Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge, Part 2

No therapy.
The Dell Latitude E6400 is Dell last good and interesting laptop.

Today, if you buy a 500$ laptop, you have the practically same identical specs as a 1500$ laptop.
-> Core i5 with Intel integrated graphics
-> 4GB of RAM
-> ty keyboard and touchpad
-> Windows 8 minimum screen resolution, TN panel.
-> Nothing special, not even DisplayPort.
-> Ugly looking

For me:
I have 3000$, for the manufacture that gets me a 13-14inch laptop, with med range Nvidia or AMD graphic card, Core i5/i7, non-chickless keyboard, IPS 1080p or 1200p (1920x1200) panel, with DisplayPort, quiet operation, OK touchpad, 9h of battery life (like the E6400). I am flexible, more importantly is the Nvidia or AMD med range graphic card in a 13-14inch form factor. They are none.

We used to have med-low range Nvidia GPU (which were MUCH hotter, and consume much more power than now), with early Core 2 Duo (again much hotter and consumed more power), in a 12inch form factor laptop, with 9h battery life with the extended 9-cell battery. See: Dell XPS M1210. Why is this impossible now? I simply don't get it. And it is a quiet operation too! If you wonder.

Then they wonder why people don't upgrade their system.. and sales are low. There is simply nothing interesting.

 

For me its the design. The E6400 has been slow so I upgraded... To the E6410.. Much powerful but you get the picture.

 

With the upgrade to the super-fast SSD, my old 2.4GHz C2D P8600, 4GB RAM, and Intel graphics run Win7 Pro as fast as most new machines I’ve used!

One of the reasons I’m so attached to my E6400 is the keyboard. I tend to wear out a keyboard every 10-12 months, but I don’t mind taking five minutes to pop in a new every once in a while. Only one keyboard actually failed, the others just lost tactile feedback after a year or so of me hammering on the keys and/or the backlighting stopped working. Still, I prefer the feel of this keyboard to the ‘famous’ ThinkPad keyboard…

My greatest aversion to a newer laptop is giving up my 16:10 aspect ratio display. My eyes and/or brain can’t cope with the now standard 16:9 displays. When I sampled the E6420 with a 1600x900 16:9 display, the display quality was awful in comparison to the E6400. The ThinkPad I’ve had in a box for eight months has a 1600x900 display that is at least as bad as the one in the E6420, if not worse.

The newer Latitude models and ThinkPads also sacrifice build quality and long-term durability just to save a little weight or so they can be a a fraction of inch thinner! My E6400 survived an eight-foot drop off the top of a vending machine onto a concrete floor at a Hampton Inn several years ago. It landed on the front edge of the machine (the top of the display and the wrist rest took the full brunt of the impact (but at least the latch held). The screen bezel was cracked all to hell and a very small crack/dent was in the base assembly (right next to the card reader slot). But it booted instantly and worked perfectly, just cosmetic damage. I replaced the bezel for $12 off Ebay. The rest are battle scars I wear with pride…plus I don’t feel like trying to fix them! =)

 

Also the power need for computing has NOT changed at all since Windows 7. If you do not game, your laptop from 2008 that ran Win 7, should have same performance and speed expectations now in 2013 with the same Win7. Same browsers, same softwares, etc. Hardware improved exponentially, but the complications of the programs has not.

 

Actually, the E6400 starts struggles in performance for general usage with updated software. While it is a fine system as you both say, and it is true. My desktop crushes my laptop in terms of smoothness and responsiveness the E6400 in general usage (both my desktop and laptop have high end super fast SSD's - Corsair Force GT in my laptop, and the OCZ Vertex 4 - both uses synchronous based SSD memory drive). When I open Visual Studio or I open any large program, including Office 2010, you really see the system struggle. I have now Windows 8 Pro 64-bit on my E6400 which helped a lot actually, and also allowed me to gain about 1h of battery life as well, but still, not as fast as my desktop. So I would disagree with you.

Also, I need the GPU for my work, so definitely my E6400 is due for an upgrade, but there is simply no laptop that fits my needs. If I am going with Intel integrated graphic solution, and about to spend 1k on a system for buisness class, might as well get the Microsoft Surface Pro, which, if you guys never had a chance in experiencing it, in terms of build quality, it puts the iPad to shame. I can feel it can survive drops (and apparently it can, check youtube), I have a 1080p IPS panel, Core i5, 4GB of RAM, 128GB SSD (which is plenty for my needs, and also has USB 3.0, and a micro xSD card reader, the keyboard is awesome so I can have a laptop and a tablet with a 10-point multi-touch screen (that is better than the iPad), and there is a proper digitize pen made by, the best, Wacom. which allows me, beside using my desktop program with it small buttons and menus, due to the resolution size on the 10inch screen, but also I can use Microsoft OneNote and well take notes, do math, do diagrams, do graphs, all of which is ""impossible"" (very hard and time consuming) to do with a laptop. And it has DisplayPort out, so I plug it on my desktop screen. And with programs like InputDirector, or MouseWithoutBorders, I can use my desktop mouse and keyboard to control my Surface Pro.

