M6500 for VMware + Visual Studio 2008/2010: A good idea?

@John: Thx for replying, I think I should negotiate with Dell sales.
@emil_bg: I need it especially for VMware, I do all my development in virtual machines.

What do you guys think about Super Talent UltraDrive GX MLC 256GB? A valuable choice? 260MB/s read, 200MB/s write.

 

Hello guys,

thx for your input. I opted for 2 x Samsung 256GB SSD, got a very nice discount from Dell

 

Hi nzf,

did you buy already new one? what is your latest decision? I believe your opinion is considerable for me. I also decided for SSD harddisk. but i dont know if there is another merchant rather than dell who is providing that in germany?
maybe in usa yes but i couldnt see any other in germany. if you also decided dell, could you please write all details here, then we can inspire from you )

PS, i havent got any experience with dell. is there any overheating , battery problems etc. i was going for hp envy 15 until i did some research and have seen that people experienced overheating problem.

thank you.

 

Hi emil,

I already ordered my M6500, for technical specs see below. HP and Lenovo offer mobile workstations too, but not sure if they can go beyond 8GB. I also like the fact, that M6500 has place for two SSDs or HDs. I ordered my with two 256GB SSDs and 16GB RAM. Dell's prices for SSDs are very high, so it's a good idea to negotiate with your sales person. I told to my sales guy, that I would like to buy everything from Dell, but I could get the both SSDs for 400€ less elsewhere. He then offered me a 400€ discount. Now the whole package costs me about 4,800€ (instead of 5,200€) incl. VAT.

Since this will be my first Dell Notebook, can't say much about overheating or battery problems. Ok, don't expect too much from the battery in such a powerhouse, 2 hours is probably the maximum. Got already three Dell desktop machines, never had any problems. A friend of mine owns a Dell Notebook, he's impressed by Dell's service (Notebook didn't boot any more, problem solved on the same day by a Dell service technician, replaced motherboard and processor). That's why I ordered the aditional 3Y service for IT.

Here is what I ordered (the 1.73GHz processor should be enough for my purposes, the additional >600€ for the 2.00GHz 920XM probably isn't worth it, since the 820QM speeds up to 3.06GHz when needed).

210-31620 Precision M6500 : Silver Base, Clarksfield, USB3
213-11097 Processor Clarksfield : One Intel Core i7-820QM(1.73GHz,8MB,Quad Core)
230-11206 Display : 17Zoll Silber Breitbild WUXGA (1920X1200) mit RGB LED LCD Display
214-10203 Handauflage : Keine kontaktlose Smart Card
214-10200 Handauflage : FIPS-zertifiziertes Fingerabdruck-Lesegerät
235-13804 Precision - GoFast SMB and CHN Discount
319-10393 Kamera : Integriert 2 Megapixel Kamera mit Mikrofon für Silber Basis
319-10387 Camera : Software for Integrated Camera (Only for standard Base )
320-11074 LCD Rückwand : Silber mit RGB LED
340-20318 Ressourcen-DVD : Mobile Precision M6500 Diagnoseprogramme und Treiber
340-20327 Lieferzubehör : Deutsch Setup- und Funktions-Dokumentation für Grafikkarte
340-15465 Documentation : German Shipping Docs
370-16495 Arbeitsspeicher : 16GB(4x4GB)1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
400-17734 Hard Drive : 256 GB Solid State Drive
401-11131 Additional Hard Drive : 256GB Solid State Drive
405-10850 Raid Controller : All SATA Hard Drives, NON-RAID for 2 Hard Drive
641-10011 Windows Live
429-13248 Optical Drive : 8X DVD+/-RW Drive Slot Load no software
429-13273 Optical Drive : PowerDVD 8.3 Software and Media included
429-12469 Optical Drive : Roxio Creator 10.3 Software and Media Included
450-12420 Netzteil+Netzkabel : Europäisch 210W Slim AC Adapter mit Europäisch Netzkabel
451-11196 Akku : Hauptakku 9 Zellen 90Wh für silbernes LCD Display
490-11814 Grafikkarte : 1 GB GDDR5 für ATI FirePro M7740 (mit 1GB dediziertem Speicher)
520-10748 Logitech Premium NBK Headset
555-12703 Wireless : Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth
555-12669 Wireless : EMEA Intel Pro Wireless 5300 (802.11 a/g/Draft-n 3X3) Minikarte
570-10539 Mäuse : Dell Bluetooth,Scrollmaus (5 Tasten Scrollrad) Schwarz Reisemaus
583-13300 Tastatur : Interne deutsche Qwertz Tastatur mit Hintergrundbeleuchtung
613-10806 Software Treiber : Mobile Precision M6500
619-19911 Operating System : German Genuine Windows 7 Professional (64Bit OS)
620-11940 OS Media : MUI Windows 7 Professional (64Bit OS) Resource DVD
650-13086 AntiVirus : Deutsch Trend Micro Internet Security 16.6(30 Tage Testversion)AntiVirus Software
691-10558 EMEA Order Ready Asset Label / Reporting / Anti Theft Service
888-10015 Bestandskennzeichnung - ProSupport (Website, Strichcode, Integrierte Mac-Adresse)
800-10889 Precision Order - Germany
709-10011 Base Warranty
709-10187 3Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day - Minimum Warranty
710-10205 3Yr ProSupport for IT and Next Business Day On-Site Service
712-10057 Declined CompleteCare

