2010 MBP w/ Vertex 2 and OWC Data Doubler Battery Issue / HDD Recommendation

[jaspreets]

Hey guys,

Recently purchased a OCZ Technology 240 GB Vertex 2 Series SATA II 2.5-Inch Solid State Drive (SSD) OCZSSD2-2VTXE240G for my 2010 13" MBP as well as an OWC Data Doubler. Prior to my SSD, I had a Seagate Momentus XT 500 GB 7200RPM (ST95005620AS) which I kept in my primary HDD bay and installed the SSD in the optical bay with the Data Doubler.

Though I love the speed of the SSD, I'm having a huge drain on my battery... I can literally watch the % battery life remaining drop a percentage point every few minutes. My MBP went from 5.5-7 hours of usage to 2.5-3.0 hours of normal usage (browsing, word processing, etc.)

I'm not sure, but I think this may have to do with the fact that the Seagate Momentus is battery hog, or, does it have anything to do with the fact that I put the SSD in the optical bay and left the traditional HDD in the primary bay, perhaps the SSD is not receiving the proper power management commands? I read it's best to put the SSD in the optical bay as to allow the OS to send the proper command to the traditional HDD in case of sudden acceleration (due to an accidental drop). Was I wrong?

This leads me to the following questions:

1. Need a recommendation for a traditional HDD for my storage drive. Anything 500GB or over is great. Would like at least a 5400 RPM drive (can go with 4200 if the power savings are significant). I'm considering the WD 750GB WD7500BPVT (seems to have some very low published power requirements) or some of the drives mentioned in the post below. I'm most familiar with WD/Seagate, but would gladly take any other recommendations based upon the fact that I'm looking for a decent storage drive with lowest power hit on the battery.

2. Do SSDs have power management built in? If so, would it be better for me to put the SSD in the primary MBP hard drive bay and the traditional HDD in the optical bay? Does it even make a difference? Since some of the drives that I'm looking at offer some sort of drop protection, does it make a difference?

3. Have any other users seen such a power drainage from using a traditional HDD with a SSD in their MBP?


Thanks in advance guys!

 

[jaspreets]

Also, just came across WD AV-25 anyone have experience with this drive?

There's also the Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 (manufacturer's link)

as well as the Toshiba MK7559GSXP Hard Disk Drive


They all seem to have very similar power requirements with the Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 being the most efficient (but only by a hair, based on white paper). I guess, what I'm asking is does anyone have personal experience with any of these drives as well as the above-mentioned drives?

 

[marc11]

I'm using a Hitachi Travel Star 500 gb 7200 RPM drive and am very happy with it for my data. Very fast, super quiet and no vibrations. Good power management, rated one of the best for power consumption.

 

[jaspreets]

I'm using a Hitachi Travel Star 500 gb 7200 RPM drive and am very happy with it for my data. Very fast, super quiet and no vibrations. Good power management, rated one of the best for power consumption.

Which bay are you using each drive in? Also, did you notice any appreciable decrease in battery life when going to the dual-drive setup?

 

[OptyCT]

I put a Data Doubler and OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD in my mid-2009 MBP (using stock HDD) and have experienced no change in battery life. Just the other day, I used my MBP at work all day without plugging it in (around 7 hours). FYI, I have the SSD installed in in the optical bay.

 

[jaspreets]

I put a Data Doubler and OWC Mercury Extreme Pro SSD in my mid-2009 MBP (using stock HDD) and have experienced no change in battery life. Just the other day, I used my MBP at work all day without plugging it in (around 7 hours). FYI, I have the SSD installed in in the optical bay.

Then is there any type of application I can install to see what the heck is eating my battery life? I did a clean install of Mac OS X Snow Leopard; just can't figure out what's killing my battery life.

 

[NikFinn]

Then is there any type of application I can install to see what the heck is eating my battery life? I did a clean install of Mac OS X Snow Leopard; just can't figure out what's killing my battery life.

When you notice the battery is going quickly, open up activity monitor and check if anything is eating up your CPU.

 

[johnnyturbouk]

i have owc120 ssd and 500gb hitachi telstar 7200gb -
the latter is so quiet and fast - really impressed works very well with the ssd as a storage drive, i also run windows from it

 

[jaspreets]

When you notice the battery is going quickly, open up activity monitor and check if anything is eating up your CPU.

I thought that might be the case as well, but unfortunately it's not. Nothing apparent within activity monitor and this was done on a clean install of Mac OS X with 1.32 firmware of the OCZ Vertex 2.

Even in safe boot/mode, starting up on a fresh battery, with 99% battery life remaining, Mac OS X says that I only have 2 hours 39 minutes of battery life left which leads me to believe that this is a hardware problem... either a faulty SSD or a power-consuming secondary drive (hopefully the latter); which leads me to one my original questions, do SSDs have "power management features?" Shouldn't I have better battery life with a SSD?

Is there a way to force the secondary drive (which is installed in the primary HDD bay) to go to sleep when not being used? Is/should this be automatic or any ideas?

 

[jaspreets]

i have owc120 ssd and 500gb hitachi telstar 7200gb -
the latter is so quiet and fast - really impressed works very well with the ssd as a storage drive, i also run windows from it

I'm leaning towards the Hitachi... but trying to decide between the 7K750 & the 5K750... there seems to be a very slight power difference between the two; however, I'm more interested in battery life than anything else right now as 2.5 hours is just ridiculous.

I'll keep you guys posted as I find out more... thanks!

 

[marc11]

Mine is in my super drive bay with the hdd in the stock location. I haven't seen any battery performance drain or difference at all.

 

[jaspreets]

Isolated the problem to the Momentus XT drive; the thing just refused to spin down. Was able to use HDAPM (set the value to 192) to get some better usage out of it, but only improved battery life to ~4.5 hours.

Strange thing is, as a primary drive, I never had the issue I'm having now. Went ahead and decided to go with the Hitachi Travelstar 5K750 (1.4 watt read/write average and .5 watt idle draw average!).

I'll let you guys know how it goes.

P.S. After much frustration and lack of progress, I posted this identical topic on a few other unnamed forums. You guys have been by far the most helpful and responsive. So thank you!