Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge

That's what I did and was surprised that in 7 I didn't need msconfig or any BIOS fiddling, just right click My Computer in 7 and you can choose default OS as well as adjust how many seconds it gives you to choose. That impressed me. The Vista 'look' I could really do without though. And though I've only fooled with it a bit getting programs installed it has drivers for everything it installed itself. That sort of blew me away. What drivers would you suggest? Vistas drivers from Dell? Since the ones it came with are working I'm not going to change anything till I get some qualified answers. Which is something probably about 80% of the posters here that know lots more than me.

The ready to roll drivers included installation has me wondering. It's on a different drive than my main OS (XP), so they couldn't have leaked into it or something weird like that, so where'd they come from? I'm not sure what FX3700 GPU driver it's using but Windows 7 installed an updated one all on its own after the initial installation.

With just a few hours with it I gotta wonder how it took MS what? 10 years to build Vista which even Microsoft won't use and in a little more than a year or so they come out with what Vista probably should have been in the first place. It must be a strange company. And while it seems as quick as my lean clean XP install I don't like the way it looks. 4 more GBs, for what? I'm a little surprised that so many people who seem to know what they're doing run Vista, an OS that even the makers of it have rejected. When the Microsoft Corporation migrates from XP to Windows 7 I probably will too. Maybe a year after but probably.

And one unrelated, or maybe slightly related question; Do you update BIOS whether you need it or not? With the way this model is putting out BIOS updates I wonder how important it is to keep up with the latest. #5 has nothing different that I'd need so I'm holding off on it until I can get an educated answer to the question. If you don't keep up with new releases what happens if you're running BIOS 4 and they come out with BIOS 15 and say it's urgent?

 

Well the second replacement unit they installed seems to work.

It's odd, it doesn't seem to run any hotter or cooler according to CPU-Z, but the speaker faceplate is way cooler, it use to get quite hot and now the laptop overall is much cooler to the touch.

So it's working now without lock ups or crashes at stock speeds, so at least it was fixable.

Are these nVidia Quadros particularly poor with reliability? I'm really not impressed with reliability (Dell I'm ok with), mostly since others have had similar multi-replacement horror stories as well.

Service was prompt, and phone support didn't make me re-run all the tests and just sent out a tech so I'm happy with the service at least.

-James

 

Guys do u know of any laptop with Hardware raid..? we (M6400 owners) have got software raid right?

 

No, ours is implemented in hardware. Well, firmware anyways....

 

Does the new slim brick have dual voltage input (110v - 230v) ?

 

My slim brick specs are as follows:
PA-9E Family
Model: GA240PE1-00
Input: 100-240V ~ 3.5A - 50-60hz
Output: 19.5V---12.3A

I also use a 130W Adapter for around town/clients more often now. It charges fine even though its 130W. It's slower to charge but its small and is much smaller than the slim brick.

 

That's great!

Many thanks

 

I want to buy this notebook - (bargain price and FX3700M but it's refurbished). I called to Dell - notebook was repaired (several times - changed RAM, optical drive and motherboard; problem - crashes) - it wasn't fixed so previous owner changed it to new model. So I have occasion to buy it cheaper - looks nice but the secret defect which wasn't fixed little scared me. Of course notebook is with NBD warranty but I don't know what think about previous problems. I know that there was problems on Win XP (I want use Vista 64-bit). Maybe somebody had similar (not "fixeable" by service) problems on XP etc.

I have one more question - I checked user's manual and I found it:

Is it a mistake? Typical cheap LCDs or cellphones have 16,7M colors - Dell will have less?

 

I'm looking at getting an M6400. My intended use is photo and graphics (with some video editing). I'm not a gamer at all and never run CAD programs. I'm basically looking for the fastest Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom machine for RAW processing (each RAW file is 75MB) and photo editing. Also, I need to do some HD video editing and need to be able to drive a DLP projector at 1920x1200 @30fps through Display Port for final content presentation.

I will spec it out with QX9300 and 8GB RAM.

Here are my questions:

1. Do I need the FX 3700M with 128 cores and 1GB of VRAM, or can I survive with the FX 2700M with 32 cores and 512MB of VRAM? Has anyone tried to run full screen native 1920x1200 HD video @ 30fps, either on screen or an external display? I need video output to be buttery smooth, not choppy. CS4 now takes advantage of CUDA. I'm curious of the real application speed advantage with more cores and VRAM. And, is there any better battery life with the FX 2700M?
   
2. I want the most color accurate display possible for on-the-road use. There are times I need to do production work in the field and this will be the only machine I'll have. On my desktop, I use a hardware calibrated 24" Eizo screen with 97% AdobeRGB gamut. Anyone compare the RGB LED M6400 screen to an Eizo. Of course, I would calibrate the laptop screen with an Eye One Pro. So, looking for opinions on E2E vs. Anti-Glare. I'm leaning towards the AG.
   
3. I'm considering a few different HDD configurations. Anyone have experience with Lightroom processing and have any preferences from these choices?
   
   • 2x 500GB HDD in RAID 0
   • 2x 500GB HDD in RAID 1
   • 2x 256GB SSD in RAID 0
   • 2x 256GB SSD in JBOD (C drive and D drive)
   • 256GB SSD + 500GB HDD
4. Would I be better off with the 3Ghz Dual over the 2.53Ghz Quad?
   
5. I've read that some here are successfully running Win7x64. This is what I'd like to run, but haven't seen how well CS4 works with the RC.

Thanks for any input and advice. I've searched high and low for high-end photo-related info and just haven't found what I am looking for.

 

I can only give you my experience.
My spec is QX9300 with 16GB RAM, RAID 0 (2x256GB normal disks) and FX2700m. Running Vista x64.

I am a software developer but occasionally mix music and videos for my rock band.

The M6400 is capable of running many virtual PCs and servers which is useful for my development work, and once I removed the Dell Control Point software the audio and video have been nothing but smooth.

I run 2 external monitors at 1920x1200 when docked and it handles that with ease. This is by far the fastest computer I've ever used.