M6600 Pre-purchase Questions

- People pay a lot more money for nVidia video, starting at $300 - $740.00, and from what people say, end up with less performance, and pay up to $1,640.00 to beat the low end card by 5%-15%. It seems like CAD is where the most significant advantages are. nVidia has the advantage of Optimus to save battery life, but laptops are plugged in most of the time anyway. What other reasons do people have to pay the extra money?

- Is there any way the M6600 can do 3D like the XPS 17 3D?

- Is there any way the M6600 can do TV like the XPS 17 3D?

- Can I put in a $100 Blu-Ray online instead of the $400 Blu-Ray option that Dell sells? It looks like a generic flat-bezel drive in the M6600 photos.

- Any reason not to start out with a refurb with a touch panel, buy a new 1080 B173HW01 V5 17.3'' LCD for $100, and install it behind a Touch panel? OR how about an IPS panel behind the touch screen? I really don’t want to give up getting the touch panel.

Thanks!

 

The TV out should be the same since it is all HDMI based.

I would not plan on swapping the LED panel behind the touch panel. It is an assembly. I doubt they can be swapped.

No 3D panel has been announced by Dell that I know of.


Still working on answers for the other quetions.

 

The XPS 17 3D has a TV tuner. I am looking for a way to add that functionality to the M6600.

 

Oh, now I understand. Sounds like the XPS is a lot more consumer focused. The goal seems to be entertainment. The M6600 seems to be more focused on those that make the entertainment. You could always get a USB tiner card for $50 or so.

 

Video:
This is the biggest thing I'm struggling with. I don't do CAD enough anymore to say so, and I don't do games. If its claim to fame is it makes CATIA sing, and makes the battery last a little longer, I don't know if it's worth it to me. If the whole machine runs substantially cooler and better because of the Optimus, and/or the colors are more accurate, and/or the screen is brighter, then it's worth it. I'll probably do the Outlet or eBay, so it won't be IPS. I want to get the video right, and get what I need, but I don't want to put myself in a box so small I can't get what I need. Money matters only to the extent that I end up paying almost as much for an Outlet or eBay M6600 than new by the time I get it where I need it.

Drives:
I don't know enough about SSDs to know how much they would benefit me. I always hibernate anyway. The only reboots I see are after updates and software installs. I use the SSD SLC X25s in RAID-0s on UNIX hosts. I don't know what they do for a laptop. If it greatly changes the responsiveness of the machine, then it would be worth it.

The real ducks in my pond are:
1. A processor with lots of cores and threads (VMware)
2. 16-32 GB of memory. (VMware)
3. Lots of hard drive space for virtual machines to answer questions on different OSes, prototype networks, and P2V when moving/troubleshooting customer servers. (VMware)
4. A screen good enough to be able to calibrate to do as well as an average desktop LED. Maybe all I need is to start with a 900 screen and pick up a 1080 B173HW01 V5 17.3'' LCD panel for $100 like I see in Scott's sig.

Summary:
I realize the XPS 17 3D can do two drives also and could do everything on the list here, but people have been steering toward the M6600.

Thanks tons for your help!

 

I searched some of your posts, wondering why you said people steer you towards M6600. That's how I read a bit about your background.

Given what you listed here, I will also recommend someone to pick up a cheap M6600 if I didn't know your background. One of the reason I will recommend precision to people is the build quality is likely tech support. XPS is likely to be supported by consumer division. My last "consumer" grade high performance laptop was then top of the line multi-media gaming inspiron laptop, which costed me about $3000, even with employee purchase program discounts + 4 years nex business day priority support contract.

I got really fed up dealing with Dell consumer support script robot. But, given your background, you probably don't have to worry about that. That makes XPS 17 choice more equal with an M6600. However, here are the things you have to consider, bear in mind I only have a precision M4600 myself so I base some of my precision opinion on that. I also have to read a bit in the XPS forum here, as I almost never go to that subforum due to time constraints.

1. XPS 17 may come with 2 DIMM, rather than 4 DIMM. M6600 is guaranteed to have 4 DIMM = 32 GB. 32GB on XPS is probably likely but there is no guarantee it'll work, unlike M6600. Dell's own website list XPS memory configuration a bit weird, up to 8, 12, 16 GB and then stop. I didn't understand why initially but after browsing the XPS forum here, it made sense. If Dell is shipping XPS 17 with either 2 DIMM or 4 DIMM motherboards, then max of 16 GB memory will not be "false" advertising so to speak as 2 DIMM is theoretically capable of handling 16 GB.

