lowering power usage on T series

[bencampmovim]

I'm currently ordering a T43.. I'm deciding between getting the 2.0ghz model and the 2.13

I would really prefer 2.13 for my live performances, but I want to know when i'm not using it for music production, is there anyway of "downclocking" it to 2.0 (or lower), or putting it in a low-processor mode to extend battery life?


IBMs engineers say :
T43 2.13 gets 5.2Hour battery life

T43 2.0 gets 5.7 hour battery life.


Would be great to be able to downclock the 2.13 to save battery (ESPECIALLY if there's some kind of software utility to do this)

I've been told someone coded one for a dell system, i didn't know if it was dell proprietary or if it's a general system util for all laptops?

Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[Leon]

yes, IBM Battery Maximizer will do this....

watch you costs! NOT a big perceivable diff between those 2 CPUs..


welcome to our Forum!!

[bencampmovim]

yes, IBM Battery Maximizer will do this....

watch you costs! NOT a big perceivable diff between those 2 CPUs..


welcome to our Forum!!

Really? Could you go into a little more specifics?

I plan on using the laptop for live audio performances (if you're familiar with that application, I will be using Ableton Live 4 with plenty of VST and VSTi plugins).

My DESKTOP can run 10 tracks of VSTi and 5 tracks of audio with NO problem (p3 2ghz 1 gig ram)

However my current laptop (1.6ghz centrino, 1gig ram) usually maxes out at about 3 or 4 VSTis and 5 tracks of audio..

So for my live performance I'd REALLY like to get every bit of edge possible.. but switching from (my current) 2.13Ghz processor to a 2.0Ghz processor will also buy me another .5 hours of battery time..

[Leon]

well, in that case, maybe get the higher model even though the diff is small...... The Battery Maximizer Applet (which will come with the machine) allows for extensive customization of power saving adjustments via profiles, including 4 levels of CPU speed.....

[bencampmovim]

well if there really is an almost negligable difference in speed between the 2.0 and the 2.13 processor i'd probably get the 2.0 (cheaper and .5 hour more battery life)


Anywhere I can find out a closer estimate than "almost the same" between 2.0 and 2.13 processor? I don't care about benchmark tests, i care about actual application usage..

[Leon]

I can only tell you that over the years, when using machines with a processor that close in Spec., I could perceive NO diff. YMMV.. others are welcome to agree or not....

P.S. I like your web sites!

[sugo]

nm

[bencampmovim]

far as I know BOTH the 2.0 and the 2.13 model are 533MHZ FSB.

Is there something else I need to know about FSB speed?

[daeojkim]

yes, IBM Battery Maximizer will do this....

watch you costs! NOT a big perceivable diff between those 2 CPUs..


welcome to our Forum!!

Really? Could you go into a little more specifics?

I plan on using the laptop for live audio performances (if you're familiar with that application, I will be using Ableton Live 4 with plenty of VST and VSTi plugins).

My DESKTOP can run 10 tracks of VSTi and 5 tracks of audio with NO problem (p3 2ghz 1 gig ram)

However my current laptop (1.6ghz centrino, 1gig ram) usually maxes out at about 3 or 4 VSTis and 5 tracks of audio..

So for my live performance I'd REALLY like to get every bit of edge possible.. but switching from (my current) 2.13Ghz processor to a 2.0Ghz processor will also buy me another .5 hours of battery time..

I am surprised to note that the P3 (Are you sure? I think you mean P4) 2.0Ghz does so much better than centrino 1.6Ghz. I am speculating that the bottle neck in the laptop may be other than the processor. Perhaps memory bus and/or the HD. Even though the Sonoma processor (in T43) has 533Mhz front bus I don't believe the memory bus will change. According to latest tests Sonoma does not increase performance by large margin. But reduces battery life by about 15% due to increased FSB.

On your current laptop try to run as much tracks as you can and check task manager to see if your processor is running at near 100% for Ableton Live 4. If it is not then the bottle neck must be somewhere else.

Does your desktop use Rambus RAM by any chance? I seem find that Rambus RAM performs much better than DDR's.

As far as Sonoma 2.0 and 2.13 I don't think there will be much performance difference for most applications.

[dvorak]

You can read more about performance differences regarding Sonoma and the current 815 chipset at THG webiste (http://www6.tomshardware.com/mobile/20050119/index.html).

According to those benchmarks you'll get ~5% of more power and 20 minutes less battery with max powersaving settings and monitor turned off, In max settings it of course turns into 30-40 minutes of less batterylife.

So you'll have to choose, if you want more power or more mobility, a few extra watts of power rate seems quite big to me, I'd stick with the desktop for applications that require computing power.

[Kenn]

I'd just like to point out that the Intel Pentium-M (which comes with every Centrino package) is designed to automatically throttle down to save battery power. You can manually disable it from doing so or set the speed.

A Pentium-M 1.6Ghz is generally thought to be equivalent to a Pentium 4 2.4Ghz, especially when running Office apps. In fact, when running general productivity apps, the P-M 2.13 should walk over any desktop CPU available, including 4Ghz P4s and Athlon64s. This performance metric does NOT hold true for gaming or multimedia though. I'm not sure why there would be such a drastic difference between your P4 2.0Ghz desktop and your other Centrino, unless you have the laptop manually set to a slower speed or the app is heavily optimized for SSE3...

Also, you will be INCREDIBLY hard pressed to see or experience ANY difference between the 2.0Ghz and 2.13Ghz Penitum M, assuming both are on the 533MHz bus (they should be). The difference is just too small to tell, and I doubt it would buy you another VSTi track (conjecture, but looking at your numbers I'd bet money on it).

You'll have a hard time finding accurate battery numbers anywhere - from the manfacturer, other users, reviews, etc. Everyone uses their machine differently. Your best bet is to download Mobile Monitor and see for yourself (which I'm sure is not possible/practical). I doubt you'll get 30 minutes more on the 2.0Ghz, but I'm not confident enough to argue with IBM on the issue

[MobileGuru]

Just to ask for the sake of being curious .. if you are putting this much data through the box for performances, why wouldn't you most often be plugging it in? I'm assuming that you are already running power because I doubt you are running all this through the stocker speakers? I can see when you are working on some tracks on your own, which might consume power where a cord might not be available tho.

Also, I would warn you now not to expect over 5 hours of battery life doing that kid of work on the machine .. the marketing hours presented are done the same was as everyone elses, which mean in reality you will use much more power than that.