Thanks Rob - that is very interesting. And I hadn't heard that they were planning a six cell battery for the (wh)eee - that's good news.
All of which goes to suggest (as if we didn't know) that the only way to know for sure how a device behaves is test it under appropriate conditions. Much as I'm ready for something little and cute, there's no way I'm buying even the cheapest machine until I see some reliable review/testing info. Vern Rob Ludwick wrote: >> According to the reviews, the optional 6 cell battery gets you 4 hours - >> there isn't a larger battery option at all on the eee, so I would count >> that as improved battery life... >> >> Vern > > I delayed responding to this until tonight when I could find some time > to finish getting all the details. > > The 6 cell battery for the (wh)eee pc is still "coming soon". I suspect > it would probably be out before very much longer. > > Battery life and heat goes hand in hand. The less heat that you > generate, the more battery life you get. Simple power engineering, > right? The eee pc uses a celeron M ULV 353. It requires a fan as it > gets fairly hot (not on the cpu, but on the chassis). So it doesn't > quite reach it's goal of being completely devoid of moving parts. > > Now HP is apparently using a VIA 1.2/1.6 GHz VIA C7-M processor. > > According to VIA that means it's about 12 watts to 15 watts of power at > peak. > http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/processors/c7-m/c7-m.jsp > > The wheee pc uses a Celeron M ULV 343 which uses 5 watts of power. > http://www.intel.com/pressroom/kits/quickreffam.htm > > But as we all know, it's not the peak power that matters but average > power. For instance if you're not using SSE(2) extensions, those could > actually be powered off inside the CPU. Also, if there's an idle state, > the cpu can power itself off until something requests CPU time again. > > On the bottom of the wheee pc there's a sticker that says that the > adapter must be able to supply 22 watts of power. So that means 17 > watts of power is split between the screen, the chipset, recharging the > battery, and the display. Now the wheee PC gets warm even during idle > use, this suggests bad power engineering. > > So where can you save power? Making sure idle components enter into a > "low-power" mode. Using efficient chips for power conversion between > different voltages. Using efficient light for the back light, etc. > > So let's dig in a little more. Look at this picture. > > http://www.tweaktown.com/popImg.php?img=eeepc6_l.jpg > > You can see that the wheee pc's fan sits over what appears to be a > couple voltage regulators and a couple of coils. Note that when the eee > pc is put back together the fan sits directly underneath those items. > I'm guessing those are getting hot. The fan would not do very much for > the CPU and chipset, since those are sitting on top of the board, and > you can see their picture here: > > http://www.tweaktown.com/popImg.php?img=eeepc5_l.jpg > > There also don't seem to be any vents on the keyboard side of the > chassis. The only vents are on the underneath with the fan. > > http://www.tweaktown.com/popImg.php?img=eeepc22_l.jpg > > So yeah, I'm guessing that there's no reason the eee pc could not have > been made to be more power efficient. They used a pair of bad > regulators and then had to add a fan when it got too hot. When people > tear into the HP, it would be interesting to see if the HP has fans and > where they are. > > Typically one would expect the CPU and the chipset would be the hottest > thing running in the chassis, afterall, they're doing most of the > switching. > > --R > > > > _______________________________________________ > Fwlug mailing list > [email protected] > http://fortwaynelug.org/mailman/listinfo/fwlug_fortwaynelug.org -- This time for sure! -Bullwinkle J. Moose ----------------------------- Vern Ceder, Director of Technology Canterbury School, 3210 Smith Road, Ft Wayne, IN 46804 [EMAIL PROTECTED]; 260-436-0746; FAX: 260-436-5137 _______________________________________________ Fwlug mailing list [email protected] http://fortwaynelug.org/mailman/listinfo/fwlug_fortwaynelug.org
