HP is also offering "80 percent efficient" power supplies, a component of the Energy Star 4.0 regulations that go into effect on July 20, 2007, ahead of the competition.

HP said its lab tests demonstrate that configuring PCs with the optional 80 percent efficient power supplies along with the other Energy Star 4.0 hardware requirements could reduce total system power consumption as much as 52 percent. That's an average annual cost savings ranging from $6 to $58 per PC, according to the company.

Efficient Power

The HP Compaq dc5700, dc5750, and dc7700 desktop PCs are designed to meet business customers' growing requirements for more efficient power management and cooling , the company said.

HP cited several benefits for companies who use PCs configured to meet the Energy Star 4.0 requirements, including increased system reliability, reduced system maintenance costs, as well as decreased air conditioning costs -- all due to less heat generation. Collectively, HP said, these benefits can extend the life of the system.

Roger Kay, principal analyst at Endpoint Technology Associates, said he can see the benefits of the new PCs. He pointed to the recent AMD study on power consumption in data centers that found electricity consumption in 2005 resulted in utility bills amounting to $2.7 billion.

"Even though clients use much less energy than servers on an individual basis, there are more than 10 times as many clients as there are servers out there," Kay said. "You can be certain that the total energy consumption of the clients is actually greater than the total energy consumption of servers. It's just more difficult to measure."

Either AMD or Intel

Companies can choose Energy Star 4.0-compliant HP business desktop PCs with either Intel or AMD chips.

The Compaq dc5700 and dc7700 models offer Intel Core 2 Duo processors and come equipped with Microsoft Windows XP Professional, 80-GB hard drives, 1 GB of memory, and DVD/CD-RW combo drives. The models list for $899 and $959, respectively.

The HP Compaq dc5750 business desktops come with AMD Athlon processors, Microsoft Windows XP Professional, 80-GB hard drives, 512 MB of memory, and DVD/CD-RW combo drives. The AMD-powered PC is priced at $609.