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    Choosing components that will help save battery life

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by oktoberfest, Jan 20, 2008.

  1. oktoberfest

    oktoberfest Notebook Guru

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    I'm pretty sure that a smaller screen size will help decrease battery drain while having a dedicated video card like a 8600GT will increase battery drain. I'm guessing a 1.6 ghz processor vs a 2.0 ghz processor will help since it's drawing less power. But what about stuff like screen resolution, hard drive speed, and RAM or anything else?
     
    oktoberfest, Jan 20, 2008
    #1
  2. chubbyfatazn

    chubbyfatazn Notebook Evangelist

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    The power draws for the Core 2 Duos are the same in the T5xxx and T7xxx series, so battery life won't change much in that area.

    Hard drive speed would lower the battery life a little, but it's nothing drastic, I believe maybe 15-25 minutes or so (correct me if I'm wrong, I don't own a 7200rpm drive). RAM and screen resolution won't make a difference.
     
    chubbyfatazn, Jan 20, 2008
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  3. M1530

    M1530 Notebook Evangelist

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    If you can get one a penryn will help with battery life screen resolution might make a diffrence just because they could be diffrent brightnesses as is the case with the Dell M1530 1440x800 250nits 1680x1050 220nits. I guess you may find RAM that could use lower voltages as well.
     
    M1530, Jan 20, 2008
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  4. John Ratsey

    John Ratsey Moderately inquisitive Super Moderator

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    Intel's CPU power specs tend to be a big envelope. This thread suggests that a CP with 4MB cache will use more power than a CPU with 2MB cache. A Penryn CPU, if you can get it, seems to leak a little less power.

    Higher screen resolution means more pixels to redraw, so it might drain a little more power. However, you are likely to get more power saving by looking for a display with an LED backlight, which is more efficient.

    Two RAM modules are likely to take more power than one, but is worth it for better performance. More RAM is also likely to reduce HDD activity.

    John
     
    John Ratsey, Jan 20, 2008
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  5. Gotei 13

    Gotei 13 Notebook Evangelist

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    if you underclock your GPU at normal use you should save some power
     
    Gotei 13, Jan 20, 2008
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