M6600 and M4600 are coming in Feb.

At the hardware level, there is very little difference between workstation cards and consumer cards -- you have the same architectures and often the same specifications. The difference comes mainly from drivers and certification for various professional applications. Here are the specs:

FirePro M5950:
480 stream processors
725/725/900 MHz Core/Shader/Memory
1GB GDDR5 128-bit bus (so 57.6 GB/s memory bandwidth)

Quadro 1000M
96 shaders
Clock speeds not published but we can derive that memory is at 900MHz
2GB DDR3 128-bit bus; 28.8 GB/s memory bandwidth

Quadro 2000M
192 shaders
Clock speeds not published but we can derive that memory is at 900MHz
2GB DDR3 128-bit bus; 28.8 GB/s memory bandwidth

The Quadro cards are almost identical except that the 2000M has twice as many shaders. Keep in mind that an Nvidia shader ("CUDA core") is more powerful than an AMD stream processor -- it used to be by about a factor of 5, but it's significantly less than that with newer cards. In any case, the 1000M is clearly the weakest of the lot: it lacks both processing power and memory bandwidth.

The other two are trickier. The 2000M would be similar to a GTX 460M, but they crippled it with that pitiful 128-bit DDR3 bus. Thus, it will prevail in situations where the limiting factor is shader power, but lose to the M5950 when memory bandwidth is important. Note that if you want to play games at 1920x1080, you will need memory bandwidth. If you want to use professional applications, it will depend on the application (look at reviews of your particular program).

 

Please do tell. In particular, I am curious what the numbers are for the M5950 because you said that there is no equivalent of Optimus for the AMD card (I can make a reasonable guess for the Quadros).

 

An outrage!!! The price in Canada is more than 1000$ higher (M6600) than in the US! No Precision for me...

 

Perfect, that does clear things up for me. Thanks a lot for the patient explanation. I'm someone that takes every precaution to remain warranty compliant, being that I have (obviously) a very small hardware service skillset, so I definitely won't be mucking around with anything more involved than RAM and hard drive upgrades.

With that subject clarified, now I just need to stop dithering and decide which system to get. Thanks again man!

 

Is that one of the big changes of the internal design between the M6500 and the M6600?
The M6500 has an exchangeable graphics card too but it's not an MXM standard so M6500 users are stuck to Dell spare parts and have a problem once these cards aren't available anymore.
It would be a great improvement for M6600 users if they could insert 3rd party graphics cards after their warranty has ended.

 

Isn't that always the case though?

 

You are correct. In the past with mobile Precisions (M6300, M6400, M6500) Dell designed their own GFX cards that were used in those systems. Starting with this new generation, the M4600 & M6600, we are now using standard MXM cards.

 

Hi everyone,

I got two good deals for the W520 and the M4600.

Which one is better if I consider the following points important:
1. Build quality
2. Battery Life
3. Gaming performance
4. Keyboard
5. Noise
6. Heat

Here are the offers:

Lenovo:
Intel Core i7-2720QM Processor (2.20GHz, 6MB L3)
Operating system12 Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64
Operating system language Genuine Windows 7 Professional 64 English
Display type 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) LED Backlit Anti-Glare Display, Mobile Broadband Ready
System graphics NVIDIA Quadro 2000M Graphics with 2GB DDR3 Memory
Color sensor No Color Sensor
Total memory8 4 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
Keyboard Keyboard US English
Pointing device UltraNav with TrackPoint & touchpad plus Fingerprint reader
Camera 720p Camera
Storage subsystem Internal RAID - Not Enabled
Hard drive4 500 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Optical device5 DVD recordable multiburner
System expansion slots Express Card Slot & 4 in 1 Card Reader
Battery60 9 cell Li-Ion Battery - 55++
Power cord Country Pack North America with Line cord & 170W AC adapter
Bluetooth Bluetooth 3.0
Integrated WiFi wireless LAN adapters10 Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN)
Integrated mobile broadband65 Integrated Mobile Broadband - Upgradable
Language pack Language Pack US English
Fingerprint Reader

41C9337 2YR Onsite + 2YR ThinkPad Protection

For 1832 USD total (including tax.)


Or the Dell:

Module Description Show Details
Mobile Precision M4600 Precision Mobile M4600
Operating System Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, 64-bit, no media
Processor Intel® Core™ i7-2720QM (Quad Core 2.20GHz,6M cache) with Turbo BoostTechnology 2.0
Memory 2.0GB, DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM, 1 DIMM
Internal Keyboard Internal English Backlit Keyboard
Graphics AMD® FirePro® M5950 Mobility Pro Graphics with 1GB GDDR5
Primary Storage 500GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
Fingerprint Reader Options No Fingerprint Reader and No Contactless Smartcard Reader
LCDs 15.6" UltraSharp™ FHD(1920x1080) Anti-Glare LED-backlit with Premium Panel Guarantee
Bluetooth Dell Wireless® 375 Bluetooth Module
AC Adapter 180W 3P, A/C Adapter
Media Bay Devices 8X DVD+/-RW tray Load w/Roxio and Cyberlink PowerDVD™, no media
Camera / Microphone Light Sensitive Webcam and Noise Cancelling Digital Array Mic
Wireless LAN (802.11) Intel® Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300 802.11a/b/g/n Half Mini Card
Systems Management Intel vPro™ Technology’s Advanced Management Features
Productivity Software Microsoft Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word and Excel with ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook
RAID Configuration All Hard Drives, Non-RAID, 1 or 2 drive total configuration
Primary Battery 9-cell (97Wh) Lithium Ion Battery
Hardware Support Services 3 Year ProSupport with 3 Year NBD Limited Onsite Service After Remote Diagnosis
Complete Care 3 Year CompleteCare Accidental Damage Protection
Security Software Trend Micro Worry-Free Business Security Services, 30-days
Energy Star/E-PEAT Gold No ESTAR Enabled
Processor Branding Intel Core i7 vPro Label

For 1991 USD (including tax)

What do you think??

 

Today, I chatted with a dell service assistent.
I asked him about the hdd configuration options on the precision m4600 and m6600.
he told me, the m4600 will provide 2 sata ports for 2 2.5" hdds.
here is the quote of parts of the chat. but it is in german.

so, to summerize that: in m4600, two 2.5" sata hdds are possible. I asked again, if BOTH are 2.5" and he said "yes, both"

So, I think that is realy nice. So I can upgrade a second hdd later!

 

Sorry but that information is incorrect. The M4600 can support 2 storage devices max from the factory, one 2.5" HDD or SSD & one SSD MiniCard. That is it. The M6600 can support 3 storage devices max from the factory, two 2.5" HDD or SSD's & one SSD MiniCard.