Precision m90 review - Page 5

Thanks, I was unaware that AE used OpenGL accelleration. BTW the 3500M performance info I was using came from NVIDIA http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_11761.html and shows very modest performance increases. Nothing like the 450% increase in Maya that Dell claims. The 3500M is the pro/GL version of the 7950, just like the 2500M is the pro/GL version of the 7900gtx. The gaming performance is the same, depending on the driver you use it changes slightly. Right. And what you get has nothing like a 1920x120 resolution for the laptop screen Which is odd, considering the Apple focus on graphic arts etc. But there we are. I have moved from SGI and Mac to PC myself ... No idea. Mine was assembled at a Dell factory in Ireland, presumably as its the closest to where I live. I have not used one (yet; I'm looking around for one, researching, and plan to get one). SIIG seems to be the popular model, they have both a dual eSATA II and a raid eSATA II card. I'm looking because my external storage (see sig - Maxtor 3200 USB 2 drive, which holds a single 3.5" 7200 rpm 16M cache SATA drive) is hampered by the USB2 interface. Have a look here for ideas. The M90 comes with a cheap little 4-pin (ie unpowered) Firewire port. I suspect its not very good. However, you could try plugging in one of your external firewires that are not Mac-formatted and try benchmarking it with something like HDTach. You are correct. I mis-remembered. You have no options for a DirectX 10 card in a laptop at the present time and nothing announced upcoming either. So I suggest getting the M90 now My previous machine was a 3.5 year old Dell Inspiron 8500 with a 2.5GHz Perntim IV M, 1G of DDR 226 RAM and 60G of 5400 rpm disk. My new M90 just *flies* through photoshop compared to it. CPU, cache, disk, ram, and dual cores - all better. I'm using CS2, yes. I have not tried CS3 although someone I know was on the beta program for it. It varies. Most of them are not as large as the average size you mention, b a ways. Probably the largest files I use are PSDs created in Painter by my partner (she is a childrens book illustrator). Some of those things get large - looking at one now 383 megs and 35 layers. I wish PS had better 16 bit support, which is still laughably primitive for such a mature product. Although competitors like cinepaint have their own major problems. But, that should be in a different thread no doubt. Look forward to it. I can't believe they didn't on the M90, actually. Especially since Dell make those nice 2560 x 1600 flat panel monitors. They do, as long as you don't need it to be fast. ASUS has an external expresscard to video PCIX16 box for videocards. note however that expresscard is only PCIX 1x so its slower than would be desirable. Oh one final thing I forgot to mention, the M90 has gigabit ethernet which is of course a good thing.

Well, I did it....and, I bought the 3500. Lol.

Hey, they gave me almost $1000 off my order. (Thanks to you guys, I spent a shitload of money. I learned [here] that if you call them, they can offer you better deals - so, maybe I saved a bit.)

Anyway, it came out to $5189 (which is with the $527 off that I got for shopping at Dell Small Business).

Then, I had them knock another $200-ish off so that it would be under the $5000 I was hoping for. (I think it came to 4989.)

And, for financing it on a business lease, I got another 4% off ($200) - which brought the total down to $4789-ish.

Now, I could have bought the same computer (with the Quadro 2500) for $4400. But, for $300 more, I got the 3500. (And, I got the 4Gigs, too.)

I'll post my review when I get it. They said it is scheduled to ship on the 23rd (with the build time and credit approval) - but, my awesome sales rep, Russell, told me that I can reasonably expect it within 7 days. AWESOME!

I can't wait. This is the first computer I've purchased in over 4 years. Thanks for all the help Chris. (WTF. Do you work for Dell or something?)

BTW. Siig is definately a good brand. I did some more research last night, and apparently Avid recommends them as part of their approved workstation setups. (If Avid recommends [errrr, REQUIRES] it, it's gotta be good. Their system specs are the most anal of all the software manufacturers!)

I'm interested to see that ASUS ExpressCard-PCIX box - although, for the record, that Magma model is the real deal. A lot of video pro's are using Magma stuff. (I found that tip on the premiere content creation forum, CreativeCow.com.)

Anyway, thanks again for the help. This is definately a top-notch forum, with top-notch posters.

PS. This thing better be blisteringly fast. I better see fire coming out of my mouse when I use this thing.

Well, I ran it by my boss....the other reason money is no object.....and, he was surprised that I spent so much..... However, since I'm the smart guy, he took it in stride.

LOL!!!!!!

I can't wait.

