E6520 Owner's Thread

Not sure where I read it, but someone got a SuperTalent Corestore MV mPCIe SSD to show up briefly on a Dell E6x20. The discovery being those mPCie SSDs really are mPCIe. All other netbook/mSATA SSDs require SATA lines going to the slot, which the Dell E6x20 doesn't have.

 

OK, the ages old question we have with our wives regarding "need" vs. "want" aside ........ see comments below

I have the 1600x900 e6520 with i5-2520 and 8GB of Ram with a slow 5400 750GB samsung HD (because I am hoping and hoping that BIOS revisions provide Flash-SATA boot support).

I have played BioShock, Mass Effect 1, Mass Effect 2, Homeworld series (one of my favourites!), LOTRo, and DDOwithout problems.

Note that, due to our lack of fan control, the temps will shoot up into the high 80's for CPU/GPU. This drives me batty as I want to crank my fan to keep the temps down (I use headphones, so I wouldn't hear the fan anyway!)

You'll note I do not have the FHD screen (1920 x 1080), but the 1600x900. For me, this works just fine for my minimal photo/video editing needs, but I am by no means an authority on this. I just futz with pictures of my family and play with home videos. It all seems fine... but we're talking novice!

Can't comment, do not have one - but I believe ScottRC does...

temps under normal usage are about 50-60oC. Fan noise is minimal. If anything, I would say the e6520 under-utilizes the fan. I have been working with Alfredo (author of SpeedFan) to try to get control on this model, but to no avail. Hence my previous comment about >80oC temps when playing games.... the fan never kicks up to high and maxes out around 2500rpm....

Can't really say on this. I have found that, for my needs, my E6520 is supplanting the use of my hex-core Thuban 1055T/Gigabyte 890FXA-UD5/OCZ 60GB Vertex II SSD/8GB desktop system. Granted, I have a dual 20" +24" display on the desktop system, which is nice to work with multiple windows and all for work, but for the simple gaming I do (see above), the E6520 works just as well...and I can lay in bed with my trackball and play the games until i fall asleep (which has been a bit later than it should be!!!).....

Hope that helps.

 

Thank you for your feedback guys!

It seems the E6520 is the opposite of my E6400. The E6400 has fans on full power and I usually get the temperatures you get with the E6520 under load, often even higher.
Really sucks though that there's no way to alter the fan speeds!

I want to upgrade to 8GB later. Unfortunately I read yesterday that I won't be able to upgrade the CPU later on, as I have the 35W Nvidia. (The configurator wouldn't have it any other way.)

I think I will play around with the machine for a few days and then decide if I want to keep it or not!

 

You can alter the fans on the E6400, but they will be loud(er).

Download speedfan, then hold FN and Shift and Press 1, 3, 5, 2, 4.

Your caps lock indicator will start blinking. Then press FN+R and turn off BIOS control of fan speed.

 

My E6520,
Someone tell me what's about my battery with wear level???

 

Hi ngoc,

You'll note in earlier posts in this thread that I too am developing ridiculously high wear levels on my <1yr old battery for my E6520

I am now up to ~34% battery wear (as seen below)!

I think I'm going to give Dell a call, this is crazy...

 

Does anyone know what DVD Drive faceplate I should use with Dell E series external [eSATA] media bay housing if I want to use it to house the DVD Drive?

I've replaced the DVD Drive with the newmodeus caddy to hold an additional 750GB Momentus drive (to supplement the standard 256 SSD one) and got the media bay housing separately, but the DVD Drive kept jamming. I've removed the existing faceplate so it no longer jams, but it looks pretty naff.

Has anyone done this? Anyone know what faceplate to use?

Cheers

 

For mine, I just found an older laptop slim drive/bezel from the E6400/6500 series and the small flat tray load bezels work. The Optiplex 745/780 drives/bezels also work.

Something like this may be worth a try: New Front Faceplate Bezel For Dell Inspiron 1200 6000 9300 E1505 1501 Drive | eBay

Scott-

 

Thanks for reply, I've read your posts in many upper page.

Your battery wear too fast, same with me, my laptop used 6 months, it have 16% wear up to now.
But you can see that screenshot on my post, wear 16% but it can be charge at 117%, so battery time life standing about 6h using. I nerver seen it in other laptop, they only charge 100% maximum under designed capacity.

 

That's some pretty heavy wear for < 1 yr use. My E6420 with the 87Whr 9-cell (3-yr warranty) battery has only 1% wear. While it does sit on my E-Dock every day, it does get drained about halfway every other week.