Hard-Drives and heat

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

Generally, the faster the drive, the more heat it will produce and the more
energy it will consume. But, it is the processor that generates the
greatest amount of heat in any system, desktop or laptop. Your laptop
should be putting itself to sleep when not used for extended periods of
time. Windows Power Management should be taking care of that.

When using your laptop, make sure it has adequate ventilation available.
Don't set it down on a soft surface like a sofa, bed, car seat, or pile of
clothing. This can block ventilation. A neat little trick is to take
little pieces of foam with adhesive backing and place them at the corners of
the underside of the laptop, taking care not to block any vents or access
ports or covers. This keeps the bottom of the laptop raised slightly,
ensuring unhampered air circulation.

<olav_net@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1118614048.145700.30620@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> How important is the hard drive for heat develoment and energy
> consumtion in a laptop? (Pre-Centrino mobile Intel) Myself I have the
> impression that my laptop gets very warm when I use the hard-drive a
> lot.
>
> Do fast drives generally use more energy (with the same data transfer)?
>
> Can/Should I try to make the laptop turn off the drive. How?
> (In XP you can set it to turn itself down when not in use, but it
> doesnt seem to do that by itself).
>
> Can I save energy by buying more RAM?
>
> Thanks
> Olav
>
>

Archived from groups: comp.sys.laptops (More info?)

<olav_net@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1118614048.145700.30620@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> How important is the hard drive for heat develoment and energy
> consumtion in a laptop?

Significant.

> (Pre-Centrino mobile Intel) Myself I have the
> impression that my laptop gets very warm when I use the hard-drive a
> lot.
>
> Do fast drives generally use more energy (with the same data transfer)?

Same generation of drives using the same technology the higher RPM will be
somewhat warmer.

> Can/Should I try to make the laptop turn off the drive. How?

There's a setting in the Power scheme in Control Panel.

> (In XP you can set it to turn itself down when not in use, but it
> doesnt seem to do that by itself).

Yes it does in a completely idle sysytem.

> Can I save energy by buying more RAM?

Depends on if your usually usage can use the additional RAM. If yes then
likely disk I/O will be reduced and power usage reduced. HOWEVER more RAM
uses some power too so unneeded extra RAM will make things a bit worse
heat/battery-life wise.