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Dell has halted sales on select gaming PCs in six US states due to energy inefficiency laws

Computing giant Dell has had to remove some of its beefy gaming PCs from sale in six American states after falling foul of environmental regulations. 

You might think it’s possible for a car or an aeroplane to fail to meet environmental regulations, but tough new statutes in several US states, including California, have ruled out some of Dell’s gaming PCs on the grounds of energy inefficiency. It’s not a question of toxic emissions of course, but rather because the chips in gaming PCs are so much more powerful and demanding that they have been singled out for wasteful energy use.

Reuters reports that Dell will halt sales on “select configurations” of the Alienware Aurora R10 and R12 gaming PCs, and that it planned to introduce replacements that “will meet or exceed these regulations, in line with our long-term focus to address energy and emissions.” Considering that the R12 was only launched in March of this year and boasts super-fast 11th-gen Intel internals, so it’s a rapid backtrack from the computing giant to take it straight back off the shelves again.

Dell did not delineate the specifics of why the desktops were withdrawn, but they must have contravened the state legislation adopted by California on July 1. Additionally, the devices will no longer be shipped to five other US states across the country: Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont, and Washington. 

The reason that such stringent regulations have been introduced is evidently because of considerable and increasing energy consumption by computers; according to a California report, computers and desktops account for 2.9% of energy consumption in the state. 

Being state legislation, the sales freeze does not affect all models internationally; at the time of writing, the Dell Alienware Aurora R12 remains available in the UK at a starting price of £1,049, while the range’s top-spec variant ( which is most likely to have been the one affected by this news) costs £3,999.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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