Dell grabs a gold. That is, a gold rating for one of its server power supplies

For those of you keeping count, Dell chalks up a Gold certification from the 80 Plus organization for one of its server power supplies. This means that the component scores a 92 percent minimum efficiency rating when running at 50 percent of its rated output. Dell also has earned a Silver rating for some of its desktop power supplies, which I reported on a couple of weeks ago.

This is a differentiator for Dell, because it puts the company ahead of schedule to comply with some criteria set forth by both the Energy Star program and the Climate Savers industry group. On the desktop side, the Silver ratings mean that the power supplies are 3 percent more efficient than what is required under the Energy Star 5.0 draft AND that it already has met the Climate Savings Computing Initiative requirements (which aren't slated to go into effect until a year from now). (Incidentally, here are some comments on the Energy Star 5.0 draft that were made public a couple of weeks ago.) On the server side, the Gold rating puts the company ahead of schedule with Climate Savers.