Computer maker Dell, Inc. (NASDAQ: DELL) wants to make its laptop and desktop PCs way more energy efficient within the next few years. For those of you who haven't been following Dell's "green" initiatives, this is just the latest in a string of them this year.

In addition to powering its entire corporate headquarters using green energy, Dell now wants to make its consumer PCs use 25% less power by 2010. For the world's second-largest PC maker, making that kind of a radical change in less than 24 months could prove to be an engineering challenge.

But then again, Dell seems to be playing the "one up" game with larger competitor Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ), which also played up the "green" card recently. The good news is that Dell's laptop and desktop computer systems --consumer and corporate -- are already some of the most energy efficient in the marketplace. And, if Dell can seize upon this projected change and sell energy reduction to the customer base it has instead of giga this and giga that, perhaps it can boost its sales. For many companies and consumers, even base models have enough horsepower to do most daily computing tasks. The "green-ness" of a new PC purchase could be the next frontier in PC marketing.