Precision M6500 - PA-7E vs PA-9E PSU?

Hello,

I've finally ordered an M6500, placing and old M1710 Gen2 laptop.

I need to order the E-Port Plus and additional power supplies, and eBay seems to be the cheapest place to get these, even OEM ones.

I see that the E-Port Plus offered for the M6500 from Dell's site shows it comes with a 210W PSU, while the system comes with a 210W/240W switchable PSU (or that's what it says). What's the difference?

I see both 210W and 240W PSU's on eBay. Which to buy? I believe these are the PA-7E and PA-9E respectively.

 

I am using the PA-7E family 210W~ PSU.
Difference between the two is the specification of the laptop.

I am using an i7-620m dual core, with the FX2800m (75w).

While other M6500 may be using the Quadro FX 3800m (100w) and an i7 quad@ 45w hence the difference in power. The difference of 35w is the reason they require the PA-9E 240w PSU.

So base your decision on the specifications.

 

That makes sense, but why does the AC adapter coming with my system say "switchable 210W/240W"? I don't see this adapter anywhere on the Dell Parts site or even eBay.

They also don't offer an E-Dock Plus with a 240W adapter.

 

What is the model number you have? Also keep in mind the 240w PSU is also a 210W psu, a 150w PSU, 50w PSU, and anything between perhaps 10w-240w What does it mean to be a 240w PSU? It means it's rating is the peak power output, so it can output 240w if the laptop requires it but if the laptop only requires 120w, it can do that as well. It does this by varying the amperage.
In power supplies amperage can vary (and thus wattage as well) depending how much power the system needs. The only constant is the voltage, which is incredibly important to match the DC input of the laptop and DC output of the PSU. Wattage is determined by Voltage*Amperage=W.

So for example the PA-7E has a rating of 19.5v@ 10.80a for max power rating.
19.5v X 10.80a= 210.6w.
But it can also do as low as .5a-10.80a (theoretically it can do .0a, but that's because it's off in actual real life scenarios it will always consume some power when plugged in, usually in the 1w-5w range. The minimum while it's "on" is typically 10w because efficiency is horribly affected by low wattage pulls- not that it matters because you will never only take 10w with the m6500)

I think by "switchable" they may mean switchable AC connection, meaning it has an autosense feature to know when it's plugged into a 110v-240v AC plug in and to utilize a proper conversion system to get the desired 19.5 DC voltage. Just about every laptop PSU should come equipped with this.

Hope that answers your question. While the PSU you have if indeed is 240w, it can also be called a 210w if one were so inclined to.

Just to be safe, post some pictures.

 

Well the system will be here Wednesday. It's an M6500 with an Intel Core i7 Quad.

I completely understand peak wattage and current draw electronics. I was mostly wondering why there are different models, and why the dock comes with the 210W, according to the Dell site.

I guess I'll just have to see what it comes with and try the different ones.

 

I seem to remember that someone tried using lower power adaptors on the M6500... I want to say a 120 watt. They said that they got a low power warning, but that the notebook worked, it just wouldn't charge. This was buried somewhere in the giant M6500 thread, though.

Edit - Aha, found it here. Bokeh says it'll run slowly off a 90 watt power supply.

 

I have Precision M6500 (configuration in my description) and I'm using 210W PSU and from time to time I'm noticing some throttling problems in COD:BO. Soon I will get the 240W version and hopefuly throttling will be gone ...