Due to power regulations, Dell cannot ship Alienware PCs to certain states in the United States
Sometimes the struggle for energy efficiency and low power consumption takes quite ugly forms. Compared with small systems, high-performance desktop gaming PCs obviously consume a lot of power and are relatively energy-efficient.That’s why Dell can no longer ship some Alienware Game desktop to California, Colorado and some other states. Although there are many problems.
Dell’s high performance Aurora R10 and Aurora R12 Desktops (based on Intel and AMD) “cannot be shipped to California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, or Washington due to power consumption regulations in these states,” the notice on the company’s website reads.Dell was unable to ship such systems to California because the California Energy Commission (CEC) adopted more stringent electrical energy principles and established mandatory performance and efficiency standards for PCs from July 1st. Register Report.
The new standard is mainly based on the Energy Star computer program and defines the power consumption of PCs (various PCs, including thin clients and handheld devices) in an inactive state (Short idle, long idle, sleep and shutdown) And their maximum power consumption per year.All types of power consumption are related to the PC’s scalability score (ES) (the concept is describe A few years ago by Energy Star) factors such as high-performance graphics cards, system memory bandwidth, and high-speed external ports were considered.
From July 1, 2021, The annual power consumption of high-end desktops does not exceed 75 kWhr, but if equipped with a discrete graphics card or other adder (from the ES list), its maximum power consumption can increase the memory according to the bandwidth of the onboard graphics card. The problem is that even with an adder, Dell’s Alienware gaming system will not meet the new requirements.
Dell’s Alienware is obviously not the only boutique PC manufacturer in the United States, but a quick inspection of other high-performance gaming system and workstation manufacturers revealed that their customers in California and other states have no similar alerts. It is not clear whether their system meets the stricter requirements or if they are waiting for instructions to update the website. At the same time, it is clear that over time, the new regulations will affect all high-performance machines.
It should be noted that the new standard does not include DIY PCs, so enthusiasts who have enough time, energy, and experience can build their favorite PCs. In addition, it is logical to expect PC manufacturers to provide systems without certain components (which will be installed by end users) to comply with stricter regulations, but still provide products to their customers.
