Dell Business Class... Latitude, Precision?

Hello,
I currently had a Lenovo T400. Love it (first lenovo). I have also used consumer Dells in the past. I also have a Latitude D630 I am using at work.

I am thinking of a new business class laptop. I do some CPU intensive stat processing and use some very large datasets. SAS, State, R, etc. are programs that I use. I have done some updates to my lenovo.

My question: I like the feel of this D630 by Dell. Will I like the new Exxxx Latitudes as well? Or, perhaps a Precision 4600? Or should I stick with Lenovo (maybe a T520 or W520).

Thanks for any thoughts or guidance.

 

I love Dell's NBD service and that is why I only buy "Dellienware" products.

Anyways, there are two major differences between latitude and precision.
1. Graphics performance. Precisions are made to push the limits with graphics processing, while latitudes are made for general watching of HD contents, light intensive things. If you need graphics performance, precision is the way to go.

2. Design. This is of course more personal preference. Me, including many many Dell fans ABSOLUTELY HATE the new latitude design. We think it looks like a clam shell and the concept is just horrendous. Meanwhile, many others love the design and think it appears professional. Precisions and latitudes, in my opinion, have radically different designs for the current models. So unless you are not into appearances, you need to make this choice.

- Lastly, if you are getting a latitude, i recommend you upgrade to the NBD warranty. It is Mail-in service for basic warranty, i believe. Precision has this "workstation support" which is all AMERICAN, not North American, support. The wait time can be around 10 minutes in the busiest times, but the agents themselves are pretty knowledgeable and supportive. Very much more professional that those for the latitudes.

I think getting Prosupport could be a bit overdoing for the Precisions unless you absolutely dont care about the extra fee and need bare minimum wait time.

 

I bought a Precision recently - M6600. I do some development, and some data analysis. While I don't operate on large data sets (usually less than 50 million cells), I certainly appreciate the difference.

First of all, it's "similar" to the Dell D630, though it does "feel" better. It's distinctively a Dell, just as Thinkpad's (keyboard, etc) are distinctively Lenovo.

One consideration is that the Precision lines support up to 32GB memory (4 DIMMs). If you have a quad-core processor (but why wouldn't you?). Now, in practice, since 8GB laptop memory sticks are both very rare and extraordinarily pricey, I put 16GB in mine at the cost of < $250 aftermarket.

16GB of memory is quite useful in R, since it's constrained to memory. I actually hit 14GB (!!) at one point, in a test using Revolution R (x64 support).

If you do highly parallel statistics, than it might be worthwhile getting a Precision with a beefy graphics card so you can use CUDA. I know there's at least one package for R that uses CUDA (R+GPU) though I haven't tested it. But hey, it (well, CULA, which it uses) promises "dramatically improve the speed of linear algebra," which is awfully cool.

I'd very much recommend the Precision line. It's also, frankly, quite aesthetically pleasing (more so than the Latitudes) and very solid.

Edit: It does depend on your price range a bit. Precisions aren't cheap - mine came to ~$2,500 after tax/shipping, and I did some after-market upgrades after that. Of course, I'm planning on using it for 3-5 years, and for something I spend > 10 hours/day on - pretty low hourly cost.

Edit2: I was tempted to the M6600 in part so I could have two hard drives - one SSD, and one spinning disk for storage.

 

It's up to you. E series Latitudes are good, same with Precisions. I feel the newest line of Latitudes have retracted from the business class look, so I will stick with buying last generation Latitudes or ThinkPads as my job requirements don't warrant really more than a Core 2 Duo.

Unfortunately, Lenovo redesigned the palmrest/keyboard feel after _x00 series. I have a T410s and I prefer my older ThinkPads (Z61t, T60). They use a completely different material for the newer ones.

All depends on what you want to and what your budget is. One thing I say is buy what you need with what money you have. If you need a 17" mobile workstation, Lenovo does not offer it.

 

Thanks... I am still newbie with R, but am looking to use it more. The flexibility and transparency when compared to SAS, Stata, etc are more to my liking. How about the heft of the M6600?? Also, what sort of batt life are you getting?
Thanks!

