When upgrading your PC, there are several things you can look at in a bid to own a more environmentally friendly PC.

Processor
If you are on the lookout for an environmentally friendly processor, go for one with a low thermal design power (sometimes known as thermal dissipation power). The TDP is the meximum amount of power that a processor will consume and therefore dissipate as heat - this means that a processor with a low thermal design power will use up less electricity than one with a high design thermal design power.

Hard Drive
If you have enough money, a solid-state drive is the hard drive of choice as they use up to 95% less power than a standard IDE hard drive. Unfortunately, they are quite hard to get a hold of and they aren’t particularly large (64GB is about the limit), however they do offer much faster file-access times.

Graphics
The best sort of graphics card to have is an integrated one which is integrated with the motherboard, however intergrated graphics cards are generally not very good with high-end graphics applications such as games and CAD programs. If you do get a separate graphics card, look for one with a low clock speed as the lower the clock speed, the less power it should consume.

Power
The less power required by all the internal components, the less power your PSU (power supply unit) will need to supply. Therefore, you can buy one with a lower wattage which will use less energy.

Monitor
Swap any old CRT monitors for TFT or plasma screens as these types of screens use far less power than the old fashioned CRT monitors. It is also worth looking out for a monitor which conforms to the RoHS Directive standards. RoHS stands for Restriction of the use certain Hazardous Substances in electrical and electronic equipment - a bit of a mouthful really! It simply means that the monitor won’t be built out of certain hazardous materials including lead, cadium, mercury, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyl and polybrominated diphenyl ether flame retardants, all of which can be hazardous to health and/or the environment.

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