Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge, Part 2

Ignore this post, see above.

 

You can use any Socket P processor with a TDP of 35W or less in the E6400. Quads and Extremes might work, but don't hold your breath. Changing the CPU isn't too difficult; there's a grand total of five screws to undo, one for the bottom panel and four for the CPU heatsink.

If you want the ExpressCard slot instead of a PC Card slot, you do need to change the motherboard, and it is somewhat of an involved process...

 

I have a question to every experts.
It is easy to see many other brands of laptop have updated or updating their processors from dual core to I series,memory from DDR2 to DDR3,hard disc from 250-300G to 500G. Why does dell still use dual core processor,DDR2 memory and small hard disc in E6400? Is it because of the good quality or just for saving cost of production?

Thanks

 

Dell's E6400 is a bit dated now (it came out almost 2 years ago if I recall). Sometime this year (hopefully for Dell) a new version of this model should come out (let's call it the E6410), which should have those features. Exactly what is delaying the new models is not known, but Dell should speed it up, since HP and Lenovo have already announced their new 14-inch business models. Not only the new CPUs are better, but especially the new business graphics card (the Nvidia NVS 3100M) is considerably better than the NVS 160M in the E6400.

By the way: anyone know if those new HP and Lenovo models are already being shipped, or whether they were just announced?

DDR2 to DDR3 was not a relevant upgrade at the time the E6400 came out (for example the Lenovo T400 which was its main competitor uses DDR3 but the memory is not faster because of that). Modern (i5 or i7) laptops are able to make use of DDR3, so if you are planning to buy a new laptop you should get something with DDR3 memory.

 

They've just (I think last week) introduced the new Vostro 3xxx series.
Currently I will go for Vostro 3400 over the E6400.
The only difference I can think is that the new E series will support i7, as the new Vostro support i5.
I'm sure the guys here will correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Looking at the differences between the old Vostro line and the Latitudes i think (hope) you can expect some decent extra's on the new Latitudes.
Think of:
Better screens, not just higher res. but better quality. The M4500 is going to have an sRGB screen which seems to be a first.
Possibly USB3
Displayport
Higher CPU's
Better GPU's
Latitude ON
etc.

We'll only know when the specs are released but if i would be in the market now i'd definetly wait a bit untill i know all my options.
The Vostro's design looks pretty good btw.

 

Any guy knows any configuration information about incoming E6410? Does it just support i5, not i7?

 

Read above posts. Besides that you'll just have to wait like everyone else

 

Update: Vostro 3700 now has support for i7-720 cpu.
3300, 3400, and 3500 still show limit to i5-520.

 

Need your help to a not easy problem:
Lately I started to have DPC problems that affecting the sound.
I checked it with Windows Performance Toolkit and it showed few problems:
1. ndis.sys
2. dxgkrnl.sys
3. dpclat_driver.sys
4. ACPI.sys

After restart I have no DPC problem at all and it starts only few hours after.
I rarely restart, and I always have outlook/min 2 xls/min 5 IE tabs/1 pdf open, xp mode once a week.
I use win 7 pro 64bit on P9500 / 4GB / nvidia 160.

I think I have the most recent drivers.