Battery Life

Cruzader · #1 24th June 2005, 06:20 AM

Hi all, I'm in the market for a new laptop. Nothing special, just a portable one to take to classes and drag around. It'll probably be something like:
1.8Ghz
512M-1G mem
40 or more GB HDD
screen probably ~14"
My main concern is getting good battery life (I don't wanna plug it in in class), so this means I'll probably go with a Centrino laptop. I was just wondering if anyone knew of, or had experience with laptops with good battery life (>= 3.5 hrs). Anyone know good brands/models?

Feel free to revise my specs as necessary

Thanks

CheezyArmpit · #2 24th June 2005, 01:14 PM

My laptop is a Mitac AMD64 3200+, with ATI Radeon 9600, and I get around 3 hours with power saving set to anything other than Always-On (in windows - only just put linux on here, shouldn't be too different), not running anything too CPU-intensive, I think most Centrino laptops have battery life in excess of 4 hours.

mellis95 · #3 24th June 2005, 02:09 PM

For work I have a Dell D600 and I can get almost 5 hours if I use the second battery. At home I have a Toshiba Satellite A35-S205 and it sucks for battery life. I get about 1 1/2 hours out of it. The Centrino Processor definitely makes a big difference.

Cruzader · #4 24th June 2005, 02:23 PM

Yeah, I was thinking of going with a Dell, can get em fairly cheap on eBay. Any issues with quality/things just not working in FC?

mellis95 · #5 24th June 2005, 03:06 PM

Actually, I forgot to mention that I am running Windows 200 on the Dell (for work) and FC3 on the Toshiba. I would assume that the battery life would be very similar no matter the operating system. I have seen a few posts from people on this forum who are using D series Dell laptops. I would do a search.

[Edit]
Dell's Linux info: http://www1.us.dell.com/content/topi...555&l=en&s=biz

ggulik · #6 24th June 2005, 04:54 PM

I have a Compaq R3000Z laptop which has a Mobile Athlon processor and I get about 5 hours of battery life with the upgrade battery. The only downside is that laptop is HEAVY. I would seriously consider a Mobile Athlon based processor based on the battery life I'm getting with this unit vs. my other Pentium based laptops.

Cruzader · #7 24th June 2005, 05:43 PM

Thats pretty good. I'd like to stick with Intel chips however (call me stubborn). I also don't want to have to get either a new battery for it or a secondary battery (weight issues). Might have to get a new battery anyway, though, since in any event I'm gonna be getting the laptop off eBay and if it's used it could not hold much of a charge anymore.

fredjiang · #8 24th June 2005, 06:47 PM

I would recommend IBM Thinkpad T42/T43. I own two T42s and love them both. Battery life is decent (I can watch one and half DVD movies on one run). So I would say it runs for 3 hours under heavy use (which is pretty good). Did I mention I love the keyboards on these?

One thing to note, unfortunately FC4 (and linux in genearal) does not have the same level of power management as Windows. Running on linux you probably will only get 2/3 of the time of Windows. And standby & hibernation on linux are rather unreliable and require manual tweaking.

Cruzader · #9 24th June 2005, 07:26 PM

Thats fine, I don't mind tweaking .confs and such. The 2/3's battery life is why having a laptop with good battery life is important to me. IBM's are usually a bit out of my price range but I'll keep an eye on em (pricerange <= 800).

Thanks

rcubed · #10 24th June 2005, 07:33 PM

On average I think you will see that battery life under linux is less, especially with the stock install. You will have to use laptop-mode as described in the kernel documentation to really take advantage of the power saving features of the laptop. This allows the hard drive to spin down. Next you will need to find a way to slow the CPU down and also Dim the display. These are all avaliable. If you want 3.5 hours you will probably have to get a laptop with a secondary battery. Some models allow the CD to be replaced with a battery.

We happen to sell laptops with all this work done for you, take a look a http://shoprcubed.com/products.asp?cat=15
They are based on ASUS laptops. Sorry for the ad but thought you might want to know.

Cruzader · #11 24th June 2005, 08:01 PM

Those look good, but again my pricerange is < 800$. So I've narrowed it to IBM or Dell... thats good. Those IBM's are nice and I'll see if I can't snag one offa eBay for a good price.

fredjiang · #12 24th June 2005, 11:16 PM

If you want IBM you should check if you have any college friends since they can get academic discounts from colleges computer stores.

Cruzader · #13 26th June 2005, 06:02 PM

I am a college student, but a good IBM laptop still wouldn't be down into my price range.

minimidgy · #14 7th July 2005, 02:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ggulik

I have a Compaq R3000Z laptop which has a Mobile Athlon processor and I get about 5 hours of battery life with the upgrade battery. The only downside is that laptop is HEAVY. I would seriously consider a Mobile Athlon based processor based on the battery life I'm getting with this unit vs. my other Pentium based laptops.

man, maybe I need to get this upgrade. I have that same laptop but mine doesn't even charge all the way. The highest I've ever seen it charged to was 92%. I should probably just drain the battery completely one day and then charge it back up. Even when it is at 92%, I still only get like an hour and a half on it.

N6546R · #15 7th July 2005, 05:28 PM

I have a T42 running FC4, and with the 'extra-life' battery I see about 5 hours of use. I run cpuspeed to reduce power consumption, other than that it's pretty much stock FC4. The downside of the battery is that it contains extra cells which are packaged in such a way that the battery sticks out from the back of the laptop. I just use it as a handle

ACPI worked with no mods. About the only significant change I've done to the install is to drop in the latest ATI drivers for the Radeon.

Perry

Quote:

Originally Posted by fredjiang

I would recommend IBM Thinkpad T42/T43. I own two T42s and love them both. Battery life is decent (I can watch one and half DVD movies on one run). So I would say it runs for 3 hours under heavy use (which is pretty good). Did I mention I love the keyboards on these?

One thing to note, unfortunately FC4 (and linux in genearal) does not have the same level of power management as Windows. Running on linux you probably will only get 2/3 of the time of Windows. And standby & hibernation on linux are rather unreliable and require manual tweaking.