Solid State Drives (SSD) Reduce Battery Life?
Tom's Hardware publishes some interesting conclusions based on their testing of Solid State Drives (SSD) in laptops. They report that contrary to popular belief, SSD drives actually reduce the battery life in laptops as compared to traditional Hard Disk Drives (HDD). They try to explain this difference by theorizing that traditional hard drives rarely reach peak power consumption and are typically in a low power state. SSDs, however, are only "active or idle" without any additional power saving mechanisms.
Tom's Hardware seems confident in their results and compared four different Flash SSD drives to a traditional hard drive. The results either showed no change in battery life or up to one hour (14%) less battery life for the test system (Dell Latitude D630). Testing was performed using the MobileMark 2007 benchmark which specifically measures battery life performance under "real world" usage. Despite the worse battery times, the SSD drives did outperform the traditional hard drive by a significant margin.
The only Mac which currently ships with a Solid State Drive option is the MacBook Air. Battery benchmarks for the MacBook Air showed modest gains vs no gains depending on the reviewer. It has been widely expected that Solid State Drives will become more available as prices on Flash memory drops. Besides improvements in performance, SSDs are also believed to be less prone to data loss.
Tom's Hardware seems confident in their results and compared four different Flash SSD drives to a traditional hard drive. The results either showed no change in battery life or up to one hour (14%) less battery life for the test system (Dell Latitude D630). Testing was performed using the MobileMark 2007 benchmark which specifically measures battery life performance under "real world" usage. Despite the worse battery times, the SSD drives did outperform the traditional hard drive by a significant margin.
The only Mac which currently ships with a Solid State Drive option is the MacBook Air. Battery benchmarks for the MacBook Air showed modest gains vs no gains depending on the reviewer. It has been widely expected that Solid State Drives will become more available as prices on Flash memory drops. Besides improvements in performance, SSDs are also believed to be less prone to data loss.
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47 months ago
New technology - the power consumption on SSD's should go down.
They are a lot faster as far as access. When I'm at the Apple Store I like using the MacBook Airs with the SSD drives - nice 'n fast.
They are a lot faster as far as access. When I'm at the Apple Store I like using the MacBook Airs with the SSD drives - nice 'n fast.
47 months ago
New technology - the power consumption on SSD's should go down.
They are a lot faster as far as access. When I'm at the Apple Store I like using the MacBook Airs with the SSD drives - nice 'n fast.
Agreed.
One step back to take 3 forward has to happen sometimes.
47 months ago
I might be missing something but there should be extra overhead in the OS to maximize the hard drive's speed. For instance, constantly moving bits around and such so data is local. That should require OS changes to improve the life of these things.
Anyone who tinkers in such things care to comment?
BTW.. I will now read the article and see if something was said about this. Got things in reverse order. :)
Anyone who tinkers in such things care to comment?
BTW.. I will now read the article and see if something was said about this. Got things in reverse order. :)
47 months ago
Well, people really worried about battery life might spring for a laptop with a user-replaceable battery. I think the stability is the better selling point and that power consumption will eventually drop over time.
47 months ago
I think since SSD is such a new technology for laptops, we still have a ways to go before we really see them honed to get all of their potential. I hope it's not too long though. I'd love to retire this MBP in a few years for a super cool MBP with an SSD. :cool:
47 months ago
It seems like the MBA SSD is a high-quality drive since it is slightly better to even in power consumption vs. the 1.8" HD option.
Tom's Hardware points out that none of the SSDs they tested would match or beat a 1.8" "normal" hard drive, so it's impressive that Apple's does...
... or maybe the MBA's standard 1.8" hard drive is a power hog!
Tom's Hardware points out that none of the SSDs they tested would match or beat a 1.8" "normal" hard drive, so it's impressive that Apple's does...
... or maybe the MBA's standard 1.8" hard drive is a power hog!
47 months ago
Personally I am waiting for the next update to MBA. Hopefully it will use newer larger SSD drives and also improve the OS to optimize the drive for battery life.
The performance boost is the most important thing to me. Using the MBA with SSD in the Apple Store, compared to the slow HDD versions makes a big difference.
You really notice the almost instant on speed of the MBA SSD and the very quick launch of apps for the first time. Some apps take 3 or 4 times longer to load when initially launched.
It would be extremely nice if Apple offered a 15" version of the MBA, with more ram, more storage, bigger battery, and Wi-Max card.
The performance boost is the most important thing to me. Using the MBA with SSD in the Apple Store, compared to the slow HDD versions makes a big difference.
You really notice the almost instant on speed of the MBA SSD and the very quick launch of apps for the first time. Some apps take 3 or 4 times longer to load when initially launched.
It would be extremely nice if Apple offered a 15" version of the MBA, with more ram, more storage, bigger battery, and Wi-Max card.
47 months ago
Ok, read article. Looks like the conclusions don't match the test. First off, this was all done on a windows box so the conclusions won't be cross OS applicable. Interesting all the same.
Are there some projects working to write better SSD drivers? A lot of the algorithms that optimize the OS for HDs cause problems for SSDs. I did some searches for Linux but didn't see anything. I know OSX does a lot to constantly move bits of applications and data around to optimize speed. I'm sure they are looking forward to cutting out that bloat from their OS (and a few OS tinkers going 'darn, i worked hard on that').
Clarify my point------
Basically, by moving bits around to make them easier to read for the HD, this is extra work/power for the SSD that has no impact of performance.
Are there some projects working to write better SSD drivers? A lot of the algorithms that optimize the OS for HDs cause problems for SSDs. I did some searches for Linux but didn't see anything. I know OSX does a lot to constantly move bits of applications and data around to optimize speed. I'm sure they are looking forward to cutting out that bloat from their OS (and a few OS tinkers going 'darn, i worked hard on that').
Clarify my point------
Basically, by moving bits around to make them easier to read for the HD, this is extra work/power for the SSD that has no impact of performance.
47 months ago
I haven't read the article to double check, but I've heard it suggested that Tom's hardware messed up in a sublte way: They seem to have set the machines running on some looped task, and timed how long the battery lasts.
They don't mention how much work the computer did - perhaps the bettery was just used up sooner with a SSD because an IO bottle neck was removed, allowing the CPU to do more work (and use up the battery faster).
They don't mention how much work the computer did - perhaps the bettery was just used up sooner with a SSD because an IO bottle neck was removed, allowing the CPU to do more work (and use up the battery faster).
47 months ago
Given that SSDs are way faster than HDD, maybe manufacturers can focus on making them less power hungry as opposed to high density for the time being. Unless no one cares, which I think might be the case.
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