Gamers find their high end computers have been banned by environmental regulations in 6 states

Gamers find that high-end gaming computers have been banned, in 6 states

This is what crazy environmental regulations will do. A lot of people will not care, until it is they themselves who become personally affected.

These are special more expensive computers designed with more processing power designed to be sold to gamers who are very enthusiastic about playing their games. The computers need this extra processing power for optimal game speed, due to the higher computer processing power some of these immersive games use.

US States California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington have banned the sale of high-end gaming PCs under a new energy bill.

The California Energy Bill was written in 2017, and recently went into effect. This led to several US States outside of California joining in; effectively banning high-end pre-built gaming PCs.

As an answer to this, Dell has pulled the sale of seven of its eight Alienware gaming desktops from those states. Only the Alienware Aurora R12 Gaming Desktop is widely available; packing a i5 11400F, a GTX 1650 Super, 8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD. The other R12s which are restricted on shipping feature one major component different; such as a 1TB harddrive or different graphics cards.

The disclaimer reads "This product cannot be shipped to the states of California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont or Washington due to power consumption regulations adopted by those states. Any orders placed that are bound for those states will be canceled."
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High-End Gaming PCs Banned in Six US States after California Energy Bill Limits Sales On High Performance PCs - Niche Gamer

 

Well, that's insane and I am not a gamer.

 

It's normal to a Progressive mind.

Hopefully as this spreads and spreads and more people become affected or inconvenienced, there will be more people questioning these types of regulations, and there will be some pushback against it.
Right now most people are not even aware these laws are going on.

 

More processing power doesn't automatically require more electrical power, it's just the that PC industry hasn't had any pressures to address power consumption so have focused exclusively on bigger, faster, shinier (or bigger numbers on the box at least). Other industries have been able to significantly improve electrical efficiency without any major issues (like TVs and white goods) so the PC industry should be perfectly capable of doing the same. It's just that the only effective leverage is money.

These laws probably aren't perfect and it's a complex area given the variation of PC builds but the concept and intent is valid IMO.

 

Wouldn't it just make more sense to put an added hefty tax on consumer items that do not comply with efficiency standards, or do progressives just like to outright ban things?

 

I don't see how that makes more sense. It probably wouldn't be as effective and wouldn't you have just as much objection to higher taxes for environmental reasons and the fact that would impact "the peasants" even more than wealthy people who could just absorb the higher prices?

It's worth noting that nothing is being banned as such, there are just rules about specific features of the product. Pretty much any commercial product will have a whole range of legal and regulatory rules about how they're designed, produced and sold.

 

What was Al Gore's electricity bill??

 

And the power consumption of charging electric cars? Elect idiots and you get what idiots do best, f**k up everything they touch.

 

I build my own, so I assume that makes me even a bigger outlaw than my constant thought crimes. Funny there was no mention of bitcoin mining.

 

A gaming computer is a major and rare purchase (well, at least for me). My current one isn't top of the line but it's relatively new and I'm currently into less demanding games. But if I wanted something more powerful, the consequences of this is it would just cause me to take a trip to one of those other states, which obviously wouldn't help with energy efficiency. So yes, it's a dumb law. The focus should be on increasing clean energy production rather than worrying about policing consumption. The future is more energy consumption either way, not less. Fossil fuels are inherently limited and damaging, so it has to happen either way.

 

Heh, you know the answer...

...they like both!

 

That would depend upon why the efficiency standards are in place. Rising the cost doesn't help the situation that energy savings is trying to solve.

 

I actually have an Alienware computer. One of the banned in California models. The lights dim when I wake it out of sleep mode, though the electrical system in my house isn't the best. I'm glad I bought one while they were still around. Right now it's not banned in my home state of New York. Though that might change.

I see they downgraded the specs on the new machines. It's a shame.

 

This is the artificial scarcity model tyranny produces. Instead of competitive forces driving output, scarcity now dictates how much of something one or some, or many can then consume from the tightly controlled state controlled resources. We used to call this collusive monopoly power. Not democrats just like their higher rents because they can "feelz" better about it.

 

If a high end gaming computer has a thousand watt power supply. And if a normal business computer has a 350 watt power supply. And if a small business has fifteen computers. Then that single small business requires five times the wattage than a high end gaming pc. High end gaming pc's are relatively rare or few in number. Small businesses are plentiful. Furthermore the gaming pc's don't run 24/7 like business computers. The regulation doesn't make sense.

 

I agree they regulation is crazy but not necessarily for the reasons others think so. When I first heard about this new law reddit and the internet exploded. There was mass panic and people made assumptions and thought the sky was falling. In reality this has very little impact on gamers and the work around is simple and to be honest quite stupid. That is why I think this law is so bad not so much their reason for wanting one but for the people that crafted this.

The reason why I think the underlying reason for this law is not that bad after the initial outrage is because the ratings for power consumption are based on computer rest states. ie when you are not gaming and walk away from you computer. Essentially a lot of people are like me and leave their PC on 24/7. When I am done I walk away and let the power conservation take over, (and to be honest I disable many of those). The idea of the law was to regulate how much power a PC consumes when it in these sleep modes or non use modes. I can't remember what the number was but California release some type of study that showing the power consumed by computers not in use for a year. (I have no idea is it was a real measurement or calculated) The number is huge. People have liken this law to be similar to water conservation laws when you can only water your lawn on certain days and at certain times.

