E6540 Owners Thread

It's not marketed as a gaming laptop though.. If it's throttling while performing work-related functions you'll have a better shot at getting a model switch if there's a chance of that at all.

 

I have one of these through my work and it really is bad. I cant even play League of Legends which is a simple game without it overheating and causing FPS to drop below 20. Been following this thread and trying drivers and utilities but nothing works after about 20 minutes of use. Potential buyers stay away until this is resolved.

 

The laptop is not a gaming laptop, but it does ship with an dedicated GPU, not being able to use it for more than 10min is kind of unacceptable.

I'm not really a gamer, I'm not talking about the latest 3d games, but 2D games supposed to run with old integrated GPU. I can't play games like Starbound, that a 300euros laptop can run without problems.

I don't think I can get an exchange for another model, but this laptop ships with two graphic cards, and I can't use either of them, which is kind of ridiculous. I'm not dropping this until I get a more acceptable situation.

Edit : well I may be over-reacting, because I read some posts in this thread that are able to play games, so it's most probably a specific problem of my laptop (this model has real overheating problems though).

 

True - but if you have a workflow/tool/application that makes use of the GPU then the overheating is a serious fault.

Has anyone raised this on the Dell forums yet?

 

Novice question - What does "throttling" mean ? What actually happens to the laptop, when its throttling ?

 

Notebookcheck's review gives this description:

The image shows Prime95 and Furmark windows. These are worst-case programs that stress the CPU and GPU respectively. Their speed is probably limited by the processor clock rates, not memory bandwidth into and out-of the processor chips. Unlike most business applications, they can run for many minutes or hours without pausing to wait for the disk or network, or for a human user.

 

Thanks for that explanation Maru. I just received an E6540 and an M4800 today to decide which of them I like more.

I'm honestly leaning towards the E6540 due to a few reasons but the only thing giving me pause is this throttling issues. I do not game on my laptop at all (I have a desktop which I occasionally will game on) and I'm not using this machine for anything really processor intensive. I used to mess around with editing home video a while back but I haven't done that in over 2 years. The most processor-intensive application I'll put this machine through is compressing files via WinRAR or 7zip so I'm not really sure how much I should worry about throttling. I basically want a business class laptop for the better build quality. My only concern is that I tend to leave my computer on for days at a time and I can see the overall heat building up which would contribute to actually making that throttling be an issue for the few times I do "stress" the processor.

I wish I could combine the M4800 and E6540 into one ideal machine.

 

Maru,
Thanks for the explanation.

Maru, and others,
BTW, how do you find the Fan Noise Level under Normal use, running a DVD and heavier use such as running an average 2D game ???

Jumbie, and other users,

Can a "Workstation", like the M4800, be used to run Normal Business Applications and Games since it comes with an Advanced Graphics - OpenGL Video Card which is needed and optimized for CAD/CAM Engerrining/Scientific Applications ?

Jumbie,

Have you also done a comparison between the E6540 and the E5540 (aka "15 5000 Series") ? If so, what was your conclusion between then ? ... Pros vs cons ?

 

Honestly, I would pass on this machine. Unless they overhaul the cooling (which I highly doubt), this thing doesn't offer much that you can't find elsewhere. Screen isn't great, keyboard back lighting is ugly, sound quality is mid/lower end, and most of all the performace is sub par given how much heat it's putting out. Not to mention, you can't even get the express card option in most cases. As a student, I'm kinda stuck with mine for now, but if you're in the return Window or can sell and buy another, I definitely would.

This is my first business class laptop and I really wanted it to be great. It's got a solid build, but other than that I'm not that impressed. I would look at the M3800/M4800 or maybe some of the options from Lenovo before I got another of these machines.

 

Wouldn't a Workstation be "over the top", if your not going to use CAD or scientific applications ?
I don't like what they did to the new thinkpads. They have noisy / clanky touchpads and they got rid of indicator lights (on the bezel or base) for Caps Lock, Hard Drive Indicators.