E6530 owners thread

I was thinking about getting a 6520 with FHD. What's the difference between ~30 and ~20? Thank you in advance, for any time you spend in reply!

 

Off the top of my head, appearance and ports. Can't remember if processor choice is different. Some people mentioned they thought the display on the 6520 was better, but truckinguy sounds like it it's negligible. I found a direct comparison, but it's saved on mt work computer...I'll post it when I get there. Notebookcheck.net does some pretty in-depth reviews of the Dell E6xxx series.

Brainout...here is the E6520 and 6530 comparison, and the Notebookcheck review of the E6530, which reviews how the model was changed.

 

Okay, thank you. Any help you'll provide, I'd appreciate. I need tax writeoffs by year end, so want to buy another Win7 Dell lappie; couldn't tell what was the difference between 6520 and 6530 on Dell's website. I am now SO a fan of the FHD screen on my 6510, wish my 6530 had it. Makes all the difference when rendering videos, especially if you record boring exegetical videos with Greek diacritics or Hebrew vowel points onscreen, as much as I do (over 1000 of them). So if the initial recording is on an FHD, I bet it will convert better for viewing. Especially, in vimeo, which I've newly joined. (Google Plus is now required to post or even know commenters are posting on one's own Youtube videos!)

Again, thank you for the spec comparison links you posted.

Okay, just finished reading. Per your first link ('here') Looks like FHD on the 6530 wasn't good because it wasn't an LG display. I have no way of finding out if any 6530 I'd buy from Dell classed as FHD, would have the LG brand. They don't give that much information. It also looks like he got a Win8 machine, so some of the BIOS issues wouldn't apply to a Win7 machine.

The big buying point for me is the screen, the keyboard and fit of the 6530, so if I can't be sure of the right FHD brand (here, LG), then I guess I won't buy it. As for the 6520.. it doesn't sound worth buying, either.

One big factor is the processor. In Dell models, the faster of the dual RAM speeds, depends on i7 quad; another processor will only provide the lower speed, per the Dell manual. I lucked out getting i7 quad for the 6510. So i7 quad it must be, whether 6520 or 6530.

Again, THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH for your time and trouble to provide the links, robs10!

 

You're welcome! All in all, I'm happy with my 6530. The FHD (1920x1080) screen is a AU Optronics, not the LG, but no "screen door effect". It may be all Dell is using now as it is the second one (from the Outlet) they shipped me with an AU Optronice screen. I don't have anything else to compare to, other than a 23" Ultrasharp, but of course the Ultrasharp is an IPS, so no problems with angles. My E6530 suffers from a sight color shift when tilted vertically, but it's not too bad. I don't have any kind of calibrating hardware, so used Windows 7 to "calibrate", and seems to look pretty good to me. Text still looks sharp when I bump up the size to Medium (125%) through Windows 7 Control Panel, buy still need my cheater reading glasses so I leave the size at 100% to fit more. I haven't watched any movies on it yet. There is no 1600x900p resolution option to downscale the screen.

I got mine with the i7 3740 Quad since I want to keep it a while.

 

Thank you, robs10. I'll check it out. Yeah, i7 is the only way to go; The FHD even works better for me, even without glasses, even at 100% for this aging 60-year old (with new cataracts). My new sticking point is that Windows Explorer in Win7 is a pistol to use. Still, it's a tax deduction...

 

Purchased a Dell E6530 as a backup for my E6510. Ended up using it as my main computer, very nice unit. I had ordered an Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 to put in my E6510, but since switching to the E6530, I wanted to use it in the new one. The E6530 came with the 6205 WLAN. I did some research and didn't find much information on upgrading from a 2-antenna 6205 to a 3-antenna 6300 WLAN card, so perhaps my experience can help someone else.

First, it works. The E6530 has three antennas and fortunately, the third antenna wire is quite easily found after you remove the back plate from the E6530. All I had to do was remove the 6205's one screw retainer, locate the third antenna wire (very easy to see, it is light brown in colour and cannot be mistaken for anything else), put the 6300 in the same place where I removed the 6205, screw it back in. Intel does things right -- they even have the antenna wire colors labelled. Followed the wiring labels on the 6300 WLAN card, put the backing plate back on, and powered up. The E6530 instantly recognized the new card. I then downloaded the latest driver and WLAN application from the Intel site.

