Latitude E-Series Anticipation Thread

Wow! Anyone recommend me canceling the M4400 because that Latitude is b-e-a-utiful! Just kidding, but seriously that laptop makes the M4400 look even worse .

Installing laptop memory is as easy as buying it cheap (from NewEgg for ex.), unscrewing the cover on the bottom of your system, popping out the sticks, popping in the new ones, closing the lid, enjoying the experience.

 

One or two watts extra idle power consumption under light usage could reduce the possible battery run time by up to an hour. The Intel specs give higher maximum values for the T series CPUs. You might be lucky and get one with a low power drain but I would assume that Intel will put such CPUs in the P series bin and sell them for a bit more money. All I can say is that the idle power drain of my P8600 is close to the U7600 in my Toshiba R500. We will have to wait for feedback from someone with the E6400 + T series CPU.

Another indicator of the P series power efficiency is in this quick review of a Samsung Q310 (P8400) where a 6 hour battery time is indicated. And that's with a 9200M GS on board!

John

 

what latency ram is used in the E? I see 5 or 6 on newegg. also, are different drivers needed for 64 bit vista vs 32?

 

This is a little OT, but are you saying that the P and U CPUs are actually from the same die and they are only determined to be P or U series processors after they go through quality control - with the processors having the highest tolerances labeled as P and those that don't cut it being labeled as U?

Can you point me towards a source that sheds more light on this process? I don't even know what to google for.

I remember reading once that core solo processors were actually rejected core duo processors that didn't come off the die correctly and were subsequently mangled a bit more to disable the second core completely.

 

My E6400 came with a stick of Nanya RAM which says it is CL5 but is running at CL6. See the attached. However, the result is still good. See here.

Yes, you need different drivers for 64 bit Vista. Driver support has been one of the constraints on the wider adoption of 64 bit.

I'm 101% sure that they all come off the same wafers which then get chopped up and tested. "Yields" is the word used to indicate the proportion of faster CPUs which can be got from a waver. As another example, you might have noticed the way that Intel has progressively introduced new versions of old Core Duo CPUs with features such as less cache in order to be able to sell the left overs instead of chucking them away.

The U series is meant to use less power. I was very impressed by the power efficiency of the U1500 in my Sony G11 and somewhat less impressed by the U7600 in the Toshiba R500 (in fact, I reckon that it uses more power at 1.2GHz than my T7300 running at the same voltage and frequency). The U series CPUs have only been available in the BGA format for soldering onto boards.

John

 

It sound easy, but don't you lose your guarantee for unscrewing the cover on the bottom.

 

No...Dell won't guarantee the new RAM, of course, but adding your own RAM does not cause you to lose your warranty on the unit itself. RAM is a user-upgradable item...

 

Dell publishes a complete service manual giving detailed instructions for adding / changing almost every component. As long as you don't break anything then you can add or change parts without affect the warranty.

However, Dell's warranty is for the parts provided by Dell (and listed in their database against your service tag) so keep any parts you remove so that, if you need warranty service, then you can restore the computer to the factory supplied condition.

John

 

In that case, which of those chips would be compatible with E6400?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0381 1309221140 1309121118&name=4GB (2 x 2GB)

I am particularly interested in the OCZ one, but if you thing something else is better, please tell.

John, I think I read somewhere that your new E6400 doesn't recognize some 800Mh DDR2 that has no problem with other laptops. Which one exactly did you had in mind?

EDIT: And what about two of this one:
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=2048DDR2NB6400-ADA-N&cat=RAM

 

The RAM my E6400 doesn't like is "Elenade". It was cheap so there's no great loss (it's gone into the Sony G11) but the label and the SPD data indicate it is DDR2-800. However, put it in the E6400 by itself or with another stick and all I get is a flashlight Caps Lock indicator.

I've got one stick of the OCZ DDR2-800 on order but the supplier has gone quiet. In the mean time I'm using a 2GB stick of DDR2-667 to give 3GB. You can see some memory bandwidth results here. A pair of same size DDR2-800 modules should give the best score.

John