IT Week Leader: Mini PCs, big benefits

It may not be on the same scale as totally offsetting your carbon emissions or moving over to solar and wind power, but investing in smaller, more power-efficient PCs is a step in the right direction that all businesses can take.

Fujitsu-Siemens and HP are just two of the vendors now offering small form-factor PCs that use less power than a standard desktop configuration. These units do not just save on energy, they also tend to be quieter and free up desk space for other uses.

While previous generations of compact PCs were perceived as underpowered, the new crop are more than capable of running Windows and typical business workloads, and there is little need for the expansion slots and spare drive bays that used to festoon office PCs. For those looking to refresh their desktop fleet, going small is a no-brainer.