audio next? looking at you 500+ watt amps
I haven’t read that article but that headline is inaccurate. If anything, high end stuff is less restricted. Here’s a good source
6 Likes
whether the title is misleading doesnt really matter. its an audio forum. not a pc. more about whats next on the chopping block. the fact they even passed a law with any restrictions at all is bs. i can run a pc for a year off of 1 tesla charge.
1 Like
Air conditioning will be next lol…anyways I thought most homes have solar panels to off set energy usage and carbon foot prints?..ffs we use solar panels on our barge that’ll power most of our needs when on that occasional day in the UK we get 
2 Likes
thats the first thing that popped into my mind. what if i have solar panels? your telling me how i can use my own energy? haha
1 Like
but i do agree after watching that video the titles are misleading on some. but i was more posting about future implications.
Since the problem for PCs is standby power usage, i guess it is something that shouldn’t be that much of a problem as if it where total power usage under load. Especially since “larger” computers have less restrictions. Also, if you build your computer yourself, it seems there is no restrictions at all (if i understood it correctly), so that is a relief 
2 Likes
The really absurd thing is if you go to Dell and look at their Alienware PCs you’ll see that they only have the one skew that will ship to those states like Jay mentions. But if you go to the XPS line, absolutely no restrictions on those. Because those aren’t “gaming” computers.
1 Like
Well you can use the suns energy at least lol…and todays solar panels are pretty efficient, in some cases (i’m not saying cost effective here) can indeed provide most daily power requirements in hot/sunny areas…In the UK people with solar banks can sell back the power generated to the local grid to off set any energy bills incurred.
2 Likes
To be honest, component manufacturers themselves have been stressing how unfeasible power consumption is becoming so this law is mostly just trying to enforce something the industry has been moving toward anyway. It’s just making sure the SIs themselves are speccing computers in a way that doesn’t nullify the power saving of individual components.
2 Likes
I live in Washington and the fact that this type of law passed is no surprise to me. Don’t want to make this a political thing, but the 6 states are very similar in overall political views and politics always plays a part in laws such as these. I’ll also say I’m pretty liberal my self, but crap like this is annoying. The amount of laundry I do having a toddler I bet I consume a good mass of energy using that dryer. also want to add I don’t game on my PC so this had no affect on me personally.
3 Likes
I don’t think there’s much to worry about in the audio space. High power, inefficient amps are so niche, it doesn’t make sense to bother with regulating them. But with PCs, I wouldn’t be surprised if the total energy wasted from idle systems is substantial.
It’s possible they might create idle power regulations for consumer devices in general. Some of schiit’s power bricks consume 5 watts just being plugged in lol
2 Likes
With a toddler maybe, but in the aggregate gaming PCs apparently do consume more than dryers or dishwashers or (1-room?) air conditioners. (This is under load of course, not while idle.)
https://sites.google.com/site/greeningthebeast/market-survey
(Ah, I might be quoting the same study the original story did, which is exactly from California.)
2 Likes
They haven’t seen how old my dryer is 
Wtf are you on about? Ofc the title matters. They are regulating standby power usage of a massive market. The niche parts of computers aren’t affected and consoles aren’t becaude they already have good stand by power consumption. Audio amps make up such a tiny part of power consumption it isn’t wory legislators time and isn’t a hot button issue that will make yjem look good either
1 Like
how do they define high end gaming PC’s vs mid-range and entry level? Alienware will have entry and mid-range solutions, so those shouldn’t be blocked…but they are? and what about content creators that require PC’s with specs equivalent to a high end gaming PC, but used for work. do they realized California is the world capital for movie production that needs that kind of computer? my goodness…this will be interesting!
This isn’t about power consumption of computers in use, it’s about idle power consumption (sleep/hibernation). Besides which, content creators would have systems that almost certainly exceed the expandability score and would be exempt.
2 Likes
the article doesn’t mention anything about idle power states…but I do see that mentioned in comments. most PC’s can power down to a very reasonable level when idle this day and age.
1 Like
You won’t find low power consumption piece in articles as that doesn’t make for interesting news. Jay did a ton of research on this and I would definitely watch the YouTube clip that’s linked. My main take away is they are trying to limit idle power consumption of the masses aka normal use cases where 90ish% of the market sales will be. Gamers, content creators, businesses and the like won’t be hit by these regulations as much as people are making out to seem.
2 Likes