About to REVIEW the Dell Precision M6400...NEED A LOT OF HELP

Hello everyone.

Well i have had my Dell Precision M6400 for about two weeks and i want to do a comprehensive review (with video) as part of my school project.

I am studying multimedia Technology and Design and I am just in my second year. So my skill level is still as good as average. We were tasked to create a website portfolio and market both ours and our partners.

Am still in the process of apply finishing touches to the site(it isnt live yet) and after much deliberation about my marketing strategy. I have decided to use the video/written review as part of my means to promote my site and draw in my audience.

My Dell Precision M6400 came with the following configuration:

*Precision M6400 : Intel Core 2 Extreme Quad Core QX9300 (2.53GHz,1066MHz,12MB
*Base Option : Silver Assembly Base
*Display : 17in Widescreen WUXGA (1920X1200) with CCFL LCD Panel
*Palmrest : UPEK Swipe Fingerprint Reader Biometric
*Camera : Integrated 2 Mega Pixel Camera with Microphone for Regular LED and CCFL LCD Panel
*LCD Back Cover : Silver with CCFL
*Resource DVD :Mobile Precision M6400 Diagnostics and Drivers
*Documentation : English Shipping Docs
*Memory : 4096MB (2x2048) 1067MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
*Hard Drive : 250GB Serial ATA (7200RPM)(Free fall sensor)with Hard Drive Carrier
*Raid Controller : All SATA Hard Drives, Non-RAID for 1 Hard Drive
*Optical Drive : Roxio Creator 9.0 including software
*Optical Drive : 8X DVD+/-RW Drive Slot Load no software
*Power Supply+Power Cord : UK/Irish 210W AC Adapter with UK/Irish Power Cord
*Battery : Primary 9-cell 85W/HR LI-ION for Silver LCD Panel
*Graphics : 1GB NVIDIA Quadro FX3700M (with 1GB dedicated memory)
*Wireless : EMEA Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth 2.1 MiniCard
*Wireless Core 2 Extreme Quad Core : EMEA Dell Wireless 1397 (802.11 b/g) MiniCard for NOT for RUSSIA OR UKRAINE
*Keyboard : Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Backlit Keyboard with number pad
*Software Driver : Mobile Precision M6400
*Operating System : English Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 Recovery CD not included
*OS Media : English/French/German/Spanish Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 Recovery CD
*3Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day - Minimum Warranty
Base Warranty
*2Yr CompleteCare Accidental Damage Cover

Since then, i have upgraded the following:
Memory : 8192MB (4x2048) 1067MHz DDR3 Dual Channel
Hard Drive: 2 x 250GB Hard drive
************************************************************************************************************


Check this out(lol)

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=h-D3upZ-BSI&fmt=18

The link to the review is

http://www.adoniteink.com/reviews.html

 

please review the jog shuttle also

 

Great. I'd be very interested to know your thoughts on your system.

Please comment on heat and fan noise using 1)AC power and 2)battery power when doing A)intensive and B)not intensive CPU/GPU work.

Can the M6400 be used on your lap for 40 mins without heat discomfort using 1)AC power and 2)battery power.

Will a coolslice be available for it?

With repect to noise. If you were using your notebook in a quiet meeting would you be comfortable with the fan noise?
Please rate fan noise levels in quiet settings.

Battery life when doing A)intensive and B)not intensive CPU/GPU work.

More specifically how well does the NVIDIA Quadro FX energy saving feature work when doing non-intensive things (email, internet, Word)? Battery life?

Does the edge of the M6400 cause any discomfort after extended mouse pad use? Some users site this as a problem.

Your coments on RAM and HD upgrades would be helpful as many have asked about these.

Is 2/4GB turbo memory as an option?

Does the M6400 hardware RAID include cache? How much?

Thanks.

PS. I did not comment on benchmarks as you already listed them.

 

What are the stock clock speeds (core, shader, memory) for the FX 3700M? You can use GPU-Z to find the values.

 

Guys can you tell me please how to use this jog/shuttle thing. I know that the touchpad is supposed to light up but i don't know how to turn it on. Please help
my monster has all possible extras except for the LED screen. there's even a wwan 5530 card and a turbo flash memory module installed in it.

 

Ok guys, I got started today by setting up my RAID configuration (RAID 0) and i was actually surprise to find how easy the setup was and went ahead to install windows and its drivers.

But i made a HUGE BLUNDER!

During the windows vista installation, i went ahead to partition the new RAID drive allocation space(468GB) by dividing it in half. It did that fine but it only allocated one half of the drive as Drive C and left the other half without a partition.So windows was only recognizing 234GB

*%$@K &^*£@&*!!!!...I didnt realize this until i had finished my installation.:cry:

so i am starting windows installation all over again...lol

Crap! you can extend a partition from vista!...i just read an article about that. I tried to check for an option like that but i looked in the wrong section(my computer without checking the disk management). Well i did mention this is my first vista laptop/computer..i guess you learn from your mistakes.

Well i was happy for a lil bit cos my vista score was recalculated from 5.4 to 5.9! just have to get the setup procedure right this time.

Actually i was right(i think). Vista 64 seems to have a problem with making more than one partition when the RAID setup is in RAID 0.Read this forum

Alright let me just mention something i have noticed. Honestly if you want to have this system in its optimum performance, you need to get a RAID config hard drive system.
I used this system for 2 weeks with a single 7200rpm drive and although it was fast..with this new RAID setup, The laptop basically mutated into a freaking speed demon. The speed at which it extracts and installs stuff is just amazing...am completely wow-ed!

 

Did you request the turbo flash memory?
What size is it?

Thanks.

 

Hey adoniteking,

When you ordered the interposer for the 2nd hard drive, what was the part number.. I am looking to add a WD 320gb SATA drive to it but a lot of people are missing this interposer in order to connect the secondary hard drive. Just wondering what the part number was.

The rep i got on the phone with today told me that it was this
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/products/Cables/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&cs=04&sku=341-4012

But it doesn't look like the connections are SATA. They look like IDE.

Can you confirm the right part number for us...?

 

well, i first emailed tech support about the missing interposer(it sounds so sci-fi) and told them to pls forward my case to the right dept that will dispatch a replacement but then i also sent a similar email to the customer service dept so i cant really say which dept acted first.

They sent me a new HDD tray with 4 screws and the interposer.

The tray has a bunch of numbers:
KSKZ 08 09 16 24A

38XM1HBWI10 REV3A

The polythene bag that came with replacement also has these:

CN 0JF01F-38561-89G-1237-A00

DP/N 0J501F

hope that helps

 

Oh man..