Quick question; Larger HD = lower battery life?

I'm wondering if this will have a largely detrimental effect on the battery life (i.e more than an hour).
londonshane wrote on :

Hi, Apologies for barging into this group like this, but I'm thinking of getting a new I book, and was hoping to upgrade from 30GB to 80. However, I'm wondering if this will have a largely detrimental effect on the battery life (i.e more than an hour). When I'm working away from a power point, I tend to be doing low-level things like wordprocessing; any DV stuff I do at home....

Thanks in advance for your help!

Shane

John Johnson replied on :

In article 1113847405.679346.28710@redacted.invalid, "londonshane" shanekelly_92@redacted.invalid wrote:

Hi, Apologies for barging into this group like this, but I'm thinking of getting a new I book, and was hoping to upgrade from 30GB to 80. However, I'm wondering if this will have a largely detrimental effect on the battery life (i.e more than an hour). When I'm working away from a power point, I tend to be doing low-level things like wordprocessing; any DV stuff I do at home....

Thanks in advance for your help!

Shane

I suspect that the difference between 30GB and 80GB WRT battery life is going to be far less than the difference between leaving wireless services (Bluetooth, AP extreme) on or turning them off, or even between running your screen at full brightness and turning it down.

That said, I don't know of anyone who has attempted to quantify the difference between HD sizes WRT battery life. Perhaps sites like barefeats.com, xlr8yourmac, or other hardware places have such information. You could also potentially get some idea by tracking down the power consumption figures for representative HD models from the manufacturers. HTH

Neill Massello replied on :

londonshane shanekelly_92@redacted.invalid wrote:

Apologies for barging into this group like this, but I'm thinking of getting a new I book, and was hoping to upgrade from 30GB to 80. However, I'm wondering if this will have a largely detrimental effect on the battery life (i.e more than an hour). When I'm working away from a power point, I tend to be doing low-level things like wordprocessing; any DV stuff I do at home....

Capacity in itself has little effect on power consumption, because it usually comes from higher data density on the platter. Rotational speed is more important. Even there, the difference in power use between a 4200rpm and a 5400rpm drive is pretty small, and it looks like all Apple's drives for the iBook are 4200rpm anyway.