E6420 Owner's Thread

You would think that would be built into Windows, but it is not. Check out Power Plan Assistant for Windows® 7 - Features and Benefits

 

Check - thanks!

 

Sounds interesting. Installed but will not load.

 

Hi I've just bought a E6420 with the following configuration. I've seen a lot of people have upgraded to 16GB ram 1600mhz. What effect will this have on the laptop. Most of my work is microsoft office and other applications I don't do much graphics intensive work other than the odd bit of CAD. I'd like to make it as fast as possible but don't want to waste money if it won't have a big effect.

Also I will probably be formatting and creating a dual boot with XP is there anything I should watch out for or any drivers or is it best just using Dells recommended drivers.

Plus there's almost 100 pages here. Is there any crucial info I should look at or any nice upgrades I dont have time to read through everything. I've got a new mode 2nd HDD tray to uprgade the storage.



SYSTEM OPTIONS
Processor
Intel® Core™ i7-2760QM processor (2.40GHz, 6M cache ,Upgradable to Intel® vPro™ technology)
Operating Systems
Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, No Media, 64-bit, English
Energy Star & EPEAT
None
LCDs
14.0" HD+(1600x900) Anti-Glare LED-backlit with Premium Panel Guarantee
Graphics
nVidia® NVS™ 4200M 512MB DDR3 Discrete Graphics for Quad Core
Memory
8.0GB, DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
Internal Keyboard
Internal English Backlit Dual Pointing Keyboard
Camera/Microphone
Light Sensitive Webcam and Noise Cancelling Digital Array Mic
Systems Management
No Out-of-Band Systems Management

STORAGE AND MEDIA OPTIONS
Primary Storage
256GB Mobility Solid State Drive
Security: Dell Data Protection|Encryption
None
E-Modular Hard Drive
None
Primary Optical Device
8X DVD +/- RW with Cyberlink Power DVD™, no media
System Recovery
Resource DVD - Contains Drivers
System Recovery
Recovery Media for Genuine Windows® 7 Professional,64bit,Multiple Language

POWER OPTIONS
Primary Battery
6-cell (60WH) Primary Lithium Ion Battery
Extended Battery Service
None
AC Adapter
90W A/C Adapter (3-pin)
Additional Power Options
3-Cell (30WH) E-Modular Lithium Ion Battery

DOCKING SOLUTIONS
Docking Solutions
Simple E-Port, dock for charging, digital video, and USB / eSATA port support

MONITORS AND MONITOR ACCESSORIES
External Monitor
None

NETWORKING OPTIONS
Wireless LAN (802.11)
Intel® Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300 802.11a/b/g/n Half Mini Card
Mobile Broadband
None
Bluetooth
Dell Wireless® 375 Bluetooth Module
Modem
No Modem

SOFTWARE OPTIONS
Productivity Software
No Productivity Software

SECURITY OPTIONS
Security Software
None
Fingerprint and Contactless Smartcard Reader
Fingerprint Reader and Contactless Smartcard Reader

 

I'd stick with Win7. You may have real problems getting drivers for XP, particularly SATA drivers so you'll end up running the disks in IDE mode, effectively throttling the system. Unless you're running some old legacy software, there's no reason to not run Win7 x64 these days.

XP 64 Bit was notoriously buggy with very poor driver support in its hey day, yet alone trying to downgrade new kit.


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Just to follow up on this, if you need XP then run XP mode from within Win7 rather than dual boot. Or better still, as you have lots of RAM, download Oracle Virtual Box for free and stick XP on a virtual machine.


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I'm thinking of buying the e6420 from Dell and was wondering if the 256GB SSD is SATA3?

If it isn't SATA 3 I was thinking of buying it with the 320GB HDD then buying a OCZ Vertex 3 and swap it out. Is there anything I should be aware of if I do this?

 

It is SATA 3. However, buying it with a basic HDD then buying your own SSD separately may work out cheaper and you get to choose which SSD you get, whereas Dell will just grab any old one from their parts bin.


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I knew it was SATA 3, so with ordering the notebook with a 256GB SSD drive option, I could end up with a SATA 2 or SATA 3 drive? I wonder what the likelihood of getting a SATA 3 is?

How would the 3-year warranty work? Would I have swap back in the official Dell HDD every time I needed service?

Also, I've tried searching this owners manual thread with keywords but haven't been successful. I keep getting the message "Could not find phrase 'invalid_search_query' " after evey search. Does this actually work? if so what am I doing wrong?

 

Dell will let you keep your hdd. I've done so every time I've sent my D630 in.

the vbulletin search here, quite plainly, sucks. It's likely just even more broken than usual. Your better off doing a custom google search of the thread contents.