2. M6600 is capable of 1 mSATA SSD + 2 regular HDD. You can potentially put your OS + APP on the M6600 mSATA then have a huge chunk of space, for your VMware machines by putting their image files on 2 SATA HDD.

3. You listed processor with lots of cores + threads. It all depends on what you need, M6600 can win here as it's capable of supporting the highest end CPU here, the XM series. I believe this is primarily because M6600 is built better, with better heat dissipation equipment compare to XPS 17. Although the XM series CPU is nice, it can be bad on budget so I am not sure if you want that, probably the 2800 QM series CPU fits your budget + need better as myself settled on 2820QM for the same TDP as 2720QM, but a bit better performance without significant price increase.

4. Cooling. If you look at the Dell service manual for M6600 and XPS 17. You should be able to tell the difference immediately. One is built to dissipate heat from CPU and GPU separately (M6600). XPS 17 has a little engine that could I am not saying that's inadequate, it is, as the power supply of both systems tell a tale. M6600 PSU is a brick but can output 240 Watt. XPS 17 PSU is "merely" 150 watt. If mobility is a concern and you don't care about overall build quality + support, then I will opt for XPS 17.

I notice you like to use your previous dell for several years. My 2004 inspiron is still functional, so does my 4 year old vostro. I like to use my laptop for a long time as migrating all my stuff over to the new machine is a real pain in the rear end (I still haven't finished migrating my stuff from my vostro over yet). I believe my M4600 should be good for at least 5 years, given the way I have configured it. My M4600 current has 12 GB of memory. I went for a good CPU that is likely to last several years and enough expandability on the memory + storage area.

It's your call really, XPS is probably cheaper and if it fits your bill and support doesn't seem to be an issue for you, go for XPS 17. Personally, I prefer precision as I like the build quality I have seen so far and it's been quite stable. My 2 previous laptops all suffered a bit of heat issue, as I tend to pick a CPU and video card that will last me several years. Both of my inspiron and vostro has died due to overheat before through no fault of my own. That's why on my recent purchase, I paid attention to heat dissipation because although warranty has covered all the heat failures so far, it's still inconvenient to contact Dell and have them repair my laptop. In the mean time, I have a dead laptop = I can't get things done I prefer to get a more solid build laptop that fits my need and I don't have to contact Dell at all.

 

Thanks tons for your reply. Things are starting to gel for me.
1. It's going to be an M6600.
2. It will get an SSD, one way or another.
3. Video doesn't matter for what I do. In a toss-up, I'd go Quadro to get Optimus.
4. On the LCD, I could go either way. If touch, I'll probably end up with less than a 2920XM. If conventional, I'd end up with a 2920XM and replace the screen with one that Dell doesn't offer, gloss, with 90% gamut, for ~$100.

A support computer is both the at-the-office and on-site computer. The process of upgrading is not over until I get know why I'm buying what I'm buying, and everything is set up right. That's the only way I can go for 5 or 6 years without thinking about again. I'll lose 80+ hours setting it up apps used for everything from e-mail to software development to graphics development to malware eradication tools to packet sniffers to VMware to aiming microwaves. In the process you also upgrade to the latest version since you need to do the install anyway, and learn the differences. An office computer, I can set up in a couple hours. All they need is e-mail, accounting, and word processing.

Thanks TONS for your thoughts!

 

Sounds good. Try eBay right now, I've seen one with the 900p and the 2920XM + M8900 + 256GB SSD for $1700 I think?

 

There is a lot of opportunity out there. I've been watching them and will hawk the refurb site now that I know what an acceptable configuration looks like.

Thanks!

 

Good luck, ideally, I prefer computers don't get outdated so quickly. It's such a pain to migrate everything over. I really do miss Unix based systems here. Windows machine OS + app scatter files all over the place I already use mozilla for browser + email so migrating those aren't that bad. However, there are other programs and I need to migrate over My documents folder, and other folders, argh!

You might want to calculate how much space do you need for your SSD drive. I was surprised how much space I need for an SSD after I installed OS, Visual Studio 2010 Prof. and a few other programs (already using libre office to reduce disk space and it gets the job done for me as I don't use complicated stuff for office suite). Dell's mSATA SSD is pretty good and as far as I know, might not be as readily available for purchase by consumers.

If you do plan to use your systems for several years, consider SLC rather than MLC based SSD. MLC flash has a more limited write cycle life. Although various algorithm will try to distribute the write cycle more evenly, it's better for more serious users to simply start with SLC, rather than MLC as I am not really sure a typical MLC drive can last 5 years of frequent write of a heavy user (compiling code, etc. could generate a lot of intermediate files so...)