Dell Precision M6700 Owner's Review

This is according to the Notebook Check:

The improved feature set now includes support for up to 4 active displays. Furthermore, high resolution monitors of up to 3840x2160 pixels can now be connected using DisplayPort 1.2 or HDMI 1.4a if available.

From Nvidia Quadro:

DisplayPort 1.2 Support (with Audio)

Compact and secure DisplayPort 1.2 connectors support multi-stream technology, stream cloning and ultra-high-resolution panels (up to 3840 x 2160 @ 60Hz ). This enables maximum range, resolution, refresh rate, and color depth designed to support the latest display technologies.

The above is taken from the K5000m but I believe this capacity applies to all. However, HDMI 1.4a was not listed from Nvidia. Since it's consumer based, I guess just watching TV is its specific purpose.

 

I promised to report back on the multi-monitor project here.

As should surprise nobody, it didn't work as initially advertised by Dell support. I ordered (3) U2713H monitors because unlike the cheaper U2713HM, they have a DP out to support DP 1.2 MST Daisy-Chaining. Side-note: absolutely beautiful monitors with photo-quality resolution.

In daisy-chain mode, the m6700 readily "sees" all 3 monitors, and you can even run all 3 of them at 800x600 res. But that's it. Scaling back to two monitors, the max you can get is 1920x1200 on the first, and 1920x1080 on the second. But the difference in pixel aspect ratio between two adjacent monitors was too distracting, so for practical purposes, 2 monitors at 1920x1080 is all the m6700 can run without a dock.

Hours on the phone to tech support, who were great to work with. After giving up making it work, we concluded an ePort Plus should solve the problem. Dell Mexico quoted 6-8 week lead time because they "bunch orders", and would wait till they had enough demand to order a big lot of them from the USA. No thanks. So now I'm the proud owner of the world's most expensive ($400+) dock - $199 plus express shipping to have it sent to a friend in Houston, then Fedex International and customs fees to get it to Mexico.

Almost the same outcome - with the ePort Plus you can run two external monitors using DisplayPort at 2560x1440 (they look fantastic BTW), but that's it. You can't use the DP Out on the m6700 chasis - it must be disabled when the system is docked or something. Actually, that's not quite right - you can indeed see the 3rd monitor in Screen Resolution setup, and it recognizes it by model number. But you can't "Extend my Desktop" onto it.

Many many calls to Tech support later, we get to the bottom line - the real, true story behind the claim of 4 active displays is this: ePort Plus with 2 displays connected by DisplayPort and 1 connected by VGA, plus the laptop's native screen.

Ok, fine... Get a VGA cable and finally this nightmare will be ove... ! I got U2713H's which have no &^$@! VGA port instead of less expensive U2713HMs which do have VGA instead of DP Out for daisy-chaining, because Dell told me I needed to use MST in the beginning! Grr...

At least Dell is being cool about it. Ordering (3) U2713HM's today, then when they arrive in 2 weeks I can return the U2713H's for full refund, and Dell says they'll cover shipping both ways.

You gotta give them credit... The workstation support guys all agree nobody has probably ever tried this before in real life, so the fact I got some bad info along the way is understandable. They're standing behind their promises so far, and I can't wait to see this with 3 working panels. Even with 2 (where I'm typing this now), it's absolutely amazing that this is a laptop.

I'll report back when I get the U2713HMs and know for sure if it worked or not. I'm skeptical as hell about 2560x1440 over ANALOG VGA, but Dell says it will work. It'll be interesting to see how it looks side by side. If there isn't just a little picture degradation on the VGA-driven panel, I'll be amazed.

xPat

 

Thanks for the update. While no doubt frustrating for you, this is a lot of useful information as you are marching into uncharted territory.

I believe this is the first serious look at DP daisy-chaining on the M6700 that we've seen here. So, good to know the limitations. 1080p with two panels is the max you can reasonably get from one port. I'm surprised using three DisplayPorts didn't work (I believe I had previously read that this should work, but, never tested it myself).

FWIW, I'm running three identical panels from a dock with DVI+DVI+VGA and I can't tell which one is VGA without actually looking behind the panels for the cable. Granted, these are rather cheap 1440x900 panels, so we'll have to wait and see how well a nice 2560x1440 panel looks with VGA.

And great support from Dell... Though I'm sort of surprised they can't round up some hardware in the office to test with, sure would save them some money on the shipping costs.

 

I'm guessing you won't be able to tell in an up close connection. Do some blind tests if you can.

 

3 x 2560*1440 may work on AMD if someone insist on doing it.

Did you try to close the lid and see if the system DP works?

 

Actually, the system DP works fine with the lid open. I can make the 2 panels connected to the dock work, or I can make 1 connected to the dock and 1 connected to the system DP out work. I just can't get all 3 to work at once.

My 3 new U2713HM's are supposed to be delivered in 2 weeks. When they arrive, I'll have to run them on DVI rather than DP for the simple reason they only come with VGA and DVI cables. They have a DP In connector, but I would have to buy a separate cable to use it. Here in Mexico, that's harder than it sounds.

Here is the info on running 3 monitors on the ePort Plus, excerpted from the Dell internal training manual. Note the rules are different depending on which mfr of video card you have:

Multi External Displays The E-Port Plus II can support up to 3 external displays if certain conditions are met:

Any E-Port Plus II supported systems with NVIDIA Optimus technology can support 2 digital displays (DVI and DisplayPort or DisplayPort adapter), with the third display via the VGA port of E-Port Plus II supported by Intel integrated graphics controller.
Any E-Port Plus II supported systems with AMD Eyefinity capable graphics controller, can support any combination of 3 display configuration via VGA, DVI, DisplayPort or Display Port Active adapter.
Any E-Port Plus II supported systems with Intel HD 4000 graphics controller only, can support 3 displays via VGA and true DisplayPort connections(No adapters, DisplayPort to DisplayPort connection only). ​

xPat

 

Sounds like 4 so far to me Pat. But we can't form any definitive conclusions at this point on just one test. Were you expecting to connect via the D-port daisy chain X3 plus the VGA for 4 active external monitors?

Anyway, my media center has sufficient Apple monitors, but I have no idea of their inputs. So what would be the standard daisy-chain protocol? In any event, the cost of the 1.2 cable isn't cheap, nor are they easy to come by.

 

On a completely different topic, has anyone else encountered this:

My WD "My Passport" USB3.0 external HDD used to work fine with the 6700. 80MB+ sustained transfer rates typical, representing the limit of the rotating HDD - USB3 is obviously much faster.

But all of a sudden, any time I connect the drive to ANY port on the laptop or dock, a cute little popup window says "This device would work even Faster if you connected it to a SuperSpeed USB3.0 Port". Then when I use it I get ~20MB/sec max sustained write speed.

It IS connected to a USB3 port, but obviously windows thinks otherwise. Anyone know what's causing this?

Thanks,
xPat

 

Are the dock connectors dual-link DVI? (I didn't think they were.) Regular single-link DVI will be limited to 1920x1200. To get a higher resolution you have to use the DisplayPort.

 

Excellent point, Aaron. And of course Dell didn't mention that!

I'm not a DVI guru, but vaguely remember you can ID these from the connector itself. These connectors have a matrix of small pins, then next to that is ONE (and only one) blade-shaped "pin". I think that's single-link, and I bet the cables that come with the U2713HM's are single-link as well.

Of course I'll have DP1.2 cables on hand that are supposed to go back with the U2713H's... I'll write back to Dell support again and see what they think.

Sounds like everyone here thinks 2560x1440 on the VGA connection is going to work? That's the one that makes me nervous, for whatever reason.

Thanks,
xPat