Ok, I am a little pissed/disappointed. Prelim ship date Jan 19th because the body of the computer is not available?

Hate to hear that. I ordered mine on Dec 2nd and the online delivery date has always shown 1/4/2010. If I call in to check the status it says I am still in the build stage and the system will ship on Dec 23rd.

Here is what I ordered:

Mobile Precision M6500, Carbide Silver (224-7095)

Intel Core i7-920XM Quad Core 2.00GHz 8MB for M6500

4.0GB, DDR3-1333 SDRAM, 2 DIMM for Dell Mobile Precision

Internal Backlit English Keyboard, Dell Mobile Precision

nVidia Quadro FX 3800M, 1.0GB DDR3 Discrete for M6500

160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

17" UltraSharp WUXGA (1920x1200) RGB LED Display for M6500 (320-1131)

Integrated megapixel VGA webcam with single digital microphone, M6500 (313-8682)

17 inch Wide Screen LCD Silver Cover for M6500 (313-8686)

Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth 2.1 for Mobile Precision 6500

210W/240W switchable Slim 3-Pin, AC Adapter Dell Precision M6400 (330-4127)

8X DVD+/-RW slot load for Mobile Precision (313-8694)

Palmrest without contact-less smart card reader for M6500

Intel WiFi Link 5300 (802.11 a/g/n 3X3) 1/2 MiniCard for VPRO Latitude E/Mobile Precision (430-3362)

9-Cell/85-WHr Battery for Mobile Precision M6500 (312-0222)

Looks like the first batch is getting ready to ship out. I called the 1-800 number this morning and I have gone from the build stage to the testing stage.

I just got my port replicator plus today. How does the charger of this compare with the charger of the m6500?

Add people like me. I need workstation power for scientific applications: big numerical simulations, scientific image processing etc. I needed a quad core processor and quality graphics capability with serious memory potential. Being in an academic environment where I have to "win" budget through success, and budget is getting harder and harder to get, I had to pare the spec down to keep my price below £2,000 (british pounds). I also travel a fair bit so need mobility and my 5 year-old Dell laptop can't cut it performance-wise and screen's about to die anyway. I'm used to a 9 lb 17" laptop, so the lack of portability doesn't scare me.

I originally spec'd out an i7 based machine from the Studio range, and then IT said "it's a games/media machine - you can't have a games machine - or at least don't come crying to us when it falls apart or won't do this or that" - "but it's £700 cheaper than a Precision" - "leave it with us, we'll get most of that £700 discounted by Dell"... and they did, so here's my spec and I should get it mid/late January. I compromised on sheer processor and graphics speed to keep within £2,000 including sales tax but still with the fancy screen, solid state disk, docking station, a bag and a few extras. I'll boost the RAM later with aftermarket bits and I expect this machine to last another 5 years like the last one. I am distressed about the inability (I hear) to drive a 3007Wfp out of the docking station though. I hope I can still do it from the display port with an adapter. Can I?

Paul

If you ordered the : Part no. 330-4127 : 210W/240W switchable Slim 3-Pin, AC Adapter Dell Precision M6400 : you will get a smaller and thinner version of the one that came with your dock. If you got the standard adapter, you will get another one just like the one that came with your E-Dock.

It looks to be the same as the adapter that comes with the XPS 1730.

Yes. You can drive a 30" display from the DisplayPort. You can drive 2 of them from the dock if you use the 2 DisplayPorts. The issues with the 30" displays came from people forced to use the DVI-D port.

If you are running a wide-gamut monitor you should be running from the DisplayPort to get higher color depth per channel. You get 8bit over DVI-D or VGA which means 256 shades of red, green, and blue. DisplayPort supports color depths of 6, 8, 10, 12 and 16 bits per color component, but you will be limited by the fact that the Nividia Quadro tops out at 10 bit color depth. 10 bits is 1024 shades. 10 bit color depth is also known as 30 bit color accuracy - 10bit red + 10g +10b. The Dell UltraSharp U2410 is an example of a wide bit depth capable monitor (it actually operates at 12 bits internally).

I have the original 3007Wfp with only one DVI-D Dual Link input and nothing else - and I understand the DVI ports on the dock are not Dual Link. So I guess you're saying I do need a display port to DVI-D Dual link adapter and then I can use either the laptop direct, or the dock to drive it - is that right? Also note I've spec'd the ATI FirePro M7740 (to save money). I assume that's still OK for this screen?

From the ATI specs on the M6500 page "Max DVI Resolution (Requires optional dock) - 2560x1600 via optional DisplayPort to Dual-link DVI adapter"

It looks like you would need Dell Part# : 330-5521 "DisplayPort to Dual Link DVI Adapter for Select Dell Latitude Laptops/ OptiPlex Desktops/ Precision Mobile WorkStations/ Precision WorkStations / Alienware Laptops" or an equivalent adapter.

Anybody have theirs yet?

Jan 20th

Does anyone care to speculate why the M6500 "Extreme" RAM is less expensive than the others (when adding to a base system)? In theory the 1600MHz RAM should be the fastest and most expensive? Really - it's not even close...

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1600Mhz Extreme Performance Memory
8.0GB, DDR3-1600MHz SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
+ $700

1333Mhz Advanced Performance Memory
8.0GB, DDR3-1333MHz SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
+ $1,300

1066Mhz Performance Memory
8.0GB, DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
+ $1,210

I think its because you have to have the 920 processor to actually use the 1600MHz ram

I can confirm (with a 6400) that the displayport to duallink DVI adapter does indeed work. I don't drive a 30" monitor but it registers at the monitor as dual link so it works just fine.

I have the dell version and it's about 8" long or so, not big which then attaches to a dual link DVI cable to the monitor. I use the dock at work to drive a 24" but I "thought" that this was also dual link output on the dock. I won't return to work till Monday, but will have to try and confirm if it is or not. Was pretty sure the dock had dual displayport and also DVI dual link outputs, but the info above makes me unsure.

Did you get a chance to check?

Paul.