So after the initial panic and gamers freaking out it was found out that this law only affected pre-builts so probably 90% of hardcore gamers are not even affected. Pre-builts are when you buy an assembled computer like those on the dell website. Secondly it really only impacted the small form factor prebuilts like the ones listed. If you look in the link in the ops article only the 3 cheapest computers with the GTX1650 Super GPU are restricted. If you purchase the one with the RTX3060 GPU, (which uses a lot lot more power), it is available. That is because machines with 600W + power supplies and GTX2060 and better video cards no longer fall under the restricted category. So I am guessing in no time dell and other pre-build sellers will adjust and everything will be available in all 50 states.

IMHO don't buy a Dell pre-built system. I know a lot of people were forced to buy these due to the GPU shortages but they are not worth it.

 

The last two dells I bought just for home use not as gaming computers have been crap. Not sure if it is their machines, how the machines interface with Windows 10, or due to all the other crap they preload that is not so easy to get rid of. They are very slow to get up and running from off or if they go into power conservation modes. From start, it usually takes a couple minutes to get to where I log in and and then have to wait 5-8 more before everything is in a normal use state where programs will open and close quickly with a click. Leave them sitting asleep for too long and you end up having to close some of the programs and reopen it to get it to work or I have to restart the computer to be able to print. It is really weird.

 

Dell computers do have a fair bit of customs software installed on their PCs like all brand name prebuilt computer companies. I have never bought a pre-built desktop computer for my own use but I must admit I did purchase one from Bestbuy for my wife because for some basic computers you could never build your own PC to match the price of a pre-built. She really only surfs the web and uses the Office suite so her computing demands are minimal. Laptops are different since you have really have no choice but to pick one.

Windows 10 is a real resource hog and does take a while to start up especially if you are using are not using a SSD drive. It seems like each major updates slows something or causes issues. Check to see what windows is loading at start up. Click on task manager and look at the start up tab. Most of the legitimate start up processes will show there. Windows will try to tell you the startup impact. If you do not recognize the application name, google it for more info. Often you can find out if you can disable it. Worst case you can disable it and turn it back on if it causes issues. Often people inadvertently install software when they are trying to install something else. Kind of like installing McAfee when you only wanted to install Adobe reader. Uninstall those. Extra programs starting will slow down your startup and maybe cause your computer sleep issues. If the sleep issue continues to persist you can always change your sleep setting to "never" when plugged in and just shut down the monitor after 30 minutes.

 

They're not entirely isolated markets though, especially around generic components like power supply. If the hardware manufactures are forced to put just a little effort in to efficiency rather than the 100% focus on (appearance of) performance, the benefits would inevitably filter down throughout the market. The high-end power supply might drop to 800W but the office PC might also drop to 300W so everyone wins in the end.

It should be also noted that these kind of laws and policies aren't any kind of surprise, even back when they were actually introduced a few years ago so the industry had plenty of time to take the simple steps necessary and completely avoid these issues. They just chose not.

 

The theory is some of that subset (people who buy high energy computers for gaming) would NOT buy them if the costs or surcharges exceed their upper limit. Fewer computers reduce consumption overall.

 

I think it's stupid to have graphics cards that suck down 350 watts just to display computer games with slightly better fidelity and a few more frames per second. It's also understandable that a state like California, where lack of sufficient energy production is a real and ongoing problem, would seek to limit energy use and waste by setting some standards. The end result is we get more power-efficient hardware, which is not only better for the environment but saves the user some money on their electric bill, too. So stop whining.

 

Like any state or government regulation, there's always a way around it. Simply purchase the computer and have it shipped to a relative or friend in a non-regulated state, then have that friend or relative ship it to you. It's pointless legislation and easily circumvented...

 

California is making it almost impossible to do business in anymore.

I had a computer store there myself a few years ago, and found it almost impossible to do business. I had to have multiple licenses and permits, in addition to the fees that I had to pay just to sell systems. For example, I had to pay (ie pass along to the consumer) an "e-waste tax" for almost everything I sold. Even though sales of used systems was less than half my business (most of sales, over half my business was actually repair), therefore the tax had already been paid the first time it was sold. Does not matter, they want to collect on every sale, and if they can tax something 2 or 3 times (in addition to the sales tax), all the better.

And this literally is how it went, as I got most of my used systems from a used system broker in the Bay Area, so by the time I sold it the tax had been collected three times.

There is a reason I finally just threw up my hands and closed up shop. I even got slammed with extra taxes after I did, as everything I had bought for resale was not taxed at purchase. But after I turned in my license, I got sent a bill for the tax I should have paid on all the inventory I was then stuck with.

 

Have they banned bitcoin farming first? Like did they try to do that before they came to this?

 

It does, and it was the reason Elon Musk stopped accepting Crypto currencies for the Teslas, and that announcement resulted in a Bitcoin crash.

Same people who preach States rights are always the first to cry "tyranny" when States exercise those rights.