E6410 Owner's Thread

has anybody used Noise-Cancelling Headphones with the e6410? Does it cut out the hiss?

 

My E6410 has a terrible cpu whine problem. Dell says: "not our problem, bad luck!". I spent almost 2k € on a laptop that makes my ears bleed, its unusuable for me. So be warned if you order this notebook in a country where you dont have the right to send it back.

Also the bottom gets really hot, its no comfortable to use on the lap. System was freezing once or twice a minute for half a second. I'd recommand to stay away from this notebook or at least wait for some updates.

Sorry to spoil the party, but negative feedback is useful as well for some people, so i wanted to share it. Of course there are also good things about the notebook but i dont feel like talking about these after losing a load of money. Im frustrated, buying this was a big mistake.

 

This is not the sort of post those of us awaiting delivery of our laptops want to hear

Now I fear my E6410 will be a whiny, overheating, hissy, stuttering, throttling abomination that ramdomly hangs and crashes.

My machine is currently in transit so it won't be long before I get an answer

Paul P

 

Sorry to scare you, i hope you have better luck.

My intention was: If you order this notebook, you should make sure you can return it cause dell wont help you at all if you get one with cpu whine. I thought that might be an useful info to all those who are sensitive to high-frequent noises.

 

I'm going to be running AutoCAD in the fall on my E6410. I downloaded the tool and looked at the settings but was too afraid to actually change it (Never overclocked anything before). Would setting everything to high (roughly doubling the values) damage anything? What is an easy way to monitor GPU temps?

 

Dell's replaced the motherboard in my E4300 twice for this issue. I think you need to call them about utilizing your machines warranty.

 

Hopefully my ears are old enough that I won't hear it. Btw, I wasn't complaining as I've chosen to take my chances since Dell has never let me down so far. I'm sorry to hear of your troubles.

As Dillio187 says I'd keep after Dell until you're satisfied. You paid good money and deserve to be happy. I recently went through a crazy story with Kitchen-Aid. It took almost a year of dealing with countless different representatives (none of whom seemed terribly intelligent) until one day I hit upon an angel who laughingly set everything right. Keep calling Dell until you find someone like that.

Paul P

 

1. Are you going to be doing lots of 3D rendering of complex models in AutoCAD? If not, even integrated graphics is fine.

2. You can use HWmonitor to check the temperatures.

John

 

Many thanks, Bob!

 

Nvidia system tools comes with a GPU temperature monitor tool, which I recommend as Nvidia knows how their graphic card sensors. As long as the GPU is under 95C it's considered safe (Max temp is 105C, which when reach, will unload the overclock profile, or throttle or crash the driver (which will crash the program/game that uses the GPU. So, save often). Under Vista/Win7 when the driver crashes, it won't give you a BSOD like in the old days, it will restart it, so your screen will just flicker black for a moment and come back.

You can't just overclock by sliding all the bars to max (or double the values). Well first of all it will most likely fail. The bets overclock is to monitor your temperature to ensure that the GPU doesn't overheat (and does the above mentioned possibility which can interrupt your work), and follow carefully my guide.

We say overclocking is dangerous for mainly one reason, if the voltage is set to high (a few mili-volts too much), it can permanently damage the processor in question. However, in this case you can see it as being SAFER, as Nvidia System tool, (aka nTunes), manages the voltage part and has several kill switch in his hand in the case things goes bad. PLUS, you can have automated profile loading, so you can say, "when my GPU reach 96C: load the default profile".

My suggestion above will eventually reduce your GPU life time, if used continuously every day or so, and carefully load back the default profile when you are done, expect the GPU to break in 3-4 years of doing this (estimation).
My suggestion is of course not the best one (as if you inform Dell that you overclocked your GPU if it breaks, no mater what tool you used, Dell will void the warranty... so yea don't tell them). BUT if you are going to throw away your E6400 and purchase another 2 000$ laptop (which is kinda a waist of money), than overclocking the GPU might be the best for you. Not to mention that your laptop is probably only 1 or less year old.

If you have extra money, this is what I really suggest:
- overclock only when needed the GPU, all by monitoring your GPU temperature, and saving your project frequently with backup.
- Buy a Desktop computer for 1000$ to 1500$ custom build (if you know how, else purchase with similar specs). With a nice mid high-end motherboard, Core i7 860 or 930, 4 or 6GB of RAM (depending if you have dual or triple channel memory based on the CPU choice mentioned), a nice Geforce GTX 260 or 270 (avoid 400 series series for now) or ATI Radeon 5800 series or up (nothing lower)., with a nice 22/24inch monitor. Here is a nice comparison monitor chart of highly rated monitors from reviews, which I made (with feature explanation):
Monitor Comparison Sheet
And your set for a powerful gaming and CAD desktop computer. It should be much cheaper than a new laptop, MUCH more powerful CPU and GPU which can handle virtually anything you trow at it (being reasonable of course), and a proper station to do your work.

So, now you can do real important and big CAD projects on your computer, and so lighter work on the laptop on the go.
When home, use a program called Input Director (free, donation supported), to allow you to use your desktop keyboard and mouse for both laptop and desktop (switch box of sort, but on software so doesn't cost you anything. Oh and you can copy paste text and also file (for files: if it's in a networked shared folder) between systems, for easy file transfer between systems.