Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

Oh, this laptop is awesome. But I still do not have a travel module that fits . Nor have I tried the DVD burner, but I suspect it will be faulty as has been noted in other threads.

I'm deciding between Vista Business and XP Pro right now...I'm really okay with either but I haven't found a way to prevent applications from stealing focus in Vista like I did with XP. Well, not yet anyway.

 

Hi guys, I went to the ER this morning so it took awhile for me to get back to you. Like everyone else claims:
1) the keyboard is really nice (the keys spring back)
2) the speakers need a little more base but it's certainly loud enough
3) the overall body of the laptop is very sturdy and sleek
4) I really like the trackpad with it's ability to do scrolling (I have no clue what the middle button is for though)
5) the laptop is slighly warm, but it stays pretty cool as long as you're just surfing the web or writing papers which are the only things I have done so far. This is a nice contrast to my XPS M140 which tends to burn my lap.
6) the paint is so dark that the laptop seems like a black hole sometimes
7) I really like the battery life of the 9 cell. I can get 8.5 (or maybe even a bit more) hours if I'm just surfing the web. (the led is at the lowest setting which is all I need right now and the power mode is "balanced").

I haven't tested too many other things yet. And I don't care too much about software issues because I'm going to eventually install arch linux on it. If anybody else wants to do the same thing maybe we can help each other out. I probably won't have time to install linux until November though.

 

Thanks for the info!!

Shawn

 

Just placed an order for the following:

Base System Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo Processor P8400
Memory 2GB (1x2GB) 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM
Graphic Card NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M, 256MB With Express Card
Hard Drive 80GB SATA (5400RPM) Hard Drive
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista(R) Business 32 bit (English)
Optical Drives 8X DVD+/-RW Drive
Wireless Network Cards Intel WiFi Link 5300 (802.11 a/g/n 3X3) MiniCard
Bluetooth Module Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth(R) 2.1
Batteries 6-Cell Li-Ion Primary Battery
LCD Panel 14.1" Ultrasharp Widesreen WXGA+ (1440x900) LED Display

Got it for AUD$1,751.46 (incl tax) (about US$1,418).

Once the order is confirmed, etc, am ready to place orders externally for:
Intel P9500 CPU
320GB HDD (Seagate 7200.3)
8GB RAM (800MHz CL5)

All of these, much, much cheaper to buy myself instead of upgrading through Dell.

Comments?
Stu

 

sakor1, your going to manually upgrade the processor of the laptop? wouldn't that be more expensive than just paying for the upgrade straight from dell? and isn't the processor soldered onto the motherboard?

i'm just curious, because it would be cool if the processor is upgradeable on a notebook!

 

You mean you can upg the CPU on dell notebook ? I think it's much cheaper to upg it from dell ( save you the trouble too )

 

Hello,
in the "E6400 Impressions - Day 1"-Thread someone said that the Hard Disk of the E6400 caused the whole palm rest to vibrate. Can anyone in here confirm that? Thanks!

 

dbam987 & jonlau:

Yes, you can upgrade it. Look at the service manual available on the dell website and it shows you how to do this (it is not soldered in on this model).

As for price, in Australia, the upgrade from P8400 -> P9500 on the Dell website is about AUD$700, whereas I can purchase the P9500 separately for about AUD$500. So cheaper to actually buy separately! This may not be the case in the US, but is the case here unfortunately.

Stu

 

So I ordered an E6400 on Friday 9/5 and it's status has been in the testing stage for the past 4 days. Is that typical? It seems like everyone else has been getting really quick turn around and delivery times. I ordered with integrated graphics and the 6 cell battery if either of those have been causing delays.

 

I think that guy had/has a bad or poor quality hard drive. I haven't noticed anything on mine, but then again I upgraded my drive to a Seagate 7200.3 drive that is quiet and non-violent.

Yeah, most processors are NOT soldered onto the motherboard so they are easy to upgrade. Just make sure that you have some thermal paste, because you will not be able to safely use the thermal pad that came with your E6400 once you pull it off of the first processor.

It is possible the 6-cell battery is causing a delay...I ordered mine on 9/5 with the 9-cell and I've had my notebook for a few days. Its possible Dell found a faulty hard drive or something while testing your and are waiting for a replacement part. Don't know, and you won't know until you call and ask.