About to buy a E6400 - few last questions

heya,

So I've specced out the below Lattitude:

Latitude E6400 : Intel Core 2 Duo P9600(2.66GHz,1066MHz,6MB)
Express card base: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M, 256MB
Display : 14.1in Widescreen WXGA+ (1440X900) with LED backlit
Palmrest : Fingerprint Reader
Camera : Integrated 0.3 Mega Pixel Camera with Microphone for LED Backlit LCD Panel
LCD Back Cover : Black Finish LED Backlit
Documentation : English Shipping Docs
Memory : 4096MB (2x2048) 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel
Hard Drive : 80GB (5400 Rpm) Serial ATA
Windows Live
Optical Drive : 8x DVD+/RW Drive
Optical Drive : PowerDVD 8.1 Software and Media included
Power Cord : UK/IR 90W AC Adaptor 3 pin
Battery : Primary 9-cell 85W/HR LI-ION
No Carry Case
Wireless : Intel WiFi Link 5300 (802.11 a/b/g/n 3X3) 1/2 MiniCard with Centrino label
Keyboard : Internal US/Int Qwerty Backlight Keyboard
Software Driver : Recovery DVD
Software Driver : Latitude E6400
Operating System : English Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 (32Bit OS)
Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 Os media
No Intel vPro Secure Advanced Hardware Enabled Systems Management
AntiVirus : Not Included
Latitude Order - United Kingdom
3Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day - Minimum Warranty 1 S
Base Warranty 1 S
3Yr ProSupport for IT and Next Business Day On-Site Service 1 S
Declined CompleteCare

Currently I'm pretty happy with the spec but I've got a few last minute questions

1. Is there any "refresh" scheduled for the E6400 any time soon? I realize that all products go out of date fairly quickly in the laptop world, but I'd hate to buy this today if a new version comes out in a month.
2. Does the above spec look good for my stated needs? These can be found here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=351951
3. I realize that game performance varies considerably from game to game, but I've seen a few posts that suggest that the Nvidia 160M isn't very good at all. Given I'll be running primarily older games like nwn2, and the odd newer MMO like WAR, how do you think the dell will perform? Adequately or not even playable at it's native resolution?
4. Docking station - I have a desktop that I will be using most of the time, but I will have some spare kb's and monitors that I could use so a docking station MIGHT be of use. What do most people think? is the docking station a worthwhile investment given it's cost (in the uk ~140 pounds).
5. I've read a few threads where people talk about the cost of upgrading on the dell site as being very expensive. Given that would you recommend me downgrading say the ram to 1gb and then going and buying a 4gb simm at some online reseller as a better option ? (again bear in mind I'm in the UK and don't have the wonderful newegg to fall back on here).

thanks for your help.

 

1- The next significant update will be when the Nehalem processors are released....last I heard was Q3 2009. So you're in good shape. Besides, you're getting a very powerful machine that should be technically relevant for several years.

2- Specs look quite good to me. I really like the WXGA+ LED display and the backlit keyboard. I see that you went with Vista Home Basic, are you planning to use that or do you intend to install a different OS (Windows or otherwise)? I went to dell.co.uk and didn't even see the option for the P9600 processor. I did notice that they're offering a free upgrade from the 2.26GHz P8400 to 2.4GHz P8600. The jump from the P8600 to the P9500 is £150....a big price for a small performance increase. Did you consider the P8600?

3- I'm not a gamer, so there are more qualified users who can answer this. I know that one point of contention is that the E6400 has the DDR2 version of the nVIDIA graphics card compared to the E6500 which has the DDR3. The E6400's also has a slower clock speed of 400MHz compared to 700MHz on the E6500. There's a 550-600 point difference in their 3DMark06 scores.

4- I personally don't care for docking stations...I just spend the money on the highest resolution display on my laptop and use that. Granted, 1440x900 isn't quite as good as my older 15.4" laptops with 1680x1050 displays, but they were a lot heavier, too.

5- Order the base 1GB and upgrade yourself. Here's a link to the Crucial UK website- LINK. They're a reputable name brand and their 4GB (2x2gb) kit is £41.39 including VAT.

 

Thanks, good to know.

I'll be installing linux as the primary OS with winxp for some gaming maybe moving to vista if it's proved as a decent gaming platform anytime soon. I'm able to get that spec as I'm getting a quote leveraging some business connections within dell UK The cost I'm looking at for the above spec is ~1k with VAT so the cost of upgrading the CPU doesn't bother me overly.

Thanks for the reminder. I had read that as well, the thing is I'm set on the 14.1 form factor as to go to 15.4 blows the entire decision open again as there are a LOT of better systems at that size. The 14.1 size on the other hand is a relatively small market, T400, asus and the dell. I'm just hoping the card is sufficient for my needs.

Thanks for the info, that's my feeling as well but thought I'd ask. They seem very expensive for what they are.

Thanks for the link. I'll certainly consider this option.

 

I have an E6400 and I have to agree, the card is quite pathetic. However, with a good external cooling solution, you can overclock it to a reasonably stable level (620core/480memory). Call me crazy, but along with my T9600 I can eke out a playable 20-25fps at min settings on GTA IV.

Judge your games from that.

 

Yeah, specs are looking good . The nvidia is ok for occasional gaming with not too demanding games, but don't hope too much. It's definitely not a gaming machine. It's a heck of a nice and light workstation though.

Specs are looking great, and if you are to get Vista, get the 64bits version, especially with your 4gb of RAM.

As for before ordering online - CALL a sales rep. You will shave a couple hundreds of the web price, especially on options. DELL will probably match memory prices more competitively.

As for Hard disk, why so low? Plan on going SSD in the year? A nice 7200rpm won't hit a lot more the battery.

As for the docking, go without it; when and if you need it, then purchase. I have to admit that it's nice using standard peripherals at home or at the office. At least Dell is offering them. Most consumer side laptops don't.

 

The OS will be linux and 64bit xp. I'm a firm believer in not using any 32 bit OS's but then I use linux as my primary OS so I've not been in a 32 bit world for a long time.

As mentioned above I'm getting the entire system for ~1k inc VAT. So it's already about 40% off RRP.

I should have mentioned but the plan is to put a new gen SSD in immediately so the HD it comes with is irrelevant.

I've decided to take your advice re the docking station, it doesn't work out any cheaper to buy it now anyway.

thanks,

 

how much extra noise and heat does your system generate without said external cooling system? What impact does that have on your battery life? and out of curiousity what external cooling system are you using?

thanks

 

Does overclocking the graphics card not VOID the warranty?

 

To get this out of the way: In theory, overclocking voids the warranty. However, I am not stupid enough to push my card to 100C, and then play for 5 hours. A software overclock is virtually undetectable should service be required, as long as nothing is fried.

Now, when I play GTA w/o the cooling and overclock, the fan is on at high speed intermittently. With the overclock and w/o cooling, the fan is on high constantly, and I'm getting about 86-88C. The fan grill does get quite hot.

With the cooling (thats a Zalman NC-1000), which is very quiet (fans top out at 1500rpm), the laptop fan is on at a very low speed (if at all), and my GPU tops out at 82C, which is about what I get without overclock and without cooling.

I tried pushing it to a higher point (650/520), but the Nvidia driver gave out, and sometimes, the computer locked up, restarted the driver, and gave me normal clock speeds, but other times, it bluescreened, failing to restart the driver.

 

I used nTune.