Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

Cool, Intel it is then. Thanks

 

Yes, I agree the Intel GPU will be fine for what you plan to do - similar to my usage. It also includes a built-in HD.264 decoder should you want to play HD movies. 3D performance is in the same range as the Geforce 7400 GPU (#117 & #121 in the notebookcheck list).

John

 

Sweet. Thanks.
About the built-in decoding of the Intel. Are there directshow filters for it? Or do you need to use a specific program?

 

Without going into details here is what visually you see/compare it to:

- The Intel Integrated Graphics 4500 is equivalent to the old Geforce 7300M in real world environment.

- The Quadro NV160 is equivalent to a Geforce 9300M, but also (depending on what you do) as a Geforce 9600M.

The Quadro is not a gaming video card (but it has power to game), even with the Geforce drivers. It will be able to handle a lot of polygons, and textures (thanks to it's 256MB of dedicated memory), but fancy effects is harder for this GPU, making it go down to a Geforce 9300M. The Nvidia GPU doesn't heat up a lot. It's quiet cool. So fan noise won't be an issue.

The advantages of the Quadro is that if you use high resolution external display via display port, the video card won't struggle. Image output quality via VGA, will be slightly better over Intel's video card. Also the Quadro has dedicated memory meaning, no RAM is used by it. Also, if you run simulation programs or if within 3 years you decide to play a game, well you have PhyX on your side, and for programs like Photosop CS4, you have access to CUDA (Nvidia system which allows programs to use the GPU rather than the CPU to perform calculations with supported applications). However, the Intel will give you a little more battery life. Maybe 30min more (my guess) under Vista with Aero.

I got a Quadro, because I don't feel like being limited, as I don't know what I'll do with the system within the next 3-4 years (usual life time of a laptop before it gets too slow for your needs, or brakes down).

My brother has the Dell XPS M1210, and it has the Geforce 7300... let's say it can play HalfLife 2 or Portal at minimum but minimum settings. Which is not not a heavy game by any means for today's standards. On my Quadro I can play FarCry 2 at 1280x800 at medium-low settings smoothly (perfectly smooth could be achieved at a lower resolution, or lowering settings).

Another note, is that Intel problem with the video card is not power... it's mainly drivers. How Intel works is not on making a driver for anything, but rather making a driver to support software. Which explains the list of supported games/applications (which uses the GPU) that Intel used to release for every of it's video cards.

If the above does not concern you in any way, than the Intel is the way to go.

If you wonder my recommendations for the rest of the system.
- Vista 64-bit Business or Ultimate (Ultimate or Home Premium comes with a 32 and 64-bit DVD codec). Please check my older posts on the advantages of using Vista 64-bit rather than the 32-bit beyond the RAM support. Also read this on Windows 7 FREE upgrade: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/iTc8ov0eCQs/

- Intel Wireless N
- No Webcam but with Mic (It's a Creative webcam.. meaning you'll get system problems due to poor drivers (monkeys can do better drivers, and I am not exaggerating, just look at this thread))
- backlit keyboard (changing your mind after will be costly to replace (Dell super over charge parts)). The keyboard and track point stick buttons are quieter, and its a nice feature to have.
- if you struggle work space with 1280x1024 display than 1440x900 is a good choice as the work area is about the same (just multiply the 2 numbers to know how many pixels of work area you will have). If you have good eyes, this display won't cause you any trouble. If you don't than it might be too small for you.
- 4GB of RAM. More is ALWAYS better. Every year more and more applications takes more and more system resources, as they get fancier, and less optimize. Just in mid-2007 people were saying that 2GB is enough but not anymore, even if you don't game. So save yourself the worry and trouble of upgrade, be comfortable and heck you can even disable pagefile if you far away from using the whole RAM, to gain a little more battery life (as windows is not going to use your HDD for RAM usage).
- 3 year warranty with NBD onSite service (minimum selection at Dell Canada). This means for 3 years, your system is covered, and for 3 years, each time something needs to be replaced a Dell approved technician comes at your place at the time you want (starting from the next day early morning) (it's a professional person well for my region), and fix your laptop next to you. If the technician even light SCRATCHES the system, Dell covers it, even if you don't have accidental damage protection. If your system needs to be replaced. You KEEP the system, until you get the new one, and you are free to swap the HDD's so that you prevent a re-install. That means, you ALWAYS have a system in your hand. 100% worth it! I experienced it! in Canada, Customer service and Dell support (phone and chat) is all Canadians.

Also, CALL on the phone Dell to order your machine.
How it works.
- Build your system (with a bit less than what you want, example standard wireless G, DVD-reader, and so on), and e-mail the system to your sales representative (so that no errors occurs). then negotiate on the phone with him. You'll get several free upgrades, and several hundred of dollars off. And it's easy, and not time consuming!

 

Sweet, thanks Goodbytes.
I'm saving your suggestions in a txt file for when I order. I've already been given a blanket offer of 10% off the order price from one rep, so I'll keep that in mind also

I wasn't aware about the Webcam issue (though wasn't avidly looking for one). I'm guessing there aren't third party drivers for that? Spose I could always use my external webcam that I have now. Not that I'll be using it very often. Are there any other issues for me to know about? I know about switching to AHCI (which fixes the sound issues, am I right?)

