M6600 and M4600 are coming in Feb.

That's interesting (at least 4me): is there any confirmation source regarding such a caddy (and all the installation needs)?

 

Bump....

Anybody, please?

 

Try ordering via phone! The phone reps have a better configurator than the one you see on Dell's website. Plus chances are that it will be significantly cheaper.

 

Thanks, but I'd like to hear a confirmation that everyone else can see those limitations of the current configurator, and I'm not missing anything simple

If it's so, it could simply mean shortages of SSD minicard at the moment... The lack of another 7200 HDD is less important as one can always be added at a later time, and configured into RAID 0 with the primary one - without a need of reinstalling Windows. Provided the OS is set up on the (bootable) SSD mSATA!

 

Looks like the 6600 and 4600 are online on the US site as well.

 

@MoldCAD:
I just checked Dell's Polish online configurator and I guess you refer to the RAID warning popup when selecting the mini card SSD.
I can (almost) assure you that this has nothing to do with SSD shortage (which might still occur independently from the configurator issue). Well over a year ago when I ordered my M6500 there were also some problems with the configurator which had nothing to do with actual availability. So I called Dell and configured my laptop via phone and e-mail. The guy on the other side (who was Polish btw) told me that the online configurator is just a very poor piece of software with some stupid and unnecessary dependencies.

I also think you overestimate the pre-installed mini card SSD thing. There's no Dell magic in it. It's an ordinary mSATA SSD so you can install one on your own whenever you like.
I installed one in my M6500 about two months ago and my system runs fine from it since then.

 

Dammn, now I'm completely lost. Trying to decide between the M6600 and M18x. The Precision has a better screen option + anti glare, it's lighter and thinner. The AW has a far superior sound system (Klipsch 5+1), 2 headphone jacks, 5 programmable macro keys, more connectivity options, better performance +OC and very decent battery life.
Decisions.........

 

M17x R3 would be better comparison --- M18x is better built, but it's huge.

I'm leaning M6600 because of anti glare screen. Reading a lot of problems with 17x R3.

 

Well, for me it's the M18x vs M6600. I don't really care about the size and weight. The anti glare screen is a strong PRO, but I also need a good sound system. Plus, for the price of a base M6600 you can get a M18x with 2x6970Ms.

 

So right now I've boiled down a long list of new laptop options to the M4600 and Lenovo's W520.

Since the configurator is online for the Dells, I specced out a system that winds up being about $800 more than an almost identically specced W520, including in-person tech support for 3 years. The only major difference is that I selected the IPS monitor for the M4600, while the W520 doesn't offer anything in that class.

If anyone else has researched both systems, are there any key differences that could account for the price difference beyond the M4600 having, at least on paper, a much better monitor and a dedicated HDMI port?

Has anyone gotten a quote from a chat or phone agent? If so, was it significantly less than using the configurator? I've never ordered a workstation class system before, so I'm not sure how to best play the pricing game.