Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge

Switching out the processor was just a stupid idea now that I've gone and put it in print and read it. I had an x9000 and it was a wowee zowee experience. And the x9100 just seemed similiar but faster yet. I think 'future proofing' is the term I've heard around here and I suppose the quad is the better answer but I'm still dumb enough to see the higher number (3.06 vs 2.53 or whatever the quad is) and think OK, higher is better but I am still rational enough to realize it's not quite so simple. And the QX seems to rock my Covet plenty fine.

And thanks for pointing out what again, I should have figured out myself. I'm a pretty smart guy most of the time but when I realize I'm over my head computo wise I've screwed up enough systems to know to ask for suggestions. I have SIW along with the control point thing (I think) and your idea is again, simple and easy enough for even me to understand.

I just got a good deal (but still too expensive) on a 64gig Samsung SSD and that's my new project and now I'm concerned with all the issues that brings with it. The no defraging deal just doesn't sound right to a clean up freak like me. I had it in once and it was nothing short of amazing but when it had more than 10,000 fragments I don't care what anyone says or no sign of any appreciable decrease in performance it still makes me crazy. And I don't know enough not to trust Perfect Disk which doesn't put up any warnings or anything when I analize the SSD. And I did defrag it once and it didn't blow up or anything. So I cloned it back to one of the 320 gig drives and now am going to re-clone back to the SSD a nice cleaned up OS. Since all your advice so far has been spot on I thought I'd throw in SSDs to see if you have any ideas or suggestions on them. All I know is single layer is better than multi layer and you're not supposed to ever defrag them, which sounds nuts to me.

 

hi guys . i bought my m6400 from ebay, really good price for a Core 2 Duo X9100 (3.06GHz, 6M L2 Cache, 1067MHZ) ,17" WXGA+ UltraSharp Display (1440x900) Resolution,4.0GB, DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM,,8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load , 5300 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card ,NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M Graphics with 1GB dedicated memory, 320 gb 7200RPM Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive,,Dell Wireless Bluetooth Module with UW,,Internal Swipe Fingerprint Reader,Integrated 2.0 MP webcam with dual digital array microphone.
paid 1225$ only for it .
my question is it is the silver one and i already bought an extra 4 gb memory and a whole wuxga led rgb display wih camera and microphone and came with the whole covet orange top cover, both for only 550 shipped. is it hard to switch the whole top part of the laptop and where can i get the bottom orange cover and can i install it without taking everything out of the inside or just leave it as is , orange top and silver bottom.??

 

A good place for Dell parts you can find at the below link. Today they didn't show much for the 6400 but it changes from day to day as they buy up and sell parts for only Dell laptops. They do frequently have bottom frames but not today. A lot of people seem to be looking for 150 watt power bricks and they have all kinds of those. Some new, some 'reconditioned'. I'm not sure what 'reconditioned' means anymore. The first 'reconditioned' thing I've ever bought was my Covet and I sure can't tell it from new. I was expecting at least one little mark or something but nada.

And if you have no luck I think it might look sort of cool with the orange lid and silver bottom.

http://www.parts-people.com/index.php?action=category&id=142&subid=235

 

Guys. Just as an FYI. While this could apply to any notebook; since the M6400 is pretty much the cream of the crop when it comes to performance on Dell's line-up I thought I would mention that Seagate will soon be shipping a 500GB 7200RPM drive with 16MB of cache. So if you were eyeballing putting almost 1TB of storage in your M6400 but didn't want to sacrifice speed.....here you go. Mine are already preprdered.

http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.j...ecadd110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD&locale=en-US
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148374
http://www.amazon.com/Seagate-ST9500420AS-Momentus-7200-4-Drive/dp/B001R4BBLU

 

Seagate has been shipping this drive to OEMs for two months or so, I believe, and it has been available (in limited quantities though) in the retail channels for about three weeks now.

You can head over to the hardware section of this forum to see lots of information and user experiences with this drive.

 

Ahhh sorry about that. I JUST heard about this and literally can not find it shipping anywhere. I'm borderline drooling over this. I've wanted a half TB drive for years now but 5400 was always a deal breaker. Its amazing how fast tech is moving. My guess is 1TB by early 2011.

 

I picked up a pair of these drives last month from Tigerdirect for my M6400. They're real, and they're spectacular!

 

Yeah, tell me about it; they seemedto have been flying off the shelves once they became available, and now everybody is sold out of them...

 

Changing the screen is a matter of a few minutes: you have to remove the speaker cover on top of the keyboard (pull it gently from by left edge) and eventually the keyboard itself. Then detach the screen cables (*) and remove the few screws that keep the screen in place.

(*) About screen cables: i can't remember -exactly- if you can detach them from top without removing also the big panel from the bottom of the notebook.
Non a big deal however.

Remember to unplug and remove your battery BEFORE doing anything

 

Do you know where I can get more details ?, it's the WUXGA and WUXGA RGB LED full compatible for the Exchange or I might need something else ?, thanks