Looking at new laptop, 6400 vs 4300, and GPU

I've been looking at laptops recently because I had a liquid scare w/ my current. I've been looking at the e6400 and e4300 alot at the outlet, they seem to be good machines for a good price.
Is there any downside to the e4300? I like the fact that its a whole pound lighter. I can get the same spec'd e4300 for aboug $50 more. It looks to just be a smaller clone of the e6400.
What about the GPU in the e6400? I've read alot of overheating issues, but I'm afraid to not have the power. I don't play games, I watch movies occasionally and I plan on using an external monitor in the future. Would I be able to do that w/o the nvidia gpu?

I noticed they come w/ a 3 year warrenty...do the provide mail in, or would it be worth it to pay for on site?

 

You should not need the dedicated GPU to use external monitors or for movies. And, while some units have overheating issues, this is not shared among most of the E6400 line. The main difference between the smaller E4300 and the E6400 is one is much smaller and lighter.

The mail-in option is alright, but if you can afford to pay for on-site, I see no reason why not. Also, remember when buying from the outlet the actual quality of the individual units will vary a lot.

 

Well, I mean downside really depends on what you're looking for. If you want a 13-inch screen, the 14-inch screen of the E6400 would be a downside. If you want the discrete graphics of the E6400, the IGP of the E4300 would be a downside.

Ultimately the entire E-Series is like smaller and smaller versions of each other. Going from the E6500 to the E6400, you don't lose much. Going from the E6400 to the E4300, you start losing ports and options. Going from the E4300 to the E4200, you finally lose that optical drive, etc.

But that's really a tangent. The E6400 and E4300 can be configured very similarly; if you don't need the extra processing or graphics power, it really just comes down to how big you want your laptop to be.

 

I love my E4300. I purchase and distribute E6400's to my end users, and they are great machines as well, I just prefer the smaller, lighter machine. I don't notice any performance differences in running VM's, web surfing, email etc. All of our laptops have the Intel graphics card after we literally got 'burned' by a bad batch of Nvidia GPU's in our D630s.

 

Are you sure? I just had my motherboard and heatsink replaced, and the overheating persists...

 

Read my response in the E6400 owner's lounge. Your replacement isn't overheating (yet) anyway.

 

Read my response to your response (heheh). It is too early to tell (it is overheating now, but to draw full conclusions I should wait a few days).

 

I ordered an E4300 but returned it in favor of an E6400. These are the reasons I gave for my decision in a different thread before I had received the E6400.

E6400 Pros
-Higher resolution (WXGA+)
-battery is flush with back (the E4300 6 cell battery sticks out beyond the back of the laptop, which I don't like)
-less expensive (if I get the 20% coupon to work on the E6400 it would be about $180 less than my 20% of E4300, and I'm a college student, so this is significant amount)
-more powerful (the E6400 I hope to get has 2.66GHz processor while the E4300 has a 2.4GHz, although this isn't a big deal really, just another perk)
-has modular bay so I can put a TravelLite module or secondary hard drive
-Has ExpressCard 54 slot (I really want to be able to use a MoGo mouse)
-The E6400 has a latch so it actually closes, while the E4300 just shuts
-I also think the E6400 has a slightly larger keyboard and I have very large hands

E6400 Cons
Shorter battery life, but as long as I get over 4 hours I'm happy
larger and heavier, but still light enough for me to easily carry on a daily basis


My E6400 arrived yesterday and I can tell you that I made, without a doubt, the right decision. Unfortunately, I no longer have the E4300 so I can't compare them directly, but I will give you my updated impressions.
-The E6400 is solid. This thing feels really tough and durable (while still maintaining the professional but elegant look that it shares with the E4300). My E4300 (I say my because it is possible that mine was defective) had a screen that was a. slightly concave resulting in only the edges touching the base when shut and b. not glued or attached completely so dust could get between the bezel and the screen and the connection between the bezel and the top of the case creaked when moved.
-The E6400 battery is not flush with the back. It is flush with the hinges, which stick out a little bit beyond the back. This is a little disappointing, but is not nearly as bad as the E4300 and still looks very nice.
-The bezel bumps out on the E4300 to accommodate a webcam, even if no webcam is installed. The bezel of the E6400 is completely rectangular so no part stick out beyond the rest of the computer, which feels much better and will probably hold up better through frequent traveling.

That's all I can think of now, but all of the original pros and cons I mentioned still apply after using the E6400. If you don't need over 6 hours of battery life and don't mind a little more weight, I would heavily recommend the E6400. The pros far outweigh the cons, at least for me.

 

According to a thread here, you can get 9 hours of battery life on a E6500. I would bet you could get as much on the E6400! That should definitely change your con!

 

Yeah but that is with extreme cuts. If you did the same on the E4300 you could probably get over 12 hours.