• Tag Archives Dell

  • Digital Archaeology: Dell Latitude E5500

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The Latitude line has traditionally been Dell’s business line of laptops with the Inspiron line targeted towards the home market. Though they are cosmetically different, they often share a lot of the same hardware internally. The Latitude E5500, or at least this one, features a Core 2 Duo T7250 CPU @ 2 GHz and Intel Mobile 4 Series Chipset Integrated Graphics. Hightlights include:

    • CPU: Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2 GHz
    • Memory: 4 GB DDR2 @ 800 MHz
    • Graphics: Intel Grahics Media Accelerator (GMA) 4500MHD
    • Screen: 15.4″ @ 1280×800

    More a more complete hardware inventory, check out the output of HardInfo.


    Like most laptop models, this one was available in a wide variety of configurations though they all would have had a Core 2 Duo variant of some kind. At the time it was released, this would have been a midrange configuration and it probably shipped with 2 GB of RAM and was upgraded later to 4 GB. This brings up perhaps the biggest limitation of this laptop (and chipset for that matter). While it has a 64-bit CPU, it is still restricted to a maximum of 4 GB of RAM. This takes away one of the biggest advantages of a 64-bit system….the ability to use more that 4 GB of RAM.

    The fact that this laptop uses an integrated Intel graphics solution rules it out for gaming, at least for games that were coming out at the time this laptop was relevant. Of course, the Latitude line was primarily targeted towards corporate use so for the most part such capabilities wouldn’t have been needed.



    However, in my opinion at least, the Latitudes of this era hold up better than the Inspirons in terms of styling. This model is pretty simple with its plain matte black look in heavy duty plastic. It’s nothing special but it still looks reasonably nice and holds up better physically over time than Inspirons of the same era.

    There seems to have been a couple of different keyboard designs. One includes a trackpoint and the extra mouse buttons to go with it while the other only includes a trackpad. Mine only has the trackpad but I prefer that anyway. One nice thing about this laptop is the variety of ports it has. There are four USB ports, firewire, headphone, mic, S-Video, VGA, Ethernet, PCMCIA and even a serial port. It still has an optical drive as well.

    As far as contemporary use, I think Windows 10 has become too much of a memory hog over the years with subsequent updates to really be reasonable to use with only 4 GB. However, it’s probably still tolerable if you were to replace the hard drive with an SSD. It works somewhat better with Linux though as long as you don’t go too crazy with opening tons of browser tabs. The 2 GHz Core 2 Duo processor is really still plenty fast enough for any typical office tasks and basic web browsing. And if you wanted to play older games (meaning a few years older than the year this laptop was released) then it is certainly capable of that too.

    Whenever I have this laptop turned on, it is of course running BOINC and participating in various projects. Having a 64-bit processor and running Linux, it can do work for all of the projects I participate in including Einstein@home, Milkyway@home, World Community Grid, Rosetta@home, Universe@home and Asteroids@home. You can see how it is doing overall at FreeDC.


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  • Digital Archaeology: Dell Latitude D610

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The Dell Latitude D610 is a Pentium M based laptop that was a slight upgrade to the D600. While looking nearly identical, there are enough internal physical differences to make swapping parts like the motherboard, LCD, Keyboard, etc. between the two impractical. You can see the specifics on the D600 here.

    Some improvements over the D610 had over the D600 were a sturdier chassis thanks to a more solid frame, moving from the 855 chipset to a 915 based chipset, DDR2 RAM vs. DDR, and faster processor and graphics options.

    This particular D610 seems to be one of the lower end version in that it is using the integrated Intel graphics version of the motherboard as opposed to having a discrete card and only has a 1024×768 display as opposed to the 1400×1050 display that was also available. Specs include:

    • CPU: Pentium M 740 @ 1.73 GHz
    • Graphics/Chipset: Intel 915GM
    • Memory: 1 GB DDR2 533MHz
    • Display: 14.1″ @ 1024×768
    • Hard Drive: Hitachi DK23FA-6 60 GB Ultra-ATA 10 4200 RPM
    • Optical Drive: Phillips CDRW/DVD SCB5265
    • Ethernet: NetXtreme BCM5751 Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express
    • Wi-Fi: BCM4318 AirForce 54g 802.11a/b/g PCI Express Tranceiver
    • Modem: 82801FB (ICH6 Family) AC’97 Modem Controller

    For more detailed specs, see the output of Hardinfo here.

