Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge

I ordered and got the 17" sleeve when I ordered my computer. No part number handy but it's red on the inside and black outside. It's branded Belkin, is made of neoprene and is well worth it. The added padding along with the padding in my carry case makes it droppable (not that I do that). And it's a perfect fit for the M6400.

And while I'm here, is there any way to install Vista on my XP 6400 without it taking the first spot on the boot menu? My C drive is a 64GB Samsung and if I'm not handy and quick it boots into Vista before I can stop it. I just installed the Vista to play around with it, not use it as my main OS and just uninstalling it was an education. But now I keep reading articles on how to mess around with Vista and I can't try any of it unless I want Vista as my OS. Which I definetly do not.

 

Anyone interested in extending M6400 battery life should look at this thread:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=371262&page=3

Anyone know why the nVidia Powermaximizer is not available when running Vista as the OS?

 

Thanks.

The one I tried to get is a Timbuk2 17" sleeve designed specifically for Dell Precision. See previous post for description and model number. It is really more than a sleeve as it has simple (but very useful) handles. The incorrect 15" version they kept sending me was very nice.

"Carry and protect your Dell Precision Mobile in the style with our custom designed cases and sleeves from Timbuk2™ Design, Inc."

 

I went with a Crumpler Skivvy large, nice bag, but it can't easily carry the brick. I use dock stations so it is no prob for me.

 

Can i install Red Hat Linux Enterprise WS on a raid0 vista 64 partition?

Hello guys.

I have a c + d drive on my raid0 vista 64 m6400... can i shrink my d drive to 50% create a new partition on it and install linux on it? or will it destroy the vista 64 raid0 etc..?

thanks

 

When you have the second OS installed on the external e-sata drive does the computer boot to the internal OS drive or does it go with the newer installation? And I don't suppose XP is the OS on the computer by any chance? I'm trying to figure a way to install Vista on a m6400 with XP as it's main and preffered system to boot to but when I installed it on the second drive Vista put XP as second choice. I also have an external drive connected via e-sata and wonder if you can answer my question. If you don't hit F12 does it automatically boot to the C drive? And would it continue to do so if XP was the C drive OS because that's what I'm trying to have; a machine that automatically boots XP unless I tell it to do otherwise. All I've figured out so far is how to uninstall Vista, which is a good thing to know I suppose.

 

fabrizioT wrote -

Put 8GB or 16GB of memory in it, and watch Vista x64 perform in a way that a 32 bit OS can only dream about.

 

New video drivers (4/13/2009) at Dell site.

 

New version still does not support Powermaximizer with Vista.

 

I’ve been shopping for my next laptop for several months now and have been stuck in analysis paralysis. I think I am now favoring the M6400. It is a bit more expensive than I planned on spending, but I realized the scalability of it might allow me to upgrade it significantly in about 2 years with a goal of using it for at least 4 years. I have many questions about this hypothetical upgrade.

First, here is where I plan to start.
Precision M6400 64-bit

• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9550(2.66GHz 6M L2 Cache, 1066MHz) Dual Core
• 17" UltraSharp™ WUXGA (1920x1200) RGB LED Display
• 1.0GB, DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM, 1 DIMM***
• NVIDIA Quadro FX 2700M, 512MB Discrete
• 2x 160GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM with Free Fall Sensor (RAID 1)
• 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load w/Roxio and Cyberlink PowerDVD™

***I will order 8BG DDR3 RAM from Crucial on 4 DIMM ($140 total)

This puts it at about $2850 after the immediate RAM upgrade.

RAM
Will I void my warranty by upgrading the RAM myself? I plan to double the RAM in 2 years (take out 4x2GB and put in 4x4GB). Is it reasonable to assume the 4GB chips in 2 years will be comparable in price to 2GB chips today?

CPU
I’m guessing I’ll want to go Quad Core in 2 years. Will I be able to get a Quad Core processor that works in this laptop 2 years from now?

GPU
Not sure if I’ll need to upgrade this. This will be more than enough for AutoCAD and I haven’t had time to play computer games for over a year now. If I did want to upgrade this, would it be easy (and cheap) to double it in 2 years?

HDD
I don’t think I’ll have a need for doubling capacity in 2 years, but the HDD’s will be nearing the end of their expected life (if one hasn’t failed already). Are they going to take HDD’s past 7200rpm, or is everyone counting on SSD for increased speed? If I wanted to switch to 2xSDD RAID1 in 2 years, will that be possible in this computer?

DVD
There’s a slim chance that I’d want BlueRay for the upgrade. I assume swapping drives is pretty easy?



The basic idea is to buy a near-top-of-line computer today (I’d say my configuration is at least in the 80th percentile for laptops today) and in two years be able to upgrade it to get it back into the 50th or 60th percentile for maybe $500-$700 worth of upgrades. Does that seem reasonable, or am I kidding myself about my upgrade plan? I know increasing performance requires a balance between RAM, CPU/GPU and drive speed. But the motherboard components will only allow you to go so far. I appreciate your comments, corrections and opinions.