Does a SSD have much of an improvment over normal HD in terms of battery life?

[Nautsabes]

I'm looking at picking up a [url=http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/computer_series.do?storeName=computer_store&category=notebooks&series_name=dm1z_series]HP Pavilion DM1[/url] and in their customize options they have various HDDs, including a 128GB SSD. Obviously a SSD is better in terms of speed and all that but will the increase in battery life over the 7200RPM 320GB HD be worth the extra $290 for the SSD?

[Ironic Man]

Hmm, if you're worried about battery life, get a second battery for less than $290.
It'll double your battery life!

[Catdaemon]

The hard drive uses fuck all power. The screen is the real killer.

[Dotmister]

SSD uses less power as there are no moving parts. Spinning an HDD requires power.

I assume the amount isn't that different though. I could be wrong.

Don't know if anybody here has a PSP, but when you run games off the UMD, the battery life is severely shortened. When you (inevitably) hack it, then run games off your Memory Stick, the battery life is much longer.

[Nautsabes]

Alright, so fuck the SSD and go for the second battery (which are %50 off at the moment bringing them to $60) instead?

[Dotmister]

The website says you'll get up to 9.5 hours of battery life, which is possibly more like 8 hours, sure. But how long are you actually going to want to use your laptop without charging it? It could just be a waste of money.

If you do need the extended battery life, then sure get the second battery

[Chipset]

I dunno which exactly you've been looking at but know that there's an older dm1z series and a newer, make doubly sure you get the newer ones with AMD fusion tech.
Just thought I'd mention it.

[editline]24th January 2011[/editline]

By the way the battery life is more like 5-6 hours form reviews (which is still very good, no laptop gets over 5-6 hours), the 9.5 hours is maybe if you turn off the screen and leave it on overnight.

[odellus]

You seem to be under the impression that you're just buying an SSD to save power. If you don't give a fuck about speed just get the HDD and an extra battery.

[Zellezra]

I have a dual 300x 16GB CF cards in my laptop as my primary HDD in RAID 0. I get about the same speed as my old 5400 rpm Seagate, but the power draw is significantly less. I get an extra 20 mins out of my battery. The only sacrifice is the CF's longevity and the loss of GB space compared to the 160GB I had before.

Similar to this:

[img]http://www.ritekusa.com/images/products/CF_SATA_Raid_300X_SlideBar.jpg[/img]