E6520 Owner's Thread

Thanks. Five years used to be old in laptop terms, but I feel the E6520 could do me for at least another couple yet.

The ease of access for upgrading parts in the Dell has been a real boon so I'd definitely look for another Latitude again. I'll keep an eye on the Dell outlet but doubt I'll buy anything for a while.

 

created an account to reply. I have some concerns to address, hopefully I can get some responses...


got my E6520 used last year, I knew this would be a great low-cost option given their enterprise bulk. I started with the i5-2520M CPU, 8GB, 1366*768 screen, DVD-RW, with 320 GB HDD. since I have upgraded to 16GB 1600mhz, 1920*1080 from dell precision with LVDS cable, back-lit keyboard, 256 GB samsung EVO. I also got a modular HDD tray that goes in the modular expansion bay. I use this with the dock for work with monitors plugged into the dock...

I plan to upgrade this to the nvidia board and cooling, I do want to upgrade the CPU I was thinking the i7-2760QM, the 6mb of cache should not really have much of a difference compared to 8mb correct?

the price between the 2820QM and the 2760QM is ~$20, and the 2760QM is higher clocked under turbo and base.


what about the wireless cards? will these handle AC wireless cards? I want to populate one of the slots with an msata as well, and use the HDD bays for 2.5 inch drives, and have 256 msata card installed as well as the wireless AC card, possible?

thanks for any replies!

 

If you look at http://www.cpubenchmark.net/high_end_cpus.html you can see that the 2820QM and the 2760QM are next to each other and score pretty much identically so I doubt you'd see any difference.

I upgraded the i5 2520M to the 2820QM over a year ago and while cooling hasn't been an issue, I wouldn't want to do anything too CPU intensive for too long. When I checked, I've see peaks well into the high 80c's, idles around 50c. At best, with a cooling pad, it can get down to low 40s.

I replaced my wireless card with the Intel AC 7260 and can confirm it worked fine. A simple swap, no issues at all (only an unconnected antenna left over as the original card had three).

Don't know about using an mSata. Never tried and a quick Google suggests it probably won't work. This thread may help http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19421764

 

In the XX20 series (XX30 also I think) mSata slot does not support mSata drives.

 

A footnote - Windows 10/Dell recent updates are completely hosing my USB system. USB mice, Logitech unifying/wireless keyboard do *not* work after the updates. I believe the fault to be with Intel's latest chipset driver for the 6 series/C200 family (note that this is for i5 owners, i7 owners have a different chipset). I have found that reverting to an older set of drivers 9.xx series restored normal USB function. You can get them from Intel's download center...

Other than this snag, system is running smoothly...

 

Well, been a year since I last posted and nothing since - so I don't know if anyone is really paying attention to the ol' e6520 anymore, but mine is going strong.... I found that upgrading the HD to a 1TB 850 Evo SSD has really, really improved performance across the board. I also upgraded to 16GB memory (not listed as supported, but works fine) and I'll be happy with this for another couple of years at least.

Just an FYI - there is a new system BIOS, A20, that addresses a security issue, updates intel management, and adds ACPI support(?) version 0.0.0.1 I just installed it, so far it seems fine. The link is here: http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...=latitude-e6520&languageCode=en&categoryId=BI

A couple of things:

1) Has anyone gotten the SD card reader to work under Windows 10? I still haven't been able to find a driver that enables it. Not a huge deal, but it bugs me......

2) I feel that the recent Windows 10 updates have made both my desktop and this laptop my system a bit less stable than the original Windows 10 install - not sure if anyone else has encountered it. I also upgraded to office 2016 - and I think I made a mistake when moving to the 64bit version - it seems dog slow compared to Office 2013 32bit, and I may wind up uninstalling and reinstalling the 32bit version.

3) Lately I've been encountering some weird CPU throttling issues - running CPU-Z shows me the CPU locked at 798Mhz. If I unplug and replug the power adapter, it unlocks it, until I close the lid and open, then the CPU gets locked. I'm not sure what's causing this, and one of the reasons I installed the new BIOS was to see if the new Intel Management firmware might help correct this problem. If I continue to encounter this issue, I may look at installing Intel's IDPT drivers, or trying ThrottleStop to see if that helps. Not sure if anyone else is having this issue.

A salute to all still using their e6520 - it's been quite the workhorse for me!

 

Just an FYI - BIOS, A21 was just released at the end of March(?) 2018

 

Oh, I discovered this posting in my spam folder (why?) and a certain mood of nostalgia crept into my mind. My 6520 has been shelved since summer 2017 waiting for…? It has 16 GB RAM, 500 GB SSD, a superb screen and a 2820QM-quadcore, but compared to my HP Spectre x360 it feels bulky and noisy. No 60Hz on my LG 4K screen!
After more than 6 years of extensive use I must admit: i won't touch it again except for emergency.
Far well, my daily companion.

 

I wouldn't install this BIOS update - it includes the microcode patches for Spectre/Meltdown and will slow down your machine...just be internet-safe!

 

Hrrrm.. wonder if I could set that up for something at my house...... if you are looking to make maybe a few bucks on it, let me know....