Latitude E6400 Owner's Lounge

So how did I do with my outlet purchase:
System Price : $1,069.00 - 15% discount made it $908.65
Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista Business

Memory: 4 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (2 DIMMs)
Hard Disk Drive: 160 GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive (7200RPM)
Video: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M With Express Card
Web Camera: Integrated Webcam with digital microphone
Latitude E6400: Intel Core 2 Duo T9800 (2.93GHz, 6M L2, 1066MHz FSB)
Media Bay: 8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
Network Interface Card: Intel WiFi Link 5300 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
Hardware Upgrade:
Fingerprint Reader Internal
125V Power Cord
90W AC Adapter
Back-lit Keyboard
9 Cell Primary Battery
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System Color: Brushed Metal Black
Laptop Screen:14.1 inch UltraSharp WXGA+ (1440x900) LED Display
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A few things to mention is that I have a SSD 30Gb |OCZ OCZSSD2-1VTX30G RTL drive on order from Newegg (thanks to the hot deal post here on NBR) to replace the 160Gb the system arrives with.

Also I am planning to go the Windows 7 route with this system...

Any reservations or suggestions? Did I do ok? I am coming back to PC from Mac.

 

I think you have a great laptop, well configured.
I hope, and if not, I suggest, to get a 3 year warranty with 3 year Next Buisness On Site service. If you don't, you should be able to pay the difference and get.
See with Next Buisness On site service, this ensures that you always have your system in hand, and that you have a technician that fixes the problem in front of you, and you can test it to see if the problem is really resolved and that no other problem is created before he/she goes. And of course, he comes at the time you want and the day you want (on a buisness day) starting the next buisness day. And if you don't want a professional technician, no problem, Dell will send you the part, and a full service manual (you can really disassemble and reassemble your laptop entirely with it) online to help you out in changing a part. PLUS, any damage or even scratch done by a professional technician is covered by Dell.

Another thing you need to get, is a 64-bit OS. Such as Vista 64-bit.
You can ask the 64-bit disk for free from Dell just by asking.
First of all, a 64-bit OS has performance advantages, and of course allows you to run 64-bit applications, games, drivers and codecs. I found that using 64-bit codecs, allows you to have a reduce CPU load, and increase system battery life when playing movies. No miracles here, but you can (depends on the movie size, format, codec, etc...) 15min of battery life and possibly more (form my tests, nothing professional here). Secondly, you have 4GB of RAM. Your 32-bit Windows, like any other, will be able to use only ~3.1GB of RAM. The only way you can use 4GB of more, is to get a 64-bit Operating System.
I would get that, and install it at the same time you get your SSD.

 

I'm still having a problem - about 2-3 times a week.

1) Suddenly the vent goes crazy.
2) I check 'Task manager' to see 'winlogon.exe' causing 49-50% of CPU load
3) I lock the computer and unlock it.
4) Stop the vent with 'Fn' + 'Z'
5) Check the 'Task manager' to see 'winlogon.exe' causing a healty 00% of CPU load.

I have installed all the latest updates from Dell and WU. I'm using fingerprint to login and also pre-boot auth.

 

Did you try upgrading the BIOS to A14? I think it included some security-related changes.

John

 

Good config. I bought a system more or less than same but with 2.66ghz, 128 SSD, 6 cell battery, bluetooth, webcam for $900 after coupon and before the $99 in home service. I'm jealous of your 2.93 ghz processor though

 

The only thing I am nervous about with my new system once it arrives is the heat from the T series processor combined with the Nvidia GPU - If your 2.66 is the P series, you have a great processor from everything I've heard.

 

See my signature... I overclock my GPU like nuts, and I can play fine for several hours. I think heat is not a problem with this laptop.
Another thing is this laptop with the Nvidia GPU, uses some heat transfer pads to touch the metal base of the laptop, and use that as a heatsink as well.
The nice thing is that the palm rest and keyboard is in plastic and does not conduct heat well. And because the motherboard northbridge, CPU and GPU are put on reverse for easy access to the changeable CPU, but reduce palm rest and keyboard heat.

The fan doesn't ick in under battery, and does when lug-in (as it goes full power) but very low speed. You can barely hear it. In you case you might hear the 7200RPM HDD (which produces a fan like noise) more than the fan.

The fan kicks in when you start watching Flash videos like youtube, but does not for normal videos, (well it does after watching a lot of them in a row, but again it depends on the codec and video).
And of course, if you play games or do CAD the GPU will be warmer and the fan will kick in, but that is expected.

For such powerful machine that you will have, I must say this is a machine that I would classify as quiet... again, FOR the power provided.

 

What is the maximum multiplier of the T9800? 2.93GHz should be 11x, in which case read the undervolting guide. There's a strong possibility that you can safely get the voltages (except for the minimum) down from whatever Intel has preset. There's a good chance that you can take 10W off the maximum power (which is proportional to V squared).

That CPU has sufficient speed bump over my humble P8600 to make me jealous.

John

 

Hi

this may well be a trivial question, but how do you set the screen brightness to a fixed level? Currently, I have the brightness going back to maximum (when on ac) every time I turn the screen off (this didn't happen on my previous dell laptop, so I guess it should be possible to fix the brightness on the E6400 too).

thanks

 

Vista 64 kept crashing - it has never been really stable on any machine I've used, and the E6400 was starting to get really annoying; even though it is a very nice piece of hardware. I spent almost five hours going through the mess with a Dell engineer who was pretty helpful at least in getting the machine to boot again.

I had enough of V64.

So I put Windows 7 RC1 (7100) on the E6400 and despite maybe one or two questions in my mind as to whether I have all the right drivers installed, everything has been smooth as silk for two days - a huge improvement.