Help needed: XPS17 or M6600 ??

Hey everyone,

I can use some input. I need to buy a new laptop for work and can please use your opinion as I'm on the fence between the M6600 and XPS17. My boss says it has to be a Dell and he likes the XPS series (cost) but I'm also looking at the M6600 (Precision build?).

I've owned a Latitude D830 for 4 years and she's had her share of problems.

I will be using the laptop for typical office apps, Oracle, some Illustrator. Will take it traveling on business trips every 3 weeks and split time between office and home/office when not traveling. Will play some games (not too intensive) and watch movies on it as well.

I got the Dell sale rep to come close to each other on price for the specs I want:

Both will have 2760QM, 8GB RAM, 17.3 FHD, 3 year NBD and similiar specs.
Main Differences:
6600 will have 750 GB HD, AMD FirePro M8900 2GB
XPS17 will have 1TB HD (2x500), NVIDIA 550M 1GB

If the 6600 cost $200 more, is it worth it?

Is the XPS 17 good to be used for business purposes?

Thanks for your advice.
Barry

 

If you do oracle, how and what kind of oracle? Do you need a lot of RAM (over 16GB?)

You might want to check out this thread and IT architect's posting in the xps forum on which one he should go for, xps 17 or m6600.

 

Absolutely worth it. I returned my XPS17 for an M6600.

1. The XPS17 sounds like a hair dryer.
2. The XPS17 only has 2 DIMM slots unless you get a GT555m and 3D.
3. The M6600 build quality is superior in every way.
4. With the M6600 you get to deal with US tech support.
5. The M6600 has a middle mouse button built into the track pad.
6. The M6600 has status LED's that are visible (Caps Lock etc.)
7. The M8900 is a far superior card when it comes to gaming.

Get the M6600, buy yourself an Intel SSD and slap 16GB of RAM into it.

Edit: If you get 8G of RAM make absolutely sure they give you 2 x 4GB and not 4 x 2GB.

 

I was in the same situation however in my case, I had a chance to use the XPS17 for a few days before it was returned.

For general use, the XPS had some benefits; nice speakers, cheap blu-ray, decent screen, decent keyboard/trackpad

Some drawbacks though was the video card (GT555 in my case), thin aluminum, USB3 issues (at the time anyway), and loud single fan.

When I had it:
XPS 17 3D Box Opening - YouTube

The m6600 improves on a number of XPS17s drawbacks but lacks great speakers (decent enough) and a cheap blu-ray solution.

 

I'd get any business laptop over consumer laptops, they aren't even comparable really. XPS has cheap build quality, and is meant for consumers who want a multimedia laptop. Your needs aren't too high end, have you considered like an E6520 or did you want the M6600 for the 17" DTR?

Also don't cross post, it is poor forum etiquette and against forum rules.