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

dezoris, I'm not going to replace my T7400. When I'm in the office, I will continue to work with my T7400. But I can't take the T7400 to my customer's site, that's where the M6500 fits in. Cheers!

 

I think you'll be fine!

I have a Covet M6500 with the i7-920 Extreme, 8GB of RAM and only 1 Samsung 128GB SSD (and a 640GB Seagate), and Visual Studio 2008 opens very quickly (literally 1 to 1.5 seconds) and builds fast.

I also have no trouble running a Win2003 Server (as a Domain Controller), and 2 WinXP client VMs on a dedicated VMNet while Visual Studio is open for coding/local builds. I do a little client-server development, and I couldn't dream of having a mini-network inside my dev machine 4 years ago... remember the days of "Ghost" on a dedicated test systems? I still have a kernel debugging box, but it now has a layer of dust on the firewire cable!

I will mention that since I have the three VMs on a single drive (the Seagate 640GB), even this system will grind to a crawl if I mistakenly open all the VM snapshots at the same time. I think RAID would help for this case, but I need the capacity. And if I open each VM one-after-another, they all open very quickly, so no worries.

Enjoy your setup!

 

I've run all that plus SQL Management Studio on the system in my sig. I think you'll be just fine!

 

Nzf / All,

I too am looking to purchase a Dell M6500 for use as a mobile lab supporting various VMs (Vmware Workstation) running simultaneously. I was about to make the purchase but noticed your thread and use of the SSD drives. From what I’ve read, it ‘seems’ as though VMs run (at least start?) much quicker on SSD drives vs the current 7500rmp drives. Is the starting of VMs the noticeable difference with VMs or overall an increase in performance beyond starting the systems?

I plan on using 64-Bit Windows 7 as the host operating system with various operating systems running as VMs. I also test Smart Cards but have traditionally used a PCMCIA smart card reader but noticed this unit can be configured with a contactless smart card reader as well as a FIPS certified fingerprint reader.

Questions:

1. Have you used the smart card reader? Thoughts?
2. If configured with (2) Non-RAID 256GB SSDs are you able to add a third HD (non-SSD)? It seems as though I’m unable to do that on Dell’s website and I’ll chat with a sales representative but thought I’d pass it by you as well.
3. General performance and thoughts of VMs running on SSD drives.
4. Have you installed Windows 2008 R2 using Hyper-V on the host system? Issues with Hyper-V? I noticed some have had issues but hotfixes ‘may’ have solved their issues.
5. Are you able to disable the contactless Smart Card Reader in the BIOS?
6. I’m assuming you can add a traditional PCMCIA smart card reader – correct?

Specifications I’m considering as follows:

• Intel® Core™ i7-920XM Extreme Edition 2.00GHz 8MB
16.0GB, DDR3-1333Mhz SDRAM, 4 DIMMS
• 256GB SSD Non-RAID
• 256GB SSD Non-RAID
• 1.0GB NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 3800M Graphics

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi rlabbe,

Sorry, no smart card reader here.

The M6500 is a "big" 17" notebook, but it has its limits. There is no place for a third internal hard drive. But it supports USB3, so you could attach a fast external USB 3.0 drive.

I have Win7 x64 as host and multiple VMs, some of them running Win7 x64, some running XP SP3. Everything is really fast, I run Visual Studio 2010 in a Win7 x64 VM and if I wouldn't know that it's a VM, I wouldn't notice. It just flies. I have a copy of this VM on my desktop workstation Precision T7400 (32GB RAM, 4 x SAS 15,000 RPM, Dual Xeon 3.2GHz) and VS2010 starts here fast (5 seconds, from click on VS icon to seeing the start page, Bitlocker enabled). But on the M6500 it starts even faster (about 3 seconds, Bitlocker enabled too). So all in all the M6500 is really a beast and it has been a pleasure for me to use it in the last days!

Sorry, no experiences with Windows Server 2008.

Can't tell since I have no smart card reader. USB 3.0 or fingerprint reader e.g. can be enabled/disabled (and everything else too), so I guess if a smart card reader is there, it probably can be enabled or disabled via BIOS.

