Upgrading to E6430 from D630

So according to a couple replies in my other thread, the motherboard needs to be replaced in my D630. I love my 630 and it has been pretty much hassle free (except for the nvidia recall) but I think it is time to move on. I don't know much about current laptops, but I see that the e6430 is the latest 14" Latitude.

So if I upgrade to a 6430, what will be the big differences from my 630? What improved, got worse, stayed the same? Anything I will miss on my 630? Is it pretty much a no brainier to go with the 6430 instead of repairing my 630? I mainly use my laptop for browsing the web, Microsoft office, and photography stuff. I do have a newer HD video camera that may be too high res for the 630 because the videos won't play on it. Sorry for all the n00b questions, but I did read through the entire 6430 owners thread and a few others and haven't found any comparisons. Thanks.

 

Well it is 3 generations newer and you will feel like it is A LOT faster. Time for upgrade either way.

If you want to save some, E6420 ain't bad at all.

 

The D630 feels like a dinosaur compared to the newer E6430.

 

E6430 will be much faster. You can fix your D630 pretty cheap with a Motherboard on eBay. I would stick with an Intel (rather than NVIDIA) if you decide to buy the motherboard.

 

I have both a D630 and an E6430 here. What I noted:

- The E6430 (Quad Core) is A LOT faster than the the D630
- The GPU performance is worlds apart (both with NVidia), the E6430 is strong enough for (light) gaming
- The case and construction of the the E6430 feels more solid and robust
- Due to to the difference in aspect ratios, I guess, the screen of the E6430 feels much smaller than the D630
- Battery life of the E6430 is about 9 hours when running on internal graphics and 4.5 hours with the NVidia chip active

Recommendations: get the NVidia (Optimus) graphics, Quad Core and a SSD.

 

I also own a D630 and I love the heck out of it. Probably one of the best laptops I have ever owned. Although slow by today's standards I manage to use it a couple of times a week for web stuff, work stuff and general usage. For those tasks it is plenty fast. That being said, stepping up to an E6430 would give you a whole new level of performance. It will feel way, way faster than the D630. If you do get one, report back and let us know how it it goes.

 

Specwise the E6430 is obviously going to blow the D630 out of the water, but I'm not entirely convinced the design of the E6430 is significantly better. I think there is "waste" in the design, best exhibited by the the fact that the footprint is larger than that of the D630 even though the screen area, which is basically the limiting factor, is less (and thus you get those huge bezels around the screen). I also think it's ugly with too many materials and colors.

Whether or not OP actually cares about that, I don't know, but that's my two cents.

 

I agree with you about the aesthetics of the unit. The best looking 14" units IMO were the D630 and 6410.

 

from E6320 to E6430 both i5, There is quite a jump noticeable. The trackpad is a lot more usable. I dont look at them figures but to me there is a lot of jump form the second gen i5 to the third generation.

 

I kind of want a 14" laptop with faster specs. But to be honest, my D630 has 4GB DDR2 800MHz RAM, Intel GPU, and a 7200 RPM 500GB HD.

It runs Windows 7 and Linux Mint 16 very well. The only thing it struggles in a bit is flash games. I really, really love this machine. I have deployed 14" Thinkpads and Latitudes for my clients and none of them have held up as well as my D630 which I got used from a client. This thing is a tank, runs quick enough for my needs and looks great.

I am currently trying to get Wine to install OneNote 2010 and Outlook 2010. If I can get those running, then I will wipe the HD and just load Linux on it. Install the 2 Microsoft programs I need for work, and move on. It's currently dual booting Windows 7 and Linux Mint 16 but spends 95% of it's time in Linux. Sure I could do a VM with Windows in it and solve my problem that way (and I might), but it is more fun for me to tinker around with Wine.