E6520 Owner's Thread

I agree with this somewhat, since the original SATA Flash idea was supposed to use a special Intel Turbo Memory card.

However, it shows up in both the F12 and BIOS boot menus, which implies that it has boot capabilities.

 

OK, ive been having some difficulty with this. Ive downloaded both the OEM Dell driver for the NVS4200m as well as the newest Nvidia one. When using either, my system BSODS as soon as I try to click anything within Ntune. I of course am trying the latest Ntune software as well.

My system is configured as follows :

Dell E6520
Dual Graphics Cards ( HD3000 + NVS 4200M )
8Gb ddr3
500Gb SATA HDD
Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1

Any help would be appreciated as it seems the stock NVS frequency is a bit lower than it should be


**EDIT **
I found my own answer Just download MSI Afterburner. Hows this for an overclock? Original 3d scores in WEI were 6.3 and after the overclock are a 6.6. My original Passmark 3D score was a 287 and now its at a 427. Oh what an improvement! Ive had ZERO artifacts or BSODS with these settings I hope this helps someone! Also, the GPU Temps didnt peak over 61. As soon as i push Mem Clock over 1001Mhz, the Nvidia driver restarts though. Im guessing thats about its limit.

Now, to get a working internal SSD using either the WWAN or MSATA Port >.> Any luck on that yet anyone? Im not looking to buy a card without knowing if it works first lol

 

Ive been looking into using either the Sata Flash or WWAN slots to add in some form of solid state media. I stumbled across this little guy. Im ordering one and will report back it I have any luck getting anything at all working. It has both SATA as well as USB links

From what ive researched, the WWAN port should supply a full USB link ( Power plus data ). If anything, that allows us to hook up large USB thumb drives if all goes well. Im actually more interested in the sata link though. If this works, it opens up a realm of possibilities. The E6520 appears to have quite a bit room to fit things in

 

Waaait a minute....your GPU temps are not going above 61oC? Where do you live, Antarctica? My unmodified e6520's GPU jumps to >75oC when playing Mass Effect, Dragon Age, Lotro, etc..... I just can't believe you've actually O/C'd the thing, yet your temps are staying so low....
What do you use to report temps? I have speedfan installed on my computer - was trying to get control of the fan, to no avail, to bring my temps down.

 

Only way you'll get a bootable SATA SSD without touching the existing optical or primary drive is to wire the e-sata port internally to a mSATA SSD. You only need 6 wires to do it (SATA RX+, RX-, TX+, TX-, GND, 3.3V). Well.. you could try use the SATA pins on the docking connector too but that's harder to figure out and the track pitch is finer.

Someone needs to start a mSATA retrofit thread showing how to do it.

 

I like this idea: if I need to hook up an eSATA device, I could do it via ExpressCard instead of the stock port.

nando4, it looks like you know what you're talking about. I nominate you to start the thread!

 

Im actually east coast USA ( Maryland ). I was using both the MSI utility as well as gpu monitor to keep an eye on temps. You can clearly see my passmark scores and temps while the bench was running. What are your idle temps? What is your Passmark 3D score?? When I ran it at stock clocks I only got 287 or so for the 3d score. I might add though that im using AS5 in place of the stock ceramique thermal compound though. As far as fan control, I've left it alone and up to the OS. I set the cpu profile to use the fan rather than reduce speeds as well. My cpu temps peak at about 78 under load. Dont forget.... not all chips are created equally. Mine may have been from a better batch. If thats the case, im one LUCKY SOB

As far as using the Esata port goes, ive thought about both that and using an EC sata card as well. Id much rather use the internal ports on the laptop as it stands though. Im not about to solder anything to this motherboard as i am still under gold next day support for another 3 years LOL. I do however have a few old Mini-Pcie WLAN cards that i may rip apart and solder to. If you saw my first long post, ive actually got the Mini-PCIE -> USB/SATA card on order. That looks quite a bit more feasible. Its only $5 USD and will allow me to tinker with both slots that are open. My understanding is that the WWAN has a USB only interface at 3.3V which is more than plenty for a decent USB flash drive. Im actually looking for a USB 3.0 / Mini-Pcie card though as that would allow us to use thumb drives comparable to an actual SSD. I will know soon whether or not the Sata-Flash will support an actual sata device though That would be the best way to go actually as then we could wire an actual SSD into the laptop. I have a friend tearing apart his 64Gb OCZ for me to see how big it actually is under the casing.

More to follow!

PS:
I love this laptop. So far there isnt much i CANT do. Heck, it has all my necessities as it stands.... Backlit keyboard, cam, dedicated GPU, and i just saw that i can add a built in Bio reader for 50 bucks....... WOW!!

EDIT: Found a USB 3.0 card! Im not sure if it will work for sure so for now this is on the backburner. Here is the link to newegg if anyone wants to try it out!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...C-Froogle-_-Add-On+Cards-_-Koutech-_-15201048 I do see it requires additional power, but it should be easy enough to pull it from somewhere.

 

A question about RAM. You wrote, you were able to use 16Gb of RAM in your E6520. I have a i5-2520M, it allows only 1333MHz, but, as said on the Intel site, it could use 16Gb. Is it simply plug and play then? Or will it need some new BIOS?

Another question: which are the two SATA III ports on our laptop? The primary HDD and the E-Module?

Why don`t you use the E-Module for USB3.0, if you need it?

 

I for one would like to keep my optical drive. The idea is to have an internal SSD as the primary drive ( for speed and battery efficiency ), and keep my 500Gb drive as the secondary storage drive. I have two unused Mini-Pcie ports internally. From what i have seen, no one has successfully used the sata flash port OR the wwan for adding in an SSD yet. Im simply experimenting with ideas that WONT void my warranty by adding in cards. The Mini-Pcie card i linked should fit in either slot, and has passthroughs for USB and SATA. I do realize a USB 2.0 drive wont be fast enough ( Hence the idea of a USB 3.0 Mini PCIE card ). Im hoping that the SATA FLASH link will allow a connection to a regular ( physically smaller ) ssd once ive used the adapter.


If you look at the card i attached a photo of, you can see that it supply's both power and data for both USB and SATA. If the WWAN only has a USB link going to the pinout, the adapter will still allow other USB devices. Same goes for the SATA side of the card. All 6 required connections are available to build into an actual Sata cable

In any event, its ordered and will be here in like 2 weeks. Slow boat from China i guess LOL

Side note: Even if i cant get a drive to boot off of it, its still not a waste. I should at least be able to add any USB device i want into the WWAN slot with the card. My E6520 doesnt happen to have bluetooth and ive got plenty of dongles around.

 

OK, it`s your personal choice, but i don`t see, for what one would need the optical drive, except the OS installation or using some old discs. At least you don`t use it every day. Anyway, my drive is lying at home waiting, if i need it, and the USB 3.0 serves every day for external drive and the "nano" dongle if my wireless mouse. It nearly doesn`t stick out of the laptop at all, in comparison with other, regular, USB 2.0 slots.
Laptop without Bluetooth? Hm, it was cheap, when i configured the E6520. Anyway, you can still buy it and install it yourself.

And the docking station gives you another 6 USB 2.0 slots (5 regular 1 USB+eSATA) so i wouldn`t think about them.

I don`t see, how the shown mPCIe card should be useful, since the bottom of the laptop should be opened to operate it...

I don`t get, how the "SATA FLASH link will allow a connection to a regular ( physically smaller ) ssd once ive used the adapter" because this adapter is already of the dimensions of the mPCIe slot. Where do you want to fit another SSD device? There are some ready to use mPCIe SSDs, but they don`t boot because of the BIOS. I doubt, that some other SSD in this port will.