California (and some other states) has banned high end gaming PC's!

[Marzipan]

High-end gaming PCs banned in six US states after California energy bill limits sales on performance PCs

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

nichegamer.com

not sure how this law coming into effect was missed as it was passed in 2017.

so, I can see some places blocking the sale of gaming PC's to Cali now...but how will resellers know what constitutes a high end gaming PC vs a mid-range or entry level? is Cali going to make it so shipments of PSU and GPU into the state are a controlled item? what about content creators that buy high end gaming PC's but use them for work? my goodness...this will be interesting!

 

[sswilson]

I didn't read the article you linked to, but I've been following this in my travels today.

What it breaks down to is that there's a chart of some form which lists the maximum power draw of specific devices, and some higher end manufacturers' gaming PCs are over those limits.

The easy solution/back door? Sell those PCs without the GPUs with an option to purchase the GPU separately.

 

[GeezerGamer]

How about banning air conditioners or clothes dryers or electricity for electric vehicles!
Food for thought......ha

 

[sswilson]

How about banning air conditioners or clothes dryers or electricity for electric vehicles!
Food for thought......ha

I believe the list/chart includes common household appliances like AC and Clothes dryers. It just sets some kind of efficiency standard for them.

 

[Marzipan]

actually, on another forum that I saw this for the first time, there are comments that it has to do with idle power consumption. however, if that's the truth, then Dell had a serious knee jerk reaction in total ban / block of any Alienware PC's to the states with this legislation.

ironically...none of the XPS line is blocked, despite the high end specs they can be outfitted with. heh!

 

[Shadowmeph]

I didn't read the article you linked to, but I've been following this in my travels today.

What it breaks down to is that there's a chart of some form which lists the maximum power draw of specific devices, and some higher end manufacturers' gaming PCs are over those limits.

The easy solution/back door? Sell those PCs without the GPUs with an option to purchase the GPU separately.

or they could just have the ubuildit they supply all the parts you put it together also what about people who own several servers at home there power draw must be high also

 

[moocow]

Not just computer, monitor max brightness output is also subjected. Only impacts prebuilt systems at the moment so people can still custom build power hogs all they want.

 

[ZZLEE]

Jays2cents has a good breakdown of whats going on.

 

[tonytdnguyen89]

How about banning air conditioners or clothes dryers or electricity for electric vehicles!
Food for thought......ha

Oooo. In for this lol. It'll just be like living back in the old days back home!!

 

[Izerous]

Gaming machines are basically exempt from this and a lot of people are over reacting. The Jayztwocents video linked above does a really good job of explaining it in better detail.

Basically if it has something like a 600+ PSU and a good enough GPU it is exempt.

It also only applies to system integrators not home built.

This main seems to target office machines more than anything and it has to do with sleep power states. Think of how many office computers are asleep in an office tower 16+ hours a day. The less expandable the machine the tighter the restrictions. Tiny 1 off dell desktops that can't even add a sound card in these office towers are more heavily restricted than anything else. Laptop are also more heavily restricted due to their low expandability.

This is where the push for ATX12VO also came from because it is a large leap in sleep state power efficiency.