Help SetCPU help for a noob

[BadReligion]

I really want to learn more about Androids in general so I don't have to keep begging for help when it comes to stuff like this.

Anyway, I just downloaded SetCPU for my S3 and I want to set some profiles to save battery. The trouble here is, I'm an idiot when it comes to this stuff. Therefore, I was wondering if anyone would be willing to walk me through the process of making a decent battery-saving profile? I'd greatly appreciate it.

And yes, I've seen example profiles and whatnot, but it may as well be gibberish to me. Feel free to PM me if you're willing to help more in-depth.

EDIT: I have no clue how this topic double-posted. I got some weird timeout error...

 

[Rukbat]

The slower the CPU operates, the less battery drain there is. It's about that simple. Of course, the slower the CPU operates, the less useful the phone is. It's a trade-off.

 

[Rxpert83]

I really wouldn't suggest setting profiles. They can directly compete with profiles hard coded into the kernel, which can cause battery drain.

A custom kernel will do much better

 

[funkylogik]

What Rukbat And Rxpert said pretty much sums it up mate.
If you wana tweak the CPU, you really want a custom kernel.
If you underclock to save battery, it wont really affect standby time, it will only save power while actively using the phone and youll "pay" for that by having lower performance (if you turn on powersave mode in the s3's settings youll see what i mean. It lowers the maximum CPU speed)

If you want to improve battery life theres less extreme things you can try :thumbup:

 

[heat57]

Yes, I agree with the above and in addition would add that there is really no point using any cpu tweaks for the stock kernel, it inevitably leads to an unstable system and crashes and you won't be able to raise the clock speed anyway.

The only useful tweaks are for custom kernels and most of these have a very comprehensive tweaking app already built in, such as Yank's, Boeffla, Agni and several more. In those cases you can also tweak the volume/sound performance (something useful as far as I'm concerned), charging voltages (e.g. you can push USB rate from stock 450mA to 900mA, that's safe but subject to your PC ports stability), and of course the CPU and GPU performance.

Set CPU won't give you much tweaking options anyway; I think it's limited to CPU clock, Governor and Voltages for clock rates, that's pretty much it.

Before you tweak anything you should always make a Nandroid backup, just in case your device wont boot.