this short review was already posted by me in the dell 17" section,
but i'll put it here, too, so it is easier accessable for all forum users.
it is also a little different, since i added a few things, which i noticed
while playing around with the laptop.
DELL Precision M6300
a few days ago i got my precision m6300 notebook from dell.
so far i benchmarked it with 3dmark06 and took a short look at it.
i payed 1483 euro and the laptop came with the following options:
core2duo t8300 2.4GHz/3MB L2 cache
nvidia fx 3600m card with 512MB
2GB 667MHz RAM (upgraded to 3GB myself)
200GB HDD 7200rpm (seagate)
1440x900 non glare display (lg, replaced by a samsung)
fingerprint reader
vista business to xp professional downgrade (you can use both)
3 years international guarantee
1. 3dmark06
i did the 3dmark06 benchmark at stock clock speeds (i think it's 500/799) with the stock dell driver 175.75. i am running the preinstalled xp pro operation system and most unnecessary background processes are disabled. i have:
8860 3dmarks
with a light overclock (600/900) i have:
9686 3dmarks
i think that's pretty nice. considering the slower cpu (2.4GHz vs. 2.8GHz) and the 175.75 stock dell driver, which is not optimized for gaming, the performance comes pretty close to the 8800GTX in the alienware/ notebooks (~9200 3marks) and it is pretty much the same like the mySN notebook's with the same processor (~8900 3dmarks).
this fact makes me think, that the fx3600 is probably rather a modified 8800gtx card than a gts and that the info shown by gpu-z is wrong. but who knows.
as the card can be overclocked even higher and also there is a way to oc the cpu, the notebook is able to get 10.000+ in 3dmark06.
btw: overclocking is very easy, you can just do it with ntune and there is no need to flash the vbios.
2. what's new
the notebook is very similar to the inspiron 9400/e1705 i had before.
the differences are:
a. different colour (makes it look a lot better)
b. the useless media direct button is used to switch between performance and battery save mode now (useful)
c. the battery is stronger (4 hours battery life vs. 2.5 hours)
d. fingerprint reader available
e. non-glare display
f. smartcard reader on the right side
c. the case has alloy- and magnesium elements (nice)
d. 7200rpm hdd (instead of 5400rpm) with free fall protection
e. faster processors available (penrynn; up to 2.8GHz)
f. dx10 cards available: fx1600 (~8700GT) and fx3600 (~8800GTX or GTS)
g. touchpad has now a third button (useful for scrolling, but not as good as the lenovo laptops' middle scrolling button)
h. broadcom tpm (trusted platform module) security chip built in
3. negative aspects:
a. still no built in microphone
b. still no built in webcam
c. the non-glossy samsung screen is pretty good, but, unfortunately, it's black is only light grey, much worse than the glossy one in my 9400/e1705.
might be a general non-glossy vs. glossy problem, though.
d. power supply is huge (powerful, though - 130w vs. 90w ifor the e1705/9400)
e. still no hdmi
f. fan gets a little loud during gaming (but i think this is normal considering the power pressed into a laptop case)
g. fingerprint reader's driver is really only a driver - to use it, you have to install a huge security suite by wave systems
4. positive:
a. like the 9400/e1705, but nicer, faster and with some small & nice improvements
b. when ordering it with xp pro downgrade, you got xp pro preinstalled (vista business cd in the box) and there is no other useless stuff installed. really: only xp & drivers. great!!!
c. 3 years of international guarantee
d. the laptop has a good price (1483 euro with the above configuration); dell made it cheaper during my telephone order (100 euro off & free shipping)
e. you can play, but it doesn't look like a gamer laptop
f. good parts inside: hdd from seagate (littlebit louder than my former one, but much faster), toshiba-samsung dvd ram, samsung screen, sigmatel sound (much better than the terrible realtek onboard sound)
g. dell provides xp drivers for the M6300; some other notebooks can be purchased only with vista (i.e. xps 1530) and no xp drivers are available online.
h. still 6 x USB port (soo great...)
i. very long battery life for a 17" with a lot of horsepower: 4 hours! (when you use office or wach fotos)
5. conclusion:
overall a great & relatively cheap desktop replacement notebook, which can be used for intensive visual programs (cad, hd decoding, games, ...).
6. annotations:
a. i only mentioned the differences to the e1705/inspiron 9400 and didn't talk about the general things, that stayed the same (great keyboard, great quality, good access to RAM, hdd, good customer service by dell, etc...), as most people here know about these things already.
b. i didn't matter with posting fotos, as you can look them up at notebookcheck.com (they test the m6300, but with the fx 1600m card).
c. the performance is great: the 3dmark06 results are better than i expected and i was able to play call of duty 4 at max settings (all max, 4xaa, native res. 1440x900, no soft smoke edges). i played 45 people free for all and it ran very smoothly. i used stock clocks.
d. it is cheaper to order the laptop with 1GB of RAM and add a secod 2GB by yourself (this might vary depending on dell's special offers).
as from what i know, it is not really necessary to use 4GB of RAM in a 32bit system, as it cannot be properly adressed by windows anyway. 3gb should be more than enough.
e. i played crysis demo at 1440/no AA/all HIGH/shadow quality MEDIUM and it ran fine (from my feeling around 25-40 fps).
f. the 3years international guarantee is REALLY great, especially when you use to travel a lot. no matter if i am in poland, in germany or taiwan, there will be a dell technician at my door the next day after i report my problem.
7. conclusion:
i can really recommend this laptop, if you have the money left and need a very fast desktop replacement, which can handle every 3D application with no problems.
but if you don't need the 3D power and use to cary your notebook around every day, you might like a smaller one more.
but i'll put it here, too, so it is easier accessable for all forum users.
it is also a little different, since i added a few things, which i noticed
while playing around with the laptop.
