E6520 Owner's Thread

Hey can someone with the USB 3.0 E-module please tell me what PCI-E port number the E-module bay is? You can check with AIDA64.

The reason I ask is if it is port 4 and the PCI-E link can somehow be extracted, then the E6520 would be one of the rare laptops capable of an x4 eGPU link if the flash descriptor could be edited to set the port configuration to x4.

Also there doesn't happen to be anything like an expresscard slot caddy that could be plugged into the module bay? Say maybe the Vostro expresscard module? If there's anything that would electrically work, I could make it physically work.

Some things I've learned:

port 1 is the full size WWAN slot.
port 2 is the half size WLAN slot.
port 3 is the expresscard slot.
port 4 is listed as empty.
port 5 is the half size SATA FLASH slot.
port 6 is motherboard stuff.
7 and I don't know. Maybe they go to the modular bay, or maybe for a docking station, or maybe they are unwired.

I got pretty mad when I found out that the last mPCI-E slot was port 5 instead of 4

 

If you set up a paypal fund I will donate towards you buying and breaking stuff to make it fit.

How many more inputs do you need to achieve x4? With the EC being 2.0 that should already achieve a x2 or so, right, so having another EC 2.0 module in the module bay, could they be chained for a x4?

Either way, I have found that sometimes pushing Dell will work. If you complain enough they may send you something that will work.

ALSO: How the hell are you keeping your 2920xm cool enough? Have you set up speedfan or managed to access the BIOS thermal control? Thanks.

 

Well ideally I'd like to do x4 PCI-E 2.0 at the 5.0gt/s rate. This would be ports 1->4. 1-> 3 are mPCI-E or expresscard so they're easy. The problem is port 4, which I believe is the module bay, but I am not sure. The biggest hurdle is getting the documentation out of intel on how to set x4 in the 1st place. They did not publicly document how to do it on 6 series systems, while they did on 4 and 5 series.

As for the 2920xm remember that I don't have the NVS-4200, so that's up to 17 less watts that the cooler has to dissipate. Only Prime95 will get the CPU hot enough to reach throttle point. Outside P95 the highest I've ever seen the CPU is 95C on a hot day running SC2. The fan seem to kick in full blast at 80C or so, so unlocking fan options doesn't seem like it would do anything. I might try to add an additional heatpipe to handle the 55W better. The E6520 has a pretty beefy radiator, so the single heat pipe seems to be the limit. (thinking overclocking when Ivy Bridge comes out. IB will be drop in compatible with SB systems and does not require a restart to change multipliers.)

 

Quick query, in resource monitor the total memory is 2984MB, installed 8192MB. what is the hardware reserved 5208MB?
Thanks

 

Hmm, so just running the EC at 5.0gt/s and optimus will only get ax1 of the 16x PCI-e bus...or more? Thanks

 

What OS do you have installed? Is it 32 or 64-bit? If it's 32-bit, your system can only see a max of 3.5GB.

 

It is the 32 bit, new to W7 and I was reading that on google...No Restore CD so need to find 64 bit download and then enter the Key serial under my battery.
I am also waiting (3 days now) to hear back from Dell to whether they will fix or replace my faulty E6520...Hope the International Warranty team will do better than the UK horrible CS experience I had.

 

Moved to new thread - http://forum.notebookreview.com/dell-latitude-vostro-precision/622155-pre-windows-login-password-issue.html

 

I am trying to get the WWan Port to work with and OCZ mSATA 120Gb drive does anyone have any clue how to turn on the Port 1 that I am trying to use in the bios so that it will see the Darn thing ...

any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

It will not work in the WWAN port as that is a USB/PCI-e interface. You need the shorter half height mSATA memory that will fit between the WWAN and WAN slot where it says SATA.

Unfortunately, this also means you will be somewhat restricted on the size of memory you will find at this time.

Scott-