    There were two basic variants of the Pentium M. The first, code named Banias, featured a 130nm process and 1MB of cache. The second, code named Dothan, feauted an 90nm process and 2MB of cache. Both variants came in various speeds and had processors that ran on a 400 MT/s bus and 533 MT/s bus. The Pentium M 740 in this laptop is a “Dothan” variant, runs at 1.73 GHz with a 533 MT/s bus. The extra cache and faster bus really makes a difference in how snappy they feel.

    The Intel 915GM chipset includes PCI Express capability, support for DDR2, support for a 533 MHz FSB and updated Intel graphics. Unfortunately, this chipset supports a max of only 2 GB of RAM.

    This laptop is somewhat upgradeable. The most immediately useful upgrade would probably be to max out the RAM at 2 GB. The processor could also be upgraded. The fastest Pentium M, the 780 @ 2.27 GHz will work but may run a bit warm. It’s probably safer to stick with the 21 watt processors (vs. 27 watt) in which case it could be upgrade as far as the Pentium M 760 @ 2 GHz (or Pentium M 765 @ 2.1 GHz but this one runs at a slower bus speed). An SSD or even just a faster mechanical hard drive would probably make a pretty big difference in speed as well. At the end of the day, the chipset limitation of 2 GB of RAM is probably the most significant limitation.

    This laptop was designed with Windows XP in mind and that is probably still the best version of Windows for this machine. It could probably run Windows 7 32-bit but I’m not sure it would be worth the effort. If you want a more modern OS, then Debian seems to work fine and Debian is perhaps the only major Linux distribution still doing 32-bit releases. Debian is working reasonably well even with only 1 GB of RAM but probably not for much more than basic office tasks and very light web browsing.

    Like all of the computers that pass through my hands (at least the ones that are capable), I run BOINC on this laptop. Of the projects I participate in, this machine has gotten work units for Einstein@home and MilkyWay@home. It has also gotten tasks from World Community Grid but that project has been down for a while now. Many projects don’t support 32-bit CPUs these days. You can also check out its BOINC stats on BOINCStats or Free-DC.


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  • Digital Archaeology: Dell Latitude D531

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    The Dell Latitude D531 is an AMD based laptop. The Latitude was Dell’s business line of computers. Recently, they’ve changed their naming schemes to be much more generic as if to obfuscate things. The vast majority, even at this time, were Intel based. However, the D531 was released as a budget model.

    Basic stats include:

    • CPU: AMD Turion
    • RAM: 3 GB
    • Video:
    • Screen: 1280×800

    For more complete specs, check out the output from HardInfo.

    AMD based laptops at the time tended to be lower end units. The reason being that AMD processors were slower than their contemporary Intel counterparts and less power efficient. The advantage in this case is that you got a bargain priced machine with the build quality of a typical Latitude. Whereas many AMD based laptops might have crappy keyboards, lower quality displays or flimsy chassis, that was not the case here.

    In addition, despite the AMD options being slower, this wasn’t necessarily noticeable if the machine was being used for basic office tasks, which many Latitude’s probably would be. However, the extra battery life of a Core 2 Duo based machine would be an advantage if you were often using your laptop for extended periods disconnected from an AC outlet.

    There’s not a significant amount of upgrade potential with this laptop. There are faster AMD processors that would work in it but it wouldn’t make a huge difference. The current 3GB of RAM can be upgraded to a maximum of 4GB. Like most older laptops, upgrading to an SSD would probably be one of the best upgrades you could do. The fact that at least 8 GB of RAM is not supported is always disappointing in a 64-bit system.

    Though this laptop can technically run Windows 10, it won’t perform very well especially given the maximum limit of 4 GB of RAM. Windows XP should be lightning fast on this machine and Windows 7 should run reasonably well. Linux will run OK as well. It’s really modern web browsing that suffers the most on older hardware like this. Currently, I’m running Xubuntu on this machine.

    Like all machines I use, this one has BOINC installed and crunches various tasks when it is on. It is still capably of crunching tasks for all of the projects I normally participate in including Einstein@home, Milkyway@home, Asteroids@home, Universe@home, Rosetta@home, and World Community Grid. You can see how it is doing overall at FreeDC.


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