M6600 and M4600 are coming in Feb.

I could buy a fact that Intel is manipulating manufacturers to use low-res since integrated graphics don't perform as good. But why Nvidia. They lost chipset market, they are struggling with over performing AMD on high end and now low end discrete graphics will soon be obsolete. AMD on the other side puts money in graphics performance in their new APU, so they should both stimulate high-res displays if they want they business strive (or even survive).

For me M6600 with 17.3 FHD is not worth it. I'd get larger laptop than my current 17" Rock, less desktop, Quadro OpenGL is useless for new Autodesk 3D software. The good thing is lots of RAM options, but good CPU's are now available in lots of other laptops.

 

Dell's 15.6" Latitude E5520, E6510 & E6520 have FHD displays (although not by default). (BTW, I agree with you that a 17.3" not running at FHD makes no sense.)

You can currently spec out a Latitude E6520 with:

- i7-2720QM (2.20GHz, 6M cache)
- 8.0GB, DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
- 128GB SSD
- Modular 320GB 7200 HDD
- 15.6" UltraSharp™ FHD(1920x1080)LED
- nVidia 4200M 512MB DDR3 Graphics Card

The 4600's processor (i7-2820QM, 8MB L3 Cache?), memory (4 dimms?) and graphic card specs should be better than these... closer to (but probably not as good) as what you can currently find in the Clevo P151HM1 or the ASUS VX7-A1... both 15.6"

Still waiting on the specs for HP's EliteBook 8560W, kinda like we are here.

 

It's not even that, manufacturers are cutting costs as 16:9 screens are cheap to manufacturer. The Intel platform FF doesn't make sense because there are still 16:10 Intel based laptops (Apple).

They should have kept 16:10 but the latest Elitebooks and W720 indicate the irreversible trend of 16:9 and it has hit one of the last niche market; 17" mobile workstations.

 

I don't understand how a 16:10 screen wouldn't fit in a 17,3" when it fits in a 17,0" chassis. That would only make sense if the depth of the chassis is shortened.

But looking at the pictures taken from the new m6600 you can see that quite some space above and below the screen is wasted. So it looks like the chassis depth is roughly the same and just the framing above and below the screen has become thicker to fit the smaller display height. Make the frame thinner again and you will have enough space to insert a 16:10 display again.

 

Well Apple doesn't "make" any laptops. In fact no company these days actually makes computers, they are up to ODMs. So wouldn't it be up to the ODM?

 

Non-Apple OEMs tend to follow Intel's PFF which then results in the ODMs building machines/parts to Intel's PFF spec.

Since Apple marches to the beat of their own drummer and has their own PFF, they determine their own spec for ODMs for which to build out.

In the end, ODMs build what they're told and for which they are paid.

 

Hi:

First time post and I'm a bit of a newb:

Anyway, I'm working on getting a new CAD station set up and trying to decide what the best route is. The trick - of course - is that I would like to be able to work at home as well as at the office, and I also travel for work a fair bit, so having something portable would be nice.

My travelling out of the office is to the same place, so I guess technically I could build up two desktops (or maybe three including one at home), but the other choice would be to get a kick @$$ laptop, and these new Dell models seem to fit the bill (plus, we can lease them from the office).

Mostly I use Solidworks, so I don't think I need a Quadro 5000 or 6000 or anything crazy like that.

Anyway, your post piqued my interest because I currently DO have a U2711 27-inch Monitor at the office and if I was to purchase a new M4600 / M6600 I would obviously want to use it with that monitor. I would also like to use it with a second (or even third) monitor as well: this could be the laptop itself (1920 x 1080) and I also have a 20" regular format monitor at 1600x1200.

So, I'm assuming that the Quadro 2000M would have the power to do this - correct? My understanding is that Solidworks is more CPU than GPU intensive so I wouldn't worry about getting a faster video card, but I would like to stack the processor (i.e. at the price / performance sweet spot) and obviously get as much ram (though people are saying to do this aftermarket for the cost savings) as reasonable as well.

I'm thinking that the M4600 would be the machine to get here? I can easily purchase a second monitor and keyboard for when I'm working at home or on the road as well (as I'm at the same client site).

Any one have more ship date information on these computers (I keep hearing end of March and I guess we're there now!). What about pricing? I'm sure a fully loaded M4600 is going to cost a pretty penny (this is what I would be considering if the processor / ram options are similar to the M6600), with ram being a big component of that. I'd also like an SSD if possible too.

Any opinions on where to start? Thanks!

 

A quick search came up empty.

It seems that all the websites with preliminary coverage of these laptops state the Quadro 1000m/2000m options come with GDDR5, however, the NVidia website as well as the Lenovo W520 seem to suggest crippled (128bit) DDR3.
Can anyone comment/clarify this for me?

 

Cool - thanks for the info. The remote desktop option is a good idea, but not from Asia to North America!!!

I guess at the end off the day, I'll have to see what price these come in at and try and build up the most cost effective / highest performance notebook. Definitely processor speed, ram and a fast HDD (SSD!) are the way to go - i just wonder if I'm going to get killed cost wise to do this and next thing I know, I have a $6-8K notebook!

But, as i mentioned, most important would be the ability to drive my U2711 monitor fully accelerated along with at least the notebooks display. I'm guessing that shouldn't be a problem with a M4600 with a quadro 2000 mobile card?

 

I'm driving my U2711 monitor with a 2-year old Quadro FX 2700m (512K) in my M6400. Both the NVIDIA Quadro 1000M & 2000M in the M4600 should be able to support two monitors.

I regularly RDP over VPN from both HCMC and Taipei to Delaware ... no problem. Depends on your location & connection speed in Asia.

If your really need the maximum 'mobile' power possible, check out the Clevo X7200's... you can put a desktop i7-990X Extreme Edition into these. You'll need a strong back (or some minions) to carry it for you.

You can configure a nice X7200 with:
[ i7-990X EE (desktop CPU) |17.3" FHD 16:9 | Dual nVIDIA GTX 470Ms | optional Dual or Triple External Display Adapters | and up to four drives]
... for $4000 USD.

I'm going lighter myself... a maxed out 15.3" M4600 or Clevo P151HM1. One of my concerns for the 4600 is what type of SSD's will Dell offer? There's a wide performance range amongst SSD's