E6520 Owner's Thread

Just ordered up an e6520. I'll post pics when I get it. Any others out there want to post pics and personal reviews? I'm upgrading from a Thinkpad T60, hoping I don't find too much fault with Dell's "Trackpoint" and keyboard.

 

E6520 owners, please post some pictures to see live pictures of the laptop and the cooling system!

 

Will the USB 3.0 module I ordered with my 6520 work like Native 3.0?

 

I plan on ordering a E6520 today with the following specs:

i7-2620M
Win 7 Pro x64
3 Year ProSupport w/ Acc. Damage Prot
2.0GB RAM (8GB to be installed after arriving)
250GB 7200rpm Hard Drive (to be replaced with Vertex 2 240GB)
9-Cell Battery
DVD+-RW
Intel 6300 WiFi
Webcam
Bluetooth
FHD Display
Backlit Keyboard
NVS 4200M

Haven't gotten my quote back, but configured it was $1870. This will also be my first 15" laptop with a FHD display. My eyes are pretty good, hopefully they're this good.

edit: Quoted around $1585

 

Very well chosen specs! Especially after the installation of 8GB RAM and ssd. If I were you, I'd choose the quad core cpu i7-2720QM since the price is close to i7-2620M.

 

I don't see myself using quad core much, and I'm assuming it will push more heat/less battery life.

 

I also had the dilemma between 2720QM and 2620M but i chose the quad core. I won't change this laptop anytime soon so I think that quad core will last more in time. In 2-3 years it will still be powerful enough and more adequate than the dual core.

 

Fortunately I have the luxury of pushing down older laptops to other employees, so I have little buyer's remorse.

 

I ordered mine on the 30th of March and should receive by the 14th of April. I opted for the i5-2410 2.3GHz dual core because I don't need a very powerful CPU for the work I do. In 2-4 years I could upgrade it to a more powerful quad core cpu if needed. Will post pics of the system once I receive it. Also plan on installing intel 510 series 120GB SSD drive.

 

I know this is a double post - but this thread will likely be around a lot longer than the other one.

On Temps:

Look at the screenshots in the review. That is 99c with Furmark AND Prime95 placing synthetic loads on both the CPU and GPU at the same time. This is a worst case scenario and can ONLY be produced through synthetic loading of the machine.

In "normal" use which includes games that heavily load both the CPU and GPU you will not see temps this high. You have to take Furmark with a grain of salt.

Putting the E6420 and E6520 (that both have the Quadro 4200M and both have the 2720QM processor) under the same load does show the tradeoffs between the 14" and 15" chassis. The E6420 heats up and cools down more quickly than the E6520. This is mainly due to the extra mass in the cooling system E6520. The fans are the same, but there are physically longer heat pipes in the E6520. The E6520 also has a larger area of magnesium in the base. Each machine will get into the 80s if you put a heavy processing load on them for an extended amount of time. The E6420 is more "spiky" with temps while the E6520 is smoother with temps but bulkier.

They might be closer to each other with dual core processors since they produce 10 fewer watts of heat. I know they will be closer without the 17 watts of the Quadro. Still, this much processing power in a 14" chassis is nice. Even with the Quadro and Quad core the temps are lower than what I was seeing in the previous Latitude generations.