Dell Precision M6700 Owner's Review

Just got an M6700 with two 256SSD. I want to pull out one of the SSD and put in a 750GB drive I have. Under bios, it is set to RAID but no RAID is configured. Should I change this to AHCI or leave it as RAID. I figured change it to AHCI which I did and it booted fine, but am not wondering if I should change it back.

thanks,

Mike

 

When you are in a RAID mode, can you still use ATA passwords for encrypting drives?

 

AHCI is fine (and I'd say, preferred) if you are not using the RAID features.

 

thanks Aaron44126. I see you are running Win 8.

I have the M6700 Covet and got it with Windows 7. It has the 3820 processor and K5000m video and 8GB ram. Do you think it is worth the time to upgrade to Win 8?

Just curious if it is worth the effort and if the drivers are all available from Dell.

thanks,

Mike

 

If you don't have the fingerprint reader, you shouldn't have any trouble getting drivers and everything set up for Windows 8. It's all available on the Dell support site, but really you only need to install a couple things from there (freefall sensor driver comes to mind), Windows 8 will include a lot of drivers out-of-the-box and pull the rest from Windows Update. I have some more info on drivers on the first couple pages of the other "M6700 Owner's" thread, but since then a few more of them have popped up on Windows Update.

As for if it is "worth it" that's sort of a whole different discussion but I'll hit a few things quickly. I like Windows 8 well enough but mostly my workflow is not any different than it was on Windows 7. The new start screen is something to get used to but I didn't find it to be a big deal. Keyboard operation of the start screen is the same as it was with the start menu in Windows 7. In "desktop" mode it is pretty much the same as Windows 7. As for the new app store and the "metro" apps available, nothing in there seems particularly great to me, though I have gotten some use out of the Netflix app and a couple of the games. I also have a guest account set up with a bunch of smartphone-style games that were available for free or a couple bucks each ("Angry Birds", "Where's My Water", "Fruit Ninja" etc.). A hit with my niece and nephew (10 and 7 years old).

I'll mention that I'm using the new "File History" backup feature to back up my data drive over the network and I think this is pretty cool. It's sort of like OS X "Time Machine" and I've used it to dig up old copies of files a couple times. Still using the Windows 7 style "system image" backup for my system drive. Also, I think the new Task Manager is a nice improvement. There are plenty of other new things scattered around which you can read about on various Windows 8 reviews or Microsoft's Windows 8 development blog.

And finally, MS just announced that the new price for Windows 8 Pro will be $200 after Feb 1. You can get it for $15 if you get it before then (you qualify for the cheap upgrade since you just bought a new machine with Windows 7). At that price I'd definitely go for it. Make an image of your disk and run the upgrade. If you don't like it after a few days you can go back.

 

thanks again. I went ahead and purchased it for the $14.99. Got a DVD too. However, I do not want to install it now. I had to go through the Upgrade Adviser tool and it started downloading automatically. I stopped it concerned it would run the upgrade now. When I go to run adviser again, it just picks up at the percent it left off on the download. Also, in the adviser, I set it to save files and settings. I would rather do a clean installed. Is this an option later on?

thanks again.

Mike

 

I don't know the details as I have not done it myself, but I believe that the downloadable install tool should be able to produce a bootable DVD or USB drive for you if you would like to do a clean install. Otherwise, you can grab a Windows 8 DVD from anywhere and use it for the install with the product key you have been assigned. You will need to have your Windows 7 installation sitting around for it to notice so that you can qualify for the "upgrade" license. But then you can delete the partition and do a fresh install.

I can tell you that it will give you options of whether to upgrade keeping your stuff or discard your stuff before getting started with the actual install. Also if you haven't entered the product key yet then it is not going to start the actual install. (Not sure when this pops up exactly. All of my installs have been off the DVD.)

If you're going to do a clean install you should look at turning on UEFI, UEFI fast boot, and secure boot in the BIOS. You should do this before booting the Windows 8 install media. (If you want to boot your Windows 7 install again you will need to reverse your changes.)

 

Thanks again.

Another question. I have the K5000m video card. Should I use the Win 7 x64 drivers off the Nvidia Site or the drivers on dell's site (I am still running Win 7).

thanks,

Mike

 

I see you have the Covet. Do you have the IPS display? If so, you should stick with Dell's drivers. I've heard from people here newer drivers directly from NVIDIA don't always work completely right with the Dell premiere color utility. If you'd really like the newer drivers, though, you can give it a try and see what happens.

I have the non-IPS display and I'm using NVIDIA's drivers without issue.

 

thanks. the display is "17.3" UltraSharp FHD (1920x1080) PremierColor IPS RGB Anti-Glare, Premium Panel Guarantee,USH,MobilePrecisionM6700,Covet"

I believe that was the only option with the covet.

Is the Dell premier color utility a program installed on the machine? I do not see it in the start menu.

There is a newer nvidia driver on the dell site, so at a minimum, I will install that.


thanks,

Mike