Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

Confirmed! THe outlet messed up the order. My mom's laptop is a cathode ray backlight. I'm going to try to get the unit replaced.

 

You should be able to. Another user had that same issue before.

 

You can upgrade the Hard Drive, RAM and Wireless/Bluetooth cards without voiding your warranty. The hard drive is easily removable, just loosen two small screws and it pops right out. You don't even need to remove the bottom cover to access it. I bought my E6400 with an 80GB 5400rpm drive and replaced it with a 320GB 7200rpm drive in less than five minutes.

The only reason's I'd recommend the E6500 is if you wanted the WUXGA (1920x1200) display or the faster graphics card. Both have a 256mb nVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M, but it's a GDDR2 version in the E6400 and GDDR3 in the E6500. The E6500 scores about 500 points higher on 3DMark06 as a result.

But if you're getting Intel integrated graphics and WXGA or WXGA+ display, the E6400 is the way to go, IMO.

 

Well, just check that everything works! . I guess if you have the Nvidia graphics chip, make sure that the GPU temperature is within bounds.

 

The standard display on the E6400 at introduction was a CCFL-backlit WXGA. The LED-backlit WXGA was made standard several months ago. My first E6400 had the CCFL version and the difference compared to the LED version was surprising. The CCFL display at full brightness was dimmer than the LED version at the dimmest setting!

 

14inch WXGA+ is always LED backlight.

 

I think the difference is more noticible because the screen is matte. I have a non-led laptop with 'ultrasharp" coating and it honestly looks just as good as my LED E6400. The CCFL one however looks like crap. The colors are all washed out.

 

The matte/anti-glare display finish is definintely a factor. My last ThinkPad, a 14.1" R61, had the same issue. But the glossy CCFL display on my friend's Inspiron 1520 or my sisters Toshiba L300 look fantastic. But the brightness of an LED display and matte finish seem to work very well together!

 

I previously posted about an E6400, now I found one even cheaper with the same specs, but it is has Nvidia Quadro NVS 160M 256MB insead of Intel GMA X4500HD. Would this be better or worse for Autocad Architect?
And what about heat, would it produce much more heat while using programs like photoshop etc?

 

The Nvidia is more powerful and should handle Autocad better, although neither is a good graphics card for intensive 3D applications.

Heat has affected some of the Nvidia machines, but not all. You can always demand a replacement if your machine overheats (that's what I'm doing). Don't be scared, Dell's support for Latitude models is excellent. When the machine is not overheating, it is still as silent as the Intel machines.