Battery Life on m17x

So im planning on purchasing this laptop, for school and home use. At home it will be plugged in for gaming (obviously) so no worries on batt. life inside the house, but at school how long can i expect the battery to last?

I know this also depends on the set up, so i plan on getting I7 720qm, 500 gb HDD, xfire 5870s, 6gb 1333mhz ram, blu ray burner(wont be using this in class though), RGBLED Screen, Intel® Ultimate N WiFi card.

How long do you think that setup would last at school on the lowest settings the laptop will clock down to? and how much time does SDD give back rather then getting an HDD? Is it a noticable difference between hard drive types?

 

Regardless of what you get, you won't get very much battery life.

See my config below, I get an hour if I'm lucky.

EDIT: Hour and a half if you went out of your way to turn power saving settings on and use it in a power saving manner.

 

Really, thats with like screen brightness low and everything, hmm, anyone else wanna weigh in ?? Just trying to gather a bunch of peoples experience on this laptop.

If you've gotten more then 1 1/2 hours please state your set up and your settings you used to get more than that. Thats almost ...... almost a deal breaker.

For the most part im sure ill find a plug at school to suck some juice. In-class time is what im kinda worried about, most class rooms weren't equiped with plugs back in the day thinking laptops were the new pad and paper and most classes run for an hour solid, then going from one class back to back means my next class only has a half hour or word proccessing batt....

 

If you are gaming it's going to be about minutes. If you are watching a movie it's going to be about 1h20.

 

Well if you do basic stuff, like word proccessing and internet, then you can get around 2 hrs. with the right settings. I have goten almost 2.5 hrs. with my screen brightness half way, proc set to max at 25%, HDD goes to sleep after 5 min of inactivity and alienware fx off.

 

Whoops wrong thread...

 

Well on my older gen M17 which uses less power and has a bigger 12-cell battery compared to the M17x's 9-cell (the M17x does have a 9 cell right? If I remember rightly) I get max 2 hours on full power saving. So I'm guessing you'd struggle to get 1 and a half out of the M17x.

 

Yep, 1.5 hr is the absolute max with minimal brightness and simple office work, even browsing the web will reduce it greatly. Plus, last 5mins are considered critical so substract them as well. Booting alone will eat 5-10mins, lol.
Even with i5-520M I get 1hr 20min in idle mode. (up to 1hr 40min in ideal conditions)

 

Hmmm gives me something to think about for sure, id like to jump down to the m15x, but it doesnt get the benifit of the 5870s and thats mainly the reason for the m17x. That and im pretty sure it doesnt get the I7 CPU aswell. Ill be just doing basic word doc, and like maybe a program or 2 on the web, depending on class. If i can atleast make it through a few classes id be fine id be able to charge up at lunch break or something. Im just not 100% sure which classes have plugs if any do, most lecture halls dont.

Another concern would just be sending it to sleep mode i guees for the inbetween classes so it doesnt pig on battery when waking it up (not hard booting every class I get in).


EDIT: Forgot to ask this, is there a bigger aftermarket battery for the m17x? If so can anyone link. I was thinking i could also get away with buying a second battery and swapping, do you guys think that would be a decent alternative or is it to combersom to be concidering (pulling off a batt. in class putting on a new one, turning on. That kinda thing)?

Late EDIT: is there a bigger aftermarket battery for the m17x? like a 12 cell or some junk??

 

Really, man, I wouldn't even consider this laptop if you want it to be portable and last long on battery, it's pretty much the opposite.

It weighs like 14lbs lol

but it's awesome, just played Shattered Horizon flawlessly

 

haha k, the weight doesnt bother me, im a body builder a little stone in a back to me, desk space isnt an issue either , lecture desks as small at the are will hold a 17 " laptop.

My concern is battery, For class use I'll just need word doc and web browser , for the most part if it can last me at least 2 lectures on low settings than my order for m17x is set, if not ill probably concider the m15x DIY with 1 5870 .

One more question whats 1 5870m compared to 2 in xfire? Is it a huge leap in performance, or marginal at best?

 

I Hate to be a pest on these forums, you guys have been great, but can anyone confirm concretely that with everything on low with stealth mode, id only get 2 ours max, or would i be able to squeeze a little bit more out of it?

 

Yes you can, I messed with the power settings on mine and I have gotten around 2.5 hrs. It wont stay like that over time but it should last as long as you mess with the power options.

 

Thanks, that makes me a bit happier, as long as i can do a few classes before having to charge or swap battery, does Alienware put out bigger batteries later on ?

EDIT: Im going to take a look on ebay for any after market batteries too if they exist, does anyone use or know of bigger aftermarket batteries?

 

Honestly if you need battery longer than 2 hours then you're looking at the wrong laptop for sure.

The jump between a single 5870 and two 5870s really depends on what games you plan on playing. For those that don't scale well on Crossfire you'll only get a small increase, yet those that use Crossfire well will see an 80% or so boost.

I'd love to know what power settings you messed with to get 2 and a half hours.

 

Personally, I would really NOT recommend dragging this laptop around the school to lectures and whatnot. This would not be the laptop to that with. If you really just want to drag it around the school all day, I would recommend the m15x or the m11x even.

 

The weight and size does not have any bearing on me, size does not matter. It will be like the laptop and maybe 2 books in a bag, maybe, most books have electronic versions now purchasable which is more convenient. Problem is batt life.

And im trying to kill 2 birds with one stone, I dont want to drop to 1 5870 just because money really isnt an issue either. Just trying to paint myself a picture here, looking into all options, I'm kind of still considering buying the m15 and sticking 1 5870 in there, but xfire would be nice in the long run .


EDIT: question does anyone have a list of XFIRE supported games?

 

Sorry for bumb this thread
I was trying to see how many time i will be able to play games with just the batter, but when i play just with this the games slow down; i tried to configure the energy consumption to get the best performance on game even with battery, but this dont have effect., also, i went to the CC a choose max performance on battery, for the card and the processor, but this don't take any effect, is like being on Stealth mode, which i see is not . . . Is this a normal behaviour or games on battery just dont go as fast they should go ?

 

I rarely use my laptop on battery but when i do i dont need preformance. I told it to shut off my HD after 5 min and set the proc to run max at 25% and I turn down the screen brightness and off the alien fx. I am able to whatch complete movies on a single charge.

Edit: I also have an SSD, I dont think it makes that much of a difference though. But it might.

 

Just get you an M17x R1 with a SSD for your OS. It brings you about 3hrs of battery usage.

 

Buying a M17x and asking about battery life is kinda a silly question. Buy a netbook for $300 if money isn't a issue.