If it was only a matter of 30 mins batt life I'd go for the Nvidia, but I've been told that it equates to more than that. The only time I can ever see myself plugging in an external monitor is when I'm back home in Aus and wanting to plug it into my tv, but even then that's only 1366x768. I'm guessing even the Intel wouldn't struggle with that? Gaming. Yeah. It's nice to know I'd have it. But I have multiple consoles that I never play. I can't see why I'd start playing games now.

Thanks again
Michael

 

personally I have not heard of anything. Like you, when I need the webcam I just use my desktop webcam (Logiteh QuickCam 9000 Pro)... I mean I don't see myself doing a video chat/conference at a coffee place. It would be at home.. and then again I have my desktop computer.

Considering you have Vista 64-bit (because that is what I was focusing at when I read issues about the E6400 related to drivers). There were minor issues but all fix now. It would seam (from my perspective... nothing official), that the drivers were originally made for Vista 64-bit than adapted for Vista 32 and quickly done for XP (less features apparently and buggy... I dont know if it's all fixed up until now).
The only POTENTIAL issue that I know about is the sound card. For some users they had issues by having the sound skip or crackle... I never experienced this, not even with internet radio via Winamp. The only issue I have is that the effects options in the sound panel doesn't work under Vista 64-bit, but strangely works under Windows 7 beta 64-bit. But I can live without echos and such silly effects. (Effects only works with the headphones jack, not the laptop speakers (probably to protect them against too much base)

Other issues non-driver related issue are:
- The screen plastic frame will get scratch by the labels of the palm rest. They are 2 solutions. The first is to remove the labels as soon as possible and use vegetable oil to remove the left over glue (vegetable oil will remove the glue without damaging the plastic... anything else including rubbing your finger will make the glue penetrate in the texture of the plastic... and well your are screwed. Changing the palm rest means basically disassemble the whole machine. You can get away by this by calling Dell and saying you had a faulty plastic on your machine and put back the labels with the remaining glue on the stickers. The second solution is, I think the best and safest to do. Replace with thicker pads (or put something under them to make them lift a bit (I used a thin metal wire twisted in a u shape under the pad... not noticeable.. not even the technician of Dell) realized) the ones (and only ones) on the palm rest and insert a the same pad inside the screen lock mechanism. The downside... the screen will be a bit harder to close and lock. But it works for me! This issue COULD be fixed by Dell on your machine (probably by adding 2 more pads or increase the height of the existent pads)... I know that on the lower-end 14inch Dell E5400 they fixed the problem by added 2 more pads at bottom edges of the palm rest.

Now you should expect no surprises at all.

I didn't have sound issue on either default or AHCI settings. However, when I had the default settings it was many month ago, many older drivers... so i can't really say.

Well I went for the 9-cell battery because I need long battery life. Its kinda hard to compare real world battery life. Sure you can look at what windows tells you, but that it doesn't know what you will do, so it basically consider that if you do what you are doing non-stop.. you will have so much battery life.
Using my laptop at school in class room, and having Windows to turn off teh screen at 1min of inactivity. Aero and transparency turned on. I get 7 hours and half to 8 hours with wireless on, word, powerpoint, firefox, IM program. If I record class directly as MP3 (program directly convert RAW to MP3 as it records, so contently uses the HDD) with the same environment, I get 5 hours and half. If I do the same environment but instead of recording i use Winamp with internet radio, I also get 5 hours and half. I already stretched the battery life of my machine by disabling everything I get 9 hours and 20min (real world battery life). Using the latest Geforce drivers instead of the Dell Quadro video card will lose you about 20min of battery.

Nope it should not have any issues.

 

did your e6400 came with DDR2 800 or 667? mine came with 667, is an upgrade to 800 worth it? any brand suggestion? does it support 1067?

I am having a hard time finding the 6400 manual, does anybody have it?

 

My system came with the Samsung 4GB DDR2 800MHz. I made sure I had my 800MHz RAM.

 

I received 800MHz. However, if your 667MHz RAM is running at CL4 then the performance difference will be small. See part 2 of my E6400 review for benchmark results with different RAM configurations, including 667MHz. Some cheap RAM can cause problems, but I'm currently using 2GB of OCZ plus 2GB of the cheapest 2GB RAM I could find. It is unbranded but matches the timings of the OCZ RAM.

Choose from the selection here.

John

 

Sorry GoodBytes, but there are several things that you are dead wrong about.
1. The NVS 160M DOES use shared memory. In addition to the 256 MB of dedicated memory, it also uses up to 768 MB of system memory (which mine very commonly does).
2. By no means does the NVIDIA card run cool. Even though it is fairly low power, it is still a 12 watt card, and 12 watts spread over a surface area of less than one sq. inch causes it to get very hot very fast. Idle temperatures for me are in the high 40's while under load it usual gets to around 86 degrees Celsius (though this is more the product of Dell's poor thermal contacts in an otherwise excellent cooling system).
3. I'm not so sure what you mean about the NVS 160M resembling GeForce 9600M performance in some applications. While overall I have been extremely impressed with the card's performance, it is nowhere near that of a 9600M (which I knew when I bought it) in anything which I have done, nor do the specifications come anywhere near to a 9600M.