E6430 Owners Thread

the latest drivers from nvidia now work with the NVS 5200M; I got the following results running 3D Mark Vantage on default settings:

SCORE P4839 3DMarks
GRAPHICS SCORE 3824
CPU SCORE 23760

Edit: 3D Mark 11 with default settings:

SCORE P1135 3DMarks
GRAPHICS SCORE 988
PHYSICS SCORE 8359
COMBINED SCORE 963

 

Ordered a 6430 on 6/19. Estimated delivery is 7/6. Picked up a version with almost the same specs as Oxygen's machine. Will be running linux and Win Pro in a dual boot setup.

 

Can you say something about temperatures (during benchmarks) and noise (idle, load)?
What do you think about the display?
Notebookcheck rated the e6420 display worse than the ones from Thinkpad t420 and HP 8460p.
I don't know if they changed it.

 

Hello all, recently upgraded (at work) from a 6420 to 6430. I previously had a 5550 WWAN card in my 6420 but this doesn't seem to work in my e6430, I get an error on driver install saying it won't work... do you guys know if it's incompatible and I need the 5560 instead?

 

temperatures are high. up to 90° C. noises are low, almost none at idle/deskop. on gfx load i'd call it medicore.

i use 90% of the time external displays so i dont have a strong opinion on this. i dont like the 16:9 aspect ratios. it feels wrong.

 

90°C for GPU or CPU?

Yes I don't like those 16:9 Displays, too. But for 16:10 the only choice you have is a bitten off fruit (or an old one).

 

90° C for CPU, GPU always around 10° cooler afair

 

For those interesting in order/shipping times. Ordered my E6430 system on the evening of 6/19. Original delivery date was reported at 7/6.

After checking the Dell website the system is shipping today 6/25 and has a 6/28 delivery date.

 

Well back in 2012, seems like I usually get one of the first of the refreshed models. The E6430 is almost identical to the E6420 from the naked eye until things start to come apart.

PHYSICAL REVIEW
Mechanical Differences From E6420

• Trim Ring Around Keyboard is now dark silver.
• Plastic Trim Around I/O ports deleted on E6430
• Addition of HD LED on top lid on E6430
• Hard Disk now secured by 2 screws on E6430
• All screws have thread lock applied on E6430
• CPU Cooler more aggressive, dual copper heat pipes etc.
• Improved 4 Speaker System on E6430
• Mg bottom tray now secured by hooks rather than just adhesive on E6430
• Hard Disk now ships with rubber isolators on side on E6430

Build Quality

The E6430 is basically an evolution of the E6420. They have fixed some of the issues with fit and finish and problems with fitment.

Other than that there are no serious differences in build quality.


Appearance

No obvious changes aside from, plastic trim on keyboard is now a gunmetal color instead of orange. The exhaust vent is deep and narrower than on the the E6420 and the hard drive cage plastics are larger along with a two screw screws securing the drive instead of 4. They have also added an HD LED on the top of the laptop lid.


Parts that Swap

The Keyboards are identical, and swap. The silver keyboard trim ring fits on the E6420 and vice versa. Batteries are interchangable as well as the laptops using the same E-Series dock.


Docking
The new E-Dock Adds USB 3.0 Ports (Pictured)

 

More Pictures