Dell Precision M6700 Owner's Review

Thanks for the reply. I decided to remove the keyboard and found two of five screws missing and the keyboard was slightly bent. The missing screws did not appear to have a bearing on the keyboard problems, but the bend did. I pretty much straightened that out and now it all seems fine (still with two missing screws).

I also found a different screw rattling around where it could easily have shorted a circuit board. It is of very unusual design, with a largeish inset cross head and a fine threaded tip, all with a spring wrapped around the screw. I have no idea where it should be fitted. The user manual doesn't appear to offer any clues. I wonder if anyone else can offer any ideas.

 

That is a heatsink screw, i'd definitely ask Dell to fix this. It might just be a spare dropped there or one of your heatsinks is missing a screw Make sure to complain, looks like there is at least one guy assembling those that isn't doing a proper job.

 

Thanks for your reply. I have checked the service manual and can now see that it is a heatsink screw and that there is a lot of disassembly required in order to access the heatsink. I have requested an engineer visit for tomorrow.

I have also requested supply and fit of the two (out of five) missing keyboard screws.

 

Did you also order yours from the Dell Outlet or order it new? The outlet is only as good as the people refurbishing the machines.

 

Speaking of ordering. I had previously planned to order my 6700 now. however, there are so many great deals in peripheral going on right now, I feel compelled to stock on them now and delay getting the machine to connect them to until January.

Is there any disadvantage to waiting another 6 weeks for the laptop when I can install all the peripherals and bring it up to maximum specs immediately upon arrival instead of waiting the 6 months or so I had previously estimated to complete the upgrades, via sequential updates? That is, unless the 6700 likely go on sale at this time?

 

You can do it in whatever order you want.

I don't think the M6700 will go on sale, but you should pay attention to the Dell coupons. There are a few sites out there where you can find a list of them, they change every week or two. Periodically they have something like "30% off any Precision workstation over $X" which will typically beat what the sales reps can offer you.

 

Dell customer service has contacted me a few days ago, I was told the factory was going to compensate me for the damaged system I've received, by paying back 10% of the total sum of money I've paid Dell in total.
There were no other options mentioned by them.
The only thing they asked me for, was my bank details.

So no further explanation from Dell about the damage, or if it would be affecting my computer negatively.

I just hope the bubbled coating under the bottom cover won't come loose, or the metal below isn't rusty.



Aside from all that, I can say I've upgraded my computer with a secondary 750GB 7200rpm drive, which I'm now running in Raid-1, which I've been able to easily setup through the Intel Rapid Storage Technology software inside Windows.
Both drives have identical performance, the original drive that came with my M6700 is from Seagate, the secondary drive I've added is from Western Digital.
I had that one laying around from my M4600, which was able to keep due to the Keep Your Hard Drive warranty.
Since it was working fine, instead of getting it destoyed, why not format it and mount it in the M6700, since I'm using it myself anyway, right?
The Windows Experience Index only slightly decreased from 5.9 to 5.3 on Raid-1.
I suppose only the writing speeds have slightly decreased and the reading speeds should have increased quite a bit, though I haven't checked.

I've just ordered the Crucial M4 256GB mSATA SSD and should be receiving it next week.
I'll be combining it for acceleration of the Raid-1 Array.
IRST says 64GB is the maximum caching size possible, so I'll have to see what I'll do with the rest of the available space on the card.
I'll probably end up moving other cache files or directories over there, like the windows hibernation file.


Can anyone confirm if I can use the Primary HDD ejector screw to secure the mSATA card?



Also, has anyone tried the custom charging setting, which is only available inside the BIOS? (A06 here)

I used to have it set to "Primarily AC Use", but changed it to custom several days ago:
I've currently set my custom charge settings to 50% to start charging, and stop charging at 90%
but I don't know if the custom setting is at standard charge or express charge speeds.

Dell Battery Information does show the Custom charge option is set, but you can't enable it, review, or save any changes to the values that you've set.
(Blank values and sliders that do nothing, and a save button that's greyed out)


Does anyone know the actual details on all the charging options?

 

The mSATA card needs a smaller screw than most of the ones found in the system. The only thing I could find that fits is one of the screws holding the bracket on the back of the optical drive. Though I decided I didn't want to use that one so I stole a screw from another laptop.

 

Just before I gave the M4600 back, I tried the eject screw in the msata slot as it looked to be smaller than the rest, and it seemed to fit perfectly, so just wondering if anyone could compare it with the 'official' screw needed to secure it in place.

 

I ordered mine new.

This was my second M6700. The first one came with the wrong processor (i7-3720QM instead of the i7-3920XM that I ordered). The second one needs a motherboard swap, but I chose to have it replaced by a new one. Now waiting on my third...