E6420 Owner's Thread

I have a very similar machine, except i5-2520M and dual dimm.

I've seen a problem like this before, a machine boots very slowly and all disk accesses are very slow, but once running seems fairly OK. So it takes, say, 5 minutes to boot and load Word but it is then quite responsive.

The problem was that the drive was not running in UDMA mode, but, when I turned on UDMA, windows reported errors and switched back to polled I/O which is quite slow. I ended up replacing the hard drive and performance was magically restored.

 

Just thought of sharing info about rams:

Kingston HyperX KHX1866C11S3P1K2_8G 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3 1866MHz / PC3-14900

AIDA64 Memory Benchmark
CPU CPU Clock Motherboard Chipset Memory CL-RCD-RP-RAS
Core i7-2720QM 3200 MHz Dell Latitude E6420 QM67 Int. Dual DDR3-1862 11-11-11-32 CR1
Read Speed = 18370MB/s
Write Speed = 16962MB/s
Copy Speed = 19858MB/s
Latency = 48.8ns

Corsair Vengeance CMSX16GX3M2A1600C10 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3 1600MHz / PC3-12800

CPU CPU Clock Motherboard Chipset Memory CL-RCD-RP-RAS
Core i7-2720QM 3200 MHz Dell Latitude E6420 QM67 Int. Dual DDR3-1600 10-10-10-27 CR1
Read Speed = 17012MB/s
Write Speed = 16532MB/s
Copy Speed = 18970MB/s
Latency = 53.4ns

 

In my opinion, it is not worth the extra cost and your CPU is limited to properly addressing up to 1600MHz memory anyway so the 1800MHz memory offers no real benefit other than a very marginal throughput incensement due to the probable lower CAS latency at the reduced operational speed. Regardless, real-world use will show no observable difference in performance.

Scott

 

2 gSkill sticks, 16Gb
G.SKILL F3-10600CL9D-16GBSQ

read=12 455
write=12 955
copy=16 835
latency=58.7

i guess my sticks are 1333 MHz - should i return them & get faster ones? would i see a real-life difference?

 

I have not changed my RAMs from 16GB to 8GB, I actually went for the 16GB. I would of liked a better RAM benchmarking tool, but as you can tell there is a different going beyond the CPU memory controller speed of 1600MHz "limitation". It's not all based on the speed "MHz" it is also the timing......

You do know that the timing of the 1862MHz ram are actually slower, the throughput is due to the higher bandwidth. If the 1600MHz was running at a lower timing of CS6-7 the throughput would of been similar to 1862MHz CS11, though I don't think there are any tight timing for a single 8GB 1600MHz sodimm.....

 

You may want to read this
AnandTech - Sandy Bridge Memory Scaling: Choosing the Best DDR3

You wouldn't experience much change, as your CPU would be bottlenecking the read and write throughput. What is your CPU?
The copy speed is the actual RAMs throughput, what's lacking is the CPU processing the data (Read & Write).......just a guess

 

my CPU is i7 2720QM.

 

Hmmm that's really odd..... for me to get similar results I would of limit the multiplier for the CPU to 20. Though AIDA Benchmarking tool uses only one thread of the CPU, is there anything running at the background?

Though having a higher speed RAM would make a different.. it just whether you can justify the cost also what you would use it for.

Everyday use like Scott_RC-TEK has said, it's a waste.. you probably wouldn't notice it.

 

Finally got my replacement :woot:

Screen seems nicer than the previous, LG-Phillips rather than Samsung. It's also missing the Dell Power Manager that the previous system had. Can someone point me in the right direction? Didn't see in in the drivers & downloads section. Also is it worth it? I remember it locking me out of advanced options.

 

Latitude E6420/E6420 ATG System BIOS 12/04/2012 A12
http://ftp.us.dell.com/FOLDER00317788M/1/E6420A12.exe

ST Microelectronics 02/08/2011 2.00.10.33, A10
Windows 7 (32 & 64-Bit) http://ftp.us.dell.com/app/ST-MICROELECTRONICS_FREE-FAL_A10_R309372.exe

IDT 92HDxxx HD Audio 21/03/2011 1.16.0, A03
Windows 7 (32 & 64-Bit) http://ftp.us.dell.com/FOLDER96756M/3/IDT_92HDXXX-HD-AUDIO_A03_R297613.exe

Intel Unified AMT 7 Management Interface Driver 21/03/2012 7.0.0.1144, A02
Windows 7 (32 & 64-Bit) http://ftp.us.dell.com/FOLDER00365568M/3/ME7_Unified_SW_Installer_R311171_ZPE.exe

Intel Chipset Software 16/06/2011 9.2.0.1030, A04
Windows 7 (32 & 64-Bit)http://ftp.us.dell.com/folder95733m/1/intel_chipset-software-insta_a04_r304291.exe

Intel Rapid Storage Technology (Driver Only) 19/05/2011 10.1.0.1008, A07
Windows 7 (64-Bit) http://ftp.us.dell.com/sata/INTEL_RAPID-STORAGE-TECHNOLO_A07_R291721.exe

Intel Rapid Storage Technology 14/03/2011 10.1.0.1008, A07
Windows 7 (32 & 64-Bit)http://ftp.us.dell.com/FOLDER94070M/2/INTEL_RAPID-STORAGE-TECHNOLO_A07_R291722.exe

ControlPoint System Manager 12/09/2011 1.7.10000, A21
Windows 7 (64-Bit) http://ftp.us.dell.com/FOLDER35332M/1/APP_WIN_R312259.EXE
Windows 7 (32-Bit) http://ftp.us.dell.com/FOLDER72668M/1/APP_WIN_R312260.EXE

Intel GMA HD 09/02/2012 8.15.10.2418, A09
Windows 7 (64-Bit) http://ftp.us.dell.com/folder97465m/6/Intel_multi-device_A09_R307994.exe

NVIDIA NVS 4200M 13/09/2011 8.17.12.6883, A03
http://ftp.us.dell.com/video/VIDEO_DRVR_WIN_R312024.EXE

Dell Multi-Touch 13/12/2011 7.1208.101.125, A10
Windows 7 (32 & 64-Bit) http://ftp.us.dell.com/FOLDER99185M/1/dell_multi-touch-touchpad_a10_r315893.exe

I hate the Dell Driver Support Site.................

[Edit: Corrected 64-Bit Download Link, added more direct links cause I'm bored]