Comments Latitude C640 vs D610

I currently use an old workhorse Latitude C640 with P4 2GHz processor. It
has 524k cache and 1Gig memory. Due to a recent reassignment of one of my
staff members, I could assume use of his Latitude D610 with Pentium 4 M
processor also running at max 2GHz but with 2M cache. it has only 512M
memory, but I understand it is 533mhz bus. Otherwise the two systems are
very similar, 40Gig hard drives, combo DVD-CD-RW drive, docking stations,
wireless.

The Help Desk guys are encouraging me because they have seen too many of the
C640 overheat eventually and generate all manner of instability. I have one
of the few C640 that has not had any problems in three years of pretty hard
daily service. But of course the Help Desk guys are not responsible for
reloading all my applications (save the basic corporate standard
environment). It could take me a week to find all my legal license sources
for all my apps.

So, the $64,000 question: Will I realistically see performance improvement?
I run statistical analyses with Minitab, business and IT architecture
modeling and simulation with ProVision, MS Project Pro, and of course the
rest of office pro. Typically I have Outlook open, at least one office
product, three or four MSIE windows open with business apps like Windows
Project accelerator or sharepoint collaboration sites. Plus an untold
number of "corporate SMS services" to protect me from all manner of virus,
firewall attack, wireless VPN, marimba tuner stuff, etc.

I ask, because if I am not in for a noticable improvement, (we have a very
good corporate backup system to save all my data), I'll probably just pass
till a future melt down and then hope we are finally buying the dual core
Latitudes.

Thanks.
Jere

"JCMc" wrote in message
news:vLDUg.3731$1o.3007@trndny09...
I currently use an old workhorse Latitude C640 with P4 2GHz processor. It
has 524k cache and 1Gig memory. Due to a recent reassignment of one of my
staff members, I could assume use of his Latitude D610 with Pentium 4 M
processor also running at max 2GHz but with 2M cache. it has only 512M
memory, but I understand it is 533mhz bus. Otherwise the two systems are
very similar, 40Gig hard drives, combo DVD-CD-RW drive, docking stations,
wireless.

The Help Desk guys are encouraging me because they have seen too many of
the C640 overheat eventually and generate all manner of instability. I
have one of the few C640 that has not had any problems in three years of
pretty hard daily service. But of course the Help Desk guys are not
responsible for reloading all my applications (save the basic corporate
standard environment). It could take me a week to find all my legal
license sources for all my apps.


Apparently you're pretty pleased with the C640 or you'd have already bitten
on the D610. I assume this means that you're not seeing performance issues
with the C640.

Therefore, unless the I/T guys could pony up and bump you to a gig of RAM in
the D610, I'd keep what I had.

Why not wait for a newer/nicer system when the C640 gives up the ghost. D620
or better, perhaps.

jmo.

Stew

JCMc wrote:
I currently use an old workhorse Latitude C640 with P4 2GHz processor. It
has 524k cache and 1Gig memory. Due to a recent reassignment of one of my
staff members, I could assume use of his Latitude D610 with Pentium 4 M
processor also running at max 2GHz but with 2M cache. it has only 512M
memory, but I understand it is 533mhz bus. Otherwise the two systems are
very similar, 40Gig hard drives, combo DVD-CD-RW drive, docking stations,
wireless.

The Help Desk guys are encouraging me because they have seen too many of the
C640 overheat eventually and generate all manner of instability. I have one
of the few C640 that has not had any problems in three years of pretty hard
daily service. But of course the Help Desk guys are not responsible for
reloading all my applications (save the basic corporate standard
environment). It could take me a week to find all my legal license sources
for all my apps.

So, the $64,000 question: Will I realistically see performance improvement?

At best, it's a wash. Unless you get 1GB ram in the "future" computer.
In which case, you may see an improvement due to increased cache size.

PS: There are a couple things in the BIOS revision history that could
explain some heat issues. You might want to mention it to your Help
Desk. If your current BIOS revision is below A03, I would strongly
recommend a BIOS update. But if it's below a08, it'd encourage an
update anyway.

Floppy Version
http://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/C640_A10.exe

Revision history
http://ftp.us.dell.com/bios/C640_A10.TXT

In revision A08

"4. Fixed problem in which SMBIOS fails to notify Dell Open Manage
Client Instrumentation of system fan failures.
"
In short, if a fan dies, you'd never know, until too late.

in a04.
"
3. Optimized the thermal management algorithm.
"
Sounds like a good thing.

In A03

Issues Fixed:

"3. Fixed the issue in which throttling state is not properly
set/returned for Intel SpeedStep Applet.

Enhancements:
6. Enabled CPU throttling in Max Battery mode.
7. Updated the thermal table.
8. Changed fan start PWM.
"

CPU throttling is important for power and thermal management. The CPU
runs slower when it is under a light load. Reducing power and heat. It
wasn't working right. Laptop probably runs cooler on average after this
revision.

Enhancement #6 is self explanitory, #7 is vauge, but relates to heat
management in some way.

PWM requires a brief explaination: Pulse Width Modulation. It's a
method of controlling motors (or lights) using only on and off. The
longer in a certian time period (frequency) it is switched on, the
greater the duty cycle. IOW, the motor runs faster or the light
brighter. In the case of the fan, the faster it spins, the better
cooling it can provide. They didn't say which direction they changed
the PWM, but given thermal problems, probably it went upward.