Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

[ratdude747]

Scored some awesomeness on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/161378219943?

and to fix it:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281377029528?

That "mounted device" the seller speaks of is actually the lid side of the hinge ... common failure point on these. However, considering how insanely cheap I scored it ($179 shipped), even after nearly $50 in parts, No problem.

I bought this actually as a barebones in that I already have CPU (i7 3632QM), RAM (8GB DDR3), WIFI card (Intel 7260ac), and SSD (120gb Intel 520) for it... my lenovo p400 touch has been a turd and a half and it's main "feature" is such parts.

So, honestly, how did I do on this one? Comments or concerns

[senchire]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Damn that was a catch :S, awesome laptop for nearly nothing .

[Topcat]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

not a precision, so too much plastic for my liking............ The M6500 is the last one that had a 16:10 display....they all went to 16:9 thereafter....but they stayed 17".... 15"? too small. I didn't see the aspect ratio shown in the specs....but one of the biggest things that sells a laptop for me is case integrity and display size/resolution.... Good luck with it

[Compgeke]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

I hate big laptops so I would say good job. If it were an E6430 and a year ago I would've gone for it but only because I have to carry a laptop every day to school and the 14" ones are the perfect size.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

I hate big laptops so I would say good job.

I beg to differ... To me a proper, souped up hp dv9000 is still the best laptop in the world. But that's still a good catch.

[senchire]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Nah dv9000 is just nice, the plastic is crap to be honest :P. My favourite is the EliteBook series from hp.

[BigTroll]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Scored some awesomeness on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/161378219943?

and to fix it:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281377029528?

That "mounted device" the seller speaks of is actually the lid side of the hinge ... common failure point on these. However, considering how insanely cheap I scored it ($179 shipped), even after nearly $50 in parts, No problem.

I bought this actually as a barebones in that I already have CPU (i7 3632QM), RAM (8GB DDR3), WIFI card (Intel 7260ac), and SSD (120gb Intel 520) for it... my lenovo p400 touch has been a turd and a half and it's main "feature" is such parts.

So, honestly, how did I do on this one? Comments or concerns

Nice Score!

My best laptop (DELL XPS 15 2012) has a 3632QM it really flys and when not using the nvidia that HD4000 provides impressive battery life 22nm FTW!

[lti]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

If you can put a higher resolution display in it, it should be good. I would guess that the screen resolution is 1366x768. I don't think anyone made a 15.6" or smaller 16:9 display with a higher resolution back then.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

I attached the datasheet for the laptop. Lot's of answers to your questions there.

It's mag framed with a plastic belly. This is how The D600 and D800 were built... it's not too bad. Not as good as a mag frame/belly combo... but it still is pretty good.

The lid is at least partially aluminum...

There are two different LCD options... based on the seller's description it's the lower res of the two probably, but given that they didn't know about (or lied about) the busted hinge plate, them saying it was a "HD" display could mean either one.

I generally prefer 14" laptops for my main use... but this is OK too. I'm less of a fan of the 17" as they're heavy and bulky...

[Hondaman]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

So for $200 or less, you've got an i5 laptop? 4 Gigs of RAM? Nice. Sweet deal!

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

So for $200 or less, you've got an i5 laptop? 4 Gigs of RAM? Nice. Sweet deal!

$230 after parts to fix it (I have a ton of dell power cords)... but I'll pull the parts from another laptop I have to upgrade it... so minus a worn battery, it will kick ass.

edit- see attached "owner's manual" (more of a service manual!). Holy shit that's easy to work on... tons of access covers. Seriously, that will make my job uber easy... it's like a barebones.

Seriously, look at that...

[c_hegge]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Nice score!

[Pentium4]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Great score, those are nice laptops. Worth the effort to get it going

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

got it in... the dispay is just a plain old HD... damn it. usable at least. Anybody know of a cheap way to get a better panel?

Also, it acceped all my parts... no whitelist! Yay Dell!

Anybody know of a (preferably intel) AC (dual band, 867Mbs at least) wireless 3-antenna mini card... this laptop already has a separate BT card and as a result I have 2 BT radios and only 2 of 3 wifi antenna's used...

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

So far so good... got the new lid and hinges installed... I did have an antenna connector break though, so I had to reopen the lid to swap antenna assemblies. Damn poorly crimped POS... otherwise, the laptop seems pretty solid... runs great too.

[shovenose]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Good score, whatever you do, don't get Intel 7260 wireless they have AC and N version both are horrible both in terms of hardware and drives.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Good score, whatever you do, don't get Intel 7260 wireless they have AC and N version both are horrible both in terms of hardware and drives.

Umm, I already had the 7260AC in it (and also in my ASUS x83V), no issues. I know they don't play well with some laptops (BT disabled by default) but taping one of the PCIe contacts fixes it (other than the BT being always on). It's only two antenna though... and has redundant BT, hence why I'm looking for a different card.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Looks like AC is out of budget... I'm now thinking an intel 6300 is what the doctor ordered...

edit- found a used one for $21, ordered it. Not getting AC anytime soon anyway, and getting AC in 3 antennas is very pricy and hard to find, at least in a format that I can put in the laptop.

[ratdude747]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Thanks to having 2 extra mini-pcie slots, I grabbed this:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Mini-PCI-E-C...item3cd879416f

Now I can make my Logitech Unifying adapter internal... No hacks required!

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: Ratdude's new (to him) Dell Latitude E5530

Good use of that spare PCI-E. I would have still hacked into one of the internal USB ports for $0, but that's an elegant solution.