If you order a dell m6600 and XPS,

Hi there,

If you order a dell m6600 and XPS 17 with a similar spec,e.g.

16GB Ram
64 Bit Windows Pro Vista
256 SSD Hard drive
i7 processer

is there really a noticeable difference on speed for

Illustrator
Photoshop
Aftereffects
3DS Max

Thanks

 

Spec wise no but the M6600 has better support, and comes with a standard 3 year depot warranty. Also the XPS is a consumer grade notebook, cooling is WAY inferior to the M6600. M6600 also features MXM graphics whereas the XPS has it soldered on. True the M6600 costs a pretty penny, but it is a professional mobile workstation whereas the XPS is a consumer laptop (and a poorly built one at that). Also given the XPS track record, I would avoid an XPS.

 

Well first you need to make sure you get the 1080p screen. And I'm no expert on all of those programs you'll be using, but do you really need 16GB of RAM?

 

Thanks for the reponses. Much appreciated

Tsunade_Hime fair point, I am hoping the new XPS L702 has dealt with all the issues the 1st generation had - but I suppose that is to be seen.

edit1754 - I am using the computer for Adobe Photoshop, After Effects, 3DS Maz and Illustrator and think that I will be needing 16GB to improve workflow and having at least two programs open at the same time.

I am also looking at http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/notebooks/vortexII-17/ which seem to have good reviews on

Pcspecialist reviews | Customer reviews of Pcspecialist

The video card (2.0GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 580M) seems very good, especially compared to the M6600 on offer with Dell (2.0GB nVIDIA® Quadro 4000)

Also it's cheaper

 

For professional work such as 3d max and Maya, I would recommend a quadro for smoother viewport performance. The geforce is indeed quite powerful, but for gaming. If you run the professional benchmark specviewperf on both systems, the geforce will maybe get like 10fps in Maya while the quadro has been proven to get 71 fps and up to 84 when oc.

That's not to say using the geforce with 3d max is impossible but if you're even halfway serious about professional work, you will want to make that experience as good as possible. If you go to the 6600 forum there's a new review on the 6600 with a quadro 4000. You can see the 3d mark scores there. Definitey no slouch for gaming performance.

Hope this helps.

Edit: for the other programs listed the geforce will be fine.

 

whats your reasons behind "xps are poorly built" and what track record?

 

Cheapo plasticky feel, the current XPS doesn't feel like a "quality" product. Yes I have used both XPS 15 R1/R2, the XPS 14 and the XPS 17 R1. Have you ever changed out the LCD? I've swapped out 3 LCD's and the bezel is paper thin, almost cracked two of them.

Also the XPS has a very poor track record. XPS M1710/M1210 had the defective Nvidia chips. The XPS M1730/M1530/M1330 also had the defective Nvidia chips. The Studio XPS 1340 and 1640 had bad throttling issues. The new XPS generation has it's share of problems.

 

I haven't came across any problems with my xps 17 r2, theres quite a bit of alluminium used so i cant see where you got cheap plastic from.

 

I currently own six laptops (yeah it's a disease) from z112, Lattitude e6410, Xps 14 and the M4500, etc.

There's barely any difference in build quality between the two. I've also done several screen swaps and the plastic is thin on all these machines are thing. Paper thin? Pop them both apart and I guarantee that the thickness of the plastic around the bezel of an xps and the m series will be nearly identical. Given all else equal, you're paying for the CVS certification (for cad work I believe) and the service. Granted, I've had next day on a home laptop as well and guess what? It's the EXACT SAME . 3 years comes standard on the Latitudes while NBD @ your door is standard on the Precisions. The 3 year NBD is usually about a 3-400 upgrade which usually the difference in price between too like specced machines. You can go out on a limb and guess where the lion share of the price difference derives from.