Latitude E6510 Owner's Lounge

I just order the following using coupon code DDCN39X?VQ$Z09, reduces by 28%

e6510
i7-620M
1080p LCD
1GB RAM
160GB HD
Vista Home
8x dvd rom
integrated video
6 cell standard battery
webcam
6200 wireless
bluetooth
3 yr accident warranty
$1,084.32 + tax

I already have 8GB DDR3 ram and can get HD cheaper else where.
The coupon code expires today, so if you think 28% off is a good deal feel free to use it since it is a multi use code.

 

Pictures, as promised. Note the tablet next to it is a 12.1" ThinkPad X61.

 

I put the laptop on the scale today, here's some approximate weights for you guys:

E6510 with the 6 cell - 6 lbs.
E6510 with the 9 cell - 6.4 lbs.
E6510 with no battery - 5.4 lbs.

My old Inspiron 6400 weighed in at 6.8 lbs. (with battery)

 

Am I the only one? No one seems to be going after the On-the-Go Package
deal order your Latitude E6510 and get a Mini 10 Netbook for $50... that's how I ordered my E6510.

 

Any input as to whether putting an SD card or ExpressCard flash drive for ReadyBoost would substantially improve performance? I'm mainly looking to improve my hibernate times which is a bit long with 8GB of RAM...

 

Ready Boost is a technology where it uses a flash memory storage and use it as additional RAM. The idea is to upgrade system with old RAM standard, or limited RAM amount of the motherboard chip-set, or upgrade main memory more cheaply.
The downside is that it's slower than your RAM due to distance (no direct access by the CPU, that is what I mean) and flash memory read/write speeds, which are much slower than RAM. Windows focuses more on access time rather than read and write. A smart move considering that most flash drives has a slower read and write, and that USB 2.0 is uni-direction (you can read or write, but not both at the same time). Oh and USB 2.0 is slow, mainly because the controller is designed for universal device support and optimization, while eSATA/SATA is optimize for data transfer.

Personally I would recommend sticking with Sleep mode, as for one it works perfectly, two it consumes very little battery life with today's system... you can stay more than half a day in sleep (and I don't mean it in marketing sense where it's 12hours + 1 minute.. I do mean it won't surprise me if you reach 24 hours having the laptop sleeping on battery only). And finally, it wake up and your ready to use your system faster.


Now, if you really want to spend money, then yes, of course an SSD will greatly help, especially very fast ones. But, they are very expensive, just make sure that the read/write speed of your SSD is much faster than a 10 000RPM HDD, and you'll see a large difference in performance.

 

Sorry, but I ain't buyin' it on the reliability of sleep mode. Too many times seen laptops wake up from sleep inside the laptop bag, or in the overhead bin of a plane and cook themselves. Hibernate has never failed me

 

That's because you did not have Windows 7.
Here is how to est sleep mode. Start > Sleep. Now type anything on the keyboard, play with the wireless switch, add/remove a USB peripheral, try all mouse buttons.. if nothing happens, you won't have any problems, unless you maybe installs some beta or buggy drivers which screws with your system, but even then.

ALSO, Windows 7 has a built-in power management diagnostic tool, it can inform you of potential problem with sleep and hibernation.
Very simply:
- Open Command Prompt with real Administrative privileges (Start > Type: cmd > On the list of results, right-click on cmd, and select Run as administrator
- Type in the command prompt: powercfg -energy -output %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\Energy_Report.html

Another trick to protect yourself if you still don't trust all of this:
1- Ensure that you have minimal amount of background process (ie; only have Dell on-screen notification, Alps touch pad, and sidebar (gadgets))

2- Set the laptop to sleep after 2-3 minutes when no user interaction occurs (see power settings profile), so that even if it wake up, it goes to sleep after, avoiding having a hot bag.

Also remember that today's laptop, you have several heat security issues:
1- CPU will downlock (throttle) to minimum speed until it's cooled off, avoiding any damage

2- If that fails because you forgot your laptop in your oven, and your over was turned on, the CPU will shut down itself, freezing your computer, but protecting itself from damage.

3- Nvidia GPU's feature a downlock feature as well if it overheats.

4- If you overclock your Nvidia GPU using Nvidia own overclock tool, and your GPU overheats it will cancel the overclock and perform step 3, and not execute the overclock until the system reboots.

5- Nvidia GPU's will crash the drivers, which will crash any running games or software that uses the GPU, to prevent overheating. Because drivers are no longer tied to the kernel since Vista, all that will happen is that your screen will go under Aero Basic, and immediately return to Aero, and have Windows inform you in a notification balloon that the graphic card drivers crashed and restarted successfully. No BSOD', no system freeze.

You have similar protection system on your motherboard chip-set and even on your harddrive (in the case the harddrive overheats, because you forgot your laptop in your oven)

 

I agree with you here.

John

 

I have seen problems with both the BIOS and drivers.

The BIOS has problems with resuming from hibernation on a clean Win7 load.

Also with the Dell drivers loaded and the Extended Battery Life plan selected, the laptops hangs every so often. If I put the power plan in High Performance or Balanced the problems go away. This tells me that the problem is in the drivers trying to implement power saving options.

So yes, hopefully Dell updates the BIOS and drivers soon..