E6520 Owner's Thread

I should be getting my E6520 pretty soon, and once I get the machine I was planning on doing some upgrades, and wanted some opinions.

The original Specs are:
15.6" HD 1366X768
INTEL CORE i5-2520M @ 2.5GHZ
Intel HD 3000 Graphics (NO NVS)
3GB RAM
250GB HD
DVD+/-RW
Dell WIFI
Dell BLUETOOTH
No Webcam
No Backlit Keyboard
No Fingerprint Reader

I'm going to use it mainly for web browsing, email, remote desktop, and some gaming (the newest what I'd call 'graphically intensive' game I play is L4D2)

Here's what I know I am doing for sure:
I'm going to replace the 3GB of ram with 4GB, replace the 250GB HDD with a 96GB Sata II SSD I have, and add the backlit keyboard and webcam modules.

I was wondering though, how difficult is it to add the fingerprint reader or upgrade the LCD. Is it worth doing either of these two upgrades? If so what resolution should I pick, I use 1920x1080 on my 24" Desktop LCD, but is it decent and readable on a 15.6" laptop? Also, if the LCD upgrade is worth it, what DELL Part Numbers do I need for the LCD and proper LVDS Cable?

Thanks!

 

Suddenly the battery is charging until 70% and no more.....
I fully discharged it but again is charged to 70%....
I have the laptop for about 2,5 years and the battery is a 9cell 97whr
Is there any utility or procedure to reset / re calibrate the battery....?

 

Hello,

I've got E6520 i5-2540M without NVIDIA and I want to upgrade my RAM to 16G.
CPU allows 16G of RAM but only 1333 speed max, my RAM will be 1600. Will it run? Anyone tried this configuration?

 

I've installed 16GB of DDR1600 ram and it works excellent!

 

I've tried to install Ivy Bridge Pentium 2040M but no success :/ Anyone have progress with updating microcodes?

 

Good to know, I'm tempted to do the same. I'm "only" running 8 at the moment...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

This thread needs a bump because reasons...

Seriously though, due to financial constraints I had to sell my previous E6250 and it was sorely missed. Luckily a client of mine gave me one of their old one that was out of warranty and had a bad hard disk. So here's my specs of my "new" system:

Core i7 2720QM 2.2GHz
8GB PC1333 DDR3 RAM
Nvidia 4200 512MB GPU
500GB Seagate Momentus XT 7200RPM HD (pulled from another laptop of mine that died)
HD LCD (1366x768)
Bluetooth, WWAN, WIFI, Webcam, Backlit KB, no fingerprint reader
Windows 7 PRO 64-BIT using the built in COA and official Dell OS DVD

What I plan on upgrading:

I'd like to add a 500GB Samsung EVO 850 to replace the mechanical HD
I'd like to upgrade the LCD to 1600x900 (yes, I know if can go to 1920x900 or w/e) but the HD+ screen is plenty for my uses and the FHD screen is just too high res for my tired eyes. To be quite honest I am very happy with the current LCD in term's of color and viewing angles. But I could use a tad more vertical space without having to screw around with adjusting the DPI scaling.

Once Windows 10 launches, I will repartition the HD to give it a 100GB volume and test it out to see if I like it. I've run the beta in the past and was very impressed.

I am not sure if I will need to upgrade to 16GB or not. I don't run a lot of VM's. Primarily I work in Microsoft Office and remote desktop sessions with some command line voodoo as well.

I forgot how powerful these systems are. At first I had a bit of an issue adjusting to the keyboard as I am primarily a Thinkpad man and as such am used to the keyboard on my kickass T410. That being said, I can type nearly as fast on this one as I can on the other one. Once I get a tad more comfy with it, I see no reason why I wont be able to have the same speed and accuracy that I am used to on my T410.

So come on you E6520 users out there. Let's keep this thread going. These are amazing machines with plenty of power and quite easily handle today's loads and probably for the next few years as well.

 

Just picked up my new used e6520 and i have to say this is the best laptop i've used in a long time. So far absolutely zero complaints. I'm all for keeping the thread going!

So far works well for light CAD in Solidworks, fast SSD load times, and the 1080P screen is great. Still working on loading drivers to get the finger print reader, the NFC or whatever reader it is, and the HSPA dell 5630 card going...

 

So the I7 2760QM works very well for basic Solidworks use, assemblies are no problem to render. Mind you I am only working in a basic sense (sheetmetal & assemblies) and don't use the software for many of the advanced functions. Rendering is quick on this CPU when creating photorealistic images of the solidworks parts.

Screen is fantastic, battery life is ok, and the build quality is exceptional. Best laptop I have ever bought, and the best deal as I purchased used for the first time. I have all the drivers installed other than the fingerprint reader, having some difficulties getting this going however I don't need it.

The laptop came with a cell network card which works wonders, connecting to "Verizon's" network consistantly. Looking at adding a 3 cell battery to replace the optical drive, and then buy a replacement main battery that sits flush with the case. Does anyone know the Dell P/N for this battery? I'm assuming it would be a 6cell?

 

I also picked up a used one of these for my wife. A very solid laptop, no real complaints.

Biggest problem is that one of the screws on the bottom is stripped, and I cannot remove the bottom panel.

Any tips on how to deal with this? There's just no grip for the screw driver.