"Vic Smith" wrote in message

stuff snipped

AFAIK, newer computers use less power than old ones. I5's and I7's
run pretty cool. 84-90 watts. And LED's use less power than CRT's.
SSD's use less power than spinners.

When I switched from PIII and IV towers to laptops the power dropped from
150W to 17W per machine. With 10 machines throughout the house, that ended
up be quite a visible savings on the power bill. Same for the new
refrigerator and air conditioners. The switch to LEDs has been a little
less dramatic because I was transitioning from CFLs, not incandescents.

High end graphics cards can get hot, but you might not need one.

Few people do and kids seem to want Play Stations and X-boxes now instead of
PCs and that makes sense. I found nothing twitchier and quirkier than high
end graphic cards.

It used to take ATI several versions to get their priciest cards to
stabilize. Even then there was always an occasional GPF or BSOD in the
middle of a game. I'm very happy using laptops and since I use them to
power much larger monitors, I can get units with cracked screens for a song
on Ebay. The only game still on any of my PCs (a retired tower unit I light
up every now and then) is Tiberian Sun "Command and Conquer." The little
soldiers are always polite and respectful, even after you've sent then on a
suicide recon mission.

--
Bobby G.