E6520 Owner's Thread

Here is my updated mini-review of E6520 after 5 days of use.

Configuration: i7-2620M (dual core), 128GB SSD, 8GB of RAM, 1920x1080, 9-cell battery. This is a new laptop for software development.

Pros:

* screen is OUTSTANDING. same quality as new macbook pros but higher resolution
* good battery life with 9-cell (5 hours of work). planning to add a bay 3-cell battery
* CPU is fast, especially when turbo kicks in

Cons:

* large and heavy. 9-cell battery makes things worse ;-)
* higher power consumption under Ubuntu compared to Win7 (can't turn off NVidia GPU)

I'm running Ubuntu 11.04 Beta 1, and it works well. Sound, wireless, bluetooth, suspend/resume, screen brightness adjustment, CPU scaling, multi monitor, docking/undocking - everything works!

Overall, E6520 is almost twice as heavy as my other laptop, Asus UL30VT. However, screen resolution/quality is many times better than Asus'.. Taking everything into account, e6520 is a keeper (mainly due to great screen which is perfect for software development).

 

After you received your 6520 did you go to dell drivers download and download all the drivers that they have listed????
Thanks
Mark

 

Not sure if you are asking me. I wiped out Windows7 minutes after getting the laptop.. Dell does not have any Ubuntu specific drivers for E6520. Windows users should definitely check if they have the latest drivers installed.

 

OK...
Receive new E6520
Go to Dell drivers download after it checks your Service Tag.
Maybe 20 drivers listed as downloads.
Do I download all of them???

 

I suggest you just use it for a few hours/days before tweaking it... makes it easier to know what Dell screwed up vs. what you might mess up.

You generally do not need to download everything Dell lists. Review your Device Manager to identify the primary devices for which Dell provides drivers. Become familiar with them. Decide which drivers you need and get just them and install them in a regular order similar to what is listed in my notes. If you are re-imaging, you may choose to leave some things uninstalled, and not install some utility apps that you may never use or do not want running... for example, a modem diagnostic app or Intel's IRST app if you are not running in IRRT mode (what are the BIOS SATA modes on that machine?).

GK

 

Thank You!!!

 

Disabled
ATA
ACHI
RAID ON = DEFAULT

 

Thanks! Since RAID is not IRRT, I suppose the system supports some basic RAID... more than just IRRT.

GK

 

So I finally got mine in today and first I'll post some pictures.

 

Some more. For reference, that's a 14.1" T60