Latitude E6510 Owner's Lounge

I think I was mistaken, and that it was actually switching between OFF, AUTO, and ON. Hence, OFF and AUTO appeared to be the same, since I was testing during the day. I do agree that the KB is not quite up to par with the Thinkpad's, which I still prefer to either that of the Latitude or the Elitebook. My wife, on the other hand, hates the TP's KB, and loves the Latitude's; I use a Model M on my desktop systems, so I guess it is no surprise that I prefer KBs that are more tactile. Oh, and after doing some work at night, my impression of the backlit keyboard is that it is quite useful. I do miss having a separate overhead light, though, which is nice for reading random notes in the dark.

As far as the HDD, I did not notice any vibration with the WD Scorpio Blue my system shipped with, but there are always batch-to-batch variations in HDD vibration and noise characteristics. In any event, if you are feeling vibrations, it is almost certainly the HDD. The SSD (OCZ Agility) is much, much snappier than the HDD, though, and really lets the CPU stretch its legs. Very highly recommended.

I think I heard the fan turn on at full speed only for a few seconds here and there during large program installs. So far, still quite satisfied with the heat management and fan noise, or lack thereof.

 

System's been mostly silent for me, except when the optical drive is running. Then the whole thing sort of rumbles. I too have only heard the fan turn on briefly, and even then it wasn't very loud.

Palm rests get warm but definitely not as hot as my ThinkPad X61 tablet.

I'm going to see if the sales rep will get me the backlit keyboard for free. If not, eBay might work. I'm guessing all I need is to get the keyboard, and the connector for power, LEDs, etc. are all built in?

 

In fact my system is silent but i feel it in the left side, i have the 500gb disk, i´m agree that must be the hd.

 

Well, after a long while of searching I finally bit the bullet and ordered this E6510. =D

Quantity Item Number Description Unit Price

1 224-8070 Latitude E6510 Notebook $1345.80
1 317-3586 Intel Core i7-620M Dual Core 2.66GHz 4MB for M6510
1 311-9158 2.0GB, DDR3-1066 SDRAM, 2 DIMM for Latitude
1 330-7359 Internal Backlit English Keyboard, Dell Latitude E
1 320-8808 512MB NVIDIA NVS 3100M for Latitude E6510
1 342-0482 320GB Hard Drive 9.5MM, 7200RPM, Dell Latitude E
1 330-7391 No Fingerprint Reader and No Contactless Smartcard Reader for Latitude E6510
1 320-8810 15.6" Full HD (1920 x 1080) Wide View Anti-Glare LED Display for Latitude E6510
1 330-6322 Genuine Windows 7 Label, Latitude, Vostro and Mobile
1 468-6983 Genuine Windows 7 Professional, 64-bit, no media, Latitude, English
1 313-9913 Slate Silver, Mobile Broadband Ready, Dell Latitude E6510 $0.00
1 430-3659 Dell Wireless 375 Bluetooth Module, Dell Latitude E
1 330-0876 90W 3-Pin, AC Adapter for Latitude E-Family
1 313-6513 8X DVD+/-RW for Latitude E-Family $0.00
1 313-9309 Light Sensitive Webcam and Noise Cancelling Digital Array Mic for E6510
1 430-0755 Intel WiFi Link 6200 (802.11a/g/n 1X2) 1/2 MiniCard for VPRO Latitude E/Mobile Precision
1 330-7461 No Intel vPro Technology Advanced Management Features, Dell Latitude/Mobile Precision
1 421-9856 Latitude On Reader for Latitude Notebooks $0.00
1 312-7412 6-cell (60Wh) Primary Battery for Latitude $0.00
1 466-8200 Plant A Tree - Notebook, Netbook, Laser & Inkjet Printers, LCD Monitor Offset $1.32

As you can see I've only upgraded the screen and opted for a backlit keyboard. I plan to stick some more RAM in it and an SSD once it is actually in my hands =)

 

I am a little bit disappointed by e6510... looks really cheap... Am noty quite sure that they use magnesium alloy for back screen...

 

Its probably the thick layer pf paint.. the same suspicion was done on the E6400. One day a technician drop his screw drive on the laptop lid (yes, Dell covert the damages), and I clearly saw metal under the scratch was. And when the lid was replaced.. the inside was also metal (with a prime coat on it, but some places you could see a bit of the metal)

If you worries about the quality, I drop my E6400 about the height of a monitor on a desk + the desk (so pretty high), on cement (with carpet on top), the laptop did not have scratch (it is clear that the carpet prevented that), but the laptop look like new. no dents, no marks.

 

hummm... am just wondering why my laptop lid flex so much...
This is definitely not neither magnesium alloy nor alu

 

I purchased this e6510 more as a desktop replacement
I work on & repair other computers.
My desktop machine does a lot of backups/drive imaging via e-sata & usb & firewire connections.
All of this work is usually done via a boot CD or usb thumb drive.
I also tend to be within bios often.

Now that i have used mine for these tasks a few days.
All i can say is Dell needs to update the firmware soon.
A01 firmware has all kinds of flaws that will hang the machine on boot,
Say you press F12 for boot menu a few to many times to make sure you get that option, that will hang the machine.
This also happens simply going into bios-set up, F2

There is no multiple usb boot choices, say you have a bootable usb thumb drive and a hard disk attached to usb, the bios seems to default to the hard disk leaving no option to choose the other.

There are a few other issues that slip my memory.
Hopefully a more stable & feature rich bios update comes soon

 

Agreed, yet there maybe a little magnesium alloy substructure under the cheap outer tin

These in no way are built structurally like my HP elitebooks or the Thinkpad T400 and the mid 09 MBP that i also own.
Dell cut corners on the fit & finish as well

Has anyone been successful in installing XP 32/64 bit onto one of these while the bios sata is set to AHCI?

I have tried many of times with the pre-OS Intel drivers on the Dell site and they all load fine after the F6, but when XP goes to the next step to install it is always BSD.

 

XP doesn't support SATA natively.
If you want full SATA support (max performance, and proper AHCI support), you need to go with Vista or Windows 7.

XP is an OS that was release in 2001. It has no idea what half of the technology in your system is.

The best solution is stay in SATA mode, so that the SATA controller goes under a "safe-mode", so that at least the system works and nothing gets corrupted, while you plan your switch to a modern OS.