This should be fine for VMware and VS2008/VS2010. As soon as I get it (probably in about six weeks), I will post about my impressions. Stay tuned!

 

When doing software development, you can assume that multiple CPUs are used both for Server (re)starts and compilation. I am using a different technology stack, but expect your experience to be similar. I am currently owning (among others) a Quosmio X500, and am considering upgrading to the M6500 (I have had generally good experiences with Dell based machines in the past) because of the following reasons:

• The Q720 goes up only 1 step in turbo mode when all 4 cores are busy, which is typically the case in software development, while the others go up 2 steps. I.e., the 720 runs at 1.73 GHz, while the 820 runs at 2.0 GHz, and the 920 at 2.26 GHz under load.
• The Toshiba SSD has good read speeds, but the write speeds are poor, which causes e.g. JBoss AS to start slower from the SSD than from the Hitachi 7200rpm drive (5-10% slower). You need an SSD with a high random write speed for software development. You may want to use one larger SSD to store your OS and apps, and e.g. an Intel for your workspace and server.
• While the Quosmio takes 8GB, I want 16 because I run multiple OSes/ VMs as well, including W7 64 bit, W XP, Centos/RedHat5.4, Solaris.

You made some really good choices in your setup, but to get SSDs which are good for software development requires quite a bit of research, and because of the quickly changing hardware/firmware probably a bit of luck ... few of us have the means to go through a stack of them and run actual tests for comparison (but if anyone would do that, I for one would be salivating for the results )

 

Wow talk about over spec haha. I used to do 2 VM's and VS 2008 and PS CS4 on a 2.4GHz Core2duo 13in MacBook with 4GB or ram 320GB HDD. That's while running OSX, a VM with Windows and SQL server/vs2008/any tools I needed, and a OpenSolaris box in another VM.

Who ever you works for you must have a lot of spending moneys. LOL I know guys at Intel with machines that don't meet those specs.

 

cyberanto, thank you for your post. Hope the Samsung 256GB SSDs offered by Dell aren't that bad, especially after installing the most recent firmware with TRIM support, but we will see. I was looking for Intel SSDs, but the biggest Intel SSD offers only 160GB.

 

Ha ha... I'm self-employed, I do good work for my customers and they pay me good money for that

 

I need to hop on that bandwagon!

 

Going from the that T7400 the M6500 will be a step down in my opinion.
You are losing some major drive capacity and processing power.