Need some help: E6400 vs. E6500 and decision on some parts...

It's a great drive but considering the Seagate 320GB is only 4 euros more, is a bit faster and also uses less power, I'd probably go for the Seagate.

Seagate also comes with 5 year warranty, while WD comes with 3 year I believe.

 

Found that HDD at a retailer nearby at the price of EUR 75.70...quite nice. I can collect it at their warehouse, it's 70 kms from here, but I can get there for free by public transport (have got a special ticket from university). The advantage is that I can get it as soon as it's in stock, I don't have to pay exorbitant shipping costs, and I pay them with cash when I receive my goods - 100% safe deal for me

 

I moved from a 14.1" 4:3 laptop to the D830, which is a 15.4" 16:10 laptop. Basically I was hauling around an extra 5 square inches of 'package' in total, and in exchange, I got a larger screen that can display full HD movies (with no down-scaling) and full WUXGA content.

Let me tell you, at least in my case, that having dual WUXGA screens (laptop internal + external 2408WFP) has been amazing. I previously had a smaller LCD, and the mismatch in resolutions meant that when I switched between screens, or when I was dragging content around, I'd always have sizing issues.

Also, the speakers on the 15.4" Dell laptops are substantially better than the 14.1" laptops, at least on the previous D-series (and nobody's reported that the speakers are any better on the E6400).

Basically, I don't think you can go wrong with the E6400/E6500, but as a power-user, you'd definitely want to go with the upgraded screen on either model. As a coder, there's no such thing as 'too much resolution' especially with these GUI-based IDE's that are out there. And you'll have lots of documentation to read, so being able to keep that on-screen will increase your productivity.

As for hard drives, they're a dime a dozen, and you'll probably want an extra one sooner or later, so don't spend too much on the one that's included with your laptop.

What else can I say -- I own a 14.1" D630 and a 15.4" D830. The D830 is what I use 99% of the time. The D630 is only used when I have to remote-desktop into it from the D830 to do stuff on XP .

 

Well, the 15.4" WUXGA is somehow scaring me away with its power consumption. No one is doing exact measurements with 0%/50%/100% brightness, but everyone is going like "OMG? Only 2 hours on the 6-cell?". I wouldn't care about my notebook consuming 15 watts, but 20+ is just too much. I also might have been happy with the brightness of the old WUXGA everyone was complaining about - my previous notebook was speced 150 nits and 250:1 and it was just fine. The CRT in front of me is now set at brightness 0% and contrast 65%...

The problem is that I will take this notebook to university, where I just need battery life. You rarely find sockets around campus, and there are simply none in lecture rooms (very modern ones, BTW, the building was opened 2 years ago). I might get WSXGA+ on the Lenovo T500, but there are some other issues keeping me away from it. And the HP 8530p is simply overpriced, and I can't get it with integrated graphics. Even the HP 6530b is more expensive than the E6400 when I get them to the same configuration, which includes a HP CarePack (EUR 299!) to get the 3 years on-site warranty.

 

what about adding that $400 battery slice for use when there's no electric outlet?

 

Students usually don't have money to throw it out of the window or do something else with it. I can see many of those cheap Asus machines around campus. Crappy in every way possible, but you can get them for EUR 500. I'm just paying more than double the price because I want good quality and good support - and a matte display with a resolution higher than WXGA. Yes, I could get around with an Acer Extensa 5620, but I don't really think I'd be happy with it. If I were no demanding customer, I surely wouldn't have landed here - I simply would have gone into the next big electronics store and bought some consumer crap.

Configuring the very same notebook with 15.4" WUXGA screen, 9-cell battery, I would end up paying around EUR 1500, where I'd have to add the EUR 95 for upgrades and an estimated EUR 300 for the slice battery which you can't even order online. Total price: EUR 1900 - still with integrated graphics, the P8400 processor, and 2 GB of RAM. For the Americans, that equals a bit more than US-$ 2600. And no, wages are not higher over here. It's just that companies think they can push prices up here in Europe. Dell's EMEA pricing is just a bit more conservative than Lenovo's.

In fact, I already have downgraded the configuration I had planned. Initíally, I wanted to have dedicated graphics and the 9-cell battery, which would have cost another EUR 230 more than the configuration I'm currently looking at. The WUXGA display "discarded for other reasons" (the power consumption of the LED display just makes the 6-cell battery be enough) is not included in that figure, it's another EUR 100.

 

Update: Today, I finally ordered my E6400 on the phone. This meant I threw any student rebate away (wouldn't have been much anyway, just ordering on a reseller's Premier page with very small savings and free shipping) but I can pay with a bank transfer and have the highest chance to get a 14-day return policy as I identified myself as a private buyer.

My configuration is the following:
Latitude E6400 : Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 (2.26GHz,1066MHz,3MB)
Express CArd base : Mobile Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X4500HD
Display : 14.1in Widescreen WXGA+ (1440X900) with LED backlit
Palmrest : Standard
Camera : Integrated 0.3 Mega Pixel Camera with Microphone for LED PCD Panel
LCD Back Cover : Black Finish LED
Documentation : German Shipping Docs
Memory : 1024MB (1x1024) 800MHz DDR2 Dual Channel
80GB SATA Festplatte (5.400 U/Min)
Google Search Assistant
Optical Drive : Power DVD 8.0
Roxio Creator 9.0 (mit CD) - XP & Vista Compatible
Optical Drive : 8X DVD+/-RW Drive
Power Cord : European 90W AC Adaptor 2 pin
Battery : Primary 6-cell 54W/HR LI-ION
Carry Case : Neoprene Black Sleeve Case for 14in Laptops
Wireless : Intel WiFi Link 5100 (802.11 a/b/g/n 1X2) 1/2 MiniCard with Centrino label
Wireless : Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth
Keyboard : Internal German Qwertz Backlight Keyboard
Software Driver : Latitude E6400
Software Driver : Recovery DVD
Operating System : German Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 (32Bit OS)
Windows Vista Home Basic SP1 Os media
Client Systems Management Disabled
ohne Anti-Virus Software
Latitude Order - Germany
Base Warranty
3Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day - Minimum Warranty
No Warranty Upgrade
Declined CompleteCare

The price I got was 1156 EUR incl. VAT + shipping. Might have paid less, but I'm not the best at negotiating, I just asked for 50 EUR rebate and got them instantly. Now I'm waiting for my sweet machine to arrive, ESD is Nov 10th, but let's see if they are a bit faster.

RAM + HDD will surely be upgraded by myself. The OS is OK for me, but I think I'll grab an MSDNAA licence of Vista Business which will sit next to Arch Linux on the big HDD.