m1330 + SSD battery life

anyone have stats on the battery life of a 1330 with 64GB SSD with a 6 or 9 cell battery?

 

When I unplug from the mains, Vista tells me that I'm getting around 5hrs 5mins from my 9 cell battery. I've not done specific tests to check this out myself but I don't have any trouble believing that I'm getting in excess of 4 hours out of it. I have the LED backlit screen and 64GB SSD. I tend to use the machine for surfing with the internal HSDPA modem and a bit of word processing when out on the move.

Cheers,

jahboo

 

Flamenko did some tests comparing an SSD drive to a 7200rpm drive.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=171197
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=158130
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/08/13/flash_based_hard_drives_cometh/index.html
In my opinion the battery life difference is not worth the cost of an SSD drive if that is the reason why you want to buy one.
Battery life with a 9 cell battery with an LED screen depending on use with a standard drive can run from 3 hours 40 minutes (watching DVD's) to 7 hours 50 hours minutes( word processing with wifi and bluetooth of).

I have a 6 cell battery and i can get 4 hours in normal use with a standard HD with power saving measures with wifi on and lowered brightness with the 8400GS card. I can get 6 hours plus on the clock also (this does not mean that i would end getting all that time i think that i would be looking at somewhere around 5 hours i don't know for sure though) if i do word processing also. I was getting this the last time i checked i haven't checked again with the Intel Turbo Memory and neither the SD card i have also recently turned of the indexing option for my HD i don't know if that makes a difference at all.

I obtained the upper end battery life for the 9 cell by simply multiplying my battery life by 1.5 which should give a fair account of the 9 cell battery life.


http://usera.imagecave.com/rachuk/forum2.JPG

http://usera.imagecave.com/rachuk/forum3.JPG

 

I think realistic tests are hard to quantify in terms of battery life in any case. As for the value of the SSD, well that's down to personal choice and available funds, of course. If you consider it as a 3, or more, year investment then the extra cost may work for you as it did for me.

I find that one of the main advantages of the SSD is that the machine runs very cool. Much cooler, I imagine, than with the hard drive in it. Other than that, I know that the battery life is, in theory, better although perhaps not by a huge margin - maybe 20%. That extra 20% though, may buy you an advantage when you're stuck away from a handy power socket. I think it's good to have. Clearly, the SSD is more robust than a hard disk too, which is a distinct advantage when you carry a notebook around with you day in and day out, given the potential for knocks, etc. A performance advantage, too for system start up, and certain applications, adds up to a compelling case for the SSD ignoring the cost angle to an extent. I've never seen Word or Excel start up in less than 3 seconds on a laptop before and I bet you haven't either .

If you call Dell and get a quote over the phone, you may be pleasantly surprised at the kind of deal they can do you with the SSD too. I'm pretty certain I paid nothing like the $1000 extra quoted in the article.

Cheers,

jahboo

 

thanks for the input.

now i just have to decide on the m1330 or the sony tz. the 1330 is cheaper, but the sony is oh so sexy.

decisions, decisions.

 

Just checked, Word opens in a tick under 3 seconds (about 2.5) on my 1420 with the 5400rpm drive. I'll bet its because of superfetch though.

 

I can find it believable that there could be a 20% difference with a ssd vice a hard drive, given the right usage. It would not occur with simple internet and wordprocessor usage but one needs to consider, if you are using your system for demanding applications, everything falls into place. The hard drive use is much higher, ergo a great deal of heat which results in significant fan usage.

You just dont see this with a SSD. You get less power consumption and less fan use.

With respect to Dell deals, I have heard a few now state that they had been successful bringing the price of their system down to eliminate any price concern with the SSD. Its luck of the draw on the rep you get.

As for the SSD, I must admit, its a totally different system with the SSD in it. Much quicker in basic operations, much quieter, cooler and so on. In one of my earlier articles, I made note that you end up catching yourself sitting waiting for the action to occur on the screen only to find it already has.

As for price, I have been in contact quite a bit with memoright, Mtron, Ridata to name just a few. I should have sample disks of their newest for tests in the next few weeks at which time i will also post North American distributors to buy from. Im afraid to say that 7-850 is still the norm for a 32Gb SSD.

ASs for the Samsung 64Gb.... I still cannot find a distributor who will sell outside the preconfigured system window.

Oh and Word...starts instantly with the SSD.

 

If you can bring the cost right down then that is great. I bought a 32GB SSD before but it never worked out for me as i bought the wrong one.

Like i said in normal use say if you was going to get a 10% improvement in battery life if you were paying a lot of money down for one just for the battery life i don't think it is worth it. If however you also care for some of the other advantages of the SSD drive then it makes it more worthwhile.

Using a SD ReadyBoost card is meant to yield a 3% improvement in battery life and a Hybrid HD/Ready Drive is also meant to yield a 3%-5% (depending on cache size+ rpm of the HD also) improvement in battery life also.

 

Rachel my love...still making me green with envy over your laptop are you?

 

Hi Flamenko I read that you went away for a while. I hope that you had a good time away.
Lol about my laptop. I love the colour to and the extra freebies that Dell has given me. Nobody can quite match your deals though.

Edited to add:
Slightly of topic but here are some test results to back up what i was saying in my other post.
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1997087&postcount=17
http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/should-you-care-about-hybrid-hard-drives,review-2350-13.html
I am using an SD card as Ready Boost and Intel Turbo Memory also right now and i think that i have noticed that the computer draws power at a slightly lower rate than before. I haven't done any conclusive tests on this as i have not run my battery right down for a while but that is just what i think i noticed anyway.

 

Went away for a few days to NYC. If you ever travel out of the UK, GO THERE!!! I have travelled worldwide and find now that I go there 5-6 times a year. It never ceases to amaze me.

And the food!!!!!

 

Oh you went to NYC, lol I live there, i want to travel to the UK !

 

I have been to America before but never NYC but i do hope to go there next year some time.

The earlier Samsung 32GB SSD drives consume less energy than the 64GB SSD do. The 64GB SSD drives consume not much less energy at full load than some standard 5400 HD's. At idle they consume the same amount of energy.
Battery life i could maybe see a 20% increase if you are using a Samsung 32GB SSD drive but i think you are looking at maybe a 5-10% increase if you are using a standard 5400 HD and maybe a 10%-15% increase when compared with a 7200 RPM HD.