eatheror wrote:Anyone know if this supports the Dell e-dock? I already have one with an aging Core 2 Duo system so this is a tempting upgrade if it does.

Thanks in advance!

Unfortunately it does not. I had to toss my old e-dock when I got this because the connection is different. I have a new one that is great. I think that they still call it an e-dock though.

skelly328 wrote:Unfortunately it does not. I had to toss my old e-dock when I got this because the connection is different. I have a new one that is great. I think that they still call it an e-dock though.

Or was it a d dock that I had? Maybe I spoke too soon.

I've been trying to get rid of a new lower-end E6420 (i3, 250GB HDD, but 8gb total ram) and had trouble finding any takers even at $400ish. Is the faster processor and SSD really enough to make it worth so much more?

thebigragu wrote:haha very funny.. i hope you are joking, thats why they outsource it to other countries and will bounce you back and fourth from rep to rep.. also unless you insist, if you buy something new from them and it breaks they will want to replace it with something used which matters to me, i buy things new and not used or refurbished for a reason when i do... i used to like dell...

For the record, new has a better chance of dying than refurbished in my opinion (that being David of Computer Support@Home's opinion), as the refurbs have had known issues taken care of by swapping the defective parts our for something that works, whereas the new product may very well wind up needing to be refurbished anyways. I'm not saying refurb is better than new, but I'm also not saying that new is better than refurb...and refurb is much cheaper.

A question so that I can confirm ... am I correct in that this will _not_ work with the older D style docking stations (which I have 3 of).

Would be all over this deal if I could use one of my existing docking stations. So I would like to know that I am passing on this correctly or not

alukan wrote:A question so that I can confirm ... am I correct in that this will _not_ work with the older D style docking stations (which I have 3 of).

Would be all over this deal if I could use one of my existing docking stations. So I would like to know that I am passing on this correctly or not

It WILL NOT work with the older D series docking stations. They stopped making the D series laptops years ago. You won't find any new laptops that work with the old docks.

I buy both these and the 6520's as standard issue for our office and they are great machine. A step up from the 6510 I was buying.

thebigragu wrote:Im done with dell, my last for computers ive bought from them and the quality of their laptops and customer service have both decreased... im looking into getting a new laptop right now, im thinking toshiba i guess...

I bought a $3000 XPS Laptop from dell as a gaming rig for my wife. It lasted only 3 years before overheating the battery and the vid card. Video card became obsolete after 3 years yet Dell wanted 800 bucks just to put in a refurbished vid card of the same model. I told them to shove it. Dell is notorious for crappy heat management and I had tried to keep this thing alive after the first battery died by getting the FanGUIGold program. It was specifically written for dell laptops to control the fans for heat mangement. Never buying a dell again. I bought a really nice Samsung i7 laptop (17 inch) that only weighs 4 lbs from MS Store for $1000 and got a free Xbox 360 4GB with it. Stay away from this laptop.

Here is an equivalent Laptop at 20 bucks more without the dell problems... and $200 gift certificate. http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msstore/pd/Acer-Aspire-S3-951-6464/productID.237488800/vip.true

CelticWonder wrote:Inconceivable!

I do not think that word means what you think it means... Inigo Montoya

We have 400 of these in students and faculty's hands where I work. Overall they are solid except for ONE thing:

If this laptop ever gets dropped, it is likely that the screen will go black and not come back on.

The problem is Dell used a CRAPPY connector on the back of the screen - if it comes out even a little then you have to take it apart. Oh yeah, and it's taped down by the factory and this doesn't help. Luckily the screen is simple to take apart, just pop the bezel off with your fingers, and take the 6 screws out holding the screen into the lid. Then you can flip the screen down towards you and re-seat the cable going into the back of the panel.

