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Dell Precision M6400

A Review On: Dell Precision M6400

Dell Precision M6400

Rated # 51 in Notebooks
See all 2 reviews
Review Details:
Build Quality
Screen Quality
Battery Life
Aesthetics
Port Placement
Performance
philby
Posted · 0 Views · 12 Comments
First Impressions:

Was a little underwhelmed when first opened the box, in part because it looks like a gray laptop - nothing special. Once hefted out (yes tis a bit on the heavy side) began to realise how solid this thing is. The base is one solid chunk of alloy - built like a tank where is the E1705 has a alloy base this is this is twice as thick. Booted it up and found they had a new installation of Vista Business 64 bit - had a bit of a play then thought time to play with Windows 7 64 bit.

Playing with unit.

OK so Windows 7 installed fine, ran the bench test and received a score of 5.9 - lowest mark was for data transfer rate - and this is with two 120gig 7200 drives in raid 0 - so will need to replace this with two 500 gig 7200rpm drives - which I have ordered, this gives me 1Tb of data storage which is massive - kind of overkill but what the hell.

Benches

OK if you have not checked the spec's this is a pretty well spec'ed unit with the exception of the display

Much prefer 1900 x 1200 so will swap this with my 9400's display which I have already had stripped down and found the inverter screwed into the display bottom with no jewelers driver small enough to detach this (kinda hoping this inverter will power the 1440 x 900 and vis versa).

so spec's are.....................
T9600 - 2.8gig
FX3700 1Gig card
8 gig ram (4 x 2gig 1066 DDR3)
2 x 120 gig (7200 rpm raid 0)
bluetooth
HSPA card (stolen from dell mini9)
AGN wireless card

and that is about it so what does this all mean.............

super pi - 1M 17.192
- 2M 44.54

3D mark 06 - 11231 - bog std no OC running std windows 7 drivers

OK so that's all I have run so far -

Overall:

Well I can confirm it's fast - everything is really snappy, but this may be windows 7 and the 8 gig of ram + raid 0 but this thing is designed for a 64 bit OS period.

In fact the slowest time is waiting for it to boot past the bios - windows starts up pretty darn fast. A bit of overkill for me as I did not really need this beast - brought it second hand from Grays online in Australia paid $2000 - delivered (ausi dollars = $1320US) so was pretty darn cheap.

(edit)

Well have had this now for a few days and can confirm the Dell 9400 display fits this like a glove so is now all up and running on 1900 x 1200 which has made a big difference to me. Just so much nicer with a true high def display. Would love to buy an RBG LED back light model but SWMBO controls the money and she is still not aware that I have purchased this yet!!!!!!

After using this I have found it to be really dam fast - nothing seems to bog it down played Bioshock with everything turned up @ 1900 x 1200 and ran as smooth as silk - don't know the frame rates as there is no test version on this like FEAR but there was absolutely no shudder or slowdown when the action kicked in.

The form factor is the real selling point - I consider the 9400 as just manageable for lugging it and the power supply around, I have gotten lazy and have brought a mini 9 for work (runcore 64gig SSD) just because it's so dam light but I'm now considering swapping over to this. IT must just love me!!!! - possibly won't do this as I think this will become my gaming and general house rig - has the power and 64bit support to keep me out of trouble for another 3 years.

This is really the best unit dell has (Waiting for all the XPS1730 lads to throw rocks ) It's solid with the same form factor as the old XPS1710/9400 the power supply is 150W and this is just slightly larger than the 130W which I am now using (unit says it will run in low power mode) but I have not really seem any problem - was running the 130W when testing Bioshock and the power supply was hot but not as hot as the 90W unit I had was when running the 7950GTX card. I guess the 130W pack can take the extra 20W under peak load, or the throttling back is only just slowing me down.

And the dell 5530 HSPA card works like a charm (thanks Vodafone!!!) am using this while at work to bypass the web filters - great!!!!!

Update (2) 24th May

OK so have had this unit now for around 4 months during this time have run it pretty much on either the beta windows 7 or now on the RC windows 7 (64 bit) OS. This unit is actually amassing for speed and comfort. The keyboard is pretty good, some people have complained about the flex while I admit there is some flex in the keyboard it has not been an issue for me.

The weight of the unit seems OK - but I am only lugging around the 150W brick on the 230W brick, I believe there is now a slimline 210W brick which I may try out. I am actually surprised how cold the unit runs - after running bioshock for 3 hours I peaked at 65Deg C - have installed readyboot to allow unsigned drivers to run which allows Ik8fanGUI to run but don't use it to actually control the fans as the bios seems to have this under pretty good control.

