DELL XPS 1640 ~ low power consumption server

Hello,

recently I replaced my old dell (centrino) laptop with a newer DELL XPS 1640 laptop (Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU P8700 @ 2.53GHz)
I use the laptop as a 24/7 webserver/dataserver/mediacenter/solar panel logging system but the XPS consumes a lot more power than my previous centrino (14W vs 25W)

I allready did the following to reduce the power consumption:
- CPU undervolted with software (CPUGenie)
- GPU underclocked with software (MSIAfterburner)
- disabled WLAN / DVD-drive through device management (but I don't think that disabling it will mean that it won't consume anything anymore because I allready tried to disable the VGA card too and that didn't drop the power consumption)

After these modifications, the laptop only consumes ~20W instead of ~25W.

Now the question o): is it possible to strip parts to make it more energy friendly?
e.g.: I don't need the graphic card, screen, wlan, dvd drive, .. (in case of problems, I will assemble it back)

I think the VGA card consumes a lot of energy (ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 1024MB) but I don't know how to strip it and I don't know whether the system will boot (pass the BIOS tests) without the card (I don't need it because I always work through remote desktop but I don't know whether the PC will boot without the graphic card..); WLAN/DVD and screen won't be a problem to boot without I guess (the screen on my previous centrino wasn't attached too)
Any hints/ideas? Where can I find a disassembling manual for the XPS?

Thanks in advance (and sorry for the english)

 

You can't remove the graphics card as it's soldered to the motherboard. You can't "turn it off" either. If that last 5W to 10W is that important to you, I'd highly recommend not using a 1640 as it's not really good at this low-power game (as you have seen). Sell it and get like an IGP E6400, etc.

 

too bad! I don't want to buy a new notebook for it (it's not a mather of life and dead )

 

Yeah, I'm not sure what you can do then. Disconnecting the screen could save a couple of watts (more or less depending on what brightness you were using), but everything else after the CPU/GPU/screen is basically contributing a negligible amount to the total power draw. An SSD could also help if you are using like an old dual-platter 7200RPM drive. You can find the 1640 service manual from the Dell support site.

 

the screen goes off after 5 minutes so I don't know whether it will help to consume less power (on my previous notebook I just disconnected the screen because he was too tick)

I have the following hard drive: Seagate Momentus 7200.4 ST9500420ASG, 500GB SATA-300, 16MB, 7200rpm
Is a replacement with an SSD worth it? (it's faster but will it be visible in power consumption or is it 1-2W?)

 

If you're already turning off the screen, disconnecting it will make a negligible difference. Replacing the above drive with an SSD is probably only good for a couple watts at max idle. Like I said, there really isn't that much you can do here if you're limiting yourself to the 1640.

 

hm for 1-2Watts making a cost of $100 isn't worth it..
Do I have to look for a notebook with onboard graphics to have a low power (but powerfull) system? (my previous notebook is replaced because he wasn't fast enough to stream blueray media over the network)