It is amazing to me how little price matters to some people. They are more than happy to over pay by several hundred dollars such as for this laptop. I am writing this on an MSI with the same specs as the laptop for sale. I bought it 2 years ago,brand new for $450 at Office Depot. I guess if you post it, Wooters will buy it. If yall have that much extra money I would to be happy to relieve you of it.

pintomp3 wrote:It WILL NOT work with the older D series docking stations. They stopped making the D series laptops years ago. You won't find any new laptops that work with the old docks.

Double confirmation, the E series dock connector is much smaller.

pintomp3 wrote:It WILL NOT work with the older D series docking stations. They stopped making the D series laptops years ago. You won't find any new laptops that work with the old docks.

Thanks ... guess I should go look to see what a cheap e docking station goes for.

I use an E6400 daily and have for the last 2.5 years. I have also used an E6410, but not the 6420. In my experience all the Dell Latitude series are very rugged. While I preferred the ergonomics and construction of the D series, of which I have used just about every model and iteration (D400, D410, D600, D630, D810, D830, Precision M4300, M6300), the E series is very well made also. I love the screen on mine, it is very bright and sharp. The battery life with the 9 cell is amazing as is the power management. My only gripes would be that it runs quite hot and the fan noise on mine is significant. I have had quite a bit of experience recently with Lenovo and HP pro grade laptops as well and I still prefer Dell for their service experience and reliability, and ease of use, of their hardware. Just my 5 cents (adjusted for inflation). Oh, and all the E series share the E series docking stations which is also convenient.

If I needed this size laptop for my personal use right now, I would for sure be in for one. For new with a 3 year business warranty and 256 SSD this is a great deal.

wiley1woot wrote:What??? No USB 3.0? It should have at least one for that price.

My exact thoughts!

We use these at work and yes they will work with the E-series dock, which are now referred to as port replicators.

jseureau wrote:Dell's Customer Support is second to none! I love those guys

Totally agree! Having dealt with HP, Dell and Lenovo support this year, Dell is by far the best! Give credit where credit is due!

As much as I dislike moving parts in my storage, I still think SSDs are in the "early technology" stage and don't trust them in computers.

Seems like a nice lappy, but only upgradeable to 8GB... I think I'd prefer it without the SSD. This same unit with a 750GB HDD and $200 cheaper, I'd buy. But this hard drive and RAM would get ate up quick doing any decent audio/video editing sessions. But for someone wanting a basic email/web/papers and spreadsheets kind of machine, this would be beautiful.

psm321 wrote:I've been trying to get rid of a new lower-end E6420 (i3, 250GB HDD, but 8gb total ram) and had trouble finding any takers even at $400ish. Is the faster processor and SSD really enough to make it worth so much more?

Probably because you can get an i5 with 500GB HDD for that price. Take it down to about $250 and you might find some buyers.

I have the E6410 (model before this) and it is silent (unless it's not getting proper ventilation and the fan has to go on high).

Duukdkarn wrote:I bought a $3000 XPS Laptop from dell as a gaming rig for my wife. It lasted only 3 years before overheating the battery and the vid card.

Sorry your wife lasted only three years before overheating.

Just kidding.

But there is sure a "user gap" generational thing -which is fine and normal- that I see when I read this. $3,000 for a gaming machine? My old DOS-era brain cells are shocked. And (sexist comment not intended) happy so see that not only males are very serious gamers. Traditionally, years ago, only guys got heavily involved in tech..so the change is welcome.

If this has a 3 year business warranty, this is a fantastic deal.

I work for a large healthcare company and Dell is our technology provider. When we have an issue with Dell hardware, we simply use the support chat feature on Dell.com. For issues that require replacement parts that we can do (HDDs, optical drives, etc), they ship the parts and they usually arrive in a day or 2. For parts they have to replace or troubleshoot (mobo, RAM, PSU, etc) a technician is there that week.

To sum it all up, I totally agree with the other commenters here.. the business warranty through Dell rocks.

