M6600 Owners Thread

Ram is just Rams, any brand is fine. Regarding SSD, I had not read m6600 doesn't like any specific model .
Usually m4 is the all around starter, sandforce tend to be cheaper and there is always high end Sammy 830, Intel 520 , m5p/m3p.

 

I can't give you an specific advice about your proposed enclosure, but I have 6 WD Studio II units and I have connected them (individually) via ESATA to my M4700 with no issue. One thing to mention about the WD enclosure is that the port sits very deep into the unit, and a lot of cables won't actually work with it correctly since the plastic holding bit won't let it go in enough.

 

Thanks, but this is not the case here. My WD enclosure works just fine with other computers, including Dell's own XPS laptop. But not the M6600

 

For information.
The latest driver for the M8900 can be downloaded from ati.com.
It's newer than the official driver from Dell:
ati.com / Support & Drivers / Notebook Graphics / Mobility FirePro Series / Dell Precision M6600 (FirePro M8900 Mobility) / Your operating system / View Results
... or direct link: AMD FirePro M8900 Win 7 64-bit

Best Regards,
Alex.

 

I have always found the WBF to be much faster, and accept a greater variety of swipe conditions than the DDP. I was so suspicious that I actually swiped an finger that I didn't enroll to ensure it was actually validating the swipe and not just unlocking the machine. I believe there are some features such as preboot authentication that WBF doesn't support so if you are using anything outside of the basic windows authentication you might want to investigate the details.

I've had no issues with gskill & kingston 1600 mhz in my m6600's. I also have a 2.5" 256 GB crucial M4 an a mSata 256GB crucial m4 and have been happy with both, especially for the price point.

I think you may be out of luck using any esata enclosure that requires a port multiplier host controller with the m6600. Bokeh (who in my opinion, is one of the most knowledgeable people on the forum when it comes to this machine) has some info here.

LINK > http://forum.notebookreview.com/del...0712-m6600-owners-thread-175.html#post7946883.

This might help you understand how the technology works.

LINK > SATA-IO Port Multipliers.

 

does anyone know what the part number for the second hard drive caddy is? I need to acquire one as I am using the bay for my data drive (hdd), and I have just temporarily fitted it without the bracket.

Also, I have been experiencing intermittent freezes on the machine where it is totally unresponsive except the mouse still moves. I have the OS installed on a muskin 240 msata ssd. I have the latest bios, chipset, and video drivers


Sent from my SCH-R760 using Tapatalk 2

 

Everything about eSATA port multiplier host controller explained by Bokeh-
here

 

Yes - this must be the case. However, it seems very strange that a consumer XPS from 2 years ago would, and a 1-year-old, flagship Dell laptop would not have PM eSATA...

Also, Bokeh (whose expertise I appreciate, but haven't seen him in this thread for a while) states that the lack of PM on most laptops is Intel decision, and it might as well be re-activated with the next Intel Rapid Storage Technology. So my questions now are:

- would PM be simply disabled/enabled in software only? I could understand savings by not including it in hardware, but software limitations.. oh well

- basing on the article mentioned and some technical reasoning, I reckon that for any multi-drive enclosure to work with the M6600, in order to use it in RAID 0 mode (where the host needs to communicate with each drive simultaneously), PM is needed at both ends. So, even though the manual for another enclosure I'm considering (by Welland) explicitly states it does support PM, it will still be unable to work with the M6600... In fact, NONE will - bummer

- if it indeed is all about software, can it be read from extended device information somewhere whether PM is active or not? The reason I ask this is that having just updated IRST, I'm reluctant to try by physically connecting my WD Studio II enclosure. It contains almost 4TB of my backups (written via USB), and I already did lose everything by just connecting it to my M6600's eSATA port - second time would be too much risk; no thanks

Anyone?

 

More info back on page 114

 

As mentioned, it looks to be an Intel QM67 limitation. The first gen XPS17 (L701x) used a H/QM57 chipset. I also believe it has to do with the eSATA also supporting USB 2.0/PowerShare, which may cause issues trying to incorporate a PM environment.

Scott