Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge

Hello,
I am considering M6400 for obvious reasons...but I was curious about doing this.

there are two, the M6400 and the M6400 covet

I went to the M6400 and was able to add upgrades to match the M6400 covet base model specs and came up with a cheaper machine. The only thing that I noticed was no camera...and I'm still not sure why I couldn't add that option. But for basically what appeared to be the same specs I had a $400 savings. I then went and did more upgrades to surpass the base model Covet.

I added the quad core processor, 4gig's of ram (2 slot for leaving the other two for later). I did down grade to the 80gb drive because I would just assume get a 500g drive from newegg. Went with the 1gig video card...better wireless card...and came to a machine that was a couple hunderd more than the base Covet.

What makes doing this a bad idea? to add just the quad core to the Covet blows the price well past what I did with the upgrades to the plain M6400.
thanks

 

The Covet tends to have the RGB screen - whereas the non-covet just has the normal screen. Aside from that, they are exactly the same. I have a non covet M6400 with the quad core, RAID 0 disks and 16GB RAM...I love it.

 

I seen that Dell.com has 2 options for the RGB screen:

• 17" UltraSharp™ WUXGA (1920x1200) RGB LED Display [add $278]
• 17" UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WUXGA (1920x1200)RGB LED Edge 2 Edge Disply [add $557]

I would go for the $278 over the Edge 2 Edge because $300 for a piece of glass does seem to be too high.

It does give the option for a Camera / Microphone (Integrated 2.0 MP webcam with dual digital array microphone [add $28]) with the RGB.

Check out ebay & the Dell Outlet center for good deals if you don't want to pay that new computer price but still want that new computer.

 

Thanks for the replies...I have found that if you go into dell and build it under the small business section and go in under the big business section.....you can add slightly different things. Weird....but yeah....the base M6400 with the add-ons is they way I certainly want to go. Still seems weird that the Covet is so high right out the gate.

Hey do any of you know what the highest resolution you can push out of the external monitor port on the M6400 with the 1gig video card? Curious if it will handle a 30" at that 2500x1600 (something like that) resolution.
thnx

 

Try calling Dell to get your config together and get them to give you a good price, usually the reps can take quite a bit off

And yes the card can easily handle that

 

Hmm....I will have to try to call them. If I can work them down on the price that would be sweet! Oh good to know about that 30" monitor. However after the purchase of an M6400 I'm not sure there will be enough pennies in the piggy for one of those...might have to settle with a 24"....still nothing to sneeze at.

 

Looking for an IPS panel? Go for the Hazbro or the HP 24" ....VERY nice screens and the HP is pretty cheap too.

 

Hey Gulfstreamtec, thanks so much for your kind offer - I got the Reimage manual and that sounds all good in there.
And my book has finally arrived - it is just beautiful
Still waiting for my HDDs though before the install fun can begin.
Thanks again!
Schinkster

 

So my newly ordered m6400 (and my wife's m4400) have just shipped. Thanks again to those who chimed in about my 'portability' questions earlier ... at the end of the day I couldn't resist the m6400, and ended up ordering the slim adapter + an extra basic adapter to leave plugged in at home.

I have a quick storage / performance question for those of you who have relevant setups.

I ordered the m6400 with the base 80GB/5400rpm drive, with the intent of saving money by installing my own drives. I got a really good deal on a pair of 500GB 7200.4's with free fall from Dell Accessories, and I was going to install them in a Raid 0 configuration. However, having already spent over $3k on a laptop, I figured what's another $300 for added performance, so I also ordered an Intel 80GB X25-m SSD from newegg.

So in a couple of weeks when I go to visit my folks, I'll pick up my laptop, pull the stock 80/5400 to preserve it as is, and do a fresh install on the new drives. I will have to choose one of two configurations and I don't have enough experience with SSD's or Raid0 to determine which is definitively the best choice:

1. 80GB Intel X25-m SSD as System Disk (OS and Apps) + 500GB 7200.4 as Storage and Scratch Disk

2. Dual 500GB 7200.4's in Raid0

Any advice would be appreciated, and in advance 580GB worth of space is fine for me.

 

I can't offer any advice re the SSD, but in mine I have 2x 250Mb 7200rpm disks are RAID0, and it is *very* fast. I run 3 virtual machines, a SQL server and a development environment on my machine, and not once have I suffered from slow disk speed.