I got it. Here's a few Sandra benchmarks I've run.

Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to run the benchmarks until I had installed all of my production software....and, applying a few tweaks that Avid reccomends. However, I do have a clean image and will be going back to it as soon as I finish testing my install workflow (shoulda got a Mac, lol!)


SiSoftware Sandra – Everything On(1)/Reg Opt(2)
Jan. 26, 2007

Arithmetic
Combined Index : 36412 (total)

Multi-Media
Combined Index : 197291 (total)

Memory Bandwidth
Combined Index : 7947 (total)

File Systems
Combined Index : 40463 (total)


SiSoftware Sandra – Everything Off/Reg Opt.
Jan. 26, 2007

Arithmetic
Combined Index : 36417 (total)

Multi-Media
Combined Index : 197307 (total)

Memory Bandwidth
Combined Index : 7942 (total)

File Systems
Combined Index : 40530 (total)


SiSoftware Sandra – Everything Off/Reg Opt./Reg Delete(2)
Jan. 26, 2007

Arithmetic
Combined Index : 36414 (total)

Multi-Media
Combined Index : 197435 (total)

Memory Bandwidth
Combined Index : 7870 (total)

File Systems
Combined Index : 40569 (total)


SiSoftware Sandra - Everything Off/Reg Opt. Off/Pre-Restart

Processor Arithmetic
Combined Index : 36408 (total)

Processor Multi-Media
Combined Index : 197420 (total)

Memory Bandwidth
Combined Index : 8123 (total)

File Systems
Combined Index : 40405 (total)


SiSoftware Sandra - Everything Off/Reg Opt. Off/Post-Restart

Processor Arithmetic
Combined Index : 36295 (total)

Processor Multi-Media
Combined Index : 197443 (total)

Memory Bandwidth
Combined Index : 8099 (total)

File Systems
Combined Index : 40464 (total)


1. I am running Spy Sweeper, Spyware Doctor, Diskeeper and True Image services.

2. (I am using Registry Mechanic 6 to do registry optimizations. And, have tweaked a little of the registry settings with X-Setup.)

NOTE: You were right, my computer shows 3.25 GB of RAM running at 9--MHZ.... I have yet to try the Microsoft tweak.

And, I can't give you any graphics benchmarks because the freebie Futuremark products I'm using can't seem to upload my freaking results.... ARGH!!!! I'm interested to see the performance. Oh well.

Anyway, all in all, I'm happy with the purchase. Although, I can guarantee that a Mac with the same setup would be substantially faster. I bet a MacPro with the ATI graphics processor is faster..... I can really feel the limitations of this OS. Oh well...

Will report more later; I gotta get back to work (since I have to spend 50% of my increased productivity on managing my retarded os)...

Hi How's it going?

I had a quick question I just recently purchased a Precision M90 Laptop From Dell

T7600 2.33ghz
2gb Ram
17" WUXGA Display
Nvidia Quadro 3500M Graphics Card
(Fully Loaded)

I'm having a problem with the monitor display seems like the screen is not evenly lit and there is black spots like smudges on the bottom left and right of the screen. Looks like there is a shadow or something around all the sides of the monitor, I talked to Dell and they are sending me a new system but my concern is does the M90 have Monitor Issues, I'm reading here on many sites and reviews that I am not the only one with these problems.

Review sites of the Dell Precision M90

http://www.wwug.com/cgi-bin/viewarticle.cgi?id=38515

http://www.mydigitallife.info/2006/07/02/dell-precision-m90-reviews/

http://videoediting.digitalmedianet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=38515

Does anyone else have this same problem with theres, I love the laptop and want to keep it but if the screen is like this on the replacement one I will be sadly returning it for a full refund

Thanks

Light leakage. Every laptop (or LCD-based technology over 15 inches, for that matter) I've ever had, had light leakage issues. I'd say anything less than .20 inches square is acceptable.

You really shouldn't be using a laptop for HD video editing. Even using the best HD codec (CineForm HD), you can't run three streams of true HD video from a notebook SATA drive. The throughput just isn't high enough. Less efficient codecs such as Avid HD or DVCPRO would choke on a single laptop SATA drive.

If you're hellbent on editing HD video on a notebook you really need to find one that at least offers two drives in RAID-0.

I'm doing it right now. Although, I do have a pair of eSATA drives and a SIIG card coming.

The best (compressed) HD codec is DNxHD...Although, that's just my preference... Take a look at XDCAM and you'll see why.

