What are the CEC Regulations Targeting?

The regulation is primarily targeting energy consumption during idle states, I.E. when a computer is in hibernation, sleep, or off. They are NOT interfering with how much power it consumes while gaming or working. These regulations only affect pre-built systems, not custom build services or individual PC components.

A study conducted in 2015 by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) concluded that if the current CPU energy consumption continues, labeled in the graph as “Benchmark (system) – 10^-14 J/bit,” then computing will exceed the world’s energy production and won’t be sustainable by 2040. The group’s report, “Rebooting the IT Revolution,” then recommends that discoveries in better energy consumption need to happen soon so this falls in line with the new CEC regulations in effect.

So with all that said, does your computer need to be a high-end gaming system to be CEC Compliant? No. The power supply does need to be 80 Plus Gold Certified, but following that, only the motherboard or graphics card needs to be high expandability, not both. You can still have value-oriented builds, but the motherboard will feature more I/O by default as opposed to sparse entry-level boards or even OEM motherboards.

Can I Still Buy a Gaming PC?

The tightened CEC Regulations will have practically no noticeable effects on the end-user. Prebuilt PCs will have significantly better power efficiency in idle states and have more expandability on the motherboard which can extend the lifetime usability of a computer.