Dell releases a new Precision M6500 Core I7 laptop - Page 2

Yup, ISV certifications, to name one offhand, cost somewhere in the six or seven figures to be able to attain, and to make a card good enough to make it requires it be binned in someway, be it for better than normal rendering, or whatever a company's MO is. Truth is, because quadros are more aimed to pixelperfection and mathematical correction (don't get me started on Tesla), they tend to make fps a bit slower than their geforce counterparts. However, if you can manage to put a GeForce BIOS to a Quadro card, you often end up with a very good gaming card.

Jason

Well for now this is the only way to get a Dell with I7 and a 280M equivalent (the 3800) all in the same machine. People lamented that the M15X doesn't have a single 280M option, and along comes the 6500. Certainly it's not aimed at the gaming crowd, but we all know that mixed work/gaming folks exist and walk the boundaries of product lines often.

With the I7 memory controller and say 16gb of memory in the 6500 you are talking a long useful lifetime before it simply can't run what's required. When the M17x comes with I7 the tradeoff is going to be dual 280's vs quad memory slots mostly, certifications aside.

As for color I like the subtle metalic gray/black design quite a bit. I don't think the Covet is all that bad and you grow used to it over time. But when it comes to high end laptops I tend to like flashiness that can be turned off, so you don't attract unwanted eyes in areas you wouldn't want the attention.

The E2E rgbled display is just something they should port over to the M17X v2, if nothing more than to keep it as an option for those who want it. I think the current 1920 screen on the M17X is brighter and very nice overall, as well as more responsive (gamers will like it better) so I don't think offering it would be a cut and dry choice for everyone. But offering it would just make one major complaint go away.

Even for what it offers I think the current pricing on the 6500 is a bit steep. The Precision series usually is, and it offers a lot of workstation features, but perhaps that will cool a bit in a few months.

We shall see.

I have to say this is a serious high budget machine. It has to have a very limited market. For those who need this I am sure money is no object. But if anyone just games this is a major waste of money.

But I do always like knowing the most expensive models out there.

I think this is a very intresting discussion. I almost bought a loaded out 6400 last week and saw the m6500 just relased. Thank God I didnt

I would have to say that I am one of those individuals that falls into the niche market that this machine is going to empty my wallet.

I own a few small businesses included industrial fabrication equipment sales (Cad/Cam apps), digital media design company (photoshop and high def video editing), and as a hobby I enjoy playing flight simulators etc... I am always on the go and desktops dont follow

As a solidworks reseller, I know for a fact if your not running the quadro cards and you have a issue...you are SOL on any technical support.

The other issue I have is that I think the ALienware offers a few features I would like including the dual video cards and the blu ray burner. However, there is NO WAY I could walk into one of my executive meetings with an alienware. I would instantly get tagged as a gamer because the conservative audience of the industrial industry.

The last thing is that I do not plan on buying another pc for a while. My current M90 has performed flawlessly over the past three years. So I have loaded the m6500 to the gills. Its roughly 8k, which is insignificant compared to the value of work it preforms. But I am not a fan of reckless spending either so I would like to hear some of your input in regards to ways to maybe save money here or there and purchase the componets myself.

Well, the specs are quite impressive with the M6500 - for sure. Maybe we can get Dell spills one of us here at NBF for a review. Until then, we are at mercy of the "niche" power users like you for inputs.

Welcome to NBF, by the way. I like the observation about walking into a business meeting with an Alienware

cheers ...

Clay, in your situation i would be almost more inclined to go with either the m6500 in black, or the sager np9280. The former because it offers up to 16GB DDR3-1333 RAM, and the latter because it offers a desktop i7, and internal RAID 5 WITH optical disk ability. The sager can also take an Fx3700m as well, although the m6500 is FX3800m. Either way you cannot do wrong. Let's see the spec of the m6500 you loaded up

Jason

TOTAL: $7,982.00

DDR3-1600 is faster RAM. I would probably buy my SSD aftermarket, get the cheap HDD, and the minimum RAM, and buy the RAM and SSD from a place like NEWEGG where you can get it at a lower cost. THe reason is because NE tends to charge a bit less than DELL on most options (RAM and SSD being the biggies). Also, intel's SSD is leaps and bounds better at handling writes and TRIM than samsungs... less write amplification = longer SSD life, and it has very fast 4k reads and writes, to prevent stuttering. I would get the base RAM, and buy the 8GB cheap from NEwEgg... this way DELL isn't putting you over the barrel as much.

GOOD RAM = corsair, mushkin, kingston, in my book.

Jason

Ok, well I guess my next question is you have the option for 4 DIMMS 1333, or 2 DIMMS 1600.

Would I be better off with 4 Dimms so I could add more ram later? or do they make 2 8 gb ram sticks?

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/26...-issue-1600mhz

This seems like it may be the reason

Clay yea OC RAM is always better results with 2 DIMM's vs 4 DIMM's. And that is desktops were you have greater BIOS options. That said I guess you have to ask yourself is 8GB's enough? As currently looks like 4 1600Mhz DIMM's will not work.

But I must say DeLL throwing in XP Pro on that $8000 system is the deal maker for me.

Seriously the difference between 1333Mhz and 1600Mhz is about benches and stop watches. If you need more than 8GB 1066Mhz 16GB would peform better than less of either.

You are one of the rare exceptions where some of the cost cutting advice is not good. Why populate your system with multiple warranties? I mean this notebook makes you money so why not spend to get one "point of service"? Any down time over who is responsible will likely quickly surpass any savings you may of received? When DeLL blame NewEgg and NewEgg blames DeLL who you gonna call? Not ghost busters?

Go all DeLL the complete coverage has great value. If you disagree then get the 720QM and we will upgrade to the 920XM cheaper on your own. I think you see my point.

Good luck, and make some money with it!

Powerpack I think you are right. The complete care warranty with next day business support is amazing. They replaced my M60 that I clearly knocked off a table for free with a M90.

I think 8GB is enough for me know and by the time I would need more... i could just buy the modules and add them.

I dont understand why the slower memory cost more on dells website.

I also dont see an option to buy black

Another question..encrypted or non encrypted hard drive?

The reason was a bad stick of ram, found by the user her/himself.

cheers ...

"non" for me ... too much hassle just for personal usage.

cheers ...

and if you encrypt the entire drive a la bitlocker, it is NEARLY impossible to decrypt or get in should you need something and forget the password. There's a company that makes a product that does it, but its a $800 piece of software.

See here:



Softpedia News Article

and

Passware Decrypting Software

Ok, well my last decision is two 256 SSD drives or 256 SSD and 500 7200 rpm