New E6400 Owner - Like it!

Hi All -

I posted a few times in other threads and received a lot of good advice on which laptop to buy. This led me to the e6400 which I ordered from the outlet.

Received it over the weekend and got it up and running. Though not as stylishly groundbreaking as some, it has a nice sleek, cool look. It is a business laptop afterall. I will agree with others on the speakers, pretty poor, even for a business laptop. But, other features are nice.... backlit keyboard, screen, keyboard layout/size. Battery life is great with just the 6 cell!

Currently running XP Professional, but will look to upgrade to Vista Business soon. Any tips on doing this upgrade? Looks like it will be a clean install. This system came amazingly clear of any kind of extra software, which is nice. So after running the Vista install, go to Dell site for drivers? Load other Dell supplied apps? Run MS Update....

Thanks for those that helped, specifically "allfiredup".

Looks like this laptop will continue to grow on me as I use it more. No gimmicks just good form and function.

Mike

 

Glad to hear you're enjoying your new E6400! I'm absolutely loving mine as well (it it replaced my dv2000t), and I also got mine from the outlet.

On my laptop, I actually did a clean install of Vista Business on a new hard drive (I picked up a hitachi 320 gb for about 50 about all the rebates). I would first get all the drivers and software from Dell's site before you reformat though, as the drivers online are more up to date than those found on the Resource cd. But after that, its pretty straightforward: install Vista, install your drivers, and then make sure Windows is up to date. I installed Avira 9, Office 2007, tweaked the system a bit, and now its good to go.

 

Actually it is not so straightforward, there is a recommended installation order for the drivers. I didn't follow it and have had no issues, but you should follow it nonetheless. It is a link accessible on the right side of the driver page.

 

I intend to get a larger HDD as well since this only came with an 80Gb.

Silly question, how do I go about installing vista, etc on the new drive? Do I do it before I install the HDD somehow? Or, do I install the drive then boot from a CD/DVD?

 

If you want a fresh install, then you need to put in your new hard drive first, and then use the Dell supplied OS disc to boot the system.

If you want to upgrade your existing XP installation to Vista, then you can do the upgrade first on your existing hard drive, and then copy that drive onto the new drive via a number of programs. I use Acronis for that, together with an external USB drive to hold the image of the existing drive.

 

Yes. But first decide whether you want to use IRRT, AHCI or ATA HDD mode, since changing that later will probably cause a BSOD. AHCI is probably the best choice now that Intel matrix Storage 8.8 has fixed the latency problems (you need to get it direct from the Intel site).

John

 

Thanks. I'll have to do some investigation on those different choices.

 

How is the screen? I know it has LED right? How bright is it?

 

I have the WXGA+ . The screen is nice. Not glossy, which makes it more useful in a variety of lighting conditions. It can ramp up to being very bright. But, with the ambient light sensor, and smartly placed screen brightness controls, it is easy to have a well balanced backlight.

All in all, I'm really liking this machine. Hard to believe the deal from the outlet.

 

Thanks for the reply. You really tempt me to get one.