Help me decide: E5470 or E7450?

Hi folks.

I'd very much appreciate some help deciding between these 2 laptops. I don't know if I've posted in the correct place, but seeing as I'm only looking at these 2 Dells, and I'd really like to hear from people who have first hand experience, I thought I'd post here. So here goes ...


The Contenders

E5470: i5-6440Q, integrated graphics, 1080p non-touch, 8GB DDR4, 500GB HDD
E7450: i7-5600U, NVIDIA 840M, 1080p non-touch, 16GB DDR3, 512 SSD

I have a new Samsung EVO 850 256GB SSD to swap into the E5470, and when I factor this in they come out at essentially the same price.


What will it be used for?

Other than general purpose use, some of the tasks the laptop will be used for are:

- Office work: word processing, some spreadsheets
- Some C++ development
- Photo management, some editing
- No gaming


Other factors to consider

- Robust
- Good screen & keyboard
- Some portability, but not the most important factor
- Hoping for a long lifespan


So ignoring price completely, which one of these 2 contenders do you think would work best for me?

Thanks in advance for the help,
Al

 

How much do you value thickness and weight? The E7450 is about 20mm thick and weighs 1.68kg/3.70lbs. The E5470 is at least 23mm thick (the specs mention the front and usually the back is more) and weighs 1.76kg /3.88 lbs. I expect that both use the same FHD display (either LG or AUO chosen at random from the stock room).

The E5470 has a nominally higher capacity battery but you need to remove the base to change it while the E7450 has an external battery (which is quite thin so carrying a spare does not add much bulk).

Either of the computers has more processing power than you need. The E5470 will be around 10% faster than the E7450 at single or dual threaded tasks although there may be situations (unlikely to occur in your envisaged usage) where the quad core CPU would have a significant advantage. The E7450 has a 15W CPU (plus the Nvidia GPU which will only be used when needed) while the quad core CPU in the E5470 is rated at 45W.

I don't have any experience with the E5470 but I like my E7450 (see my review) and, unusually, I am not looking out for a successor.

John

 

There is not much information about the E5470 yet, but given that it has a M.2 slot and a quad core processor, its probably going to have a longer usable lifespan than the E7450. It can also go to 32GB DDR4 ram easily which may be handy if you like to do all of the tasks listed at once (Photoshop + Office + an IDE + lots of Chrome tabs could go over 16GB of ram...).

 

I have a E7450 (1080p touch, i5 5300U integrated graphics, purchased for someone else), and a E5470 coming soon (1080p matte + i7-6820hq)

E5470 is spec'd at 16GB max ( by dell), but I'm getting 2x16GB DDR4 to test with

If you look at the outlet store and wait a while, you can usually get the E7450 (1080p +5600U + 3yr warranty) for under $800... that's a steal

One thing I've noticed - E7450 can run hot (and fans can spin up loud). Will see if the E5470 does the same thing

 

1) Why an i7 on the E7450? Why the GPU? A 7450 with no GPU can still take your Samsung drive, and the i5 to i7 bump on the dual core machines is essentially never worth it.
2) Do you need the quad core CPU? If you do (your apps only suggest it for the C++ development), the 5470 is essentially the only 14" or smaller choice from Dell.

If not, I'd look at the 7450 or 7470, but reconsider your configuration.

How large are the C++ projects? How heavy duty photo editing?

If the C++ projects are small, I'd go with the E7450 (or consider the E7470, if it's an option.)

Given that the 7450 can go to 32gb also (albeit with DDR3L which will be rarer in the future and probably not come down in price as much as DDR4 will), and the difference between Broadwell and Skylake CPUs isn't huge, and there isn't a lot of other port difference (PCI-E SSD being an option on the 5470 and 7470, and no Thunderbolt or USB-3.1 on either) I don't think you'll see a big difference in longevity -- but there is a slight edge to the 5470 there (or 7470)

Totally depends on the scale of the C++ development. The speed difference between those two machines is HUGE (both core count, and to a lesser extent max non-turbo speed), but the only thing you're likely to need that for is the C++ development. If you're not doing really big projects, you probably don't need it.

(Also, if at all possible, bump the memory -- manually after purchase, if need be -- on the 5470 to 16gb. For most use, that's going to make a bigger difference than the 2 extra cores and lightly higher clock.)

Personally, given what you've said and ignoring the possibility of BIG c++ projects, I'd look at the 7470. Or at least drop the GPU and drop to an i5 on the 7450, and just save the cost difference towards getting a newer machine a little sooner.

Otherwise, between those two exact machines, I'd probably go with the E5470, just for longevity and to avoid the hassle of a dGPU drivers.

C++ builds should be in parallel in any modern development environment, and a quad core is a huge advantage if the builds are large enough for time to matter. It totally depends on what kind of development he's doing; I wouldn't touch a dual-core machine for my work use (Java, not C++, but same deal), but for someone doing development for classes a quad core would be far less obligatory.

 

The dGPU version of the E7450 has a much better and quieter fan than the iGPU version. I specifically chose the dGPU version because of the much lower fan noise although I don't have a specific need for the dGPU.

The internal photos of the E5470 suggest it also has the better quality fan so it shouldn't be excessively noisy although, if a quad core CPU is running at full load then the fan may have to do some work.

John

 

John- I consider you the resident "Latitude" expert....wouldn't the E7450 have a 3-year Warranty and the E5470 only 1-year?

 

That is true, but you can always bump the E5470 up to 3 yr warranty (paying more $ of course).

Some E5470 configs are priced at 3yr nbd by default(can downgrade), so it's hard to say what OP has. Don't think you can downgrade E7450 warranty

E7450 is available on the outlet store (with same 3yr warranty) but E5470 isn't

(I actually changed my E5470 to 5year send to depot, which is $180 premium over the cheapest option of 1-yr send to depot... Seems worth it, and I'm savvy enough to fix any minor issues)

 

There's a lot of people more knowledgeable than me but the Latitude threads in this forum are surprisingly quiet. Perhaps that's an indication that people have few problems.

I would have expected all Latitudes to have a 3 year NBD warranty but perhaps it is an option and not always included in the headline price.

John

 

Thanks everyone for all the replies. Lots of helpful information & good points raised.

In responce to some specific points, here's a bit more info:


Thickness & weight ... how much do I value these?
A lighter & slimmer laptop is a good-to-have, but not the highest priority. For instance, if the E5470 is considered to be much more robust, then I'd definitely rate that aspect as more important.

RAM ... adding more
Yes, I'd be doing this at some point soon after purchase

i7 with dGPU ... why that configuartion?
I can get a good deal on that particular configuration.

C++ ... how much development?
These would be proper projects of a decent size, not school projects, although the laptop would be a secondary PC. Specifically, this is for mathematical type applications. I'd need to be able to talk through the applications & code, using the laptop as a shared screen - I think I can just about get away with a good 14" screen.

Warranty ... ?
I think it's 3 years on both

E5470 owners ... ?
I'd love to hear from anyone who has actually got one of these, and can give me some kind of feedback on it. In particular does it get really hot, and it is it really noisy?


Thanks once again for all the help already given, and hopefully for more to come ...

Cheers,
Aaron