Dell Precision M6700 Owner's Review

All systems have four slots --- two on the bottom and two more under the keyboard. If you have a dual-core CPU, you can only use the slots on the bottom. If you have a quad-core CPU, you can use all four of them. If you have a dual-core CPU and upgrade to a quad-core later, the additional ports under the keyboard become usable.

 

I think it is more simple than that. CPU can produce 45-61 watts of heat depending on the quad core. The K5000M can produce 100 watts. 2 heat pipes on the GPU go to the GPU fan for an oversimplified 66 watts of heat. 1 GPU pipe goes to the CPU fan for an oversimplified 33 watts of heat. So the CPU side is 78-94 watts of total heat dissipation and the GPU side is 66 watts. Note that the CPU fan is a little larger to take on the extra watts.

Looking at the whole system, it pulls around 220 watts at full usage with the 3920xm and K5000m (only 31 watts in normal use). Of the 220, 10% or 22 watts is power adapter heat. That leaves 198. 100 goes to the GPU and 61 to the CPU. That leaves 37. 10 -15 to the display. The other ~21 watts is driving the fans, drives, chipset, ram, wifi, and everything else.

I have pics to better explain it, but the areas of negative pressure behind each fan have been carefully planned. There are little spacers that set the exact positioning of each fan.

 

Thanks! That was very helpful. I think I'll go with the 16GB then to be on the safe side.

 

I still have not listened to the headphone jack on the M6700. I keep meaning to. Glad it worked well with your Sennheisers. I use HD600s when I am monitoring audio because they sound good and since they are open backed, you can hear outside people too. They sounded good on ths previous Precisions, but you could only get so much volume. Listening to Shure and Etymotic in ear phones is more likely, but they have so much isolation. I had Grado 135s, but gave them away to a coworker when they never were comfortable on my ears.

On a side note, I need to come up with a better Headphone solution at work. I am driving the HD600's with a Marantz SR19 receiver and I know there are better and more efficient ways to listen to music. At home I am still 2 channel Audio Research tube gear into Hales Rev 3s. I am using the Cambridge Dac Magic to convert lossless files from a music server. I still have to use an actual disc player for SACD and Vinyl.

 

you're running windows 8 ? are there any issues ?

i'm afraid not. because on M4700 none of the offered GPUs are over 50 watts, yet it uses the same cooling config ( except GPU heatsinks are half the size on M4700 but there is still two of them ).

those probably use ~ 10 watts, however what you forgot is voltage regulators that convert power supply voltage to whatever voltages CPU, RAM etc need. because AC Adapter is usually around 19 Volts but ram only 1.35 V for example. those should make up the remaining 10 watts or so.

here are some voltage regulators around a desktop CPU:



you have to add whatever they dissipate to that 60 watts that CPU dissipates.

this laptop is very crazy inside ...

 

Yep. Voltage regulators on the GPU can all be lumped togther since the overall package pulls up to 100 watts. I think the M4700 is 45? The K2000M is faster than the old Quadro 3000M and halfway up to the 4000M if I rememember correctly.

I just lumped all the components on the motherboard and associated daughter boards into "the chipset" as a monolithic mass of heat producing things. Wait, I need to copyright that phrase. Be right back.

The M6700 is too. I got into all of the thought that went into getting a spill onto the keyboard through the machine and out of the bottom without 1) losing any data and 2) breaking the machine. Just so overthought and overengineered. I have pics of all of it posted, just not labeled.

 

well the 558 with a simple mod ( take out a piece of foam glued inside to ruin their sound, compared to 598 which don't have that piece of foam ) sound quite good, and because they're 50 ohms they can be driven by pretty much anything.

i never heard any expensive headphones, but from what i understand all headphones are inaccurate ( as opposed to studio monitors ). with headphones the objective is not accuracy, but merely PLEASANT sound. you should never master ( EQ ) material using headphones.

the 558 with the mod are pleasant enough. are they accurate ? NO. but they have a full balanced sound with bass, mid and treble all present, and they're not harsh so works for me. they are rolled off only in extreme highs and lows, but quite flat everywhere in between, which as far as headphones go is reasonably good performance. when you do the mod, they get darker, bassier, more lush and more open sounding.

but my favorite part about 558 is how spacious they sound. they don't sound like they're inside your head but the opposite - almost like you're in an opera house. i attribute that to the large open back housings with the diaphragm mounted slightly to the front and at an angle. the 558 probably won't match the 600 for top end response, but it may very well beat the 600 in imaging due to the newer angled earcup design.

they also sound liquid smooth - great for vocals.

however i never use them. i use Bose QC15 ( which are self powered by the way ) because i have an air conditioner in the room and i need the noise isolation. when i don't need noise isolation i use my mackie HR824 monitors.

