Will 2 hard drives drain my battery quickly?

Im currently considering customizing a Toshiba Satelite P200 and it has an option to either get 120 gb drive instead of 80 gb drive for $75 more or add a 2nd drive (starting at 120 gb) for $75. It seems to me that 200gb total is better than 120 for the same money but I am concerned about the additional drain this might cause on the battery. I read somewhere that 7200 rpm drives drain considerably more energy than 5400 rpm which leads me to think 2 drives would be quite a lot of drain if theres such a difference in just the rpm.

Your thoughts and comments are appreciated!

Thanks!
-C

 

The quick answer is yes. Anything that is a faster option when deciding on a laptop config be faster processer, 7200rpm vs 5400rpm HDD or deciated graphics vs intergrated. All these will eat battery life faster.

With two 5400rpm drives vs one 7200rpm its a little more difficult. If they were in a raid two would definately drain the battery alot faster. But for 2 indepent drives I would not be 100% certain without knowing their stats. Someone on this forum should be able to tell whether a 5400rpm under load plus one 5400rpm idle would eat more power than one 7200rpm drive.

 

One HDD will use between 1 and 4W. Have a look at the maximum and minimum power consumptions on Tom's Hardware 2.5" HDD charts.

If we assume that one HDD draws an average of 2.5W and the rest of the computer draws 22.5W, then we have 25W for one HDD and 27.5W for 2 HDDs. Assuming an effective battery capacity of 50WHr (typical for a 6 cell battery) then 25W = 2 hours and 27.5W = 1.82 hours, so you lose about 11 minutes. If you have a bigger battery but higher power drain then the proportional effect will be less. If your computer is very power-efficient and draws only 15W then the proportion effect of a second HDD will be more. The difference will also depend on the HDD usage.

Fill in your own numbers to reach your own conclusion, but the methodology is the same.

John

 

I basically agree very much with John Ratsey, but personally believe that the P200 draws more than 25 watts. The actual current draw will depend on your power settings and usage, of course.
Also, cegamer, it seems you didn't notice that a 80GB + 120GB drive is not an option in the P200. You can only get two 120GB drives for a total of $150.