E6410 Owner's Thread

Thanks. I primarily use my machine for Excel (spreadsheets up to 12 MB), Word, Outlook, internet and our accounting software. I will also be purchasing some desktop Dell Optiplex for my staff. They use the same, but with some using AutoCAD, Photoshop and Dreamweaver.

It seems to me that 4 GB is borderline - lower and you should go for 32, higher and you should go for 64. So at 4 GB, it might not make much difference whether it is 32 or 64?

 

Correct, except that in the future you might want to upgrade the RAM, and in that case it would be nice to have a 64-bit OS.

 

with 4 GB you would probably still go with 32bit.
and then: you could always buy a new os... ;-)

but I guess in your case it really doesn't matter (as long as you are not using some old multimedia hardware, or weired usb sticks...)
to be future proof and if you have no old hardware, go with 64bit if you thake prof, as mentioned before, you get a virtual XP mode

 

Real world advantages and disadvantages of running a 64-bit OS:

Advantage:
1- Ability to run 64-bit applications and video/audio codecs to ease CPU stress, providing 2 things:

• Longer address and new operation codes, provide better performance. See it as a free overclock, without any downsides of a real overclock (heat, reduce lifespan, reduce stability).
  
• Makes the task easier for the CPU, boosting battery life.

2- Having the OS such as Windows in 64-bit DOES benefit 32-bit applications a bit, as the OS appears to be "lighter" than what it is for the CPU. This one is an interesting effect.
This is the same unexpected effect, where a system that can run concurrent (system that makes it look like that it runs several processes at the same while in may not (ie: single core CPU)) process doesn't provide performance boost for one processes, but does at the overall view. Well in this particular case, it provide all a performance boost, even if you only 1 process.

Now, in some very rare situation, depending which compiler was used, a 32-bit application can run a bit slower under a 64-bit OS, but these are rare cases, and we usually talk about 5% decrease in performance, something that will most likely not see or feel, even if you watch and compare carefully.

3- A 64-bit OS allows you to address 4GB or more of memory, up to 16EB (of course, each CPU model and motherboard chip-set has it's limitation on memory amount, usually these limits are 8GB, 16GB or 24GB for standard laptop/desktop computers - as we speak of today. Obviously this will increase over time.

4- Ability to address more than 2TB of HDD space. That is correct, 32-bit OS are limited to 2TB HDD's. Ever wonder why HDD space race suddenly halted?! Well that is why... HDD manufacture are deciding if it's worth doing research and releasing HDD's any bigger when most people still use a 32-bit OS such as XP. Obviously it will change, so better get ready. It would suck if you have to cash out 100$ for a 2TB HDD while you can get a 3 or 4TB for 105$, in the years to come. And we all know, that we can never have enough free space (also it makes the HDD's faster as the tracks and data blocks are smaller and closer together).

5-You pay for a 64-bit CPU, why not use it?


Downsides

1- Windows 64-bit has drop support for 16-bit (DOS) applications, so your old old games and software on floppies will most likely not work. However you can use a program like DOS Box (free) which is a built-in DOS emulator. DOS and DOS software is so incredibly light that a today system will have no problem running them. In fact, because most 16-bit application/game speed is based on CPU cycle, DOS box had to implement the ability to purposely slow down a running application/game to make is usable.

2- Longer address for HDD and RAM, means that it takes more room on them to associate the index from the index table to the data block meaning that you will lose a few MB of space. Oh noes! 2-4MB (estimation) lost out of 4 000 MB! what will you ever do!

3- As mentioned, on particular rare occasion, you can have an application that performs a bit worse under a 64-bit OS, but again, this is the kind of situation that is very rare, and that you will never notice.

4- Old peripherals (older than 2006) MAY not have 64-bit drivers. However, you do have Microsoft generic drivers, which decreases the chances that the device will really not work. But, it still something to verify.

So, there you have it.

You can see that 64-bit advantages far surpasses the downsides, which some of them are plane silly. There is really no upside in using a 32-bit Windows, other than being able to run 16-bit application... but let;s face it, do you reeeeeaaaallllyyy have any DOS applications? or any badly programmed Windows 95/98 software that you desperately need and that has no replacement?

 

Thanks GoodBytes for the excellent overview. This is very helpful.

