SSD effect on battery life

[glenthompson]

Thinking about changing the drive in my MBP to a SSD and wondered if it had much effect on battery life or is it not noticeable? Thinking about the 840 Pro and I'll put the old drive in an external enclosure, probably as a CCC clone for backup. I want to keep the optical drive.

[blueroom]

I've noticed no ill effects with SSDs in MBPs. All gain and no loss, except the cost of the SSD

[glenthompson]

Originally Posted by blueroom

I've noticed no ill effects with SSDs in MBPs. All gain and no loss, except the cost of the SSD

I'm hoping for some gain, more battery is nice sometimes. Definitely a loss in the bank account since I need a 500gb one.

[Philscbx]

Originally Posted by glenthompson

I'm hoping for some gain, more battery is nice sometimes. Definitely a loss in the bank account since I need a 500gb one.

From what I've seen at OWC - 240 is the best priced size.
500GB is out of site man - I don't care how deep the pocket is.

[Geoffre]

Originally Posted by glenthompson

I'm hoping for some gain, more battery is nice sometimes. Definitely a loss in the bank account since I need a 500gb one.

The SSD doesn't hurt battery life (will help a bit, of course) but you'll be disappointed in the difference that it actually makes -- not much better than negligible. The amount of power it takes to spin a hard drive just isn't that much, and pales in comparison to the display/CPU/GPU. That said, it's undoubtedly just about the best possible upgrade for any machine without one.

[paul-n]

The best way to have longer battery time, decrease display brightness.

[duervo]

Shutting my system off does wonders for its battery life.

[Rhyalus]

I put the Samsung 840 into my Early 2011 MBP and was disappointed that I did not notice any effect on battery life.

R

[glenthompson]

The SSD doesn't hurt battery life (will help a bit, of course) but you'll be disappointed in the difference that it actually makes -- not much better than negligible. The amount of power it takes to spin a hard drive just isn't that much, and pales in comparison to the display/CPU/GPU. That said, it's undoubtedly just about the best possible upgrade for any machine without one.

That is what I was expecting, a slight improvement but not significant. Would be nice to see a big improvement but that's not why I want a SSD. Too much of my activity is IO bound so improving the disk speed looks to be the best solution.

From what I've seen at OWC - 240 is the best priced size.
500GB is out of site man - I don't care how deep the pocket is.

Except that I have about 260 gb used on my drive now. I travel for long periods and need the data with me. Storing external really doesn't save much money when you add in additional backup drives needed.

[Philscbx]

Philscbx - 240 is the best priced size.
500GB is out of site man - I don't care how deep the pocket is.

Originally Posted by glenthompson

Except that I have about 260 gb used on my drive now.
Storing external really doesn't save much money when you add in additional backup drives needed.

I have the same problem on my MBP - But there's no reason to not add a 1TB drive or more to the Optical bay.
JUst in case you missed the option.

[Weaselboy]

Originally Posted by glenthompson

Thinking about changing the drive in my MBP to a SSD and wondered if it had much effect on battery life or is it not noticeable? Thinking about the 840 Pro and I'll put the old drive in an external enclosure, probably as a CCC clone for backup. I want to keep the optical drive.

I swapped on an SSD on a 2008 Macbook Pro I had, then a 2011 Macbook Pro, and never noticed any difference in battery life at all.

[stisdal]

Originally Posted by glenthompson

Except that I have about 260 gb used on my drive now. I travel for long periods and need the data with me. Storing external really doesn't save much money when you add in additional backup drives needed.

I put a 240 in my MBP, put the 500GB drive I removed into an external enclosure (USB powered) and I keep the large files I don't need all the time on the external drive. Throw the external in your computer bag and your good to go.

I travel for work extensively, and this solution was cost effective while still keeping the storage I needed.

[glenthompson]

I have the same problem on my MBP - But there's no reason to not add a 1TB drive or more to the Optical bay.
JUst in case you missed the option.

Some of still use our optical drives. My wife & I get audiobooks from the library, rip them into itunes, and listen at our leisure.

[ybz90]

Originally Posted by paul-n

The best way to have longer battery time, decrease display brightness.

I totally agree. Here's a little known fact about how brightness works on Macs (and probably other systems). Like how we perceive sound, the way we process light is not on a linear curve. So while each of the 16 "bumps" only seems that much brighter proportionally, in reality, each bump up doubles the brightness. So half brightness seems to the eyes to be half as bright as max brightness, but is actually (.5)^8 less bright. This is why it's probably the biggest factor behind battery life (besides CPU cranking up).

Originally Posted by duervo

Shutting my system off does wonders for its battery life.

Haha, I lulzed.

At the OP, for your purposes, don't assume it will affect battery life at all. I've never been able to notice, as the increase will be marginal compared the natural variation in battery life resulting from how heavily you use it on a given charge cycle.

[yusukeaoki]

I dont think the SSD would have any change in battery life.
As said above me, the most difference you can see is by lowering your brightness.