Dell continues in its quest to become the “greenest” technology company on this blue planet we call Earth, and it has intensified its efforts by adding an Energy Star 4.0-compliant desktop that helps consumers reduce their carbon footprint. Sounds like a pretty good idea, since everyone upgrades their computers once every few years so minimizing the impact on the environment with each purchase will go a long way in handing over a greener earth to the next generation.

According to Karen Plotkin, director of consumer desktop marketing, “We (Dell) are committed to providing consumers a choice that helps protect the environment without sacrificing the performance needed to maintain a rich, high-definition digital experience. Consumers using this energy-efficient Inspiron 531 can reduce their carbon footprint while also reducing their electric bills.”

The Inspiron 531 would be Dell’s first consumer PC that will meet the stringent Energy Star 4.0 requirements. It boasts an 80% efficient power supply and comes pre-configured to switch to a low power mode after a quarter of an hour of inactivity has past. Not only that, each purchase comes with a forest-friendly paperless owner’s manual to minimize as much environmental impact as possible. It is said that using such an energy-efficient desktop with a flat panel monitor for four years will be able to reduce your C02 emissions that is roughly equal to the amount of not driving your car around for two months.

The Dell Inspiron 531 won’t be too hard on your pockets, retailing from $369 upwards. It will be powered by an AMD Athlon 64 X2 dual-core processor and comes with 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 160GB hard drive, a CD-RW/DVD combo drive, integrated graphics from NVIDIA and Windows Vista Home Basic as the operating system of choice. Time for an upgrade, perhaps?

Press Release