Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

If you can afford it, the larger SSD would be the best possible configuration. If you need large amounts of storage (HD video files) that you won't be editing regularly, a smaller SSD and a traditional hard drive is a good compromise as well. Tasks that require large sequential reads and writes (video files, large cad files) or large numbers of smaller non-sequential reads and writes (opening complex programs) benefit most from SSD's. Playing movies or music won't be any better because the bitrate required to play that media is lower than what traditional hard drives can provide.

When you add in the fact that getting a 2.5" hard drive or SSD also affects the available battery configurations, the situation becomes more complicated.

I think I'm going to end up getting the 512Gb mSATA SSD so that I can have as much fast storage as I can (for CAD, VM's, Databases) and maybe get a 64gb microSD and a shorty SD card adapter for storage that doesn't require as much bandwidth (documents and things like that). It will also let me get the larger battery, which I think is important because the external battery packs that I have been able to find wouldn't be able to supply enough power to charge the battery while running.

 

If I get the one large 500gb ssd, can I easily add another owner supplied ssd in what would be the bay that Dell is offering the hdd in? You can't see the breakdown with the pre-configured models, but I am sure we are paying a premium on these large ssd's.

 

First, I assume you mean the 512GB mSATA SSD, not the 500GB hybrid hard drive. But to answer your question, no you wouldn't be able to add another hard drive later because as far as I can tell, all of the configurations that come with the 512GB mSATA SSD also come with the 91WHr battery, which occupies the space that would otherwise be used for the 2.5" drive. If you want to ensure you can install your own 2.5" hard drive, it looks like you'd have to order a configuration that includes one in the first place.

 

Wait, can you get 512 mb ssd in the small form factor and large battery? My dell rep stubornly claims that 512 only comes i 2.5 inch size and that means small battery.

 

Tell your Dell rep to take a look at Dell's own configurations on the website, because the configuration you're asking about is precisely the top-end spec of the M3800 (and XPS 15). Your rep is probably confusing the 512GB mSATA SSD with a 500GB Solid State Hybrid Drive, which despite Dell's choice of naming is just a 2.5" spinning drive with a built-in solid state cache (separate from the 32GB mSATA unit that Dell also includes in specs that have the hybrid drive). Lots of people in the XPS 15 thread including myself have ordered this spec.

 

Anyone buy this thing in Canada yet?

 

I did,

Order status: Pre Production
Estimated Ship Date: 09/12/2013

 

My m3800 out for delivery today Will get it soon, hope everything goes well~

 

I ordered mine 2 days ago. delivery in about 10 days.
We do not have the 512 mini-card SSD config available in france so I went with the 256 minicard SSD.
In this config (256ssd) they also offer the 512GB 2.5 hybrid drive, which is not indicated on the dell website.
I wanted the 512 SSD but they quoted me 850€ excluding VAT which makes it 1016 including VAT. that's 1,373 USD by today's rate !!! So I'm getting a 256 SSD, replacing the 2.5 with my 2.5 512GB samsung 840pro and getting a samsung msata 512GB for less than 400€.
Now I need a DisplayPort to VGA adaptor

 

Which country?