Why do laptops have internal batteries?

A desktop isn't portable so doesn't really have a need for batteries, and if you did need to keep this on during an outage a UPS and generator would be your options.

Desktops draw much more than their respective laptop counterparts, bigger PSU for a start, monitors, keyboard, mice - while some are low power, its still coming out of an at minimum 450W PSU compared to the adapters laptops use.

Dedicated GPUS, multiple disks, not designed for portability.

Also internal components in a laptop will throttle, a PC will not

Compare a laptop i7 with a desktop i7 for power draw alone, then go for raw compute - they will be different.

A laptop will never outperform a desktop, when the laptop is running on the battery. To optimize the battery, the processor, video card, hard disk, ect. throttle down for longer battery life. This step down can cause failure issues over time. Also laptop hardware that is optimized for battery usage costs more than standard hardware. At least that is my thoughts on why they don't use batteries in desktop computers.

They do, it is called a UPS. If yours doesn't last long enough, it means you bought too small of a UPS, that's all. Laptops use batteries that aren't meant to be plugged in all of the time, do that and they wear out quickly. Desktop UPS are designed to be plugged in always. So they are slightly different as each is designed for its special use case. But for most of us, our desktops do indeed have batteries. So the real question is... why doesn't yours?

CoolHandWuch wrote:

So what is stopping desktops from utilizing the same battery tech as laptops?

Just doesn't fit the use case.

The same thing that prevents switching our homes over to DC power. Locally DC's more efficient, for long transmission lines, AC wins. Infrastructure has AC to the house, and through the house.

There are a lot of solar proponents who wire DC circuits in their house. Until the consumer electronics industries get together and make DC home wiring standards, it won't be an option.

Due to the efficiency of your idea though, many datacenters are using DC to their servers. This is just something I've read about, and I don't know how widespread it is. Someone has already probably mentioned that while I'm posting this.

Anyway, you're right, it is stupid. Just a matter of time until there's a standard for this and manufacturers move to it. I don't expect this to occur though, as they're much more interested in elimination of home PCs. With the XBox scheduled to soon allow keyboard and mouse controls to be used in FPSs, I expect you won't even see a lot of gamers using PCs in the near future.

All good points from Rod. Also, if you have ever used a laptop that has been used like a desktop [power supply always connected], you would notice that the laptop battery exposed to these conditions would run the laptop for maybe the same amount of time as a UPS. Which is actually plenty of time considering the point is to either give you enough time to properly shut down your computer OR enough time for the power to come back or the generator to kick in. So for a UPS the job is really to keep the computer running for a couple minutes which they do.

Scott Alan Miller wrote:

They do, it is called a UPS. If yours doesn't last long enough, it means you bought too small of a UPS, that's all.

As I said in the original post, I'm comparing a UPS that cost the same amount of money as a laptop battery. Trying to figure out why it isn't cost efficient to have the option of built in battery instead of purchasing UPS. I am aware that there are better UPS if you would like to pay more money.

Scott Alan Miller wrote:

Laptops use batteries that aren't meant to be plugged in all of the time, do that and they wear out quickly. Desktop UPS are designed to be plugged in always.

This is a solid point, the internal battery would degrade quicker in a desktop always plugged in.

Scott Alan Miller wrote:

But for most of us, our desktops do indeed have batteries. So the real question is... why doesn't yours?

You know what I meant.

Rod-IT wrote:

Compare a laptop i7 with a desktop i7 for power draw alone, then go for raw compute - they will be different.

That is a solid point....I didn't think about how the U processors cut down on power.

Why would you want a battery?

Who is going to be lugging their PC around with them that needs the portability of a small house.

If you are talking about in situations where a UPS would come in to play, its doing exactly what you want - and yes it costs more, but see my point about power usage, a typical PC needs at least 450W PSU, a laptop will use a power brick supporting about 120W - Max, in most cases much less as the device throttles.

Rod-IT wrote:

Why would you want a battery?

Who is going to be lugging their PC around with them that needs the portability of a small house.

