Benchmark Results: File Transfer Performance And Power Consumption
In terms of both power and performance, a second drive will benefit anyone moving data around on their mobile device. While an SSD-only configuration results in higher platform power use than a HDD-based setup (evident in the above chart), it finishes its work faster. This is probably going to surprise the folks who think that SSDs always use less power than hard drives, but it's actually the case that the solid-state technology is simply more efficient over time.
Even if you are moving data from a hard drive to an SSD, you could see a 30% increase in efficiency and performance. If the data is being read in from the SSD, the possible benefit rises to 300%. That's an amazing ten-fold increase in efficiency. For mobile users, this can add up to some serious savings in battery life.
Remember that this is platform power. We are not implying that SSDs use more power absolutely. The greater power use could be from higher processor load as a result of the increase I/O, or more power used by memory for the same reason.
| Windows 7 File Transfer*1.82 GB (582 Various File Sizes) | SSD (partition transfer) | HDD (partition transfer) | SSD to HDD | HDD to SSD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time to Completion | 28 secs | 107 secs | 33 secs | 76 secs |
| Average Power (polled values) | 24.3 W | 20.5 W | 21.7 W | 22.6 W |
| Actual Platform Power Used (integrated values) | 189 mW | 610 mW | 199 mW | 477 mW |
Note: we want to point out that the reported power values are more than just averages. They are the cumulative power numbers reported on the DC circuit. We integrated the values over time, but are only reporting the values over a two second interval for charting purposes. These numbers represent the energy required to power the platform during a file transfer within Windows 7 (64-bit). These power numbers are lower than what you would normally see on a IdeaPad Y560 because the notebook's battery is only driving the SSD, HDD, motherboard, processor, and optical drive. We use an external monitor and detach the wireless card to remove them as variables. In our partition-to-partition file transfers, the unused drive is detached in order to ensure there is no idle power consumption.