Dell Launches the Studio Hybrid, the "Conscientious" PC

You'll hear a PC labeled as many things, from "an uber-gaming system" to "budget-minded" and more, but this PC is "eco-friendly," or as Dell calls it, its first "conscientious" desktop. It was announced (though unnamed) at Fortune Brainstorm: Green in Los Angeles on (what else) Earth Day, earlier this year, and launched on Tuesday. The idea of this desktop PC was to put laptop components into it, to reduce size and power consumption.

The now-named Studio Hybrid is available now, and comes in a variety of colors, including green and bamboo. Yes, real bamboo, and that customization is available via the use of sleeves, so you can change the color to match if you decide to paint your office.

To be honest, minus the keyboard and monitor, I've seen external hard drives or external DVD drives that are this big, so it's pretty small. In fact, this reminds me a great deal of an old Plextor external DVD-burner I have.

Obviously not for the gamer, it starts at $499 for a system with an Intel Pentium Dual-Core T2390 (1.86GHz/533Mhz FSB/1MB cache) CPU, 1 GB of RAM and a 160 GB hard drive (no monitor). CPU-wise, you can go all the way up to an Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 (2.6GHz/800Mhz FSB/6MB cache).

All systems come with an Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 video card (you didn't really think you could stuff an external card in this, did you?). You can, however, slap 4 GB of RAM and a 320 GB hard drive into it.

In terms of the "greenness" of this PC, Dell is pitching it as follows:

Size and materials

Our smallest design is about 80% smaller than standard desktops, and it contains about 75% less printed documentation by weight when compared to typical tower desktops.

Power usage

Uses about 70% less power than a typical desktop, and meets Energy Star^® 4.0 standards with an 87% efficient power supply.

Packaging

Studio Hybrid packaging is made from 95% recyclable materials. And the Studio Hybrid comes with a system-recycling kit, so you can help preserve and protect the environment.

Will this "green" PC add green to Dell's bank account? Personally, if I want notebook components, I usually go with a notebook, but you still can't get one in bamboo (yet). And one of the advantages of a desktop (with the exception of SFF PCs, which can still often take a decently performancing graphics card) is upgradeability, something this doesn't really have.

Still, "green" counts for a lot with consumers nowadays, so this might actually sell. We'll see.