Opinions on Latitude e6510 issues

I'm thinking about getting a Latitude e6510 with the Core i5 cpu and the Nvidia NVS 3100M graphics card.

I've read reviews about some issues with the laptop like:
-Heat, noise, and throttling problems especially under load.
-Limited battery runtime.
-DVD drive is flimsy and opens up too easily.

Has anybody dealt with similar problems?

And would it be better to get the integrated graphics over the Nvidia NVS 3100M?

I've heard that the Nvidia card can generate significant heat and requires a lot of juice from the battery.

I want to use the laptop for office productivity, internet, but also some multimedia applications like video editing.

 

I will recommend you remove/reapply thermal compound. Please use guides that can be found online on how to do this. I would recommend IC7 Diamond, Shin-Etsu X23-7783D, or AS5 (Artic Silver 5).
That will fix the heat issues caused by a bad TIM job.

DVD drive isn't flimsy. It has only opened on me once, and that's when I dropped it.

* I am unsure on the battery run time. I am using a C2D E6500.

 

heat is minimal, well dispersed

under very heavy loads it doesn't get too too hot
and the cooling system works fantastic

noise is also minimal imo
fan runs alot yet quietly
price to pay for a high performance cpu

have had zero throttling probs

been using it 10+ hours a day for months now


dvd drive is not flimsy and doesn't open easily, or on its own
it 'seems' flimsy in the dvd housing area/bottom plate
but it isn't really, yanked on it and pressed a few times myself

i recommend going with the intel hd gfx onboard the cpu
i read many great reviews of it's performance before getting mine
and i am happy with the choice
it encodes video like butter and fast fast fast

plays movies great and alot of games too

all in all i highly rec the e6510

hope that helps

 

Deleted. Double post.

 

How does it handle video editing or editing software like Avid, Adobe, Sony Vegas?

And what kind of battery life do you get?

Wouldn't removing and reapplying the thermal compound invalidate the laptop's warranty?

 

Hmm probably not. You can ask Dell if you'd like. I work as at a computer repair shop, so they didn't care.

 

If you're planning on doing video editing, you'll want to get the discrete graphics option. The more powerful graphics card will come at the cost of more heat and less battery life, but Arctic Silver 5 really helps (my E6400 isn't much warmer than a system with Intel graphics and a P-series CPU). It won't void your warranty.

 

Does the GPU on the e6400 use a thermal pad or thermal grease? I thought it was a pad, as usual so I didn't reapply TIM.