Also finally managed to get the fingerprint scanner to function has been a pain figuring out what drivers will run with windows 7 - so as of right now everything works - except the ability to OC the video card - still haven't cracked that one yet in a 64bit platform.

As far as upgrading is concerned I may change out to the LED RGB display but I think that will be all - the processor improvements are really not enough as the T9600 is a really decent CPU and I will only gain a small advantage moving to a faster processor.

Overall this is a really impressive unit - has great power with performance only just lower than that of the XPS1730 or Alienware 17x (assuming they are fitted with the SLI 8800 or 9800GTX cards) - while the ability to run 16gig ram will future proof this unit for another 2-3 years.

Update (2)

30th September - The unit is incredible, amazingly fast - heat is not an issue have been playing FEAR - the second version, anyway after spending 4 hours gaming with every option on max (res at 1900 x 1200) - the temp's only ever got to 65deg C, am running an 8deg offset on IK8FANgui, but not using it to actually control the fans just keep an eye on things. The idle temps are 55 deg for the GPU and around 30 for the CPU. Is rock steady with those temps, one of these days I'll OC the GPU and see what score I can acheive, but can't find any system which will allow me to OC on windows 7. Even with unsigned drivers it still won't OC may be locked in the bios

Still think this is the best performance system out there, the GPU is close to any current laptops GPU for performance and the ram is upgradable to 16gig, with 8 gig being actually affordable with 4 slots!!!

Update 3 - December 2009

so as you can see have owned the laptop since early 2009, almost 1 year with the 6400 - so to date I have swapped over the old 1440x900 for a CFL 1900x1200 taken from my 9400 and now replaced with my LEB RGB 1900x1200 display - have replaced the old hard drives with two new 500gig 7200 rpm samsung G shock protected HDD's and installed my dell 5530 (taken from my mini 9) am now running win 7 Ultimate 64 bit and to be honest have not looked back - have been playing Crysis & modern warfare 2 both games running at 1900 x 1200 with no problems in the rendering rate or the performance.

Yet this is not my work machine - actually use my 2 gig ram & runcore 64gig supported dell mini 9 as my 10/6 day a week work unit - this is kinda my play unit which I run when I want the bigger screen and gaming.

In my view you can't go past the 6400 - temps have never been a problem and I have not yet bothered about OCing the GPU - there has been no need as the gaming performance has been flawless. Don't evern run IK8FanGUI now as the temps have not actually stressed the GOU. The cooling on the 6400 is rock solid and I'm in Sydney where we have had temps around 40Deg C and Yes I have been gaming without AC running - It was hot dam hot but the laptop was not affected.

in my opinion - you can't go past the 6400 or now the 6500 - yes they are expensive - and they may not hit the performance levels of the 17x but by god they are reliable and they don't overheat or downclock. If you want honest performance then the 6400 is absolutely worth consideration.

It's the final update - 2nd October 2010

OK had this unit now for close to two years and it's still going strong, has a slight rattle in the LHS fan which is a tad annoying. This is the main house computer and does not travel anywhere. It's still as solid as a tank with no damage to anything. Only problem now is I'm loving my M11x which is now making the M6400 redundant, still a great gaming rig nothing will not play on it that I have tried overall a very good unit now getting long in the tooth performance lagging against the alienware and M6500 etc

Still won't be selling as this can still perform extremely well when compared to "new" performance laptops and I would still argue the M3700 is up there against modern GPU's admittedly the 3D mark 06 score now for a real gaming laptop is up around 20k, 11k for a 2 year old unit is still pretty good

OK -

Love:

back-light keys - brilliant
Speed - fast, real fast
cool - yes seems cooler than the 9400 but have yet to really stress the unit so this may not be the case - IK8fanGUI won't install in windows 7 so can't let anyone know the temps, other than to say it's on my lap right now is is only slightly warm.
separate keypad
calculator button - kinda handy need to add something up just press the button
Did I say the back-light keys?????
Form factor - almost identical to XPS1710/E1705

Con's
Heavy - yep is heavy, but not as massive as XPS1730 - which to be honest was the only thing I have against this unit.
Display - Just this unit being being 1440 x 900 - anyone want to swap a LED 1900 x 1200, anyone??????

Overall I'm impressed the unit is really fast, small for the power contained within and not so flashy. Kinda hid's the power contained rather than displaying it to the world.

12 Comments

Thanks for your thoughts! Would you mind uploading your benchmarks to our database?
Hey, they got a time machine or something??
You ordered in feb and received the lappy in jan
Very nice,thanks for letting us know your thought's
Intro

I bought this as a upgrade to my M6300, so my comparisons will be between these two laptops.

