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SSD effect on battery life

glenthompson

glenthompson

macrumors demi-god
Original poster
Apr 27, 2011
2,985
849
Virginia
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.
 
glenthompson said:
I'm hoping for some gain, more battery is nice sometimes. Definitely a loss in the bank account since I need a 500gb one.
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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.
 
glenthompson said:
I'm hoping for some gain, more battery is nice sometimes. Definitely a loss in the bank account since I need a 500gb one.
Click to expand...

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

R
 
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.
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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.
Click to expand...

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 - 240 is the best priced size.
500GB is out of site man - I don't care how deep the pocket is.
glenthompson said:
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.
Click to expand...
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.
 
glenthompson said:
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.
Click to expand...

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.
 
glenthompson said:
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.
Click to expand...


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.
 
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.
Click to expand...

Some of still use our optical drives. My wife & I get audiobooks from the library, rip them into itunes, and listen at our leisure.
 
paul-n said:
The best way to have longer battery time, decrease display brightness.
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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).

duervo said:
Shutting my system off does wonders for its battery life.

:D
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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.
 
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.
 
I wish I had never bothered switching mine.
I've had to install a manual fan control to keep my MacBook from taking off, setting it to 3500rpm still means it's getting hotter quick but at least I can hear myself think.

The battery life is now shocking. My battery lasts a couple of hours now compared to 4/5 hours before.....
 
dave8479 said:
I wish I had never bothered switching mine.
I've had to install a manual fan control to keep my MacBook from taking off, setting it to 3500rpm still means it's getting hotter quick but at least I can hear myself think.

The battery life is now shocking. My battery lasts a couple of hours now compared to 4/5 hours before.....
Click to expand...

Thread is 4 years old, but be careful to reinstall the drive temperature sensor correctly. Just sticking it back in may result in an incorrect temp reading being feed back to the SMC.
 
jerryk said:
Thread is 4 years old, but be careful to reinstall the drive temperature sensor correctly. Just sticking it back in may result in an incorrect temp reading being feed back to the SMC.
Click to expand...
I let someone do it that had done their own, I guess I'll let it eventually die and get a new Mac

Sorry, I didn't look at the date, a google search led me straight here!
 
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