New PCs reduce energy consumption

Public work station computers

Friday 14 December 2007
New PCs to reduce energy consumption

Aberystwyth University has recently completed the installation of 550 new personal computers which offer students much greater computing power whilst at the same time reducing the amount of electricity consumed.

The investment, a total of over £277,000, was provided to the University's Information Services Department from the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales programme of Capital Funding for Learning and Teaching and IT Infrastructure for 2006-07 and 2007-08,

According to Mr Roger Matthews, Deputy Director of Information Services, the new computers also make it much easier for the University to meet its obligations under the Disability Discrimination Act. “This development means we have been able to replace all of the computers in the public work rooms with far more powerful models and considerably better screens that will make it much easier for those with visual impairments to find a setting that suits them.”

“The new computers have the added advantage of taking up much less space on tables, giving students a much more comfortable working environment, and, as they are all of the same type, simplify the engineering support that is required.” he added.

The overall power consumption of the new PCs is lower than their predecessors and plans are underway to automatically switch them off when not in use saving even more power. Though currently running on Windows XP, the new computers will migrate to the Microsoft Vista Operating System in the summer of 2008.

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