Afaik, yes!

With M6500 you probably can't do anything wrong. And I strongly recommend the optional RGB LED screen, colors are really brilliant.

 

I forgot to mention, that I run Win7 x64 with Aero enabled in VMware. It works just fine, I don't notice any differences to the host environment. Animations are smooth, AeroPeek works perfectly. On my T7400 that's not the case, but this is probably due to the graphics adapter. The M6500 is equiped with an ATI FirePro M7750, the T7400 has a NVIDIA Quadro FX 1700, I plan to replace this one by a new RADEON based graphics adapter for a better performance.

 

Windows Experience Index: T7400
Processor: 7,7
Memory (RAM): 7,7
Graphics: 4,6 (really need a replacement for this one
Gaming graphics: 5,9
Primary hard disk: 5,9

Windows Experience Index: M6500
Processor: 7,0
Memory (RAM): 7,4
Graphics: 6,0
Gaming graphics: 6,0
Primary hard disk: 6,4

 

Nzf,

I appreciate the prompt and thorough response. I’ve been speaking with Dell representatives via e-mail to ensure I have a thorough understanding of the hardware, limitations and capabilities. I’m excited about the purchase and rely on Dell as well as users in the field who actually have the system such as you.

We are looking to purchase the M6500 Covet using the 17" UltraSharp™ WideScreen WUXGA RGB LED Edge2Edge Covet Display. Is this the display you are referring to? The unit now ships with a 1.0GB NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 3800M Graphics, so we’ll have to do some research on this one as I believe you are using ATI.

At this time, one can configure the M6500 with (3) hard drives but the Dell online configuration system only allows (3) HDs if you select RAID such as RAID 0. Additionally, the three HDs selections are as follows:

1. 64GB Solid State Minicard Drive – Primary Drive
1. 500GB 7200rpm Hard Drive with FFS – Secondary Drive
1. 500GB 7200rpm Hard Drive with FFS – Third Drive

I asked Dell if we could reconfigure the system upon arrival with a reload of the OS and disabling of RAID in the BIOS so we could use all three drive total capacity of approximately 1064GB. My usage of VMware usually causes me to run out of either memory or hard drive space so we are looking to configure the system with 16GB of memory and maximize the space.

So, are you able to disable RAID in the BIOS and configure the system with (3) disks as we plan? I realize you have two 256GB SSDs – correct? I asked Dell for specifics on the 64GB SSD Minicard drive and am awaiting their response.

I appreciate your time.

 

Hi,

I got the "17in Widescreen WUXGA (1920x1200) Antireflex Silver with RGB-LED-LCD-Panel". AFAIK the Edge2Edge TrueLife screen is very reflective, it reflects everything behind it. This might be great for multimedia but not for office or development! So I would recommend you to go for the Antireflex RGB LED (silver version).

Right, I forgot the minicard drive since I'm not using it (for now). So yes, we can have even three drives.

Yes, you can enable or disable RAID in BIOS as you need it (and everything else too).

Good luck!

 

nzf,

Thanks. The available screens for the M6500 are as follows:

WUXGA RGBLED Display Options

17" Wide Screen WUXGA RGBLED LCD Panel w/ integrated camera and mic [add $330.00]

17" Wide Screen WUXGA RGBLED LCD Panel w/ microphone [add $300.00]

WUXGA Display Options

17" Wide Screen WUXGA LCD Panel w/ integrated camera and microphone [add $190.00]

17" Wide Screen WUXGA LCD Panel w/ microphone [add $160.00]

WXGA+ Display Options

17" Wide Screen WXGA+ LCD Panel w/ integrated camera and microphone [add $30.00]

17" Wide Screen WXGA+ LCD Panel w/ microphone [Included in Price]

I won't be using it for multimedia so which screen type do you suggest? Would it be the 17" Wide Screen WUXGA RGBLED LCD with or w/o mic and camera?

I appreciate the heads-up on the screen.