Thoughts on an Outlet e6410?

I think I've narrowed my search down to the e6410 and I'm looking at the outlet to save some cash. What do you think of this build for $591 (after 20% coupon)?

Intel Core i5-520M Processor
Genuine Windows 7 Professional
320 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz (1 DIMMs)
8X DVD +/- RW Drive
ntel HD Graphics with ExpressCard
14.1 inch UltraSharp WXGA+ (1440x900) LED Display
Intel WiFi Link 6200 802.11a/g/n Half Mini Card
NO INTEL VPRO TECHNOLOGY ADV MGMT FEATURES
90W AC Adapter
Palmrest with contact-less smart card reader
125V Power Cord
Software Upgrade 64BIT Operating System
Internal Modem
Web Camera - No Camera
Slate Silver
6 Cell Primary Battery, 60W

It hits most of the targets I had. Primarily it will be used for basic home and office productivity tasks and giving presentations. Some typical multimedia apps as well. Not any real heavy gaming. I'd put battery life pretty high up on the list.

Given all of that...any other options you'd look for? Dedicated GPU?

Thanks!

 

No that's a good price for ~600. If you don't do any serious rendering then the Intel HD graphics will suit you fine. Might want to see if there's a 9 cell battery available if you battery life is a prime concern for you.

 

That's excellent value. The i5-520M CPU is not the fastest but is plenty fast enough for most people. 4GB RAM in one stick leaves the option open to add more without having to take out existing RAM.

I see no need for a dedicated GPU. See my E6410 review for a good indication of how your configuration will perform. If you need more battery life then consider buying a separate 9 cell on ebay to use when you need extra battery time. First see whether the 6 cell runs long enough (potentially up to 6 hours depending on usage and how much power your CPU leaks under light load).

John

 

Thanks for the review. It was very helpful. I did notice that your temp readings were about 10 degrees hotter (on the bottom) than the ones in Kevin Obrien's review of the e6410 with the NVIDIA GPU. Is that to be expected?

If you had to prioritize which of the following components to upgrade, how would you list them?

-Processor
-RAM
-Hard Drive (capacity, speed)

I take it that an upgrade to a SSD would give a pretty good ROI, but not sure if I'd do that now at purchase or as a later upgrade on my own.

Thanks again.

 

1. Regarding temperatures, I can't offer any good explanation. However, two thoughts: (i) Perhaps the fan is more active if there's an Nvidia GPU on board; or (ii) Kevin had a more power efficient (and hence cooler) CPU. I've not been impressed by my i5-540M's ability to leak power, but what you get is pot luck. They all just about meet Intel's broad power ratings.

2. For upgrades, the SSD is what gives the most noticeable boost to everyday usability. Check your RAM usage in Task Manager to see whether it is approaching the limit. I went to 8GB because I have a GIS program which is a very heavy RAM user for certain tasks and was struggling with 4GB. Hindsight suggests I should have tried 6GB because 8GB takes a long time to hibernate and resume. (One of these days I'll do a module swap with my E4300 so each will end up with 6GB.) It''s not worthwhile doing a CPU upgrade unless you can make at least a couple of steps up the ladder at an attractive price.

John

 

It really depends on what you are doing.

1) The only real CPU upgrade is going to the dual core i7 which is only faster out of the box speeds, higher turbo speeds, and 1 MB more cache. Generally not worth the upgrade. Unfortunately you cannot go to the quad core i7 because you have integrated graphics. If you had the Quadro graphics you could theoretically go all the way up to the 940XM

2) Minus 32 bit OS and hibernate/resume, it NEVER hurts having more RAM. I went with base 1 GB RAM to 8 GB (duh it made a huge difference especially with integrated graphics). Also nice to see RAM usage at like 15%.

3) Again the hard drive debate really boils down to what do you use your notebook for. If you constantly transfer large files, by all means get an SSD or a 7200 rpm HDD. I decided to go for the MomentusXT 500 GB over an SSD for my E6410 as it is a work laptop and I really can't deal with only 30 GB of free space, and no I want my ODD vs the HDD in a tray.