Finish wise, the laptop looks great, but compared to the M6300, the case is not as rugged, and seems to scratch easier.

Size wise, the M6400 was a little thinner than the M6300.

The improvements over the M6300.

Two hard drives and Raid Performance
GPU Selection
LED Display option
e-Sata port
Display Port
Processor Selection
Lighted Keyboard - Awesome
PC card slot and a Express Card Slot

Upon arrving I upgraded the stock WXGA display with the RGB Edge to Edge LED display, and what a difference. The swap was easy with the only thing to note is that the inverter is not required for the LED display, but you do require the LED cable assembly with has an extra connector that terminates on the back of the display panel.

I Removed the T9400 CPU and installed the QX9100 Quad Core CPU ($ 250.00)

I also added the second HD to make a 2 x 320 GB Raid 0 array. ($ 90.00)

To make things easier I slip streamed the raid drivers onto the XP 64 Bit OS install CD.


Specs:

See chart on right

What's in the Box:

laptop. Quick Start Guide, Restore CDs, and Windows CDs

Design

The laptop looks sleek, and I think the grey finish is much more impressive than the Covet orange version.

Screen:

The 17 inch RGB Edge to Edge LED display is worth the extra cost, it is extremely sharp looking, True HD grahpic display, No light leakage, and bright in any condition.

One function included in the M6400 is the Auto Display brightness option which adjusts the screen brightness in varyious lighting conditions. It seems to work fine most of the time, although in some lighting conditions I had to manually adjust the screen brightness for my taste.



Keyboard

The lighted keyboard is great, it looks slick, and feels fine to me, I have heard others complain about the flexing in the keyboard, but this has not been an issue IMO.

Also unlike keyboards of the past, the M6400 does not require a cable be disconnected to remove it, 4 screws, Slide the keyboard towards the display, and it pops out. The connector is intergrated into the keyboard, - See pics for a shot of this new design. This is a great feature.

The keyboard includes a number pad and includes controls for Volume, and a Calculator Function Key.

Touchpad

The built in touch pad works as expected. The pad also includes a scroll function.

Features:

Multimedia Keys

Standard Function Keys, also include Volume Controls, and a Calculator operation.

LEDS

Wifi, Blue Tooth, AC Power, HD, Battery Charge Leds are included.

Wifi

The laptop came with the DW1510 Wireless card, I upgraded this ($35.00) to the DW5300 which includes the third Antenna port for better wireless performance.
There is also a second set of antenna connectors which I presume are for a broadband card. (optional)

Speakers

2 intenal speakers, no Sub, but Audio seems to be decent enough for a laptop

Input and Output Ports

Other than Power on the read, the remainder of the ports are located on the sides of the laptop. It was a bit of a change from the M6300 not having th Lan port in the rear, but it has not posed any problems so far.

Front:

None

Webcam Pictures

I have not really tested the web cam other than to coonfirm, it works, picture quality is about what i would expecte from a Web cam.

Right Side:

Ports are USB x 1, e-Sata/USB Port(Combined), VGA and Display Port, Lan Port, Express Card Slot, and Wifi On/Off switch and Wifi Catcher Function button


Left Side:

2 x USB Ports, Slot Load CD Bay, PC Card Slot, 8 in 1 Card Reader Slot, 1394 port, Laptop Security cable Lock, Mic and Speaker ports.


Rear:

The rear of the laptop has only the Power connector, and the fan exhuast ports.


Bottom:

Advanced E-Port connector, Easy access panel for expansion devices such as Wiress cards, Memory, Hard Drives. Etc.

Benchmarks

3d Mark06 8203 with stock settings.

Best score I could get OC was 9824 Submitted to the Forums benchmarks

Temps at max over clock were steady at 65 C,

Seems the Thermal Solution for this GPU works very well.

Size and Weight

As with most 17 inch laptops it is heavy, and lugging it around the Airports as I do, can be a chore, but having a power packed laptop in my Hotel is worth the weight as in many cases my laptop is my entertainment on the road.


Heat and Noise

Dell designed two fans one for the CPU/Chipset and the other for the GPU into this unit. One thing of note is the GPU fan is part of the GPU assembly, though it can still be removed for service, it seems to provide a better more direct cooling solution for the video card.

Battery Life

I have averaged around 2.5 hours of battery life, I think the LED displays do offer an advantage in this regard.


Software

Dell Supports XP OS, XP x64 Bit OS, Vista, and x64 Bit Vista OS

Sofware includes the Drivers CD for XP and Vista including 64 bit versions of both platforms. I have XP x64 bit OS installed, and seems to run perfectly so far. I will probably give Windows 7 a try onced it is released.

