450 which uses a little less power than the Radeon HD 4550.  1 Watt less at idle, 4 watts less at load. ATI rates this card at 19.1watts power consumption. Amazon has the Radeon HD 5450 from $35. The newer Radeon HD 6450 is slightly faster but draws more power and includes a fan.

Green External Hard Drive

Is your hard drive full? Have you backed up your computer lately?  It is time to look for a hard drive that stores lots of data but just sips power.  Buy one larger than your needs, so you do not waste money and resources buying another one next year.

The Western Digital My Passport a low cost eco-friendly green, energy-efficient External hard drive that is powered by the USB connector.  It uses a small 2.5in laptop drive to save on power. No need for a phantom power hungry power brick. These green hard drive can save up to $14 per year in electricity costs depending on the power-on-hours and power supply efficiency. This adds up fast in businesses.

Western Digital also makes a line of Green internal hard drives that spin slower and hence use less power. We are using them and find them reliable.

1.5TB Green External Hard Drive

1.5TB Western Digital WD Elements 1.5 TB USB 2.0 Desktop External Hard Drive low power External hard drives can be had for a low price plus free shipping. Buy more storage than you need so you do not have to buy more soon. This uses WD GreenPower Technology™ and an EnergyStar compliant power supply. Packaged in a minimized eco-friendly, recyclable packaging made from recycled materials.

Eco Friendly 2TB GreenPower Internal Hard Drive

The Western Digital 2TB Green Power Serial ATA Hard drive is a low cost eco-friendly, energy-efficient 2TB internal hard drive. I have one in my computer. It is fast and quiet and most importantly energy efficient.

“GreenPower saves you 4-5 watts of electricity on average. The power savings equates to reducing CO2 emission by up to 60 kilograms per year – the equivalent of taking your car off the road for 14 days each year!”

“By WD estimates our GreenPower technology can save large data-hungry organizations like financial institutions and search engine services, up to $10 per drive per year in electricity costs (U.S.). Ten dollars per year doesn’t sound like much until you consider, for example, a large data center with say 10,000 drives. Do the math, that’s up to $100,000 in saving per year”

Posted on June 13th, 2012
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