Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge

I love my M6400, it is the best notebook that I have owned period! I have been through several Dells, HP's, Gateways, E-Machines (M6811), and even a few Apple's and overall I have loved every minute of this machine. It does everything I need to do.

 

NO
Must install in pairs - A&D, B&C

 

I cannot answer all of them but here you go:

I have the RGBLED mat screen. I have an LG screen and I can faintly see a red shadow at the left corner. It is minimal but it is there

I cannot tell you about the CCFL but the RGBLED screens are really bright. On the other hand due to the large gamut they suffer from a small colour distortion. Note that this to my understanding this is a problem of ALL RGBLED screens. Several users have tried and succesfully corrected it, others claim that they did not. I am using the screen as is for now, but I do not work in photography so I am not that much concerned. If you are not using colour as the primal tool of your work (photography, gfx professionals) you will most probably have no problem with it.

Concerning CCFL there was one user saying that the screen was acutally showing only 262K colours.
This is the post. I cannot tell if it is a general problem or not.

I have the feeling that finally alektoro returned the laptop completely.

It does flex, not a lot but it flexes. I do not remember which post was it but a user said it was a lot. For my taste it is ok. As a side note I had to change my keyboard (among other parts of the laptop) and by handling it, I am pretty sure it is made to flex a bit. I must also point out that new one has much less flex than the old one.

I was quite enthusiastic at the begining but I am a bit disappointed now. I would probably consider buying it again but given the price tag, I would expect a little bit more. For one I would expect plastics to be a bit stiffer, and the lid does not close competely. There is 1mm space when it is closed giving it some "play". On the other hand, hinges are solid.

My main disappointment comes from the fact that on day one I had to change screen anf GFX card because of an extreme colour distortion (I cannot explain it but as a CQ problem at manufacturing) and then the keyboard because key 5 from the numpad decided it was time to adventure the world! The good things are that DELL support is really good (I have the on site next business day support) they are friendly and keep the promise of the next business day support.

Mine also suffers from an occasional whine. I cannot tell where it comes from (CPU?), changing the mother board and the GFX card (for a second time) diminshed the problem but did not make it go away completely

I never had or seen an HP laptop so I cannot compare. As a final word I would say that build quality is acceptable but leaves room for things to desire.

I have it on a cooler and while surfing and using Office applications the fans almost never start. When I ask it to do what it was bought for, the fans kick in hard!

I have it almost always plugged so I cannot tell

The BR just became available for 500$! But I have seen the technician taking out the DVD when she replaced the motherboard and I can assure you that changing it is as easy as changing a light bulb. And here is the proof.
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/wsm6400/en/sm/optical.htm#wp1184755
I will consider upgrading in the future but for now the price is...
This is also another major advantage of m6400. If you open the bottom panel, you have immediate and extremely easy user-I-have-never-opened-the-guts-of-my-laptop-before-friendly access to the most basic things you might want to upgrade later on. (HDD (the 2nd drive, the first is also accesible but you might need to unscrew 2 more screws), RAM(2 out of 4 modules), WIFI, bluetooth, WWAN, optical drive)

As an overall conclusion I like it but as I said there is room for things to desire...

 

Not true. As long as top and bottom, A&D, match you can have a single DIMM in either B or C. I would recommend populating under the keyboard first that way it is easier to add more memory later. When adding memory later it must match whatever is in the other slot.

 

Thanks for the info. It sounds like M6400 is not really something I would be satisfied with. Despite the performance is quite good, I concerned about the build quality in general and the keyboard flexing. Now there aren't any laptops left with that size and performance.

 

Exactly. When I bought M6400 I expected some problems so I wasnt that surprised, but I took the decision based on what I needed.

An extremely powerfull laptop.

For most of the peopel buying M6400, this is a tool to do their work. If you need the power and are willing to accept a few flaws you will be happy with it because frankly you will be surprised. ( Mind that I have a rather loaded configuration )

 

You have a point there but I guess it also becomes a matter of price. If the laptop is cheap you can accept a few faults but for premium price I cannot accept any flaws. HP 8730w had two serious flaws, first the red tint in the lower right corner of the display and second and most serious the battery drain while the computer is off. I would have accept this for a cheap laptop but not for a laptop that cost that much. With your configuration the m6400 would actually be more expensive than the 8730w and that is what makes me reluctant to buy this model with that configuration. If you pay premium money you should also expect to receive a perfect machine in every aspect. I've seen cheaper versions of m6400 with less performance and normal CCFL display, maybe that's the direction I should go.

 

ok guys,
i have just installed the x64 7048 build of windows 7 and i immediately noticed 2 things!.........

1: using the Dox optimised 181.20 driver (I've used this driver on all the builds i have tried! ) and not touching anything, the colors seem a hell of a lot better than the earlier builds

2: This build screams ...everything opens like it's on steroids
awesome.........

P.S

using that DPC Latency tool you guys are obsessed with (lol), and with no Dell software installed whatsoever, i'm getting a Absolute maximum of 584!

 

Where did you get the build 7048 ?, thanks

 

pm'd you