Introduction

With the big focus on the environment and how much of a negative impact the 21st century society is having on it, it’s not surprising we are seeing things moving towards “green”. When we refer to green, we aren’t talking about the colour, we are taking about measures used to reduce the devastating impact we are having on the environment because of our industrialised society. Unfortunately, there is no way of getting around the need for industry; however, the way we run it as well as the products that come from it can be tailored towards minimizing the harmful impact we are having.

So far we have seen companies embracing this; the auto industry is already introducing measures such as moving towards the Euro3 diesel initiative which reduces the amount of sulphur in the diesel fuels as well as embracing alternative fuels. Biodiesel is now available in quantities and ethanol blended fuels are helping to reduce the amount of harmful emissions as well.

Computer companies are now starting to take the green initiative very seriously with new production methods to make them more environmentally sound. The first stages have already been implemented with the RoHS designs from GIGABYTE and ASUS, this is accomplished by moving from lead based solder to a totally lead free substitute, thus reducing the overall amount of lead required. Furthermore, the move to solid state components has not only increased the efficiency of the board’s power regulators, but has also led to a cooler running system as well.

Now ASUS and GIGABYTE has moved to the next stage of the green game, and it’s about time to see something like this implemented; power saving technologies! - So far, only ASUS and GIGABYTE have taken it this far. While others have boards based on solid state components to help reduce the amount of power a board uses, none have features like GIGABYTE’s DES system or the ASUS EPU. What are these power saving technologies and how do they work? - Today we hope to answer this along with finding out who has the better design.