M6600 and M4600 are coming in Feb.

havoctex, thank you so much for your reply!

I thought Dell used to offer E-modular 1.8" hard drives for Latitudes and Precisions. Are those no longer available, or are the new Precisions not compatible with those E-modular bay drives?

Regardless, can you confirm that SATA-3 is only offered in the main drive bay on the m4600 and is not available via mSATA, eSATA and modular bay connectors?

That's excellent news! Thanks!

 

The mSATA standard doesn't support SATA 6Gbps (SATAIII).

 

So if I understand correctly what has been said above, if I get a M4600 with a HDD and want to add a second SSD later, I'll have to get a 50mm mini-PCIe SSD (which is actually different from a mSATA SSD). Correct?

 

Thanks for the clarification, but please understand I was being general in regards to the specs. Just because 750G drives are the limit now does not mean that will be the case later in regards to what the system will accept. I believe that was the question. Additionally, I think we all know Dell only lists the qualified drives that are available (supply/demand wise) when ordering.

To clarify, I was also showing some generic specs of a mini-SSD card that is compatible. I was not saying that is the manufacturer of the specific card used in the Dell systems.

I still believe my source in Asia is reliable as he is involved in the engineering side and has proven himself in the past, but I do take everything said "unoffically" with a grain of salt. Like you, I am simply here to help out where I can and also clear up any misunderstandings.

Scott-

 

If you do not install WWAN card, you can just add a msata ssd or mini-pcie ssd. If a WWAN card is used, no more ssd can be added. the mini pcie slot is msata combo slot.

Unofficially, you may take off the optical drive and buy a 3rd party hardisk caddy to install a hdd into the slot.

 

No WWAN card for me so I'd be in the second case. I didn't know the mini pcie slot was a mSATA combo slot. Hardware is so confusing sometimes... so many options, sub cases, etc. Will have to dig more.

Thanks, I might include this option in the decision process.

 

Thanks for the info, havoctex, but I have a couple of questions about your answers. I'm probably being picayune (or just plain dumb) but could you explain the following couple of things:

1) You said that "750GB is the largest HDD capacity that we have currently qualified." Does that mean that, for whatever reason, I can only put in a "qualified" Dell drive or that I can use any hard drive that fits the spec?

More particularly, I was planning to add an aftermarket drive, a Seagate Momentus ST9750420ASG. Will it work?

2) You also say that Dell "only sell the full featured BluRay read/write drives on the M4600/M6600. We do NOT sell the BluRay combo drives." I thought "full-featured BluRay read/write drives were BluRay combo drives. What's the difference?

Thanks in advance!

 

1) You can put in whatever drive you want but the drives Dell sells we qualify, test, and guarantee with our warranty. If you add a 3rd party drive it "should" work.

2) The difference between a BluRay drive and a BluRay combo drive. The BluRay Combo drive reads BluRay discs but will write DVDRW, NO BluRay. A BluRay drive, that we sell, will both READ & WRITE BluRay discs.

Hope that helps.

 

havoctex, thanks!

This does help!

 

Scott I was not attacking and I hope it didn't come across that way, you have provided very good info, but since I wrote the product definition documents for both the M4600 & the M6600, I "know" these products like my own kids.