Solid State Drives (SSD) Reduce Battery Life?

[MacRumors]

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.

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[gkarris]

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.

[decimortis]

Originally Posted by gkarris

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.

[cwingrav]

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.

[amusiccale]

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.

[digitalbiker]

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.

[pjac]

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).

[~Shard~]

Originally Posted by digitalbiker

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.

And don't forget at a lower cost as well.

As others have stated, I'm sure once the use of this technology becomes more commonplace we will see efficiency improvements.

[ThanatosId]

Originally Posted by digitalbiker

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.

That's a great idea!! And, They should call it a "macbook pro"...oh, wait...

[cwingrav]

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.

[137489]

Originally Posted by cwingrav

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.

This article sounds interesting, but like you I am confused.

When I look at my mac, my applications are 1 file and rather large (ok, mac apps are small and compact - but there are some apps I have that are large).

When I look at my Windows PC, my applications are made up of a bunch of DLL's and registries that could be in different directories (ie some even store in the \Windows\system32 folder which I hate as that is an OS reserved folder).

I can see where a Windows box may have issues as the pieces to run an app are strewn all over the place, and they does not even count for file fragmentation. Also, if they are anything like jump drives, data loss can be an issue. I had a file that was fine on one PC, but when I plugged the jump drive into another PC the file got corrupted. Ok, there are harddrives so I know we won't be swapping them that much - but still brings the point that things can get corrupted no mater what technology. But yes, I had data loss in my early days because someone bumped a table while my harddrive was writing data and the heads skipped.

Never the less, the biggest issues to me is the hard-drive speed, CPU speed, RAM, battery life, and cost. Large files take forever to load, so if I could get away from spinning fragmented platters - would be nice. I am far off from buying another laptop (my Dell I use as a backup for work is barely hanging on, and i just bought a macbook in April), but in a few years when I am ready for an upgrade - It would be nice if I could get a nice macbook with a 300gb SDD at a reasonable price.

I would still like to know what makes a common HD in a mac quieter than in a PC? being a switcher, i am used to looking at flashing lights or listen to the hard drive chatter to see if the PC was doing something. Now, if I am waiting on a large file, I am like "ok this thing running?"

Although I do love the quietness, listening to my wife's 2 year old desk top chattering away when it is idle can be annoying.

[mdriftmeyer]

Originally Posted by gkarris

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.

It's not new technology. It's a new application of old technology.

We have plenty of experience to reduce power for Solid State drives. We have motherboards, CPUs and other IC designs to leverage long before they applied this to the hard drive paradigm.

[gonnabuyamac]

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.

[iSee]

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!

[macduke]

Originally Posted by iSee

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!

...or maybe OS X is a superior operating system? They were using Windoze.

I mean, pushing that data faster must require extra overhead, right? Perhaps OS X just manages it more efficiently. Beyond that, I have no idea.

[irun5k]

One thought- SSD's are a relative new kid on the block, and they're coming out of the block about as good as traditional mechanized drives. Gut instinct tells us they should be more efficient (no moving parts.) However, perhaps these drives need a few iterations of improvements to make them more efficient. Something tells me at the end of the day the technology has the potential to be much more efficient than it is.

Regardless, drives aren't exactly a big ticket item n energy consumption. Displays are a big draw. I think better battery life is ultimately going to depend on new battery technology.

[Zwhaler]

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.

[nagromme]

Interesting. I wonder if there are cases where the heat of an HD makes the fans run more?

I still want no moving parts, when the cost comes down.

[jhsfosho]

And I thought SSD drives were supposed to increase battery life?? Seems like a step in the wrong direction.

[twoodcc]

wow. well hopefully they'll continue to improve the technology

[ryan200]

when they stop improving technology we will stop buying it. unless they just make everything so crappy that it falls apart and that will force you to buy a new one not a technological advance.

but as far as laptop hard drives are concerned they have a huge jump start. but when ssd becomes more aged it should replace hard drives because of speed alone.