Cineform isn't a real codec, it's an intermediary/ You can actually archive DNxHD.

If you really want to know, I'm using Avid's DNxHD 145 (which is an 18.125 MB stream).

I managed to crash my ultra-notebook. I was working with a 400+ MB PSD (Photoshop file) - which, PS noted was utilizing 1.3+ GB of memory. I had PS set to utilize 75% of the 2.7GB I had allocated to program virtual address space (with the /3GB switch and /userpa option). NOTE: any more than 2.7 GB of program virtual address space crashes programs and/or dimishes performance for media-related applications as the system needs at least 500,000 MB to allocate to the video/drivers etc.... )

Anyway, I had allocated more memory than normal, and yet I still managed to crash it. (NOTE: Most Adobe products are large extension aware. They can use more than 2GB of physical address space.) (PS was showing 2.1+ GB physical and 2.2+ GB virtual. Max was around 10GB of VM and 2.7ish GB physical.....The OS wasn't hurting either... I have 4GB total...1.2+GB are useable to the system after my userva switch.

So, if you're thinking about upgrading to more than 4GB of RAM and people keep telling you not to.... Just do it - it helps. Especially if you're a professional, and your livelyhood depends on it.

PS. I got my RAID array in last week. A pair of WD Raid Edition drives. So far, they have yet to fail me. And, I have traveled with them! They're solid....to say the least.

Bought M90 from Ebay seller:spec's on my sig @ $1450 shipped. Was brand new, came with dell laptop bag, warranty transfer was smooth. I love the looks alot more than the E1705 I had. The LG screen it came with really blows, and the cpu is alot slower than the one I had on E1705 (T7400 & GTX card), but at the price I paid, this was best Dell purchase I've made.

Will follow up with benchmarks later!

Thanks to a lucky strike, I'm getting a new Precision M90.
I'm thinking of instaling the new Windows Vista. How does yours perform in the Windows Experience Index?

Thanks!

Looking good

what?

Looking at getting a M65 or M90. I will be using SolidWorks and Inventor on this. I was thinking M65 for the 15.4 screen for easier traveling as I will be doing alot. If I want a bigger screen for home just hook a 19" or 20" LCD. Or should I just stick with the M90 and it's 17". I have a E1705 now and it is heavy at times. What is the best screen to get also. I got a lower resolution on the 1705 as I heard complaints of glare on the glossy ones. But, I am not as impressed with the one I have. I would like to here opinions on the to models for 3D CAD. Thanks.

For all you lucky M90 owners--

I'm going to get either an M90 or an XPS M1710, with almost identical stats. I kind of prefer the M90--I like the magnesium case, and I might be doing some CAD work in the near future. (I know that Quadro is better for CAD, but GeForce is cheaper.)

However, while I can get an EPP discount on the M1710, the M90 is not offered through either of the two EPP accounts that I have access to. I know that calling Dell and trying to haggle is an option, but I am a terrible haggler (not insistent enough), and I was hoping that there would be a coupon or an EPP discount or something I could use instead.

If anyone can give me any advice on getting a discount on this machine (I get 7% off for warranty + 12% off for EPP on the M1710, so something comparable would be terrific), then I will be sincerely grateful. I want to order in the next two weeks or so. [If I can't get the M90 for within $100 of my XPS price (about $3100), then I'll go with XPS, so I won't pine away without a computer.]

Thanks a ton & I enjoy reading all your illuminating posts.

Like I mentioned, it's hard to beat Ebay deals. Just go with Ebay, and let me know if you want the id of the seller I purchased from.

216ghz
100gb 7200rpm
2gb ram
512 vram
max screen

My Review of the M90

Casing = solid, simple, strong, efficient.

Screen = Bright Light. if i where an artist i would definetly tell them to re-stretch the screen(canvas) as it aint 100% flat. side angle i see bumps.

Heat = Gentle

Noise = Barely if ever noticeable. harddrive occasionally ticks that is all. Impressive non noise.

Sound = I tend to lower the volume so the neighbors don't hear it.

Weight = easy

Processing power = It does what it has to do efficiently. it kicks ass.

Conclusion = It is a Hummer, not a Porsche. Strong mofo, not elegant.
I chose it for these reasons.



Thank you for the reviews above.

Z

I had the same problem with the builtin Wireless card from Dell themselves. It has take a lot o wasted working time. In the and, the remedy was deinstall / remove software based the cards at all and restart, the onboard card where found automaticly and worked. It was the nextdaybusiness help desk.