Dell Latitude E6400 Graphics Options

Hello, new to these forums and all (though I do have quite a bit of computer experience). I have pretty much settled upon the Dell Latitude E6400 as my soon-to-be lappy but I have a few questions about the graphics first. I could not find a thread which specifically addressed these issues so I created my own.

1. Dose anyone know if the NVIDIA NVS 160M has the possibility of failure due to the bad solder? I simply could not bring myself to buying a laptop with such a possibility looming over my head.

2. I do not plan on gaming very much (though I would like to install and try Oblivion and some older games), however I will need to be doing architectural modeling/rendering. Are these things possible on the Intel integrated graphics?

Also, as a bit of a side note but something I though I'd ask anyway. Does anyone know if replacing the HDD on Dell Latitudes voids the warranty? Thanks in advance .

 

There is always a chance that it could fail. The thing is you say you do not intend to game much with the laptop so I think you're safe with getting the NVidia NVS 160M. Also, Dell now has a warranty deal where if the NVidia graphics card does fail (even up to 1 year after the warranty expires), that they'll cover you for the fix. However, I'm not sure if this applies to the Quadro line of NVidia graphics chips.

By default though, the E6400 comes with standard 3 year warranty so you shouldn't have to worry too much other than the week or so down-time in getting it repaired.

The new Intel graphics option is much faster than its predecessor, and so I believe you can play older games comfortably with it. I believe you might be able to even play World of Warcraft on medium graphics...

As long as you don't have to pry open the casing to insert the new hard-drive, I don't think it will void the warranty. I think your in the clear anyway though.

 

The nVidia GPU failure is brought on by thermal cycling. Read towards the end of part 2 of my review and you will see that the BIOS is trying to keep the temperature variations within quite a small range. And in part 1 you will see a photo of a chunky cooling system which helps to stop anything very hot. A big contrast to the M1330 which has a smaller chassis and can't get rid of the heat fast enough.

The Intel GPU is fine for 2D graphics and can handle rendering. It just takes a little longer. The Intel graphics is the better choice if you want a longer battery run time.

3 screws and 3 minutes is what it takes. Just keep the old HDD with the original software installation in case you need to call for warranty service. There's a Dell partition on the original disk which might contain diagnostics or similar.

Dell is quite tolerant about people getting into their computers (some people get sent components to swap rather than Dell sending someone round). Just follow the service manual which is available on line and don't break anything.

John

 

Thanks so much for the replies. This whole NVIDIA saga has just got me a little scarred to buy one of their products... plus their response has been appalling. The thing that I actually like best about dedicated graphics is the greater flexibility to underclock/overclock as I wish. Guess that I might just find myself going integrated... sigh.

 

I've just tried rendering the SpaceStation_2000.dwg demo drawing in my CAD software and it took 15 seconds for a full render. However, that's a static rendering - nothing clever like being able to dynamically rotate a 3D solid.

15 seconds is fine for occasional use. It would have been a minute with integrated graphics a couple of years ago. The Intel GPU has good OpenGL performance, if that's what your CAD software uses.

I'm not a gamer so I prefer the low heat, long battery life integrated graphics option.

John