DELL Precision M6300
a few days ago i got my precision m6300 notebook from dell.
so far i benchmarked it with 3dmark06 and took a short look at it.
i payed 1483 euro and the laptop came with the following options:
core2duo t8300 2.4GHz/3MB L2 cache
nvidia fx 3600m card with 512MB
2GB 667MHz RAM (upgraded to 3GB myself)
200GB HDD 7200rpm (seagate)
1440x900 non glare display (lg, replaced by a samsung)
fingerprint reader
vista business to xp professional downgrade (you can use both)
3 years international guarantee
1. 3dmark06
i did the 3dmark06 benchmark at stock clock speeds (i think it's 500/799) with the stock dell driver 175.75. i am running the preinstalled xp pro operation system and most unnecessary background processes are disabled. i have:
8860 3dmarks
with a light overclock (600/900) i have:
9686 3dmarks
i think that's pretty nice. considering the slower cpu (2.4GHz vs. 2.8GHz) and the 175.75 stock dell driver, which is not optimized for gaming, the performance comes pretty close to the 8800GTX in the alienware/ notebooks (~9200 3marks) and it is pretty much the same like the mySN notebook's with the same processor (~8900 3dmarks).
this fact makes me think, that the fx3600 is probably rather a modified 8800gtx card than a gts and that the info shown by gpu-z is wrong. but who knows.
as the card can be overclocked even higher and also there is a way to oc the cpu, the notebook is able to get 10.000+ in 3dmark06.
btw: overclocking is very easy, you can just do it with ntune and there is no need to flash the vbios.
2. what's new
the notebook is very similar to the inspiron 9400/e1705 i had before.
the differences are:
a. different colour (makes it look a lot better)
b. the useless media direct button is used to switch between performance and battery save mode now (useful)
c. the battery is stronger (4 hours battery life vs. 2.5 hours)
d. fingerprint reader available
e. non-glare display
f. smartcard reader on the right side
c. the case has alloy- and magnesium elements (nice)
d. 7200rpm hdd (instead of 5400rpm) with free fall protection
e. faster processors available (penrynn; up to 2.8GHz)
f. dx10 cards available: fx1600 (~8700GT) and fx3600 (~8800GTX or GTS)
g. touchpad has now a third button (useful for scrolling, but not as good as the lenovo laptops' middle scrolling button)
h. broadcom tpm (trusted platform module) security chip built in
3. negative aspects:
a. still no built in microphone
b. still no built in webcam
c. the non-glossy samsung screen is pretty good, but, unfortunately, it's black is only light grey, much worse than the glossy one in my 9400/e1705.
might be a general non-glossy vs. glossy problem, though.
d. power supply is huge (powerful, though - 130w vs. 90w ifor the e1705/9400)
e. still no hdmi
f. fan gets a little loud during gaming (but i think this is normal considering the power pressed into a laptop case)
g. fingerprint reader's driver is really only a driver - to use it, you have to install a huge security suite by wave systems
4. positive:
a. like the 9400/e1705, but nicer, faster and with some small & nice improvements
b. when ordering it with xp pro downgrade, you got xp pro preinstalled (vista business cd in the box) and there is no other useless stuff installed. really: only xp & drivers. great!!!
c. 3 years of international guarantee
d. the laptop has a good price (1483 euro with the above configuration); dell made it cheaper during my telephone order (100 euro off & free shipping)
e. you can play, but it doesn't look like a gamer laptop
f. good parts inside: hdd from seagate (littlebit louder than my former one, but much faster), toshiba-samsung dvd ram, samsung screen, sigmatel sound (much better than the terrible realtek onboard sound)
g. dell provides xp drivers for the M6300; some other notebooks can be purchased only with vista (i.e. xps 1530) and no xp drivers are available online.
h. still 6 x USB port (soo great...)
i. very long battery life for a 17" with a lot of horsepower: 4 hours! (when you use office or wach fotos)
5. conclusion:
overall a great & relatively cheap desktop replacement notebook, which can be used for intensive visual programs (cad, hd decoding, games, ...).
6. annotations:
a. i only mentioned the differences to the e1705/inspiron 9400 and didn't talk about the general things, that stayed the same (great keyboard, great quality, good access to RAM, hdd, good customer service by dell, etc...), as most people here know about these things already.
b. i didn't matter with posting fotos, as you can look them up at notebookcheck.com (they test the m6300, but with the fx 1600m card).
c. the performance is great: the 3dmark06 results are better than i expected and i was able to play call of duty 4 at max settings (all max, 4xaa, native res. 1440x900, no soft smoke edges). i played 45 people free for all and it ran very smoothly. i used stock clocks.
d. it is cheaper to order the laptop with 1GB of RAM and add a secod 2GB by yourself (this might vary depending on dell's special offers).
as from what i know, it is not really necessary to use 4GB of RAM in a 32bit system, as it cannot be properly adressed by windows anyway. 3gb should be more than enough.
e. i played crysis demo at 1440/no AA/all HIGH/shadow quality MEDIUM and it ran fine (from my feeling around 25-40 fps).
f. the 3years international guarantee is REALLY great, especially when you use to travel a lot. no matter if i am in poland, in germany or taiwan, there will be a dell technician at my door the next day after i report my problem.
7. conclusion:
i can really recommend this laptop, if you have the money left and need a very fast desktop replacement, which can handle every 3D application with no problems.
but if you don't need the 3D power and use to cary your notebook around every day, you might like a smaller one more.
