HDD vs. SSD power usage
So, now that the battery is not interchangeable in the MBP, power consumption is even more of a concern. Do the solid state drives use less power or is it a wash. I ask that because I looked up some specs and it's hard to tell. There's the "OCZ Vertex Series SATA II 2.5" SSD" that uses 2W in operation and .5W in standby. Then without doing to much research here's a HDD "Western Digital 500GB 5400rpm 2.5" Mobile Serial ATA-II-300 HDD w. 8MB Cache (WD5000BEVT) Scorpio Blue" that uses 2.5W during read and write and .85W during idle (drive spinning but not reading or writing) and .25W in standby.
But it seems like there are so many variables that the power benefits of an SSD may really be the same as a HDD. While the SSD reads and writes faster and uses less energy to do so, the standby power requirement of the HDD is half the power. Also, I can't really tell if the being on but not reading and writing for the SSD counts as operation time or standby time.
Does anyone know the answers?
But it seems like there are so many variables that the power benefits of an SSD may really be the same as a HDD. While the SSD reads and writes faster and uses less energy to do so, the standby power requirement of the HDD is half the power. Also, I can't really tell if the being on but not reading and writing for the SSD counts as operation time or standby time.
Does anyone know the answers?
too many to list, Mac OS X (10.3.x)