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    About Notebook Power Consumption

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Mr.Koala, Oct 10, 2012.

  1. Mr.Koala

    Mr.Koala Notebook Virtuoso

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    Thinking about getting a notebook with a 180w power source (namely Clevo 150) and put some fast chips into it. According to the reviews I found, you can put the most power hungry stuff into this chassis and it should run just fine. But after some calculation I found my self worrying:

    The CPU along would take 55w. A GPU will need 100w. 2 SSDs running at full speed (for me it's common) may take 10w, HDDs will take more. Both chips are running hot, so the fans will be at peak performance, leading to maybe 40w. There are many devices not put into consideration yet, but it's already 205w!

    I understand that the chips will not hit TDP often, if ever. However, neither will a 180w power brick output 180w. Does this mean the system will need to take power from the battery when pushed to the limit? Can I do something like underclocking to stop that?

    Or maybe I should just do this?
     
    Mr.Koala, Oct 10, 2012
    #1
  2. maverick1989

    maverick1989 Notebook Deity

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    TDP is not power consumed. Your concepts are a bit off. Actually a lot off. What fan uses 40W of power? That is a LOT of power to drive a small motor requiring a pretty low torque.

    Also, what SSD uses 5W of power? You have been a bit too generous in assigning power required.

    Components EXCLUDING CPU and GPU consume at the MOST about 30W of power. This is worst case scenario. My 3610QM is rated at 45W TDP but when all eight logical cores are running at 3.1GHz, it consumed only about 31W.
     
    maverick1989, Oct 10, 2012
    #2
  3. Jarhead

    Jarhead 恋の♡アカサタナ

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    Like maverick said, TDP rating isn't what your laptop will run at 100% of the time, and I've never, ever seen a 40W fan before (where did you get those numbers)?

    180W will be fine for you. My laptop has a 170W charger and has similar components to what you're looking at (SB quad-core, mid-range or mid-high-range GPU, dual SSDs).
     
    Jarhead, Oct 10, 2012
    #3
  4. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    See my sig for my reviews and power consumption. i7-3610QM, GTX 680m, 16GB DDR3, 256GB mSATA SSD, 512GB SATA SSD, Blu-Ray Drive, 15.6" display, two fans. Max power draw (from the wall) with gaming is 140-150W. That's for some top end hardware too.
     
    HTWingNut, Oct 10, 2012
    #4
  5. Mr.Koala

    Mr.Koala Notebook Virtuoso

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    :( Fast Googling leads to facepalm moments.

    Thanks for replies. One fewer thing to worry about.
     
    Mr.Koala, Oct 11, 2012
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  6. tijo

    tijo Sacred Blame

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    To add to that, assuming that the PSU is 90% efficient (which is probably more than it really is), that would mean 125W-135W of actual power draw.
     
    tijo, Oct 11, 2012
    #6