Battery Life Affected By Downloads?

[JamesGorman]

Hey everyone,

I just purchased a brand new 15" Core i5 2.53ghz mbp, and was wondering if downloading made a huge difference on battery life? I never really noticed on my old macbook if it did, but Im sitting here downloading about 5 files through vuze, my screen is less than half brightness, I have bluetooth and wifi on, and I only have 3:12 on my battery time(92% charge).

 

[stridemat]

Downloading will be putting more strain on all of the computer resources, thus drain the battery faster. Its normal.

 

[JamesGorman]

I figured as much, thanks!!

 

[grapes911]

Downloading will be putting more strain on all of the computer resources, thus drain the battery faster. Its normal.

Correct. The biggest culprit may be your hard drive. While downloading a file that big, your hard drive is constantly spinning. Spinning hard drives are power hungry beasts.

 

[stridemat]

Correct. The biggest culprit may be your hard drive. While downloading a file that big, your hard drive is constantly spinning. Spinning hard drives are power hungry beasts.

Especially downloading 5 files. The hard drive will be 'seeking' constantly.

 

[JamesGorman]

Yea, thats what I figured, I knew it wasn't going to be the cpu taking up a lot of power because I was watching it in activity monitor. I figured it was all down to the spinning of the HDD.