Buying decision: E7450, E7470, E5450, E5470, can't decide, opinions welcome!

You can't make sweeping statements like that. System fan noise is determined by the fan diameter and speed, which is directly affected by the TDP of all chips being cooled, size of heat pipes and heat sinks in the system, and how well the thermal compound was applied during assembly (Dell is pretty bad at this one). Fan noise on our 5000 and 7000 series latitudes are pretty much the same, i.e. they're barely noticeable. If you're that finicky about fan noise, then you'd be hard pressed to find anything without being "noisy". Thus you'd have to step down to a Core M product, since those are fan-less.

Also, we haven't encountered any issues with Latitudes overheating. These chips are designed with a maximum temperature around 100 degrees Celsius, and we haven't had any complaints of it ever getting hot. Worst one I've seen so far is about 75 degrees on the die under heavy load, which is slightly warm to the touch on the outside.

That said, some reasonable conclusions can be made here from what you've said. One is that your E7470 was badly assembled and the chip is indeed overheating and running with unreasonably loud fan noise. The other would be that your expectations are unreasonably high. It doesn't matter if its a high end machine or not, laws of physics has to be obeyed by all. If the issue is the former, call Dell's support line and have them dispatch a tech to replace the thermal compound and heatsink/fan assembly. If the problem is the ladder, you options are 1. turn the laptop to power saving mode to aggressively down-clock the processor, or 2. get a dock + monitor and place the machine on the far end of your desk, or 3. get a fan-less product (which will be less powerful and runs warm to the touch), or 4. get a desktop with large but slow running fans.

 

The E7450 most definitely has the dgpu as an option, albeit it's a little tricky to find it. (Look for a 90W power adapter).

E7450 and E5450 (840M dgpu), both i7-5600U, fans don't come on until heavy work load. There are two things I'd suggest:

1. It could just be bad luck in terms of the thermal paste application for your E7470.

2. Windows has some really annoying "services" it likes to run in the background that causes the fans to spin up. If you keep an eye on the task manager, sort the processes by CPU usage, and hear the fan at low CPU usages, then I'd just replace the machine. If not, look into how important those "services" are to you.

 

I have both the E7450 iGPU i5u & the E5470 iGPU i5u. The E7450 seems to be much hotter running whereas the E5470 is much cooler, with average CPU temps in the 40s in the latter compared to 50s in the former while idling. Not sure if there are issues with the thermal paste application on the E7450, but the heat sure bugs the hell out of me. The E7450 is much warmer at the bottom as well. The fans on the E5470 is definitely better designed. The internal 62Wh battery lasts much longer as well, easily 2 hours more under similar usage. Hope this helps

 

Notebooks with a dGPU need to have better cooling systems to handle the extra heat of the combined CPU + GPU load. If you don't use the dGPU then the cooling system will have an easy life and should be relatively quiet.

I bought the dGPU version of the E7450 based on comments in this forum that the fan was quieter than the non-dGPU version. That proved to be the case. Visit my E7450 review and you will see what a well-designed fan looks like (it purrs, not whines). The E7470 has a similar fan to the E7440 and non-dGPU E7450 and that fan (based on my E7440 experience) can get noisy.

The E5470 has an optional dGPU and Dell uses the same chassis layout and fan whether or not the dGPU is present so you can have the better fan without the dGPU. This notebook is slightly thicker and heavier than the E7470 but you have the benefit of the quieter fan. If you value quietness then your choice needs to be between the dGPU version of the E7450 (note that this has no 2.5" bay) or the E5470.

Something you have to look at is the fan rules. There can be circumstances where modest CPU usage can result in a temperature that is quite warm (around 60C) but not quite enough to get the fan running and this can result in the bottom of the computer getting noticeably hot. As noted elsewhere, you can try the different thermal management options in Dell Command Power Manager to see if they make a difference.

John

 

I have to admit, the machines seem to run cooler on Linux (Ubuntu + LXDE) than on Win 8.1 Pro.

 

Hi Krowe,

I'm really interested by the E7470 as it will certainly suits all my needs. However, while searching on the web, I came across a few testimonies of people complaining about coil whine on this model.

As you work with a E7470 and you also have deployed several E7470, I was wondering if you ever had any coil whine problem with your E7470 or the one you've deployed in your job.

Thanks !

 

Hello guys,
Can you please help me with this:
Is latitude e7470 i5 6300 etc with 1080p nonTS good for editing photos?
Can you explain to me is that the ips display? How can I check it out? I read that qhd displays are ips, but I can't find that info for 1080hd.
The same Q is for integrated graphics? Is it good for editing in photoshop and lightroom?
I like this laptop and the price is very tempting (around 600e).

Thanks for your answers.
And excuse my bad English.

Ps I have found a thread fo 7470 owners and I asked that Q there. I don't know if it's against the forum rules.

 

Look for the viewing angles in the specifications or the term "wideview" (or similar) in the description. If the viewing angles are big then that is an indication that the display uses IPS or equivalent technology. (IPS is LG-Philips technology. Other manufacturers have something similar.)

It is contrary to good forum etiquette to post the same question in different places but I'll excuse you as you haven't started two different threads which ask the same question.

John

 

Thanks for the answer.
I am buying one today.
Thanks