Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge

hehehe, got it! tnx!

 

First, thank you all very much for your great and wonderful participation in these forums - indeed a great resource for information.

I've been agonizing over which "mobile workstation" to purchase for several months now. I need to buy one before the end of the year, and thought I would have made a decision by now, but this has become more difficult than expected. I thought for sure the new Dell M6400 was the one to buy but there are a couple things about it that make it a tough choice.

Probably the most significant concern to me is the keyboard/trackpad orientation. The palm rest for the left hand seems almost to be an after-thought in design, virtually non-existent, and looks very uncomfortable depending on wrist and typing angle.

I’m also concerned about the softness or flexing of the keyboard I heard mentioned here. And finally, I’m wondering if Dell really has a handle yet on the build quality and software / driver implementation for this "flagship" product. It seems there is no lack of complaints regarding system crashes and disappointment for discovering flaws in build quality.

But the biggest concern is the palm rest issue. Can any of you M6400 owners share your impressions of how you are coping with that design problem? Does it bother you much? Does it hurt your wrist after use? Or do you just get used to it and ignore it? If you had the decision to do over again, would you still buy the 6400 as compared to for example HP's 8730w?

Thanks...

 

Meh, I'm getting worried. My M6400 is coming in a few days and this thread is getting me a bit scared. I had already planned on formatting and doing my own install of Vista 64. Any tips anyone can suggest to make things go smooth? I plan on running RAID 0, do I need any "F6 drivers" for Vista. I also plan on installing drivers from notebookdrivers2go.com

 

Whether you're running *nix, XP or Vista, it really comes down to your apps.

While XP isn't really coded to take advantage of a Quad Core, applications running under XP can use the cores if coded properly.

Check your list of priority apps, contact your vendor to inquire about current and future Quad core support and use that to determine what best suits your needs. Like I said, if your core collection of critical apps are single or dual threaded and will not change in the near future and speed is a priority, go with a x9100 (3.06ghz Dual Core)a if your apps are multi-threaded for more than 2 threads or will be and speed is a priority, go with the Quad.

For me, downsizing old line transaction hardware (40+ lines) into custom apps under multiple virtualization means more cores the merrier in a 4 core by X server setup. The idea is the more cores, the less blades, the less cost.

 

Ergonomically, my only gripe are the sharp corners, but besides that the keyboard is solid, build is firm and it is much better constructed than most notebooks I've used. I've had a key top pop off, but it popped back on.

90% of the time, I use an external mouse. I've always done this with notebooks. On the go, I use the pad. It works just like all previous pads IMHO.

I try to separate those who suffer crashes by those who did a clean install versus using the stock install. I know I used the stock install for a few hours and the drivers were woefully outdated and the factory install was poor (as most are). After wiping out the factory cookie cutter, everything has been running smooth.

As for those having issues with the 3700 and drivers and use their Precisions for Cad/Cam, ouch. Not my area of expertise and I feel for ya.
I don't use the GPU for that atm to the extent I just installed Nvidia's 180.48 Forceware drivers versus Dell's 3700 drivers.

 

Hey all, after just about giving up I ran across this thread (http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?p=4308501) and installing the new Intel Matrix resolved my stuttering and video problems.

Thanks

 

Hey welcome to the wonderful world of forum filters. I wouldn't use em if some forum software packages didn't keep you from posting. Plus PITA is as old as the internet itself. Heck I don't think it started on the net.

 

No. The simple fact is that unless you are running an external SATA card or some form of SCSI. The SATA controller in your computer is going to be running an intel chipset. (There are a few exceptions to this, say if you have a gaming rid and are running a Nvidia chipsset or such. But by and large if you have a laptop it will be intel based. As such the OS will see it by default.
The absolute first thing I do when I deploy a new system is go to Dell's site. Check the driver rev level. The go to the original manufacturer. As an example if you have an Intel WIFI card guess were you should go to get the latest and greatest drivers for that card?

Before you do anything with the system though go into the device manager and write down the name and driver level of every device. #1 rule: Always know what you started off with.
Once done then reinstall the OS.
Once you are done there begin with the chipset drivers. Reboot
Video. reboot
Audio, NIC, and WIFI. Reboot.
Those above are your core devices. Now start on the specialized stuff. like the fingerprint reader. Backlight drivers, (web camera someone recommended that you need to install a helper app from dell before this. I've never heard of such a thing for basic drivers though.) Once done with that focus on the apps Dell provides to manage all these devices. Finally do a windows update and download the metric crap ton of updates you will undoubtedly have. And once its all said and done I would actually consider getting an external drive and create a backup image. Because you will have at minimum, without adding any apps just spent prob about 3-4 hours on the above. A disk image makes redoing a system stupidly simple. If you have Windows Vista Business or above the ability is built into the system. All you need is something to store it on.

 

So what "Dell" software do you install? Aren't you supposed to install something like Dell System Software?

 

The first part of this statement is not correct. XP will schedule threads to run on all available processor cores. The second part is true, to get the most benefit applications must create more worker threads...