Trying to decide between E6400 and T400...

yea this really bugs me. they changed my entire palmrest because the stupid rubber bumpers came off. however, looking at the revision number of the palmrest, it seems to be a minor revision update to my original one, and from a different OEM.

hopefully the bumpers on this one stay on better.

i assume the E6400 would have similar minor revisions too.

 

Thank you all for your input. I've heard conflicting remarks on the noise level that the E6400 operates at. Since I'm mainly interested in the intel gpu (for battery and heat reason), could I reasonably expect a quiet and cool notebook?

Is the Nvidia GPU a power hog and does it produce alot of heat?

Thanks.

 

You need to be in a quiet room in order to hear the fan. Slow speed is almost inaudible but the fast speed is more noticeable. However, it is a loud purr and not a whine. Some people have had problems with HDD noise, particularly for the 7200rpm HDDs.

John

 

i would say, having used both the 7,200rpm drives that dell provides, that the seagate drive is an absolutely annoying. The samsung drive is much much quieter.

 

Buying a refurb would mean that I could have a chance of getting either drive, or even a earlier generation of the E6400 right?

 

i think you're likely to get the seagate. i dont know anyone recently who has got the samsung. anyway hard drives are so cheap now, just buy one and convert the installed hard drive to an external one where u can keep the media files you dont use often on, or as a backup drive

 

i actually bought both and had them next together for a day or two. In terms of built quality, both seemed they can last a long time. Dell was more style

the main reason i chose the t400 was the switchable graphics. I am an architecture student and so i need a dedicated graphics card for 3d stuff but i also have to go to lectures and type notes, away from an outlet for some time. With dell you cant have the best of both worlds. sure you can simple get the dedicated graphics and just get a bigger battery but i dislike the extra weight.

 

Yep,- switchable graphics is a killer advantage of thinkpads over the current dell offerings. it is the one reason I switched from Dell after 15 years. It works as well as it sounds. I use the integrated gpu always, unless there is a specific need of gpu grunt. saves power, heat, reduces noise from fans. awesome.

 

The best solution is SLI motherboard, where a low powered Nvidia solution is used, and when you do demanding things, without anything you notice the second more power GPU turn on and works together and provide more performance.

Anyway,

You have to see battery life of the Lenovo. If it's less then switchable GPU is not that great. As if teh Dell provide several hours more, then the Nvidia solution will dimish that a bit, and end up have more battery life, or the same of the Lenovo, and have all a full GPU in your system all the time.
Heat is no issue for the Dell Latitude E6400.. heck I even overclock like crazy the GPU.

 

Depends on what you are looking for. I wanted a silent and instantaneous computing experience, with no concern for comparative battery life or anything else. I use mains power 95% of the time. I wanted to combine a laptop with good thermal design, a fast cpu, a recent SSD, and switchable gpu. I chose a W500. Mission accomplished.