E4310 Owner's Lounge

Can someone comment on whether the shared mic/headphones is a hindrance?


I admit I haven't ever used a mic, but for some reason I'd like to have the ability there just in case. I suppose I can also use a bluetooth mic...

Also, can the graphics card power a dual setup with a 24" monitor, and play movies smoothly? The non dedicated video card is a bummer. Sonys have them, was thinking about the vaios because of that alone.


I found this for $1088 on craigslist - is it a good deal?

(also, how's the performance of the samsung ssd?)

FULL 3 YEARS next business day client gold support.
Intel Core i5 540m @ 2.53ghz per core
256gb Samsung SSD ($650 upgrade alone)
4gb DDR3 system memory operating at 1333mhz
13.3 inch HD LED display
DVD+/- RW DL optical drive
Intel Centrino Advanced N WiMax 6250
Mobile Broadband Gobi 2000
Wireless 375 bluetooth
Fingerprint reader
Extended Battery, up to 5.5 hours
Genuine Windows 7 Professional with WIndows XP Professional downgrade with media (An extra $99)
Microsoft Office 2007

 

rfung, if that laptop is brand new, then I'd say yes it's a pretty good deal due to the SSD and all the extras.

I just got mine in the mail about an two hours ago and so far I like it... for the most part. The form factor and build quality are awesome and the battery life is impressive (75% left after 1.5 hours of usage with WiFi on and brightness at 50%), but there are a number of significant weaknesses:

1) I find that the screen is pretty awful coming from my old SXPS 16 with WLED 1600x900. The vertical resolution of the E4310 is terrible, but expected for a 13 incher. The thing I really hate, though, is how badly the screen washes out when I tilt it vertically. It's almost as bad as my old E1405's screen.

2) Another con is the touchpad. It's a bit tiny (also to be expected) and isn't as responsive as the touchpad on my old SXPS 16. It feels like there's a bit more friction that makes that initial finger drag a little jumpy, if that makes sense. The pointing stick works just fine, though.

3) Probably my biggest disappointment with these machine after using it for an hour is the abysmal CPU temp. I thought I would be getting away from the terrible temps of my T9550-equipped SXPS 16 but the temps on the i5-540M are just as bad, if not worse. I installed the folding@home SMP client to do a little benchmarking and the CPU hit 86C in less than a minute. That's just unacceptable. I'm itching to undervolt the CPU, but I don't know of any undervolting software that works with the i-series chips.

4) Then, of course, was the obligatory pre-installed bloatware. 82 processes on first boot. I got that down to about 55 after a little tweaking. This wasn't a big deal to me, but I wanted to mention it.

One last thing: why did so many previous owners order these laptops with 32-bit Windows? Especially when they're equipped with 4GB RAM. I guess I can't get everything I want in a refurbished machine...

Still, I'm hoping my $616 was well spent...

 

Thanks for the reply!

Do you know how good of a deal is it? Cuz I priced it on dell's website and it came to $2500. So from that perspective it sounds like a pretty damn sweet deal. However, you just bought a similar cpu/ram machine for $600 refurb? these laptops just came out back in May..?

Granted the ssd is about $300 upgrade, plus the warranty... I guess I'd like to know exactly how much am I saving if I were to look a bit more. Just haven't found much info on these laptops, in fact this is the only thread with any substance about it.

 

BTW, my current setup is a D420, so I'm hoping the smaller screen everyone talks about won't be much of an issue.

 

The smaller screen will still affect you, it's referring to the resolution. You're downgrading from 1280x800 to 1366x768. The physical size will be larger because it's 13", but there will be less height to work with.

 

The SSD is the only thing that might make that machine a good deal. On the other hand, it might not be a great-performing SSD. You could always purchase a refurb E4310 like I did and then upgrade to a really nice SSD once the price drops close to $1/GB, which is supposedly going to happen once Intel's new SSD's come out later in the year.

Head over to the Dell Refurb Outlet, pick the E4310 you want, and use the coupon code 3KPRKX6KBRM$10 in your cart to get 25% off. It expires on 9/15 or after 2000 uses, whichever comes first.

 

Actually I was just looking on ebay and the prices are about the same as this deal I saw on CL, except no SSD, so I guess we're talking about $200-300 off from what it would be priced normally. SSD would be nice, but I could do without. Mostly I just need something faster than my D420 and a video card that allows for a 22-24" external monitor to work fast.

I'm not sure I like the black interior when you open it either. Might look into this coupon code you speak of, or, gasp, look again at the sonys.

 

having played with my E4310 for a day , I have to say this machine is nowhere near the quality of lenovo thinkpad. The material is not on par and doesn't seem to be engineered at the same level as the thinkpad.

To pay $2000 for this machine would be ridiculous regardless of the specs. In fact, I am not sure $580 (out the door) is that good of a deal after all.

I am surprised by the amount of heat puts out by the fan, but to Dell's credit, the machine remains very cool to the touch. I am also disappointed by the 7200RPM hard drive performance...it doesn't feel snappy considering I have clean installed everything.

Overall, this is a fair deal, not something I would die for though. Sorry for the somewhat gloomy review.

 

As I've said earlier in this thread, I consider the E4310 to be a step backwards from the E4300 (mine is well built and runs cool under load (helped by some undervolting). The less usable display is one drawback and the other is that the new Intel CPUs seem to run hotter than their predecessors (perhaps because Intel is keeping the power-efficient chips to sell as LV and ULV models). AFAIK, no one has figured out how to undervolt the core i series CPUs.

John

 

I just did a clean install on my refurb.

Loaded Windows 7 Ultimate on it and all seems fine thus far. What's the deal with this ControlPoint software? Is it just bloatware, or something I should load back on? I've loaded all of the drivers from Dell's website, but was unsure what to do with the other applications.

- ControlPoint
- Dell Reader
- ControlVault
- Latitude ON