Just wanted to jump in and say that despite what the haters are saying, this is a great deal for *this* laptop. Yes, you can get plastic laptops for much cheaper with the same internals, but there are several things that make this laptop special. Where I work, we currently have the D630 (on the way out), E6500, E6420, and several Lenovo models - T410, T400s (slim), and T420s (slim). We also have some various Mac laptops and desktops and Dell Optiplex desktops.

Pros:
1. This laptop is built *solid*. It's not quite thinkpad solid, but way more solid than the E6500 or D630.
2. This laptop, like all the ones we issue, has a trackpoint / nub. Beats the snot out of a mouse or a touchpad.
3. It works with the E6500 docks / port replicators, but *NOT* the D-series (D630) docks.
4. Dell *Business* support is out-freaking-standing. We don't have many Lenovos, because when we started buying them direct from Lenovo, and they started breaking, it took them WEEKS to get us a replacement, even though their Depot is in NC and we're in SC. Total turnaround for a Dell, from here to TX, is less than a week. I know first-hand that Dell / India consumer support *SUCKS*, but business *ROCKS*. Two separate entities.
5. Discrete graphics? Meh. The graphics card in the last-gen Intel Sandy Bridge Pentium/i3/i5/i7 (like this laptop) is actually really good. It's essentially its own core. And having this running on the same chip instead of on it's own separate chip gives you some significant power savings. This is *NOT* the same as an integrated Intel graphics chip on the motherboard like in older laptops. This runs from the CPU and is *MUCH* better, though admittedly not as powerful as a discrete chip.

Cons:
1. This laptop is CHUNKY. It's way thicker than the comparable T410, or at least it feels that way. The bezel around the screen is also pretty fat.
2. While the build quality is good, again, it doesn't quite measure up to a Thinkpad, but again, it's a bit cheaper than comparable thinkpads.
3. Did I mention this laptop is heavy? That ties in with Chunky as well. Dadgum it's heavy!
4. I'm currently on the older E6500, but I'm pretty sure that the touchpad is comparable, i.e. it SUCKS. It's small and doesn't even come close to a Mac touchpad (duh), but at least it has a Nub.
5. Oh wait, the nub isn't as great as a Thinkpad nub. It seems to wander after you let go a bit more often than on my personal X220. Maybe it's just me. But hey, at least it's a nub.
6. Good grief this laptop is freaking heavy! I'm spoiled by the slim thinkpads and my personal X220, though. But you ARE going to get better airflow through this and it should stay cooler and quieter than the others for gaming.

Hope that helps.

gtmaster303 wrote:SSD is a great feature, but it's not worth the cost of this notebook.
An i5 setup can be had for A LOT less than this, sans the SSD. Sub $500 if you look around.

Sorry, but the performance gain is not worth an extra $300. You're better off putting that $$$ towards a graphics card, more ram, better processor, etc. And with $300 you can very nearly upgrade all of those.

Just curious - have you used a computer with SSD? I have on my work laptop for 2 years and now I wish I hadn't cheaped out on my personal laptop.

Buy at your own risk. My company switched away from Dell because the E-series has had so many issues. The E6420 may have fixed that issue but we switched before deploying more than 20 of them. I know we have still had a bunch of the E6420s in for repair. Customer support also took a huge dive in the last few years and we were paying for gold support.

I have one of these. When open, they look like the fake appliance props that furniture stores use.

My previous Dell lasted 4 1/2 years with no problems and is still going strong. I recently got a new Dell (just because I wanted an update). The only problem I had is that it came with a small, barely noticeable, pinhole sized bump on the screen. I called Dell, and they immediately, no questions asked, sent a technician to my house and replaced the screen. And they added a service contract to my computer free of charge. Dell rocks!

I'm typing from this same laptop, right now. I have had this machine for about a year now. The hardware is amazing, it keeps itself very cool even when gaming.

I've fallen in love with the backlit keyboard with a bit of rubberized texture to them; which makes typing in the dark all so easy.

The external VGA connection sucks. I'm not sure how it is connected to the internal card, but it is very chunky with the latest driver. The built in screen isn't the best for coloration but it does seem to utilize the built in video card just fine as I game from it quite often.

