Y50 Battery improvements

Hi,

The Y50 is the almost perfect combination of portability and gaming. It's light, slim, inexpensive and packs a powerful GTX 860m. Even if the screen is an issue, it can be fixed by replacing it for ~$90 (as outlined here).

Equiped with an IPS display- the last hurdle is battery life. If we could get it lasting up to 6 hours with normal use (like the Acer v7 series) - it would represent the ultimate affordable portable gaming laptop.

Do we need a modified bios to change the volt speeds on the CPU (ie under-clock to extend battery-life)? Is there a possibility of this happening?

<strike>Could we replace the CPU a more efficient one (like the 4510U)?</strike> I realise this isn't possible without having to solder the new one... So I'll rule this out

All ideas welcome

 

This is impossible unless you go linux and start messing with kernal changes and extreme undervolting and etc things.

 

So potentially, if I had a dual boot setup, I could just boot into a linux OS and underclock it and then it would stay underclocked when I reboot back into windows?

 

The Y50's battery life has turned me away from this device. Such a shame as this looks like such a solid laptop.

Here's a recent review

Can anyone suggest an alternative?

 

You aren't going to find everything perfect in a laptop of this price... The closest thing to a perfect, portable laptop so far is the gx500 from what I've seen

 

Yes but in a community like this i hoped there was enough interest to modify this laptop o make it happen.

The gx500 is missing a numpad, is glossy and im unsure of the battery lofe

 

Oh, it's possible. But only if you're willing to put together your own battery pack and if you're willing to design a new bottom cover and have it made with a 3D printer or whatever. There's no space in the laptop to add extra battery, so you'd have to create the space. Hell, I've got the knowledge to put together a CAD file so the back plate could be created. I also don't really mind putting together a battery pack. The thing is, it's much more cost effective to just buy an external battery pack.

What I've done to improve battery life is undervolt using Intel XTU. Do that, disable any unnecessary devices, replace the SSHD with an SSD (both performance and battery improvements), etc. Turning off the keyboard backlight may save a few watts, increase the life by maybe 3-5 minutes. I've been looking into replacing the screen with one of those IPS screens, but the max power consumption of that screen is about 7W whereas this screen is about 3.5-4W. Now, I did hear that the IPS screen is a lot brighter. Turning down the brightness to a brightness equivalent to that of the TN screen might bring power usage down to near-equal levels. I don't know. Maybe someone over there can take some power measurements at different brightnesses of the different screens.

 

Thanks for that reply. After doing all that, how much battery life are you getting with normal browsing use?