[philipkglass]

The response cites a table showing that desktop PCs sold after 2021-07-01 must consume no more than 75 kilowatt hours per year (base rate, with adders allowed for some features). 75 kWh/year is only 8.6 watts of continuous power draw. Even a basic budget desktop will drastically exceed 8.6 W if it's on continuously with significant load, like running folding@home. Since practically every desktop computer can draw more than 8.6 watts and sales of only a few computer models are restricted, I conclude that the restrictions are not about power consumption in the fully active state.