GX640 Battery Tips and Solutions?

Hi guys!
I might soon get a GX640 and the only thing holding me back is the battery life...
First, how long would you owners say it lasts without any gaming?
I would need at least 3-4 hours.

How is the battery in hibernation or standby mode?

I know there aren't switchable graphics but isn't there any way to quickly disable the gpu?
The i5's do have integrated graphics, so would they not kick in after a reboot?
How has downclocking or undervolting worked for you guys?

Finally are there any good websites to get batteries for it.
I don't like that the ugly 9-cell's jut out of the back, so I was thinking to also get a 6-cell for when i'm out and about.
My guess is a 6-cell wouldn't last more than an hour.. Is that accurate?

 

Hi there,

The 9 cell battery keeps notebook going with underclocked and undervolted gpu for about 2,5-3 hours depending on usage.

There is NO way to enable integrated gpu on i5 because there is no switchable graphics controller or so...When you disable/brick your Radeon, computer won't boot at all, so no - there's no switchable graphics.

 

Get this laptop, then a cheap netbook.

You're much better off with that solution than to find some imaginary combination of the two.

 

You're right bearclaw but this was supposed to be that cheap netbook.
Unfortunately I can't settle and always want better lol.
So it turned into a hunt for gaming laptops.

I don't expect the world, just an hour or so ontop of the 2.5-3.

Anyone have good tips/tweaks?

 

lol that was exactly how things went for me. I started out searching for the laptops with highest battery life in complete disregard for gaming abilities, then i started to gradually increaes my CPU/GPU requirements till it turned to searching for a gaming laptop

 

Wait so you have a powerful notebook/desktop and you want another gaming laptop?

 

Well I have a powerful i7 desktop, but i'm selling it.

The plan was to get a cheaper laptop to bridge the gap from now until when theres a good time in the market to buy the latest and greatest parts to build a pc.

However, I keep imagining how it would suck to have a system that has only a fraction of the power im used to.
See?

 

I see...
I recommend the Acer 3820TG then. It's got great battery life, 13IN but also very good performance.

 

I'm considering the 4820tg from Acer. Basically the same thing.
besides the point though.
Any good mods or methods to pull 3+ hours out of this beast? It has a 9 cell so its capable.. the gpu simply draws too much power. Even at idle.
Undervolting been successful?

 

Undervolting has not been successful.

Max you get is maybe 3.

 

Dunno. I trust Bearclaw's expertise but I do get about 3.5 hours with wifi on battery. That's mostly using just word processor/email, and with the brightness turned down significantly. But I can squeeze a decent amount of battery life out of this rig when I use it for business. That's a big part of why I like it so much.

Also have a netbook, though, which I use for traveling/those days when I really need a lot of mobile computing. I lug the GX640 back and forth to the office with ease, but not through airport security.