 

Of course they make no sense. Some people don't know how to compare apples to apples. You don't walk into a truck dealership and complaint that the vehicles are big and heavy and get poor gas mileage. Some things should be evident by the job they do. Nevertheless, some people can't see the forest for the trees.

This corpse is beginning to rot. It's time we buried it, don't you think?

Nope. In fact, there are industries and software developed where they're uniquely intended for that purpose. You may test them to the extreme if you can.

Now that's a point we can agree on. For bass, good bass you need to move air and a lot of it. There's just no way to do that in a laptop configuration.

Hmm, that's quite the superlative.

Despite the addition of dedicated speaker manufacturers, speakers are still the least developed component in any laptop.

That's not like to change under the current laws of physics

Is that your highest rating?

What do you mean by "stiff"--a tight fit?

Incidentally, I can't help but notice your constant comparison of the Precision line to a Retina MBP. Since Mac doesn't really build a workstation do you believe that to be a comparable comparison?

Nope. In fact, there are industries and software developed where they're uniquely intended for that purpose. You may test them to the extreme if you can.

Now that's a point we can agree on. For bass, good bass you need to move air and a lot of it. There's just no way to do that in a laptop configuration.

Hmm, that's quite the superlative.

Despite the addition of dedicated speaker manufacturers, speakers are still the least developed component in any laptop.

That's not like to change under the current laws of physics

compared to my 13" macbook the speakers are all around better - crisper, cleaner, fuller and louder. but then 13" macbook is unfair comparison as it is half the price and due to size its speakers are under the keyboard. a more fair comparison would be to Retina MBP which has MUCH better speaker system ( compared to 13" macbook ), but i don't have one to compare to. i would expect the Retina MBP speaker performance to be slightly better than M4700 due to 2-way speaker design on Retina MBP. however for a business laptop i will rate speaker performance on M4700 as five stars.[/quote]Is that your highest rating?

What do you mean by "stiff", a tight fit?

Incidentally, I can't help but notice your constant comparison of the Precision line to a Retina MBP. Since Mac doesn't really build a workstation do you believe that to be a comparable comparison?

 

I will do some research on the 558s. The HD600s are so tough to drive. But when they are driven correctly, they are amazing.

There was a time 10 years ago when I was very into high end audio and had the resources to buy very nice used gear and then sell it for what I paid when I was done with it. I went through a lot of gear while my ears were still in their prime. Then came a family and other priorities. I sold off the expensive things. Kept the few pieces that I really liked.

I held on to the HD600s. I bought them new at a store going out of business for $200. The Sonic Frontiers Line 1,2, or 3 SE line of preamps had a built-in HeadRoom amp and it made the HD600s sound amazing.

To be honest, my Etymotic headphones are my overall favorites. They are super detailed and have a midrange focus. The Sennheiser's sound better overall. But I can listen to the Etymotics anywhere.

I agree with you about mastering. Headphones just don't work. You need properly set up speakers to get things right. So much happens in the room. My old mastering rig was a Sonic Frontiers Line 2 SE, SF Amp (blanking on the name - Amp 1 SE? 55 watts), Hales Transcendence 1 monitors and a Paradigm 1500 sub. Had the Audioquest, Nordost, and Cardas cables. Was so obsessive about it and dialed in. I ended up selling most of that gear. Kept the T1 speakers though.

I am going to check out the 598s though.

So off topic.

 

There is a 40% coupon currently that I used to buy my system on Thursday. My rep didn't know how long it would last, but I think it is still current.

I'd like to know about the IPS RGB screen as well. I got the base screen, but I'd like to know if the IPS RGB screen would give me the REC 709 color space and if it would be accurate enough to allow me to do preliminary color correction. Does it have enough options for a correct calibration?