What would you change on Dell Latitude E6400?

I have the Intel Wifi (5300AGN) and it works pretty well most of the time. I am running Vista 64.

I will be very happy when I can run Windows 7 though.

 

The sharp corners on palm rest have to go.

Dell Control Point is deficient, but apparently parts of it are necessary. It should be de-integrated so the least evil can be chosen. It should also not be totally stupid about intel wireless cards. Frankly, DCP crashing on every boot just because an intel wireless card is installed makes a pretty poor advertisement for Dell.

I want the option of a quad core CPU without a 17" form factor. Frankly I want that in a 13.3" form factor.

Original equipment primary SSD (like OCZ Vertex series 120G, 250G).

Drive bay that accomodates 2.5" SATA, possibly battery. (The slice is nice but bulky).

Next version should have DDR3 memory (I can't imagine it won't).

Switchable integrated/discrete graphics.

 

I have the Intel 5300 WiFi card and have no problems with wireless (actually, I do, but the other laptop in the house always has problems at the same time, so it must be the router). Signal range is quite great, between 50% and 100% larger than my father's ASUS G2S (no clue which card that one has).

It seems that more options for the modular bay are quite consensual. Since they can be useful even for people who already bought an E6400, maybe we should send a joint email to Dell about it?

 

I agree with those of you that think the E6400 should have softer palmrests.

I think the main issue is the graphics, not because there is a problem, but it is the generally hard part in making a good and small laptop. Ofcourse is the discrete card generating more heat than the integrated but atleast i bought the E6400 just because i needed the power (at least sometimes) I would even like a more powerful card if it was possible. If perfomance wasnt needed for me I would have bought another laptop.

A possibillity to switch to a integrated seems to be a good option, that would be great. Or perhaps an easy way to downclock a discrete card.

I have read at this forum about someone that has got a replaced E6400 with the 160m card which seems to be much cooler than earlier versions. Perhaps there has been some hardware improvements?

I also noticed that bios A12 makes the fan run much more than bios A09.

 

You can very easily de-overclock or overclock preaty high the GPU, thanks to the cooling system of this laptop. The best parts is that you don't even touch the voltage so no damage when you overclock and it's profile based. So YOU decide when you want to overclock or de-overclock, and the settings are gone when your are no in Windows. Even a cold system shut down will remove the settings set. So there is not much of a proof. And it does not affect your battery life as you don't load the profile on battery

The best part.. is that it's all in the Nvidia Control Panel.No special software software, what you need is provided by Nvidia.

Now, NORMALLY, everyone will say that it's stupid to overclock the GPU because everything is cram together in side the laptop and has poor cooling. However, this laptop when you have the Nvidia GPU, it uses the hole base as heatsink. So that is why I can do far. Although on hot days, you may want to get a cooling mat.

I have a link to my GPU Overclock guide on my signature.

That is probably the heatsink that was miss installed, or there were missing pads which does contact with the metal plate of the base which then does contact to the whole base to cool off the GPU, the CPU and northbridge processor of the motherboard (all is on one heatsink)

You can press and hold Fn + Z for like 1sec, that will reset the fan and turn it off, or slow down. If it does not work, then the laptop is too hot to do it.

 

I actually havent tried that out yet, it isnt possible with the quadro driver, right? But i meant it as a "dream request" of a function that makes the nvidia card go on really slow speed for full battery (and heat) saving.

No, as i understood was the new one much cooler than average so there seemed to be some improvent. but i cant seem to find it now...

Yes, but my point was that the A12 bios seem to have lower threshold levels than the A09 bios so you dont have to manally adjust the fan.

 

If you play games and don't do CAD, then just by using the Geforce drivers you should see a slight increase in performance in games. Again, this does not affect battery life.

Your Nvidia card, has Nvidia PowerMzer technology, which de-overclock the GPU when you don't need it, or all the time when you run under battery (this is why today's games are slideshows when you are on battery). On my signature, I provide a free tool that I made that allows you to change this behavior, among other thing. PowerMizer is the main reason why the battery life is very close to the Intel GPU option for this laptop. However, the PowerMizer does not de-overclock completely down, you can put it a few MHz lower on the memory clock, GPU clock, and shader clock, than what PowerMizer does. It's no miracle in battery life, but you can gain a few more minutes of battery life.

Yes, I agree, but when I am under battery, on my laptop, I never had the fan kick in, which is what is important. My guess, is that the laptop overheats when its 40C, humid and you have the laptop pointing at the sun, as someone pointing out on this community on a different thread. Of course, this is just a guess.