Also included Windows re-install CD for Dell computers, and software CDs for Dells Wedcam.

Accessories

Tons of Optional Accessories.


Pros:
Fast Desktop replacement
Lighted Keyboard
Quad Processor
16 Gb of Memory
FX3700 GPU
Raid Drives
Expansion Port
LED Display Option now available on non covet version.
Easy Expansion access.


Cons:
4 USB ports - less than the M6300.
Case seems easy to mark/scratch
Size of the 210 watt Brick
e-sata port only seems to work in AHCI mode.
Does not support OC for the Extreme CPU's If Dell sells the Extreme CPUs they should fully Support it including the OCing.

Conclusion:

The stock price was @ $ 3100.00 and I picked it up for $ 1700 from the outlet. At this price it was a bargin. The display upgrade cost me $ 500.00 from Ebay, and I managed to get about $ 150.00 of that back from selling my old display.

As soon as I have the Warranty transfer in place I am going to look into upgrading the GPU to the FX3700.

Although specs wise the FX2700 seems to be on par with the FX3600 found in the M6300.

Upgrding the CPU / GPU is about the same level of skill as was the M6300.

You do need to remove the Bezel. Keyboard, and about 20 screws to remove the base plastics to expose the CPU / GPU assemblies.

In terms of build Quality, OS options, Support, Expandibility, I think this is dells best laptop hands down, The only real negative is the price, but deals can be had if your patient and check the Outlet often. Buisness Level Support is North American based, and results are much faster and better response from Technical Support.
Cool cool. In before Steve.
Nice work Dave!!

Looks like a sweet machine!
Excellent review Dave...
Good Work Dave-p , just wish i had cash spare for one of these.
Long time reader, first time poster. Dave, do you have the seller info for your screen? What all was included?

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trk...All-Categories
Nice review - very nice laptop.

I just ordered this monster, but was wondering about the sharp corners on the system were any problem, and also, is there any flex in the palm-rests?

I was going to buy the HP 8730w, but this seems more powerful.
How do you like/find the RGB LED LCD?

You had no issues upgrading the CPU from C2D to C2Q? Mobo accepts it no problem?
Hey all,

I have one of these Dell Precision M6400 Covet workstation laptops and I'm thinking I'd like to upgrade to a new one in the next couple weeks, I've had it a little while and its become too old for me(I've had it almost 6 months) most electronics and especially computers are obsolete in 3-6, at least when you have a gadget habit like I do, I almost think it'd be cheaper sometimes to just smoke crack. That was an attempt at humor guys, laugh. Anyway, here are the specs on the laptop as reported by the Dell Identification Applet:
And it has almost 3 years still left on the warranty!
So Make an offer if you're interested in this workhorse, and I'll sell it to the best offer this week. Good luck! You can also send me emails directly (If that is allowed?, I apologize if not, please just edit it out don't kill my posting please. Its gdog8511 at g mail dot com Thanks!

Precision M6400
General ServiceTag 8L6NTL1 Family Name Precision Family Model M6400 Windows Version Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
BIOS Version A09 Vendor Dell Inc. Date 2009-11-05 Processor Model Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T9900 @ 3.06GHz Speed 3.07 Ghz Cache Size 6144 Kb Hard Drive Drive Size Free Space Utilized C: 148.95 Gb 120.83 Gb 19 %


F: 149.05 Gb 148.96 Gb 0 %


CD/Optical Drives Drive Type D: HL-DT-ST DVD+-RW GS20N Sound Card Model High Definition Audio Device Card Slots Slot ID Designation Usage System Slot 0 PCMCIA 0 Available SCSI Controlers Intel(R) ICH8M-E/ICH9M-E SATA RAID Controller Network Adapters Intel(R) WiFi Link 5300 AGN Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller Dell Wireless 5530 HSPA Mobile Broadband Minicard NetworkAdapter USB Controlers Name Version Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 293A USB2 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB2 Enhanced Host Controller - 293C USB2 Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2934 USB Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2935 USB Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2936 USB Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2937 USB Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2938 USB Intel(R) ICH9 Family USB Universal Host Controller - 2939 USB Video Adapters Model Memory NVIDIA Quadro FX 2700M 512 Mb Memory Total 8192 Mb Available 33 %


Slot Size Speed Type Slot 1 2048 Mb 1066 Mhz Unknown Slot 2 2048 Mb 1066 Mhz Unknown Slot 3 2048 Mb 1066 Mhz Unknown Slot 4 2048 Mb 1066 Mhz Unknown Available Slots 0








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