 

Thanks, I performed a little spell check as well.

Additional knowledge & recommendations:

- Office 2010 will be in 32 and 64-bit on the same disk, it will detect your system and install the correct version. Having Office 2010 benefits you on PowerPoint (animations stress less the CPU), Excel (able to make more complicated calculation at many cells with greater ease for the system, and support larger numbers before going into scientific layout), OneNote does background process, such as saving, and analyzing audio tracks for text search, having it in 64-bit helps).
You can get Office 2010 beta for free here: http://www.microsoft.com/office/2010/en/default.aspx

- Under Windows 64-bit, driver MUST be approved and digital signed by Microsoft to install without problem. Approved only drivers (usually beta drivers), will get the user prompted that a unsigned driver wants to install, and wants to know if you really want to install it, or not (if you click on no, the setup will think it was successfully installed and continue it's path). Not approved drivers will not work in the system.

The benefit of this is that:
- No more rootkits.
- A large amount of system viruses which installs a drivers to harm your computer or you (ie: steal passwords, monitor your activity), all fails to work.

- DEP protection is fully enabled at a hardware level (a CPU feature), this security feature prevents a process from doing a buffer overload, which can give it supervisor mode of the CPU. SuperVisor mode allows a process to get out of it's virtual environment (the allocated set resources), and perform what it wants, when it wants. It can gain by-pass OS security systems, and play with process priority such as settings it self as high priority and enter an infinite loop, blocking any other processes from using the CPU, freezing a computer, or more harmful attach itself to another program without your knowledge and get record what you do with the software, (ie: see passwords of anywhere you have a password field, and by pass OS firewalls and sends everything home). DEP can detect a buffer overflow and kill the process before it can get supervisor mode.


By default Windows Media Player 12 is set to be in 32-bit flavor for compatibility with codecs which was an issue with Vista 64-bit when it was out. Today, about all codecs are in 64-bit.
Now a famous question is: "what is a good codec pack in 64-bit flavor?". My personal recommendation is Shark007 codec pack. The website looks iffy, but the product is great! Install the 32-bit codec first than 64-bit add-on.
The software is donation supported.

It provides:
- Thumbnail preview for Vista/Win7 64-bit.
- Does not override Windows built-in codecs.
- If you remove, update the code, it keeps everything clean on your system.
- Has a control panel like application that tweaks all codecs it has, for easy configurations.
- It's control panel like application has the ability to enable Windows Media Player 11/12 64-bit. Once enabled, all shortcuts and file association is fixed to open with the 64-bit version for you.
- I was able to play anything I pass through, including MKV's without any issue.

If your use XP before and this is the first time you used 7 they are many cool settings to make your experience on Win7 better:
1- You can have the taskbar not group items and have it like the old Windows, allowing easy access to them. Just right-click on the taskbar > properties, and the option is in front of you.

2- You can move task bar items and system tray icon places, so you can group items together for easy access and not have 2 programs that you keep switching between on the complete opposite side of the screen.

3- Don't tweak the OS like you did in XP. It works differently and a lot of it was redone from scratch in Vista and improved in Win7 for performance and reduce resource consumption. The OS is set to auto-maintain itself and optimize itself including boot optimization every 3 days or so.

4- Windows Vista/7 64- bit is not a half- job done OS. EVERYTHING is in native 64-bit. In fact it's the contrary, 32-bit Vista/Win7 is the half- job OS. Vista was originally developed in 64-bit, and one of the reason for the big delay is that 64-bit CPU's were very expensive that few had them. 32-bit Vista was a last minute decision and was the version plague with problems.
Vista 64-bit was significantly more polished than it's 32-bit brother.

 

What about heat dissipation and CPU fan control? For me, heat (in the palm rest zone) and Fan noise are one of the most important factors. On E6410 can you control the CPU Fan speed & the temperature at which the fan starts/stop?

 

dell just cancelled my order without notifying me...

after waiting for 2 weeks; a shipping date pushed back 3 times i'm thinking of getting a T410 with UMTS; i7 620; wireless 6300 for 200€ more than my current e6410 config (can't beat the bang/buck on student lenovos...)

 

Wow I very much agree with everything that GoodBytes said...listen to that guy... ;-)

 

Any chance someone who already has their E6410 could do a brief video overview/first impressions?