SSD faster than spinning HDs, But...

[Unquestionably]

If a SSD is faster than a 7200 RPM HD, that means that the computer does more work in the same amount of time. That means more power is consumed in doing the extra work with the SSD drive. That means that SSD will eat up your battery power faster than a conventional HD.

 

[Gooberman]

No.

 

[Dngrsone]

Your logic is flawed.

Because a conventional hard drive has to power motors and actuators to accomplish its tasks, the power usage of said drive would be measurably more than the power usage of a solid-state device.

The work done by the processor is little different during this time-- it spends more cycles waiting for data when accessing a conventional drive, but the power usage difference is likely unmeasurable.

 

[kobaj]

Your logic is flawed.

Because a conventional hard drive has to power motors and actuators to accomplish its tasks, the power usage of said drive would be measurably more than the power usage of a solid-state device.

The work done by the processor is little different during this time-- it spends more cycles waiting for data when accessing a conventional drive, but the power usage difference is likely unmeasurable.

Your facts are flawed .

While conventional HDD do have motors (no actuators, sorry), only the initial spinup takes a lot of electricity. Once they're spinning, momentum keeps them going with relatively little electricity needed. SSD take the same, and sometimes more electricity than HDDs. Read more here.

Anyway, to the OP. You'll be saving power with an SSD, not using more. OP is incorrect in assuming the CPU is constantly working, when really it is mostly in a low power state. When it has to access the HDD/SSD it will go into the high power state. Since SSD are faster than HDD it will be in this high power state for much shorter periods of time. Meaning it can go back to the low power state faster, and save your battery.

Hope that helps .