How are Gaming PC's battery-powered? at DVinfo.net

Jason Rodriguez · January 23rd, 2005, 12:48 AM

Hello,

I've been looking at the stats of these laptop-based gaming PC's, and it's really puzzling me how they are powering a Pentium 4 @ 3.6Ghz, top-of-the-line mobile graphics chipsets (PCI-express), a huge 17" LCD screen at high resolution, sometimes multiple CD-ROM drives, RAID laptop configurations, etc. off a single 14.4V or 14.8V 6400mAH or 6600mAH rated battery? According to my calculations, that's only 95-100Watt/hours, which isn't even close enough to powering the power-hungry Prescotts (especialy at 3.6Ghz), let alone all these other devices which eat up another 30-40W easily when being run together. Also they're not using multiple batteries in parallel either! Again, seems like it's just one 12-cell, 95W/hr battery.

Then what really astounds me is that they need a 160-190W AC adatper!

Now a lot of these reviews are saying they get around an hour on battery power, even if they're gaming, so I'm wondering, is the performance reduced on battery power? How can they get around the laws of physics?

So I'm a little confused how this is working, and would like to know if anybody can point me in a good direction on where I can find some info.

Thanks,

Glenn Chan · January 23rd, 2005, 01:57 AM

Optical drives draw very little power when they're not spinning.
Many wattage figures are only for the device at its maximum... i.e. hard drive draw ~25W when they spin up. While they are running they draw around 10-15W for 7200rpm drives. 4200rpm laptop drives draw less power.

Prescott/Pentium wattage figures cannot be compared to AMD as Intel has different idea about what maximum wattage is. For Pentiums, their wattage figure is based on what Intel thinks is the wattage the processor draws in practical use (or something like that). In games it might be close to that figure.

A lot of laptop parts may also differ from the desktop parts and draw less power... i.e. laptop versions of CPUs, video cards, hard drives, etc. In your case the CPU is not the laptop version so this doesn't apply.

Rhett Allen · January 23rd, 2005, 10:40 AM

I would try posting this question on a "Gaming" forum. Who better to ask than the source.

January 23rd, 2005, 12:48 AM	#1
Jason Rodriguez Trustee Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Virginia Beach, VA Posts: 1,095	How are Gaming PC's battery-powered? Hello, I've been looking at the stats of these laptop-based gaming PC's, and it's really puzzling me how they are powering a Pentium 4 @ 3.6Ghz, top-of-the-line mobile graphics chipsets (PCI-express), a huge 17" LCD screen at high resolution, sometimes multiple CD-ROM drives, RAID laptop configurations, etc. off a single 14.4V or 14.8V 6400mAH or 6600mAH rated battery? According to my calculations, that's only 95-100Watt/hours, which isn't even close enough to powering the power-hungry Prescotts (especialy at 3.6Ghz), let alone all these other devices which eat up another 30-40W easily when being run together. Also they're not using multiple batteries in parallel either! Again, seems like it's just one 12-cell, 95W/hr battery. Then what really astounds me is that they need a 160-190W AC adatper! Now a lot of these reviews are saying they get around an hour on battery power, even if they're gaming, so I'm wondering, is the performance reduced on battery power? How can they get around the laws of physics? So I'm a little confused how this is working, and would like to know if anybody can point me in a good direction on where I can find some info. Thanks,

January 23rd, 2005, 01:57 AM	#2
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	Optical drives draw very little power when they're not spinning. Many wattage figures are only for the device at its maximum... i.e. hard drive draw ~25W when they spin up. While they are running they draw around 10-15W for 7200rpm drives. 4200rpm laptop drives draw less power. Prescott/Pentium wattage figures cannot be compared to AMD as Intel has different idea about what maximum wattage is. For Pentiums, their wattage figure is based on what Intel thinks is the wattage the processor draws in practical use (or something like that). In games it might be close to that figure. A lot of laptop parts may also differ from the desktop parts and draw less power... i.e. laptop versions of CPUs, video cards, hard drives, etc. In your case the CPU is not the laptop version so this doesn't apply.

January 23rd, 2005, 10:40 AM	#3
Rhett Allen Major Player Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Plano, TX Posts: 607	I would try posting this question on a "Gaming" forum. Who better to ask than the source.