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    Optical Drive vs HDD battery life

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by Cerebral, Oct 30, 2006.

  1. Cerebral

    Cerebral Notebook Geek

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    I've never owned a laptop, though hopefully i soon will within the next few months :)

    I plan on watching movies etc, specifically DVDs. I was wondering if there would be any difference in battery life if i was to watch the dvd ripped onto my HDD or straight from the DVD? or wouldnt there really be any difference?

    so overall which is better Optical Drive or HDD on preserving battery life?

    (sorry if this has been answered b4)

    Thanks :)
     
    Cerebral, Oct 30, 2006
    #1
  2. dragonesse

    dragonesse Notebook Deity

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    I'm not completely certain, but I'd guess watching from the harddrive would consume less battery life because you wouldn't be powering both the hdd and the optical drive simultaneously.
     
    dragonesse, Oct 30, 2006
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  3. rockharder

    rockharder Notebook Evangelist

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    In some case, it depends on your RAM size. If your RAM is as little as 512MB with shared video memory, chances are DVD player may use HD to cache the movie a bit. But if you have 1GB RAM, your HD could probably sleep while you are only watching DVD.
     
    rockharder, Oct 30, 2006
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  4. drumfu

    drumfu super modfu

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    HD takes less power than the DVD drive
     
    drumfu, Oct 30, 2006
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  5. Cerebral

    Cerebral Notebook Geek

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    Thanks for the replies :)

    Looks like ill be using the Hdd more than, i plan to have at least 1-2 gig as well.
     
    Cerebral, Oct 30, 2006
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