Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge

Pirx, I just went to the Solidata site and the 3000CHF (long story that'd probably bore you why Swiss Francs are called CHFs) was for the 512GBs but the 128s were like 750, which works out to slightly less in dollars and the 64s down around 350 USD that's a pretty signifigant drop from what they were, and still are with some manufactures, from only a few months ago. If I remember my computer trivia correctly.
And since most every body that posts in this thread seems to know a lot more than me, and you in particular, what do you think of having dual drives, a SSD 64 for the OS and program files and a mechanical drive signifigantly larger for all your music/photo/video and documents? What benefits, if any would such an arrangement offer?

 

I'm thinking ahead, as in 1-2yr. I went with single 250GB 7200rpm and plan on using an external RAID 1 setup for safety/convenience. But in 1-2yr I'll re-evaluate the cost of mechanical vs SSD, and I'll definitely need additional storage by then. As for speed, one always wants it, but I'll wait untill SSD prices drop.

My question was within context of RAID 0.
Will read/write be 1.7x single?
Haven't worked with RAID much but I doubt RAID 0 gives 200% read/write performance over single SSD. If it is close to double preformance then we're talking about an 8-9 lb notebook with 1TG storage and maximum sequential read and write speeds of 0.48 GB/s and 0.4 GB/s respectively.

Also thinking about cost/performance ratio of RAM vs SSD.
SSD performance is making huge improovements while their cost drops fairly fast.

Are you saying DDR3 is giving 8 GB/s for both read and write throughput in the M6400?

 

Heh, I know the story; I have lived in Europe for quite a few years...

Well, you would get a system that would appear (and be, to most intents and purposes) a bit faster. Quieter too, if you're the sensitive type, although if you ask me, with the latest crop of mechanical drives you have to put your ear on the laptop to hear them unless they're really thrashing. Reliability might improve as well, and you don't need to worry about disk fragmentation as much.

On the other hand, your personal data, which are really usually the valuable part of the stuff that is stored in your laptop, would still be vulnerable (meaning, sensitive to some degree to shocks and drops). Thus it really depends on how much you value the above benefits. Personally, I am going to wait until I (feel I) can afford, and justify the expense to get at least 320gigs of SSD space on my laptop, but my prefrences should mean little to anybody else.

 

Probably not sustained if you're talking large amounts of data, but certainly for shorter chunks. I really do not have any hard data to back this up, so I should probably stop the speculation at this point

The main thing is, however, that RAM performance will be far above the data transfer requirements from your mass storage devices, so it's not an issue.

 

The above was in response to:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Intoxicate
The 130W power supply of the M4400 works with the M6400, but it's not enough under load. My M6400 downclocks under full load with the 130W adapter (T9400, FX 3700M, 8GB Ram)

 

Agreed, RAM speed >> SSD

My post was highlighting that 1TG storage with sequential read up to ~0.5 GB/s is an eye opener and something to think about. Probably more like max 0.4 GB/s sequential read with RAID 0.

 

I could never really understand comments about 'loud' hard drives. I've never heard a drive make any noise at all. I've spent too many hours flying planes and standing too close to loud construction equipment but I'm not deaf. The CD/DVD drives all make a little noise, but I had to force both fans to high speed to even hear them on my M6300, so I guess noisy drives aren't a problem with me. And it sounds like waiting a year or three might be the best way to let this SSD business settle itself down. I have some feeling that eventually they'll be cheaper than mechanical drives.

And as for the reliability of machanical drives, I've had more than one fall from a desk to a cermaic tile floor without problems, had another get stuck in an external case so tight I used pliers to pull it out, leaving two corners signifigantly bent and figured it was trashed but when I hooked it up it worked like nothing had happened. And it's still one of my backup disks that runs hours and hours daily. They have all been the 'free fall' design or whatever they call it but they've been treated rough and I've suffered one drive failure in 9 or so years and that one just quit for no apparent reason and took all the data on it to hard drive heaven. Put me off that brand though and I'll stick with Travelstar just for the good service I've gotten from them.

 

Thanks. High pitched static stopped by itself. If it returns I'll try your suggestion.

However, now there are stuttering sounds when Vista boots up, and there is static coming through the notebook speakers and external monitor speakers.
Anyone remember what the fix is for this.

Again all I've done so far is the Vista updates and web use. Not installing anything untill I know this system is stable.

Keyboard is excellent and it is not as heavy as I expected. Although the AC power is a joke.

But lid on right side has play (about 2mm) when closed. So the lid can make a tapping noise/rattle when closed. Anyone else have this?
If the rubber foot on the right side was higher it might solve the problem.
The only other solution I can come up with is an adjustment on the right latch that would pull the right side of the lid closer to the body and get rid of the 2mm gap. Did anyone have this problem and get it solved?

 

Max out Covet @ Dell w/ 2gb = $7567.04 (NJ Tax)
Crucial.com 4gb x 4 (16mb total) = $2139.00 (NJ Tax)

Total = 9706.04

Darn close.

 

Several posts had communicated that the RGB LED screen uses less power. Well according to the Reference Guide not so:

WXGA+ (CCFL) 6.5W
WUXGA (CCFL) 9.5W
WUXGA (LED) 15W