M17x battery life?

What's the battery life like on the new m17x? If I needed to work on something for school, for example, and I had stealth mode on, what can I expect?

 

using the integrated gpu's, you'd be looking at around 3 hours, with discrete gpus then just 3 seconds

 

Haha 3 seconds lol , that long huh ? Is it really 3 hours though on the 9400m ? if so that will be amazing .

 

Yeah ~3 hours tested with intergrated... and about an hour with the dedicated

 

Yep... The M17x has given me the longest battery life I have tested yet for a 17" gaming system

 

Awesome, that's what I wanted to hear

(BTW, was this at full brightness, wifi on, etc?)

 

4/5 brightness, balanced power setting, wifi on and browsing got around 2.5 hrs

 

Dittos on the battery life. I am getting about 3:15 with lowest brightness, stealth, bluetooth off, and wifi. Now, imagine if Alienware introduces a 12 cell battery?

 

The couldn't- it wouldn't fit. The battery's at the front, so they can't make it stick out. Although it would be awesome to have some sort of better battery option (if they can engineer it).

 

i got a SSD so i will test with that

 

Not likely. When I run my M17 on battery with CrossfireX on, it lasts about 45 minutes to an hour and that's with the 3870s which have a 55W power consumption compared to 75W in the 260s/280s, and a 12 cell battery compared to 9 cell. I think an M17x on full load, dedicated graphics, you're looking at half an hour.

 

You can't technically run full load on dedicated. Battery technology hasn't kept up with computer technology, so most cards are throttled way down when on battery. If you disable powermizer and clock them up, you'll notice when you go on battery that your screen will freeze and the GPU's will restart (or you have to work through the static on the screen and disable them in the control panel).

 

Yeah, the three hours prospect was a big selling point as well for me.

[off topic]
Your config, (and mine - bluray) seem to be so popular. I have never seen so many users with 2.8Ghz, 4GB, 260m SLI, 320HD. I think it's the best bang for your buck (without any processor self-installation) and so do a lot more people.
[/off topic]

 

its because thats what we recommend

 

Actually that is true. On my side at least, Mandrake was kind enough to give me a few tips directly.

The waiting is really deadly... (I ordered around the same time you did, about 2 weeks ago)


Someone at Dell needs to come up with a bigger battery.

 

i ordered a 2 battery with a 25% off coupon it cost me 68 after shipping

 

It was the sweet price point for me. Had everything I wanted.. wish I could afford that Q9100.

I need to jump on that next time it comes around..that is a great price on that battery. I hope that Alienware/Dell comes up with a battery similar to HP's, in that it keeps almost a full charge even after 3 years.

 

Yeah, moo got the battery when it was selling for $90 w/25% off.

The battery is now priced at $180

 

That is what made me say . I definitely cannot afford that right now.

 

For me, a full charge lasts 3 hrs and 41 mins on integrated and high performance. That's good enough for me

 

With stealth mode and lowest settings and screen brightness i get about 3 to 4 hours of battery life. Although i don't run it on battery that often i have tested the battery life length.

 

Actually a spare battery (for any mobile device) should be considered as part of the purchase price.

Typically, the best time to purchase it is when you buy the laptop.

 

Enchephalon, I have heard that Win 7 probably adds about 10% of battery life. Is that what you are noticing as well? (I noticed you put Win 7 in your sig)

 

If you have power saver mode, you can get 3 hours 20min, on Balanced mode 2 hours 40 min, i don't know the high performance one yet.

 

2:40 it is the same as the balanced mode... there really isn't a balanced mode on this system

 

There is one if you highlight your mouse over the battery icon when you are not plugged in.

 

No lol I mean there is a balanced setting you can select... but it really doesn't do anything different then the high power

 

are these battery lifes being tested with all AlienFX on/off? I have to imagine that those have a considerable cumulative effect haha

Also 1 HDD vs 2? (and 5400rpm vs 7200rpm)

Just curious, not that I will ever use mine away from a plug for very long haha (but it will be dam nice to have a battery live again - my whitebook was great....until I added the 2nd 3870 - halved the battery life regardless of settings)

 

It is with Alien fx on.

 

wow, NICE haha I am excited

 

I tested that..I got an extra six minutes when I turned AlienFX off, at least that is what the battery icon said.

This I want to know as well, battery life issues is holding me back from adding in this second hard drive.

 

have any of you tried undervolting the CPU and seeing what battery life is at?

 

this cpu is starved for volts as it is (at least the qx9300 is)....why bother?

 

At this point, the 5400 is now obsolete. For any laptop worth it's salt, 7200 rpm is now the standard.

That's the compromise with a laptop replacement as powerful as this one. Battery life is not their strong point.

 

I have heard that as well but i have not tried the battery life on Windows 7 yet. The info i posted is what i got on Windows Vista Home Premium. I will test out the battery life on Windows 7 tomorrow and post the results.

Edit: Nevermind i have decided to test it tonight and it says with everything on low power and screen on lowest setting, that i am gonna get 4 hours and 19 minutes.

 

I think those tests are best left to the pros, don't you think?

 

What are you talking about just cause i havent posted much and you think i dont know anything about laptops. You think i am not capable of testing the battery life of a laptop and posting my results?

 

Hopefully that was a joke.

 

Ok, so per the windows battery meter, it does show some improvment. Thanks Encephalon. +1 rep

I'm also hoping what Krane said was a joke.


I appreciate the info Encehpalon.

 

Krane does come on here and say some weird $hit sometimes so, I dunno if that was a joke or not....

 

Well if it was ment as a joke then i'm sorry Krane, but if not then my message will stand.

As for Bubbamel your welcome. The battery life im getting is really good and to add to that windows 7 is so much more advance than vista which adds to the good battery life. Anytime you need to know anything about windows 7 just pm me i will see what i can do.

 

Is weird another way of saying you don't understand?

In any event, it was a question; and a reference to the use of the scientific method. Nevertheless, I'm sure many members would appreciate a "real" world report on battery life.

p.s. I typically take for granted, my style of writing is understood by most people. However, if there is ever any abiguity in the future, just say so and I'll clarify.

 

it didn't really seem like a question, rather, it seemed like an insult. judging battery life isn't all that difficult, and generally the battery icon tells a good estimate of what to expect depending on what you're currently doing.

in any event, are any of you planning on undervolting the CPU and seeing how much it increases battery life?

 

bump since people STILL don't know how to search