If you are talking about in situations where a UPS would come in to play, its doing exactly what you want - and yes it costs more, but see my point about power usage, a typical PC needs at least 450W PSU, a laptop will use a power brick supporting about 120W - Max, in most cases much less as the device throttles.

One of our offices has a situation where about a third of the building is running off of generator power [when main power goes out] that keeps all of the networking gear up and running and some of the computers. But that doesn't do a lot of good when most of the workstations are without power after 30 minutes. Granted this doesn't happen often, and I'm not asking for solutions to this problem. It got me thinking about batteries and brought up this question in my mind, so I figured I would ask why it isn't a thing.

The solution even though you are not looking, is to use laptops where power issues occur, not desktops.

Batteries to give enough juice to PCs is a long way off and only required in cases where a UPS/Generator are currently doing this role.

In case anyone is interested, I found a bit more info. It look like Google has been utilizing this in servers for a while. Interesting read

//www.cnet.com/news/google-uncloaks-once-secret-server-10209580/

That article was also wrote some 8 years ago, while I am sure they still use such tech, they are also using purpose built motherboards. Everything has been designed with up time in mind, from location, to board, to power in the event of failure.

Yes Rod, I was just stating that Google was using the method I was talking about, by having a small [roughly size of a HDD by the looks of the image] internal battery instead of a UPS. It obviously doesn't run them for hours like I want, just said it was interesting read. Means the concept is sound, just not there tech wise.

I feel like every question on this site gets turned into some kind of an augment. Nevermind, thanks for everyone's input anyway, enjoy your days!

Because Desktops are $200-$500 cheaper for the same spec.

CoolHandWuch wrote:

I feel like every question on this site gets turned into some kind of an augment. Nevermind, thanks for everyone's input anyway, enjoy your days!

That is not the case or my intension, but you answered your question at the start with UPS.

Those 12V batteries they have installer, per motherboard may well do your device too, but if it's minutes, it's the same as a UPS [which I am sure you are fully aware of].

The main difference is Google is using these devices as services so uptime is paramount, you are comparing that with a desktop device, something a laptop would solve for a fraction of the cost that is not critical to your business.

CoolHandWuch wrote:

I feel like every question on this site gets turned into some kind of an augment. Nevermind, thanks for everyone's input anyway, enjoy your days!

That is not the case or the intention.

You are comparing a service, and critical infrastructure to a desktop device though, your desktop is not part of the infrastructure that needs to be on for business to run, if it was you'd have a UPS or a cheaper, laptop to be able to use it on critical infrastructure when you hit this situation.

It would be nice if there was smaller alternatives to UPS to run PCs, but as you already noted, the tech for this simply isn't there.

Mostly because of the power draw required

KarlosDaTechGuy wrote:

Because Desktops are $200-$500 cheaper for the same spec.

This is, I think, the real answer to what OP was driving at. They put batteries [and power managing tech] in laptops because they have to, even though it increases the price. Desktops don't need it and to keep the price points where the units will sell, they don't even offer it. If you want to spend that extra money you buy a UPS.

To include it in a Desktop would require a case redesign [for airflow and battery removal] along with power management on the MB. There simply isn't enough call for this to make it worth the expense for the manufacturers.

Rod-IT. I have had problems as well - maybe not quite the same as yours. Sometimes, there is no reply boxes. I have to wait until others have replied before I get a box that I can use.

As to, why desktop don't have batteries. Desktops are not optimised for low power consumption and would need large batteries to keep going for any length of time. This would add to cost. In essence, unlike for laptops, the PC has components that can be selected from a menu. Want a better monitor - tick it on the menu. Want to be more immune to power cuts - buy a UPS and batteries to suit your needs. And so on. You tick the menu and choose the performance and how much you want to pay.

For sure ithas to do with Laptops are designedto use as little power as possible. Desktops have 500w+ PSU's so they are not really designed to be efficient for a battery. I have a 1200w PSU and I can run 4 GPU's and a highly overclocked CPU if I wanted. You will never see that in a laptop.