e6410 vs. T410: comparison review

This does not work on the e6410. Furthermore, there are not fan settings in the bios like linuxwanabe states. If they exist, I have yet to find them. I was desperate to turn the fans on maximum at idle for the sake of being able to use the machine comfortably on my lap, and I never found a solution.

 

The webcams in both machines seem pretty adequate. Dell provides a useful utility with the webcam to change its settings and view a preview. I recall that my T410 has such a utility as well, but it is not as good as dells. As far as hardware they both seem adequate for anything you would use them for. You're not going to shoot a movie with it, but that's not what its for.

The T410 has some issues for the uninformed. If you set the power settings (which are much more adept on lenovo vs. dell) to be very low, the T410 dramatically reduces framerate on the built in webcam. This can be fixed by going into the power settings and telling the machine not to slow down the webcam for power savings.

 

I didn't suggest that you could change fan settings in BIOS, only that BIOS most likely determines fan setting, which seem to favor power conservation while idle and during light use, but keep the case amazingly cool under heavy CPU loads.

As I said, I'd rather have the fans running all the time when the E6410 is on AC power, but you can't customize the fan settings. Actually, it really isn't a problem since the cooling is superb under the most adverse circumstances.

In your case, I suspect that the transfer of your own body heat might have been a factor, as well as the fact that fabric was probably blocking the air vents on the bottom of the laptop. Under those circumstances, a 96-104 degree temperature is reasonable considering that the average human being is running 98.6 degrees. Good lord, did you expect the cooling fan of the E6410 to actually lower your body temperature?

 

Exactly.

My E6410 runs very nicely. It keeps the fan off for as long as possible (so it's incredibly quiet - unlike the cyclone my M1530 used to whip up), but as soon as you put it under any sort of load it kicks in a brings the temps right down. I haven't really noticed any part of it, except for right on top of the cooling vent, being any sort of unbearable warmth. I can comfortably use it on my laptop. It's lightyears better than my M1530. Face it, it's an electronic device, such things emit heat. The metal case acts as a heatsink. Example, my system is on my desk right now. It's been powered up constantly for the last 2 days or so, I have IM, Firefox, Skype, Thunderbird and some music playing, and the bottom is barely warm. The fan isn't even running. I wouldn't mind betting that the warmth that people are getting is, as you say, their own body heat, since metal is a conductor. I suggest you compare it with something on your lap, say, a book (an insulator) versus how it goes with it just straight on your lap (which if you're a male, isn't recommended). My M1530 used to thoroughly roast my wedding vegetables through jeans, but this one is fine.

 

I have to give a bit of a warning to those looking to buy the E6410 with the 128gb SSD. I just received a batch of them, and they are all stuffed with the Lite-On LE-128M1S SSD, which is slowwwwwwwwwwwwww. Our older machines from Dell all came with the PM800 Samsung SSD. I will have to get a hold of my Dell rep and express my disgust that they would charge the same for a crappy Lite-ON SSD vs a Samsung

 

Dell doesn't specify the hardware manufacturer at the time of sale. Oddly enough, the only party selling "LE-128M1S" SSDs online is a Spanish language reseller using the "Samsung" brand-name. The going price is $199 apparently

It's no secret that Dell makes money on hardware upgrades, and I have no idea whether the 128GB SSD upgrade is worth $350. At the time of the order, you specified a "128GB SSD" without any way of knowing what the manufacturer would be. You might have assumed you would be getting Samsung SSDs, but that assumption was based solely on your past experience, not on the basis of any commitment or obligation on the part of Dell. In other words, you got what you paid for.

If you want to specify specific hardware, you have to do business with a small boutique "manufacturer" like AVAdirect that simply fits out barebone notebooks. In all the years I've dealt with Dell, they've never specified hardware manufacturers for HDDs.

 

My strategy is to configure with a cheap HDD option then replace it with a HDD / SSD of my own choice. The supplied HDD can be used for backups or to boot the machine in the event of a big Windows crash.

John

 

yea, that is a sound strategy, one I use for my personal machines. However, when buying piles of these things for corporate distribution, it gets to be a huge pain...especially when warranty issues arise.

When my company initially looked into moving to the E-Series latitude from the D series, a Dell rep came out and showed us samples of all the machines (with Samsung SSDs), so we ordered a single laptop to try out, benchmark, image etc. Once that was complete, we started ordering them for distribution, all of them came with the Samsung SSD, which isn't the best performing SSD out there, but it suited our needs.

Now, for the same price, we get an inferior SSD and a big headache

 

Dillio187,

You are probably within the 21-day return period, right? Call Dell, and tell them you will return ALL the laptops unless they agree to replace the SSDs. Tell them that it's because of imaging time costs, or whatever. It's your right to return them after all.

If they call your threat, you should return them, re-order with the cheapest HDD and buy the SSDs separately.

 

things work a bit different when you order through Dell as a partner/reseller. They have a fairly strict "you buy it, its yours" policy unless they erred on the order. I have had some things in the past I've been able to return, but it's been a bit of a pain. They did put the wrong drives in one of our servers, and swapped them for the correct drives. I'm hoping they will do the same for these SSD's, otherwise we will have to bite the bullet and purchase the correct SSD's, and maybe I will use these slow ones to upgrade some of our older D-series notebooks.