Notebook Hardware Control

Hi guys

I was browsing around over at this software that i downloaded and I noticed under hard disk tab it has a couple of choices under advanced power management. Mine is currently set at "without spindown (128)"

What does this exactly mean and all other choiced there?

Also - for undervolting it looks like the lowest that it allows you to undevolt the CPU is 6x .9500V

Is it as low as it can go and can I somehow how undervolt it even further, because right now it does not seems like it is giving you that option. I am currently operating at 6x .9500

Thanks is advance
vasylko

 

I'm wondering the same thing about that hard drive advanced power management.

It allows me to undervolt 6x .7000V
I'm far from experienced with NHC though so, I'm not sure what to tell you. I have an ASUS W3V by the way..

 

it is interesting

Why would it allow you to undevolt to 0.7000. Did you see that option already there or did you change something for that to appear. I do not even see it. The lowest I see is 6X and 0.9500

What processor do you have - I have Core Due

Thanks

 

It's a limitation of Yonah Core Duo chipsets. Intel has put a lock on it's minimum voltage at 0.95. For Pentium M (Centrino), which the W3V is, people can go down to the 0.7V area.

 

It is sad thing that new Core-series is limited to 0.95V. P-M can go much more lower voltages. Core Duo and Solo both have this limit.

 

APM essentially manages the HDs spin profile and whether the platters go into standby on non-use. These options haven't made any difference in terms of power use (that I can tell) with my z63. I think 128 lowers the power consumption but keeps the platters spinning, and 1 stops the platters altogether (so they have to be spun up again before the heads can access the data); probably saves some power, but not enough that I've seen an impact.... I get better effects on battery life by turning down the LCD brightness or cutting the wifi when I'm not using it Acoustic management does the same thing generally, and also causes a difference in transfer/seek times when I run HDTune.

I just let mine sit at 128 PMgmt, since there doesn't seem to be a big hit on performance by using that setting. My fujitsu HD has good acoustic management already built in, so I just leave my setting on 256. Your mileage may vary

 

The thing is that HD uses most power while it is spinning up. So you may ask is it better to have a HD that spins up once and then it maintains that speed, or is it better to have it turned off and spin up every time you access it. Well I can say that Windows make it almost impossible to have it turned off more than a minute or two. Even I have 2GB ram it always needs something from the disk. After a while it will turn off, but spin up after a minute. Even if I leave it alone and not doing anything.

Now - power consuption seems a bit lower than to have it always running, and temperature of the disk drops quite a lot, but the stress of the constant spinning up is also much higher. So I decided to leave it on 128 - normal usage. I will try that 256 setting - just to see what is the difference.

Cheers,

Ivan

 

Correct!

set it to (1), and set the time to 1 minute. You'll hear it spin to a stop in about 30seconds or so. I've gone back to 128 cos (1) take a while to wake up again, and really hacks me off. Its like using a PC with a old wireless mouse that needs to wake up.

as ikovac said, leaving it set to (1) automatically wakes up by itself. Try closing NHC and you'll see that it doesnt start up by iteslf. Also turn the S.M.A.R.T to only be enabled while on AC power. that also make it sleep till you move the mouse and open something

128 and 256 didnt make a difference for me on my 7200rpm drive, although when the drive is really working, 128 is quieter.

Insane