Battery Life and Power Draw
Unlike most notebook systems, the Eurocom Panther 5D is really meant to run from AC power. Its battery is more of a UPS that gives you time to shut down elegantly in the event of a power loss.
Battery Life
Even with 74 Wh of energy, the battery in the Eurocom 5D is quickly depleted by the desktop CPU and dual GPUs driving its performance.
With a fully-charged battery, we were able to get about an hour of run time performing office-oriented tasks. Watching video or running more demanding apps dropped longevity by another 15 to 20%. Encoding video with the CPU, rendering 3D models with GPU acceleration, or gaming all drain the battery in less than 30 minutes.
AC Power Draw
By necessity, Eurocom's Panther 5D has one of the most robust systems for supplying AC power available on any notebook. Its pair of 330 W power supplies converge through a custom connector to feed the LGA 2011-based desktop platform and the 100 W GPUs that are attached. Even without overclocking, we regularly saw power use exceeding 425 W with peaks over 460 W.
With the system off and the battery charging, 40 W is drawn at the wall. Firing up the system and sitting idle at the desktop typically results in 110 W of consumption from the wall. Fully loading the CPU demonstrates 284 W of power use. Loading both GPUs draws 323 W.
Utilizing one GeForce GTX 680M, the system pulls more than 350 W with a CPU and GPU load applied. With both 680M’s running in SLI, working hard on a demanding game, the Panther reports close to 400 W from the wall. It maxes out at 464 W without overclocking.
If one adapter fails, you could maintain the performance of a CPU- or GPU-heavy load. With both subsystems taxed, you need both adapters.
