32 bit data transfert bios choice: what is this?

Hi, on my "new" laptops, i can select/deselect on bios one choice called:
"32 bit data transfert"
What is this? It is a good choice? Can i improve the performance of HD selecting it?

 

Yes!

You have very old 'new' systems with IDE HDD's, I think.

 

Yes.............
Now i want to know especially if it increase much more the power consuming........

 

I'd be sure that the power usage would increase when the drive was 100% utilized, but the much faster transfers would more than offset that additional power needed by letting the drive drop down to idle mode faster.

Same thing as cpu's: the 'hurry up and idle' strategy is very effective at giving even a modern quadcore system 3, 4 or more hrs battery life when used for 'lite' computing - because even though the processor will spin up to full speed - it only needs to do that for a fraction of a second and then it could drop down to it's fully conservative idling mode (or even turn specific cores on and off totally).

Just know though that if the battery lasts a little less than it did before, it is simply because you are now pushing (using...) your system in a more demanding way because of it's increased performance capability.

Doing the same work, I would bet that there would be a net power savings (on battery power) - but it is hard to limit ourselves to do the same amount of work when our systems allow us to push them harder.

 

OK, thanks. My "new" laptop (an old nec versa daylite) allows me to adjust settings on bios to make more efficient in power managment the unit. I can set memory onboard value, video ram, cpu speed and HD IDE data transfert.
A switch in the lcd corner allows me to on/off the lcd backlight, it is a reflective display that works even in direct sunlight/daylight enviroment.
I can combine in various modes these settings. Never i have seen in my life a system working in this way.
Good or no, for now and in the future, this will be my "regular" and "every day" laptop with linux inside.