E5420 vs E6420: What's the difference?

And which would you recommend considering price difference?

 

I've been extremely vocal about some issues I had with my first e6420 here.

My replacement is on its way and hopefully will be better.

It looks like the biggest difference between the two is:

e6420 --> Quad-Core processor option
e5420 --> Dual-Core processor only.

e6420 --> NVIDIA Quadro graphics + Intel graphics
e5420 --> Intel graphics only.

e6420 --> Modular bay (swap your DVD/RW drive for another battery/hard drive, on the fly.)
e5420 --> DVD/RW Drive only.

If your not going tons of power or be in Photoshop/AutoCAD/Premier/etc much, get the e5420.

If you plan on having your computer for the long haul, get the quad core and the e6420.

 

thanks for the response

 

Plus the E5420 doesn't offer the fingerprint reader or the multitouch screen (but you won't really need either).

There are also a few differences between the prices of upgrades.
For example:
- The upgrade to the base i5 costs $30 on the E5420 and $25 on the E6420
- The 1600x900 display is +$50 on the E5420 and +$79 on the E6420

(DEFINITELY get the 1600x900 upgrade. The screen is the most important upgrade on a laptop because you look at it all the time. Don't get the multitouch screen either, it's only 1366x768 and it's not worth getting a lower resolution screen just because it does stuff when you touch it.)

 

+1

Always get the highest resolution screen available... Always.

 

^^^ Only if you have good young eyes.

If not Always get the lowest resolution screen available... Always.

 

^Font DPI Scaling my friend....Font DPI Scaling.

 

It defeats the purpose for me and adjusting DPI doesn't make the fonts look as clean if you were running it in it's native resolution. I regretted buying my T60 with 1650x1080 resolution. I literally have to work up close to the screen to see things. That's one purchase if I had to do over would have chose 1280x800 over 1400x900 or 1650x1080.

 

I completely disagree. I've had serious driver issues with upgraded screen resolution when using external displays. The issues weren't present with identical units with standard resolution displays.

 

It could be the graphics card. I think the NVIDIA graphics card would be great for managing external displays because you get that NVIDIA Control Panel. Plus you can always experiment with installing various driver versions and sources (from Dell vs NVIDIA).