Does it make a difference? Yes, it does. From my usual location in my three storey house, I get one additional bar on the strength meter (that's full strength with five bars). When I walk around the house to the furthest indoor area, the bar strength remains at full strength -- it used to drop to 2/3 bars.

Was it worth it? Sure was, I bought the 6300 off of Ebay for $29. shipped ...

Enjoy!

 

Hey guys, new to the forums here, but I've been lots of places. Just a few things I read that I wanted to comment on;

Dell laptops have to use Dell wifi cards: nonsense. Dell is pretty much the only major laptop OEM that does not and has never used whitelists or blacklists for their wifi and wwan cards. Lenovo does, HP does, Dell never has.

Memory speeds: Someone said that you needed to use Dell's faster CPU options to run full speed ram. This sounds like something a Dell sales agent would tell you, rather than an actual technical opinion. Since I am currently running some nice low voltage (1.28V) DDR3-1600 with my low end i5 2310M CPU, I can verify that this is not a fact.

Also, since there are no Google listings for my search, I'll throw this out, and will update/reply this post if I learn more: The Intel 7260AC wifi card does not seem to work properly in the E6530. I have a few here, and put one in an E5530 without issue, but the E6530 develops a weird cold boot/reboot problem when the 7260 is in. Take it out and the laptop boots fine again, switched it with the one in the E5530 and the problem stays with the E6530, so I'm confident it's not the card, it's the laptop. I'm hopeful that a firmware update might get it fixed, so I've put in my Intel 6300 and the Dell bluetooth module for now, but will be rechecking this periodically.

Also, if you have the HD+ (1600x900) or FHD screen (1920x1080), you have one type of LVDS cable. If you have the WXGA (1366x768) display, you need to replace the LVDS cable to switch to a nicer panel. Strangely, the E5530 didn't have the same problem. It's weird that the cheaper/lower end model works with the 7260AC and a 1080p panel, and the nicer/more upmarket E6530 has issues.

 

Hi there,
i have an option to buy E6530 with i7 3630QM CPU and i have concern with heating issue. What are the temps i could expect during regular use? I saw that e6540 has some overheating issues, so how does e6530 stand comparing to this newer model?

 

Has somebody tried to upgrade an HD+ display to a Full HD display that is compatible with E6520? As the cables for HD+ and Full HD are the same and E6520 and E6530 displays should be compatible, the upgrade should be possible without any issues. Does somebody know?


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Hi, I'm back again, but this time just to report on differences between the 6530 and 6510, that I didn't notice before:

1. The 6530 is more fun to type on. Much more fun, that's why I came here now, I'm typing on it. I don't know why it's so enjoyable. I could easily imagine writing a novel on this thing. I've never enjoyed typing on a laptop, until now.

But the trackpad is way too slippery. Very annoying. By contrast, the trackpad on the 6510 is almost perfect for these dry fingers.

2. 6510's keyboard feels cramped by comparison, though I like it well enough. Something about the key spacing for my size 8 hands, recommends the 6530 with it's nifty dedicated numeric keypad. Love it.

3. The screen door effect on the 6530 is not unpleasant. Visible, but matte-ish. Sound is almost a miracle, though just with the Intel default. Will be able to report later if the 6510 without FHD is as nice.

4. The FHD on the 6510 is fantastic. Main reason I wanted the machine.

5. I don't notice any speed differences, though the memory speed on the 6530 is supposed to be much faster.

6. If HEAT is an issue, as some posters wonder, then know this: the 6530 runs MUCH cooler than the 6510. The latter gets so warm I'm afraid of leaving it on (but maybe that's because the 6510 I already have, has FHD and i7 quad, 8 GB RAM yet 32-bit Windows). I mean, it stays on for hours, and the outside chassis remains cool to the touch, even on the metal. On the left side there is a little warmth.

That's it for now. Just wanted to log something so I'll remember to come back and edit this post with more differences, after my 2nd 6510 arrives. I got it by mistake at dellauction, confirmed a bid I really didn't intend to make in the last five minutes of the auction, but hey: I got it for $195. Anxious to see what it really has.

Alas, there are no good deals on the 6530's right now, and you can't get them with 32-bit Windows 7, which is the only version of Windows 7 I want to use (for the sake of my 24 other machines which date back to the days of the 286, and yes are still working).