 

After 3 days of careful thinking and deliberation, I've come up with a rather long list of big issues and nitpicks that I'd like to be fixed or improved. Granted, if everything on this list was fixed, the notebook would probably cost $250 more, but then again, I'd pay that much to have my "perfect" notebook. I separated my complaints into 3 categories, and the parts in each category also go from most important to least important.

Major Issues (Dell, you better listen...)

1) Graphics - While I understand and respect the fact that the E6400 is really a mainstream laptop and it doesn't need powerful graphics (in theory), it would be really nice to have an option. Even if it was just in the Precision M2400 (who's 370M is better by just a hair). As mentioned before, an ideal solution would have switchable graphics, something akin to the setup in the Studio XPS 13. A 9400M for normal use, with an option to upgrade to a 9500 (which is really the 9400+9200), with the 9200 being able to be activated by software would be really nice. Even nicer, a setup like the one in the Macbook Pro unibody (9400+9600) would be thrilling. Of course, I'm suggesting that these cards be used separately(either/or), as a 14.1" simply could not handle the heat from those 2 cards combined.

2) Out of box experience - This has been exhaustively mentioned before, and I have little to add. I'd like the computer to be running perfectly without any problems - period - when I take it out of the box. I think that this is a big reason people are switching to macs - the first impression is it just works.

3) Weight - I admitted to myself a long time ago that the E6400 really is obese. At just about 6 pounds loaded (see config below) with 9 cell, this computer really needs to go on a diet. I thought about it, and don't really see where Dell could shave off a lot by just attacking small parts. I feel that the real solution to this is to use machined unibody construction in the next generation (F series). That could increase the strength and decrease the weight of the chassis. The only disadvantage is cost.

4) Materials - If you go to adamobydell.com and listen to the video, Dell's Alex Gruzen calls the glass and aluminum in the Adamo "honest materials". I'm quite fine with the magnesium alloy at this point, but let's not make it just the lid, bottom plate, and chassis. Let's take it all the way to the palmrest, bezel, LED cover - everything. And as a second point, I'd like "honest" materials in my Latitude too. If the cover looks like brushed metal, please make it REAL brushed metal that I can feel - not some alloy painted over and then covered in some plastic finish. It looks good but feels cheap.

Smaller Improvements (Please, Dell?)

5) Touchpad - I'd like a nice, responsive Synaptics one. Make it big - like near Macbook size, and give it lots of gestures - again, like the Macbooks.

6) Speakers - Quite simply, make them better. Add a subwoofer (there's a great empty place under where the power button is). Whatever you have to do.

7) Latch - Make it magnetic!

8) Modular Bay - Give me some options. I want to have choices for an optical drive, a battery, a 2.5" HDD, and a travellite module. Choice is very important.

9) DDR3 Memory - As it gets cheaper, I'm sure this will happen anyway.

Wish List (Dell: I'd pay extra for stuff like this...)

10) Instant-On OS - No latitude ON garbage. Something real. Boots up in 3 seconds, has internet, music, photo, video, and create/edit doc, xls, ppt, and pdf files. Must be able to access stuff on Windows partition.

11) Processors - Quad core support. The cooling system (on mine, anyway) can handle it. What are we waiting for?

12) Screen - Better vertical viewing angles. I don't know if this is an industry issue, as it has happened on both my LG and CMO made screens, but when I slouch down in my office chair a little, the colors are immediately inverted. I think that improvement is possible here.

13) Packaging - I know that Latitude means "business". For orders of 20+ computers, I don't care what you do, Dell. For orders of just one computer, please make the packaging a bit more attractive. Something like the HP packages (smaller box, some photos printed on it, etc) and a nicer presentation of the computer inside the box (a la Apple) would make a world of difference on my first impressions.

That's the end of my endless rant. Some old ideas, and some new ideas. Let me know what you guys think!

 

My understanding is the power use of the integrated graphics is really low compared to a modest underclock of the discrete GPU. Otherwise people like Lenovo wouldn't have gone with hybrid, when they could just as easily underclock the same Nvidia processors Dell has.

 

Heuumm.. yea....
My point was not to pass from a Quadro NVS 160M down to an Nvidia TNT1 that won't even draw XP theme somewhat properly. When you pick your video card you have to choose. In your case you decided to go with a much more powerful video card (over the Intel one), at the understanding that you will lose ~15-20 of battery life (on a 9-cell battery) over the Intel one. If you are not happy with and desperately need this missing ~15-20min at idle, then return your machine and get one with an Intel one.

I was just saying your some options. No miracles.
Me too I would love to have a super card that can doesn't heat up at all (or very little), that does an Intel 4500HZ and then can go up to a Geforce 285 triple SLI performance. But this is life. Maybe the day when we replace copper wiring to something else and faster, like maybe light, then it might exists.