Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

you press the smalll batt icon button beside the dots

 

I'm curious if I made a good deal through the Outlet. Here's what I'm getting:

E6400
P9500 (2.53GHz, 6M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
RAM -- 2GB,800MHZ,DDR2,1X2GB
160 GB 7200 Free Fall Sensor
WXGA+
NVIDIA Quadro 160M
8X DVD RW
9 cell battery
Backlit keyboard (as advertised, but the final invoice showed regular keyboard; Dell says they'll pay for the backlit replacement part)
370 Bluetooth
1510 wireless card
XP Pro with Vista business license

$727. $787 with tax, free shipping. I've ordered an extra 2 GB RAM from Newegg for $20.00, so I guess the grand total is around $800.00. Okay?

 

Pretty good deal. I got mine for $720 with a less powerful CPU and an IGP (specs on my sig).

 

Haha! I have an old 600m that I'm killing with Photoshop too. Do you recommend the E6400 as a good replacement?

Any suggestions:
Latitude E6400:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8700 (2.53GHz, 3M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
Operating Systems:
Genuine Windows Vista Business Bonus-Windows XP Professional downgrade
LCDs:
14.1" UltraSharp™ WXGA+ (1440x900) LED Display - Brush Metal Black
Graphics and Expansion Slot:
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M With PC-Card
Memory:
4.0GB, DDR2-800 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
Internal Keyboard:
Internal English Backlit Keyboard
Camera/Microphone:
Integrated Webcam with digital microphone
Primary Storage:
250GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM with Free Fall Sensor
Primary Optical Device:
8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink PowerDVD™
Wireless LAN (802.11):
Intel® WiFi Link 5300 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
LCDs:
Black Wide Screen WXGA+ LCD Panel w/Integrated Camera and Microphone
Processor Branding:
Intel Centrino 2 Core Duo ProcessorIC2NB
OS Labels:
Vista Premium Label
Primary Battery:
6 Cell Battery
AC Adapter:
90W A/C Adapter (3-pin)

For $1400 + tax

 

1) Get an IGP if you don't need a discrete GPU. It'll help with heat and battery life, and potentially save you some hassle in the near or more distant future.

2) Get it from the Outlet. If you can find the configuration you want, or a very similar one, you can basically get it for half the price, and upgrade the nonconforming components on your own. There's a twenty percent discount right now, too. If you get Previously Ordered New or Certified Refurbished, it should basically be just like a new unit (save for the refurbished sticker).

 

What is an IGP? Why does better than a discrete GPU?

 

Integrated graphics. About half the graphics processing power of the discrete solution, but consumes significantly less power. So I'm saying if you don't need to game or anything (not that the NVS 160M is going to get you very far in gaming), you should get the integrated part and add about an hour to your battery run time.

 

IGP is Intel integrated graphics processor.

- Performance wise, it is much slower than the Quadro NVS 160M.
- Driver wise, Intel drivers are per application basis, meaning that if the application needs a GPU (graphic processing unit) and the software was not specifically designed to support Intel GPU's, or Intel doesn't support the application that need GPU rendering, then expect the application to crash at startup, hence the infamous list of supported games and application that Intel sometimes (not always) release on their website for their video card. Nvidia drivers, are designed to support everything. It's a different school of thought.

Intel graphic's has 2 advantages over Nvidia graphic card. As it is significantly less powerful, it uses less power to run (10W), instead of Nvida video card (12W). So you save about 30min of battery life with the Intel. The second advantage is that it produces less heat, not that the Quadro is a heater under idle, or were the fan kicks in on battery mode (I mean that the Quadro does not heat enough to run the fan when you are under battery, thank to Nvidia PowerMizer technology)... but anything helps I guess.

In my case, I picked the Quadro video card because I did not want to have fun with software that doesn't support Intel GPU, and wanted performance to play HD movies perfectly smoothly, and the occasional light gaming (I have a gaming desktop computer for heavy gaming). Also, I knew that this GPU is great overclockable with Nvidia provided tool, and the great cooling system of the laptop has, just made that easy.

Comparative with Nvidia Geforce graphic card:
- Nvidia Quadro NVS 160M is equivalent to a Geforce 9300M
- Intel X4500HD is equivalent to a Geforce Go 7300.

The Quadro NVS 160, is capable of running the following games smoothly:
- HalfLife2 and episode 1 and 2 smoothly at near max settings, full 1440x900 resolution - no overclock
- CounterStrike smoothly at max settings, full 1440x900 resolution - no overclock
- Portal smoothly at max settings, full 1440x900 resolution - no overclock
- The Witcher at high settings at 1440x900 resolution - no overclock
- Crysis, medium-low settings - no overclock
- FarCry, medium settings - no overclock
- GTA 4, low settings - overclock needed

These are the games I tried.


Now, please NOTE, I am not saying go with either video cards. It just placed the cards on the table, and skip all the marketing B.S. It is for you to decide which best fit your needs

 

Core 2 duos can decode high bitrate 1080p perfectly fine, even AVC.

 

Yea, thanks, by having the CPU go up at 100% or near that.
CPU's are not designed to render graphics.

That is like running the super old games for Win9x, where you can choose between software (CPU) or hardware rendering. And, you pick software... well you get what you asked for I guess.
I saw the Intel X4500HD and it does not play 1080p movies as smooth, without using as much CPU power as Nvidia solution.