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I have an Asus N550JV, and a few month ago I added extra 8 GB RAM and an SSD. I left the HDD instead of the cd-rom, since I thought it would be more useful for me.

I noticed my laptop now holds much less only on battery, and was wondering if the extra HDD might have such an impact.

Eventually I discovered I don't really need the HDD, so I don't mind removing it if it can actually cause that. Maybe it's worth noting - I haven't used it at all, no I/O actions (except what windows does alone when I'm not asking for it)

In addition, if it does have impact - is the only way is to remove it, or there's a configuration I can set in the disk management / bios to completely disable it?

Thanks!

arieljannai
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2 Answers2

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Here is a list of typical power of (almost) all parts of a laptop. The values may vary depending on environment and/or configuration. It's my own measurement.

  • Processor: 3W~35W(common),70W(gaming), depending on model and load. ARM not included
  • RAM(SODIMM): 1W~5W(DDR2),4W(DDR3),3W(LPDDR3,DDR4), same as above
  • GPU: 0W*~50W(common),150W(gaming), same as above (*NVIDIA Optimus and AMD DSG)
  • Screen: 4W~20W, depending on model, size and brightness
  • SSD: Less than 1W at idle, up to 5W at full load
  • HDD (2.5"): Less than 1W at idle, up to 5W at full load
  • External Drive: Refer to above
  • DVD Drive: 0W at idle, up to 4W at full load
  • Cooling fan: 0W~5W(common),10W(gaming) each, depending on load
  • Built-in amplifier: 0W~5W, depending on loudness
  • USB Flash Drive: 50mW~1W, certain high-end drives (SanDisk CZ80) can reach 3W
  • LED indicators: Several mW for each
  • Motherboard: 1W~4W, depending on almost everything
    Note: Less than 1W means 100mW to 800mW, dependent
Post Self
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iBug
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I'm inclined to think the extra RAM is the issue.

A new SSD should not increase power consumption noticeably; in fact, because the HDD is now mostly idle, power consumption should actually be lower as the power consumed by a busy HDD is typically much higher than the power consumed by a busy SSD for the same task.

On the other hand, because RAM must be continuously refreshed, adding RAM can visibly hurt battery life. The N550JV uses 1.35V DDR3L memory; while this is better than the 1.5V DDR3 memory used on many older systems, it still adds about 2-3 watts to the system's power consumption, especially when under load. On mainstream laptops like this, even a slight increase in power can noticeably hurt battery life.

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bwDraco
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