Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

Well the old HDD OS installation is pretty much redundant now, but I'll keep it for convenience just in case my SDD installation goes up - e.g. virus or major gaff of some other kind. I did consider wiping the HDD and copying my data back on as one wholesome partition, but for the time being I can't be bothered and it's doing no harm. If I run low on storage it can always be sacrificed at a later date. Like you say, if it ain't broke.....

 

Ok, I finally did it. I will soon be a new owner of an M6700 Covet. Sure wish I had found this forum before now. So much great info! It may have cut down on some of the frustration I've had comparing laptops.

I've spent a few hours now searching and reading the posts for the 6700 but, haven't been able to find an answer to a question I have...

I ordered with only one 750 GB 7200 rpm HD and am planning on installing an SSD after it arrives to hold the OS and program files. Can anyone tell me how hard or easy it will be to transfer the OS (Win7) to the new SSD and if there is anything else I should be aware of.

 

Without knowing more details of your current set up, for various reasons I follow many others in recommending a clean install of the OS, drivers, and software. As for the particular SSD, I strongly recommend the Samsung 840 Pro (as well as the Samsung 830 if you can find it from a reputable retailer).

tijo typed up a very helpful "Precision M6700 Clean Install Guide"

As tijo mentions and links, rcb.to.ca also has a very helpful "M6600 Reimaging Thread - Guide"

I took a much simpler and stripped down approach in part by following the instructions (relevant to the M6700 aka "4th Generation Mobile Precision system" according to the following guide, which seems to imply that my mobile Dell Precision M6300 is not a "Mobile Precision system", but whatever) found in the "Dell Re-Image How To Guide".

Here is a link to AnandTech's review of the Samsung 840 Pro (with updated links indicating and explaining that there are, allegedly and in my experience, no firmware problems/bugs in any 840 Pro retail units – if those updated links do not work, see my comment here).

Peace.

 

Transferring everything to the SSD is not a big deal if your SSD has room to hold everything. I use Acronis TrueImage for this sort of thing. Boot from the bootable media and use the clone disk option (no need to actually install TrueImage, the bootable media is downloadable separately). Your SSD might actually come with a tool for performing the copy. Otherwise you can do a fresh install on the SSD like Academic6xxx mentions.

 

Dell default OS is installed in 3rd partition. Doing clone on your SSD will be the exactly the same at 3rd partition, wasting some space. There is way to put it on 1st partition, but i found some other problems after using for sometimes. At the end I install fresh copy, solved all problems.

 

I prefer vanilla installs too. It means I know exactly what is going onto the machine and exactly how it is configured. It's not so bad with the Precisions, in terms of bloat, but I've seen abominable performance from machines which should fly, given the hardware, but are bogged down by garbage installed by the manufacturer.

I've read that modern OSs are SSD aware and fresh installation direct to the SSD will be optimised for that media. If you clone an HDD install to an SSD then I guess those optimisations will not be present.

 

I too prefer a fresh install, but since Precisions don't come with much junk, it may be easier to do a clone in this case.

Anyway, there are only a few things that need to be done to "optimize" for SSD. First is make sure that the partitions are properly aligned. They should only be created on 4KB boundaries. Windows 7 creates partitions on 1MB boundaries on *all* media so that will be fine. Modern cloning tools will make sure to follow this rule as well.

Second, the OS should support TRIM and issue TRIM commands to the drive if it supports it. Windows 7 does this as well.

Finally, some optimizations that help out for hard drives but not for SSDs should be turned off. Automatic defragmentation is the most obvious. Also, caching techniques like superfetch are no longer as useful.

None of this stuff requires a fresh install to kick in. Windows will notice if it is running on an SSD and behave accordingly.

 

Some of the Dell software is required to get the most out of the machine. You will only get sRGB on the IPS panel unless you run the PremierColor software. The touchpad software also helps with errant fingers accidentally clicking the pad when typing. The enhancement pack gives you many more power options like "quiet", "cool", "max battery life", and "ultra performance".

 

How cool is this thread? Thanks for all the responses and links to additional info!

Haven't made a choice yet on the SSD so, I'll definitely look at the Samsung 840 Pro.

Just cloning the disk sounds the easiest (not too concerned with a little wasted space) and I'm very familiar with Acronis Trueimage. Had to use it on my now dead (and reason for current purchase) XPS M-170 numerous times. It would just decide not to boot for some reason and a clone of the disk would fix it. Go figure.

 

Sure, I understand that some Dell software is required and I have both of the first two you mention installed. When I installed the FEP previously I seemed to create some sort of problem with the power profiles so I've left it out this time. As for video drivers, why not just get the originals from NVIDIA direct? That's what I've done. Ditto WiFi drivers and the Intel RAID stuff from Intel. Regarding Bluetooth, I have pretty much no need for it really and it works fine with native Win 8 drivers, so again no need for added bloat.

It's all about choice and I prefer to make my choices for myself, not have Dell (or anyone else) do it for me. I still don't need McAfee bloat at any price. I also want to keep my registry as pure as possible and not have the need to uninstall stuff I didn't ask for in the first place.