 

optius enabled on my spec in the sig, i get about 6.5-7 hrs in non intensive word document will wireless just on but no browsing

 

I had to make a very similar decision and researched the E6520 and M6600 plus the M4600 until my head hurt.

Reasons I chose the M6600 are:

1) E6520 is not expandable or upgradeable. 8GB Ram max, SATA II controller not SATA III, poor GPU if you are using intensive graphics etc. No USB 3.0.

2) M4600 nice size if you travel but GPU options do not match the M6600 and I can't remember the other reasons I did not go for this.

3) Chose the M6600 because it is upgradeable to 32GB Ram with 4 slots, can change GPU from Nvidia Qaudro 3,000M or 4,000M to 5010M when it becomes more affordable. Two SATA III controllers for primary and secondary HDs, has USB 3.0, even has internal mSATA port.

The way I see it, the M6600 is very affordable especially if you select the lowest RAM option from Dell (make sure you have quad core CPU so you get the 4 slots) then purchase the 16 or 32 GB RAM elsewhere. You can do the same with the HD if you are adventurous but the savings are not as great as with the RAM. But really one of the great benefit with this laptop is the upgradeability something a lot of computers do not offer. I have not yet got my M6600 but I can't wait to fire it up for the first time and see what it is really like.

Added: The only downside I expect with the M6600 is the weight, and I travel frequently, but after having so many laptops that fall short of what I really need, I finally gave up wishing I could have the power and advantages of the M6600 in something as light and attractive as a Sony Vaio z series. This time I did not compromise, I know I need power, speed etc. so I went for the machine that can deliver that in the format I mentioned in point 3.

 

Using Optimus, with heavy web browsing/video/development/etc I get 3-4 hours. If I dial down usage to, say, writing in a Word document I can get ~ 6 hours.

The weight I don't find bad at all - the bigger problem is the size, which doesn't fit in most bags. Of course, that's true for any 17.3" laptop. I purchased a backpack, which I like quite a bit.

It's also pretty easy to pickup from any since the weight is evenly distributed. I do it one-handed routinely.

Edit: I assume you've already read Bokeh's epic review of the M6600? It really does give an excellent overview of the machine. I had absolutely no surprises because of that.

Edit2: Bokeh says, on battery life:

 

1) All Sandy Bridge can theoretically take 8 GB per DIMM, which can be had for under 400 USD for a 8 GB stick. Ebay link. I don't know if Dell limited the BIOS for it, that would be the biggest road block. I would hope not, as Lenovo's little 12.5" ultraportable does not restrict 16 GB in the BIOS. SATA 2 or 3 for most users makes no difference. And E6520 is a mainstream workhorse laptop. Most people who code or do office tasks don't need anything more than Intel HD 3000 Graphics. NVS4200M is overkill for their needs too. Again, USB 3.0 isn't needed in most situations.

You have to realize many corporations and government agencies who order E6520 in bulk even get fainthearted if the price goes up 25-30 dollars for XX upgrade, as they buy them in hundreds/thousands at a time.

2) M4600 isn't exactly a lightweight laptop. Sure the GPU options aren't as high as the M6600. They want to spur sales of the M6600, so of course they won't offer everything what is on the M6600 on the M4600. It's also always been like that. M6500 and M6400 had higher GPU options than M4500/M4400. Also there is more space to cool higher end GPU's in the M6600 vs the M4600, though I'm pretty sure it could handle cards like the 5010M.

3) AFAIK there aren't any 2 DIMM slot M6600 motherboards. My friend got his M6400 replaced with an M6600, which only had an i5. He swapped in a 2720QM and was able to use the last 2 DIMM slots for 16 GB RAM.

 

So, how tough is it to install RAM and HDD in this?

I see the mini-card SSD requires a secondary HDD. I am thinking of installing my own secondary.

I will also by a couple of 2x4 sets of sticks to get to 16GB RAM.

I may get the regular 128 SSD Sata3 and buy an HDD on my own. I plan to add my own RAM as well.

Thoughts?