HP claims to be the first company to offer PCs that meet the latest energy-efficiency standards from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). 

The company said that it is the first major PC manufacturer to offer 80 per cent efficient power supplies, a key component of the stringent Energy Star 4.0 regulations that come into effect on 20 July.

HP's dc5700, dc5750 and dc7700 business desktop PCs are configurable to use less power, according to the firm, which is better for the environment and helps customers reduce energy costs.

Lab tests found that the optional 80 per cent efficient power supplies and other Energy Star 4.0 hardware requirements can reduce total system power consumption by as much as 52 per cent.

This translates into an average annual cost saving of $6 to $58 (£3.10 to £30) per PC, according to HP figures.

"Our expanding family of energy-efficient desktop PCs not only help business customers meet upcoming regulatory requirements, but reduce the impact on the environment by meeting the EPA's most stringent Energy Star requirements yet," said Jeri Callaway, senior vice president and general manager at HP's Personal Systems Group in the Americas.

HP said that customers using PCs configured to meet the Energy Star 4.0 requirements could benefit from increased reliability, reduced maintenance costs and decreased air conditioning costs because the machines generate less heat.

Energy Star 4.0 configurations of the HP Compaq dc5700 and dc7700 business desktop PCs are available now, featuring Intel Core 2 Duo processors, 80GB hard drives, 1GB of memory and DVD/CD-RW combo drives, with prices starting at $899 (£465) and $959 (£496) respectively.

The HP Compaq dc5750 desktop PC with AMD Athlon processor, 80GB hard drive, 512MB of memory and DVD/CD-RW combo drive starts at $609 (£315).