[DouglasQuaid]

I picked up a laptop somewhat recently and I'm heavily disappointed in the headphone out's sound. It is very hissy with the Etymotic ER4P and I was hoping to put a usb soundcard on it. Can anyone offer any input on how these things affect battery life?

Also, I was considering the Turtle Beach Micro, but am definitely vulnerable to persuasion.

 

[jagorev]

The Turtle Beach Micro is a good upgrade over onboard sound. For the next step up, go for the Echo Indigo, which delivers a really clean signal. Both of these have pretty low effect on battery life - the Indigo probably draws more power.

 

[cwuzer]

i'm using an audio advantage micro right now.

doesn't seem to affect battery life too much.

i would upgrade to an echo indigo...but it's kinda expensive.

 

[DouglasQuaid]

Thanks guys. Anyone else have any input?

 

[lini]

DQ: In general, USB allows 500 mA max. @ 5 V, so max. power drain is 2,5 W. TBAA probably needs quite a bit less - more in the 100 mA range I'd assume.

Greetings from Hannover!

Manfred / lini

 

[smeggy]

Apparently there is a fault in USB2 code which MS has yet to rectify which drains batteries faster than it should, but overall I don't think it'll have any massive effect on battery life having a soundcard plugged in. My Indigo card isn't too bad despite how much of the battery it converts into heat (lots).

 

[StormTracker]

Quote:

Originally Posted by smeggy Apparently there is a fault in USB2 code which MS has yet to rectify which drains batteries faster than it should, but overall I don't think it'll have any massive effect on battery life having a soundcard plugged in. My Indigo card isn't too bad despite how much of the battery it converts into heat (lots).

Are you talking about the "recent" one? Because if you are, it only affects notebooks using Intel Core Duo processors. Otherwise, I am not aware of such a fault with the USB code.

 

[smeggy]

Not sure when it's from, I just recall reading something about it.

 

[DouglasQuaid]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lini DQ: In general, USB allows 500 mA max. @ 5 V, so max. power drain is 2,5 W. TBAA probably needs quite a bit less - more in the 100 mA range I'd assume. Greetings from Hannover! Manfred / lini

Considering my battery is a 53WH, it'd lower battery life by about 5% (considering full usb power drain and no wierd driver issues causing everything to run more active than normal). I didn't even think to just take the maximum numbers into account. Thanks Linn.


Smeggy, that usb 2.0 issue was localized to the new core duo systems. Thanks for the input though. All input is appreciated.