Undervolting a Laptop

Delph1 writes "Laptops often comes with two Achilles heels, heat and limited battery time. There are, if not cures, at least remedies to make them less obvious. By lowering the voltage to the processor you can not only drastically lower the heat dissipation, but also increase the battery time significantly. NordicHardware gives a nice walk through on the process and was able to boast 18% lower temperature and a 20% reduced power consumption."

Comments

I modded my Dual-Heel Processor

[digitaldc]

Laptops often comes with two Achilles heels, heat and limited battery time.

You know, I just found about this and I have modded my Laptop to the EXTREME!
I just went on a website and then tinkered with my new Dual-Heel Processor.
It's so EXTREME the battery catches fire 10 seconds after it finishes booting up.

I do this too.

[Anonymous Coward]

I find that if you disconnect the battery entirely, you end with 0 voltage draw on the battery. 0 amps are drawn, too. You can then go for many days without having to recharge the battery! This greatly increases overall battery life as well because of less wear and tear. With my Windows desktop environment being riddled with spyware and viruses, my productivity is only reduced slightly when I do this.

Re:It's 18% cooler only in Celsius

[pierreTheBear]

Ok, so my iMac G5 is running at about 50 deg C. That's 323 degrees Kelvin (ie, total thermal energy above absolute zero).

An 18% reduction in absolute temperature would reduce my processor to 264 deg K... that's equal to -9.15 degrees Celsius.

My kitchen freezer can't even get that cold! If I undervolted my iMac, I could be chillin' my b33r right now as well!

PowerDemandign components

[pscottdv]

No. He's talking about the new PowerDemanding (TM) components
They're designed to increase current to meet their power demands.
If they can't get their power that way, they're designed to lobby
Congress.

Re:18% -- that's really funny

[Odin's Raven]

Also, "undervolting" is not a word.

I'm sorry, but "undervolting" is a perfectly cromulent word. I'd agree that percentage was a poor choice for expressing temperature differences, but the primary point remains - undervolting can embiggen battery life.

Easier Solution:

[thepotoo]

All you do is drop voltage to 0. Once you've done this, you'll see a drastic increase in battery life, and virtually no heat output.

The downside is that it takes like forever to load Word...