Dell Precision M6700 Owner's Review

That surprise me a little bit because I have set Premier Color to default then calibrated my screen with my colormunki.
The icc profile I obtain is larger than AdobeRVB so it's not sRGB...

My question is simple (in some ways ) : how to use the largest color space available but with an icc profile generated with a calibration device...

- Without Premier Color the icc profile is limited to sRGB space.
- With... I quite note understand the interaction between PremierColor and color management made by windows and/or the icc launcher installed d with my colorimeter.

 

any word on the next AMD card?

 

Hi all,

thanks for the awesome literal breakdown of your com, it really helps in understanding the space the com has.

I used to work on a dell precision 380 and then a sager 32 bit xp system right now and am looking into getting a better workstation to be able to render and work on bigger texture files.

like blackboard, I'm a student but graduating and am seriously looking at the m6700. these are the current specs I am thinking of getting and am wondering if there are anything I can reduce it further to make it as " barebone" as it can and then be able to obtain similar parts out there for a cheaper price as time passes?

Dell Precision M6700
Windows 7 Pro 64
Core i7 3820QM 2.7GHz
32GB DDR3-1600
NVIDIA Quadro K5000M 4GB
17.3" 1920x1080 FHD anti-glare
256 mobility ssd primary drive
750GB 7500rpm secondary drive ( I could do without this if I can move my 300GB from my sager notebook. ( what considerations do i need?)
2X blu ray drive ( was wondering if I could not get this now and get it later)

I have additional questions to ask
-is there any need to op for the xp option in the windows 7 OS?
- should i get the lowest specs for ram 2X2 GB 1600 and then replace them with 4X8GB or should i go with 2X8GB 1600 and then obtain another 2X8GB 1600 later? what are the implications like trying to install them by removing parts or rams being totally different in brands/ support by dell.
-I know it was mentioned earlier that 1600 and 1866 does not have "visible" difference but is it possible to get 4X8GB 1866? Is it supported?
- i understand the difference between a solid state drive and a 7200rpm platter but I do not know what is mobility, minicard and how it works. which is the best option among all of them for a ssd drive that has good fast bootup. the mobility or the minicard?
- for the primary drive if i were to go with the cheapest platter drive. Can I later then get my own ssd and just merely copy the contents over since the OS is usually on the primary drive.

Hope I'm not hijacking.

 

XP mode can be downloaded free of charge for Windows 7 Pro and Ultimate so even if it doesn'T come pre-installed, all you have to do is grab it from Microsoft's website.

Get minimal RAM and install more yourself, right now there are no 1866MHz 8GB SODIMMs available, i don't see why a 4x8GB 1866MHz wouldn't work when some are available.

The mobility SSD is in mSATA form factor, you can see the mSATA connector on the pictures in Bokeh's review, the one that comes from Dell is a Samsung PM830, but you can easily get a mSATA C400 for ~200USD and add it yourself.

Yes, you can clone form HDD to SSD, just be wary of alignment, i suggest using the latest version of Acronis True image.

Also note that including the mSATA, you have can have 3 drives, 2 2.5" + the mSATA. You cna always add a 4th if you sacrifice the optical.

 

To clarify tigo's most recent comment:

The Dell "mobility" SSD is NOT a mSATA form factor. It is a standard 2.5 inch form factor (that can also fit 7 mm SSDs designed also to fit ultrabooks).

The Dell "Solid State Mini-card Drive" are the mSATA SSDs classified as such and sold by Dell.

It is not completely clear to some, or at least there is conflicting claims out there, about whether the M6700 will recognize and/or use more than 16 GB of 1866MHz RAM. The legitimate sources that I trust report that the M6700 is designed to make use of 32 GB of 1600 RAM and only 16 GB of 1866 RAM. Even if readers reject the claim in this paragraph, let me suggest readers accept the two sentences above this paragraph, which appear to clarify potentially misleading info.

On a different note, do readers have any comment on the most reliable 750 GB (internal, 2.5) hard drive to use as second storage along with a 256 SSD (Samsung 830 is my first choice) with primary storage? I have a Seagate Momentus. Others prefer the Western Digitial black. However, I have heard mixed/conflicting stories about both including nightmares crashes and data loss with both. Can readers share their beliefs/experiences on this matter with either or both of these two drives, especially the Seagate Momentus? Thanks.

Cheers and peace to all...

 

There currently aren't any 1866 MHz 8 GB modules on the market so there's no way to test whether 32 GB of RAM at 1866 MHz will work. I see no reason to believe it wouldn't.

The M6600 was speced at 1600 MHz for 16 GB but only 1333 MHz for 32 GB. Once installing 32 GB worth of 1600 MHz modules became possible, people discovered that it... worked fine.

As for hard drives, I just had a double bad experience with Western Digital in my M6700 (drive developed bad sectors after a few weeks; then they sent me the wrong drive as a replacement). It was a Western Digital Blue, maybe Black is better? I was giving them a try after several years on Seagate (with no problems) because I had been hearing good things, but, back to Seagate for me. Though, I'm sure there are people here who can tell you the opposite story.

 

That's good to hear, but ultimately insufficient. We must know more about how you used your HDDs to get any useful information from your experience.

I'm guessing you put your drives through a lot more stress than would a typical computer user? Can you at least verify that much?

 

My 750GB of choice would have been the Hitachi 7K750, but i don't think you can find one anymore.

Thanks for the clarification.

 

I'd say my drives typically get above average stress for sure but nothing terribly extreme. The drive that went bad was not my system drive, but my data drive. I'm a software developer and I have some large projects sitting around, much of my data is not used very often but I like to have a big drive so that I can get at anything I might need while at home or at work or wherever. Honestly the drive didn't have to do much hard work before I noticed the problem, the most stress I put it through was the initial transfer of all of the data from my previous system.

 

Hey,

my M6700 arrived 2 days ago and im really happy with it, but i have 1 problem the fans are spinning up for about 2 seconds and then they are quiet, after 20 seconds the same thing happens again. Isnt it possible to just stay the fans all the time on the same level (depending on the heat ofc)?