Help
cancel
Turn on suggestions
Auto-suggest helps you quickly narrow down your search results by suggesting possible matches as you type.
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

how do you know how much watts your laptop draws?

reiyu
Level 7

‎04-22-2011 10:46 PM - last edited on ‎03-05-2024 08:21 PM by Community Admin

i've seen some people over at the g73 forums that bought a 3rd party 180w power brick. is that really necessary? how is it beneficial if it is?
Labels:
0 Kudos
11,943 Views
4 REPLIES 4

xeromist
Moderator

‎04-25-2011 09:03 AM

I have a kill-a-watt power meter and I've found it useful for many different things. They're not that expensive and I like having one around.
A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station…
0 Kudos

irdmoose
Level 10

‎04-26-2011 11:34 AM

The only reason a 180 watt power supply would be useful is to lower the amount of wasted energy caused by the power supply's heating. My G73's power brick gets fairly hot (which is a symptom and a cause of wasted energy) alarmingly so at times. However, it's designed to handle it. Just don't put it under a pile of clothes or a blanket and you'll be OK.
If the heat from the power brick does alarm you, moving to a 180 watt power brick should help since it's not going to be working as hard to output the power necessary to run your laptop. It could end up being more efficient than the factory one because of the reduction of heat and the greater amount of available power overhead. It won't affect how your laptop performs unless you're overclocking (which I don't recommend unless you like voided warranties and are really good at repasting).
0 Kudos

Chastity
Level 10
In response to irdmoose

‎04-26-2011 12:59 PM

irdmoose wrote:
It won't affect how your laptop performs unless you're overclocking (which I don't recommend unless you like voided warranties and are really good at repasting).


That is sooo me. 🙂
[SIGPIC]Kicking Ass Since Today[/SIGPIC]
0 Kudos

irdmoose
Level 10
In response to Chastity

‎04-26-2011 05:57 PM

Chastity wrote:
That is sooo me. 🙂


Yeah, Chastity you're a bit of a nutter in that department.

*** Warning! Very technical explanation to follow, proceed at risk of your own sanity! *** 😉 On a side note, one thing that I didn't consider when I was writing my post earlier is: ripple voltage. The closer that a power supply is run to its maximum output, the more ripple voltage the power supply will likely throw at the device it is powering. Ripple voltage is essentially a leak of AC voltage through the power supply caused by various factors including overloading or poor design. I haven't had a chance to extensively test the power supply included with my G73, so I can't say whether it's throwing out ripple voltage. However, I've noticed that when you're running a power supply that's "just enough" to meet the needs of a system and you upgrade to a power supply that exceeds the system's needs, things tend to run more stable.
0 Kudos