Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge, Part 2

I'm not sure what all the bother is about. I just inserted my upgrade disk, rebooted, and then clean-installed 64-bit Windows 7 (I had been running 32-bit Vista). No muss, no fuss. Am I missing something?

 

if you install to a clean harddrive, the upgrade key will not work (if it is an OEM disc, it won't even ask you for a key, though)

 

Couple questions for the owners of the e6400:
1.) For those with the 7200rpm drive? How noisy is it? do you notice it at all? minimal noise? moderate noise?

2.) Overall build quality, how would you rate it 1-10

3.) How nice is the keyboard? I am using a logitech illuminated and in my opinion its a awesome keyboard. im hoping to get a laptop with a design that is similar.

thats it for now, thanks =D

 

1. I don't have first hand experience of the 7200rpm HDD but the rigid mounting of the HDD in the E6400 chassis does make it easy for the noise to propagate. Some HDDs are noisier than others. The Seagate HDDs (the most likely 7200rpm HDD to be used by Dell) have been through a noisy spell. If you want to use a 7200rpm HDD then you may want to consider getting your E6400 with the cheapest HDD option and then separately buying the 7200rpm HDD. I would tend to favour Hitachi at the moment.

2. I would give the build quality at least 8/10. Some people complain that the palm rest and display bezel could be stronger but these parts shouldn't get a lot of maltreatment. My biggest complaint is the lack of any rubber bumpers on the display bezel, which tends to rub against the palm rest during transport (I did some DIY bumpers). The one piece base makes access for servicing very easy.

3. The backlit keyboard is very good - mine is probably the best notebook keyboard I have ever used - but reports indicate that the non-backlit keyboard is less good.

John

 

1 Drive - Right now the E6400 are shipping the Western Digital Black for 7200RPM models and the drives are quiet. I would say minimal.

2. The build quality has changed on newer models, they have replaced the plastics on the new models for the palmrest to a more matte finish to reduce finger prints. I would say the build quality is 7, the best Dell mainstream laptop to date. We have over 40 here now and not one failure in a year.
The LCD bezel is not the most rigid but aside from that the case is very well made. The speakers are in a great location for stereo effect and are great for voice communication or voice chat. (Ala Macbook)

3. If you get the backlit keyboard you will find it is one of the best laptop keyboards out there. The keys have a slight soft touch to them and the action is very solid. If you destroy one it is a 2 minute job to swap it out for a new one.

 

I dont know if many have mentioned this but the 3 year battery warranty is important for these Dell 9 cell batteries. After a year their capacity drops off. It basically pays for a new one for you at half the cost.

 

Well, I have considered buying additional battery warranty, but AFAIK it won't cover capacity drop, only total failure. Tell me if I am wrong, I suppose I can yet upgrade my order

 

Greetings!

I've pretty much decided that the E6400 will be my next laptop. I just have one question regarding its gaming performance with the Intel GMA X4500HD. The only game I'm going to play is World of Warcraft, so I was wondering if the Intel graphics will do for that? Will I be able to play with decent graphics settings and a reasonable high FPS rate? I don't want to pay that much extra for the NVidia Quadro if the X4500HD can handle the game decently anyway. I guess the battery time will suffer (outside of gaming) as well if I go with the Quadro, right?

Perhaps anyone has experience with the X4500HD in WoW? Would you suggest I go for the Quadro even if WoW is the only game I'm going to play?

Thanks!

 

1- I'll be surprised that you'll play WoW and only WoW, for the next 4-5 years (the general life span of a laptop, before either it breaks or gets obsolete for your needs). If you are gamer, and will play other games, that you may want a better GPU.

2- The Intel 4500XHD is like a Gefocre Go 7400, without any dedicated memory (so, much slower). While the Quadro NVS 160M is like a Geforce 9400M but With 256MB of RAM. If more performance is required out of this Quadro, it can easily be overclocked using Nvidia very own tool (see my signature, on how to do it without overclocking all the time, and avoid affecting your battery life). Yes, the laptop SHOULD handle the extra heat, but be warned that no overclock of any kind is safe, please read my warnings in the tutorial link in my signature.

3- When you game on battery, which ever GPU that you pick you will get a poor performance and if you try to force thing to max power, expect 2-3 hours of battery life out of a ~9 hour from a new 9-cell battery. The reason for this, is that when you are under battery both the GPU and CPU clocks goes and tries to stay at minimal speeds (The Quadro will clock at normal speed if you demand the power, but will fight to get back at minimal speed)

4- Going with the Quadro NVS 160M, you will lose approximately 30min of battery life than if you went with the Intel solution.

Both solutions are interesting... you have to see which will meet your needs.

 

Does that mean the palm rests are still plastic then?