(WIP) Dell Latitude E6410 to Small-Form-Factor Desktop (Project L2D)

el01

King of Cable Management
Original poster
Jun 4, 2018
770
588
 

el01

King of Cable Management
Original poster
Jun 4, 2018
770
588
CONTEXT:
The Dell Latitude E6410 was a good business laptop for its time, but was severely hindered by battery life and thermals in its day. Coupled with the increasing intensity of modern workloads and the advent of Windows 10, the E6410 is essentially unusable as a laptop. My personal E6410 finally could not be used as a laptop after a screen hinge crack. Additionally, given the tendency to have fans spin up to 100% under normal load, it was deemed necessary to add a new (or improved) cooling solution. These reasons led me to start Project L2D.

GOALS/REQUIREMENTS:
  • Improve cooling of the processor
  • Improve aesthetic and "desk-appeal" (features such as a white frame [hopefully] and white LEDs to replace the blue ones.)
  • Must be fairly small and very durable
  • Must be designed for component accessibility by me and others.
  • Must have better cooling performance
  • Must be fairly quiet
  • Must use off-the-shelf hardware and fabrication materials.
  • Must be able to use original laptop monitor for diagnostics and dual-screen configurations
AGENDA:
  • Disassemble laptop
  • Do board changes for desired effect
  • Design and build chassis
  • Assemble chassis
  • Durability check
Updates will be posted roughly weekly.
For anyone wondering, Project L2D is still active, but will be stalled until the end of September (at least) due to my personal schedule. A full worklog should be available by then.
-el01