Notebook Power: Where Does it All Go?
Notebook power draw by component type
Our buds over at WebWorkerDaily are sharing info from Microsoft engineers on power consumption in modern notebooks. Some of you are probably already aware that the display draws the most power. Did you know it was nearly 50%? This is why I favor the newer LED backlit screens and more importantly, set my brightness to the lowest usable level. All this week at CES, for example, I’ve used my MacBook at the minimum brightness. It takes getting used to, but I’m accustomed to it as I do the same on all of my mobile devices; even my iPhone.
The above chart also exemplifies why we’re not witnessing vast increases in overall battery life from SSD drives. When the hard drive only accounts for 5% of power consumption, you’re going to see a minimal benefit.
hopefully we get alot of feedback on this, but these numbers are just flatout wrong.
most netbook LED backlit displays use no more than 3w at full brightness. only way their numbers make sense it it is CCFL instead of LED
the CPU/chipset consumes more than LED backlit displays
most HDD at full speed consume around 2w which is much higher than 8%
i gatta be honest, why am i not surprised when MS releases something it lacks detail & is completely wrong?
10″ Atom LED HDD based netbooks
screen – 3w max
CPU – 2.5w max
chipset – ??? max
HDD – 2w max
these are all factual not subjective & EXTREMELY easy to fact check on your own. i’m not sure what screwy netbook MS was using but it isnt the most common 1 that i listed.
Both points well taken, but notebook specs vary wildly. Microsoft didn’t say that these numbers were for an Intel Atom netbook, nor for a unit with an LED backlit display. The point here isn’t to identify the exact power draws, but to provide a useful, general idea.
hard to take MS serious when they cant even do basic math. the pie chart only adds up to 90%. i just dont know how anybody can trust any of their research.
before people say “the last 10% means “other”. okay, well says who? MS didnt say it, just some random guy on a forum. fact is, MS couldnt even get their basic math right on this 1.
Pie Chart at 90% lol
thats the MS i love!
i really like your desktop OS MS, but please just stop with everything else you do. you guys cant even get the most FUNDAMENTAL aspect of a pie chart correct, its just getting embarrassing.
What about WiFi? I’d always thought that chewed up a lot of power. Is that included in one of the other categories or is this for a laptop with Ethernet only?
Hardly an accurate assessment, and not something I would be posting as a news item.
A 17″ HP dv7 with it’s 65W power adapter will distribute that juice much differently than a Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q708 with it’s 230W power brick feeding a quad-core CPU and 3 graphics cards.
Having general numbers is fine, but I see no use for them when they are wrong, and cannot be applied to the particular unit you may be using.