Battery life is incredibly long. I travel frequently and this gets me through to movies on the plane plus airport terminal surfing. I really love this laptop.

The laptop is light for as powerful as it is. I haven't met anything it can't handle. I don't have a SSD but that is a major plus! My usage is photoshop, moderate gaming and largely a work machine (email, data transfer, internet, etc.).

not at all comparable to other pre-fab laptops in its price range. The i5 dual core is no better than an i3 and actually performs at a lower rate. you can get a Dell Inspiron 15R for roughly 499 right from Dell and it has the same computing power with a slightly better GPU. The small SSD does no one any good nowadays with flash drives pushing 128gb. you can get over a TB of HDD for a little over $65 with a external. All-in-all this is not a very good deal

gtmaster303 wrote:SSD is a great feature, but it's not worth the cost of this notebook.
An i5 setup can be had for A LOT less than this, sans the SSD. Sub $500 if you look around.

Sorry, but the performance gain is not worth an extra $300. You're better off putting that $$$ towards a graphics card, more ram, better processor, etc. And with $300 you can very nearly upgrade all of those.

I completely agree. I have an ASUS that murders these specs, minus the SSD. I got it for $750 on sale. 17 inch screen, 1 gig dedicated graphics card, icore 7, 8 gigs of ram.

I thought the second gen i5 chips where quad core?

I have one of these for work with the 128GB SSD. Mine has a Samsung 830 in it, which is actually a pretty quick SSD. Review: http://techreport.com/articles.x/22401

Hellga wrote:This is the first time I've seen someone use "discrete" correctly (as opposed to using it in place of "discreet") in well over a year. Thank you for restoring my hope for humanity.

Thank you for educating me a bit. When I took a course on Discrete Mathematics a few years ago, I wondered what it had to do with anything...wait for it...DISCREET! Your post prompted me to look it up and learn of a new (to me) homophone.

I'm also a stickler about things like this, but I guess nobody knows everything, no matter how hard they try.

This is actually the first time I've ever been on the receiving end of, essentially, "Hey stupid, learn your primary language!" It gives me pause about continuing to act that way...

Still, the bit of education was appreciated.

Hoser768 wrote:X2.

I agree! Had mine for about 6 months. Very happy with it.

Spec-wise, this is a nice computer. However, if you are going to use the built-in trackpad, forget about it. Get an external mouse and disable it -- yeah, it's that bad.

beatmix01 wrote:Strange, same model number over at Tiger Direct and it says it comes with Windows 7 Pro.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1990178&SRCCODE=GOOGLEBASE&cm_mmc_o=VRqCjC7BBTkwCjCECjCE

I wish it did come with Win 7PRO. I'm seriously considering it but would have to upgrade to use it for work. Anybody know how much it would cost to upgrade?

Also, I'm a fan of business Care support from Dell. I have had good experience with them. Wasn't aware there were different tiers for support, but it makes sense.

I own this laptop and I really like it. I paid a bit over $1000 for it. The solid state drive make start-up really fast. Just be aware that if you have a lot of data, music, video or programs it's not a lot of hard drive space. Not an issue for my work machine, but it may be for a home computer.

za1u5 wrote:would definitely not get the E6X00 or E6x10 models.

I've never seen the E6500 in person, but we have 25 oil field mechanics using E6510s. I love that laptop...

We also have five E6520s. Those are also very nice, but I personally prefer the look of an E6510.

bradleylarsen wrote:There's plenty of x32 systems being sold out there. Woot tends to get the models on their way out so it's very pertinent.

Last month I got slammed with buying a Windows 7 x32 system (brand new from Zones.com) ... didn't even think to ask. I've noticed since how many are still "out there".

funny cause one of the ways you can sort on that site is by the operating system and it says right there 32 or 64bit, so you must be blind, and further more that site does not offer the best deals on laptops so not only are you blind but you are not very bright either