They are 2 downsides though:
-> 16:9, but I am willing to accept this compromise, as the resolution is so high on the tablet. Also, on my desktop I have a 24inch 16:10 monitor (1920x1200) - the Dell U2410 to be specific (best monitor I ever encountered, worth every single penny, by the way guys. I cannot recommend it enough). As you can imagine, I use my desktop for when I do my work seriously.
-> Somewhat short battery life at 5h, it's really the limit, but the good news is that Microsoft is working on a battery/keyboard add-on for it. There are 2 holes at the bottom for high power current that is on tablet, which isn't on the Surface RT, so it was definitely planned.

My only concern is typing on the small keyboard (size) after a long time, but other than that, I see no reason to buy any laptop. For 1k, I don't even get something remotely close in a laptop, or alternative advantages (like a dedicated GPU) to justify anything.



The laptop keyboard is awesome indeed. I have a very similar keyboard on my desktop, that I have found. The Logitech Illuminated Keyboard (not the wireless version, that one is crap, the wired version), definitely worth a look if you guys are interested.
allfiredup, if you have a desktop computer, and you have the same problem with your keyboard not lasting, I would suggest investing in a mechanical keyboard. They are louder as they are.. well.. mechanical. But they just don't break, or become loose or anything like that. They are designed specifically for typist. They are a bit on the expensive side, but these are the kind of keyboard you just don't replace, and the market is small, so it contributes in the high price.
Here is a cool guide on them: Mechanical Keyboard Guide

 

My recommendation:

Set setting as: "Best Performance" This disable all graphics and pretty features. Makes it look like Windows 98, but it is noticeably faster. Saves some battery life too.

 

Actually, this reduces the battery life.
Aero is nothing for the GPU, the GPU stays at minimum speed*. Aero Basic or Classic uses the CPU to draw. CPU suck at drawing big time. You can see your CPU spike at 50% (1 core at 100%) if you shake a window for example, and gets worse if you have a background. GPU still stays at minimum in any case, so why have the CPU do extra work, and reduce battery life.

*With the recent Nvidia drivers the GPU now increases at max speed as you move a window, or do anything, for some odd reason. So I fixed it: Nv GPU Pro - Nv GPU Pro Software - Automated GPU Overclock Tool
And I get to overclock my GPU automatically on select games or work for a few extra fps . It also makes my GPU quieter, as Nvidia GPU's fans don't go bellow 40% no mater how cool the card is, so I force it at minimum clock (which is plenty in Windows), and set the fan at 30% for a noticible quieter system.

 

I keep most of the "pretty just for the sake of being pretty" features in Windows 7 turned off just as I did in Vista. Compared to setting the graphics properties to "Best Appearance" or "Let Windows Choose" it makes a noticeable difference, especially since I have the Intel integrated graphics!

I don't know how long you guys have had an E6400, but there was an issuie with CPU throttling (slowing to a crawl, in many cases) and other thermal management problems. When I heard about the headaches some people were dealing with, and Dell's inability to provide a solution for more than a year, I under-volted my CPU with excellent results! I gained almost 50 minutes of additional battery life under light load (surfing, email, typing docs) from the 9-cell battery! Even better, the fan rarely kicks on other than when multi-tasking, doing a virus scan or other processor-intensive tasks. I was slightly over-agressive with the under-volting at first, but I never went more than four days without a BSOD because of it. I probably sacrificed 10-15 minutes of that 50 minute battery gain when I relaxed the settings, but I also haven't seen a BSOD in over two years!

Just to prove to myself that it makes a signficant difference, every few months I'll revert back to the default CPU voltage settings. Within minutes, the temp of one or both CPU cores spike by 30 degrees (F) and the fan is screaming like a banshee!!!

If I'm not mistaken, the C2D was the last mobile Intel processor family that could be under-volted....please correct me if I'm wrong about that!

 

This is so sad, but there's a good chance that the E6410 will be my next laptop...and it's two generations old!

When I find something that I like and that works well for me, I keep using it until it's no longer practical to do so. That's why I drove a 1994 Acura Legend until November 2005! It had 318,000 miles on it- original engine and transmission, and looked great inside and out. Some drunk t-boned me in an intersection and totaled or I might still be driving it today!? At least he got hurt- about 3/4 of his body was in a cast and I tried not to visibly grin when I heard the news...bet he didn't drive drunk again! And my poor Legend was beyond destroyed, but it did a good job of protecting me compared to most cars from 20 years ago. I would have been fine if the rear-view mirror hadn't broken loose when the windshield shattered and glass mirror part ended up stuck in my skull! 29 staples in my head....I hope that jerk still walks with a limp!

 

We still have 5 E6400s in my family: 4 are in daily use (2 Intel and 2 Nvidia), and one is a backup (there used to be 6 when I was still using an E6400). All have either P8400 or P8700, 2GB of RAM, and all but one has an SSD.

I'm with Dellienware that basic computing requirements (ie Web and Office) haven't really changed at all since even before these machines came out. Except on the system without an SSD, no one has complained about the performance of the machines. At this point the E6400s have lasted longer than the D600s we had before, and I thought those lasted for a long time. I don't know why we are talking about the Surface Pro, but I don't think anyone in my family would be happy with a pure tablet device as their primary machine, even with the keyboard cover, etc.

I've only seen the CPU throttling issue first hand a handful of times, mostly with my dad's setup which is with dual WSXGA+ external displays. Even then, it's so rare (like twice a year?) that I haven't done anything about it. As far as I know Penryn C2D is indeed the last generation of Intel CPU that you can undervolt, though I'd love for someone to prove me wrong on that.