Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

I have been experimenting with M4700 using cooling pad with 120mm external leftover fans, check this post On the M4700 I could reduce idle temps with 2ºC with acceptably low noise levels... but silent is relative and I can reduce temps more by increasing RPM with added noise. For you this added noise may still be low, because I am using the computer for audio work.

The external fans will successfully lower temperatures, but you need to be careful with internal air flows in the computer chassis. When I used an external fan on the GPU only (tested both pushing and sucking air), the discrete GPU ran cool, but the CPU and integrated HD 4000 GPU started to run warmer and temperatures triggered the internal fans. Also it looks like the fan controller freaked out sometimes and ran continuosly even though GPU temps were cool... this could be the result of some temperature that I didn't monitor at the time as I didn't know that there is e.g. a MoBo temperature sensor that you will not see in GPU and CPU monitoring software.

So be sure to have fans for both CPU and GPU and try not to get a situation where air is flowing backwards or standing still somewhere in the chassis.

You should be aware of these sensors when testing:
CPU temp
Motherboard temp
Intel GPU temp
Discrete GPU temp
HDD temps

Use e.g. Speccy for monitoring temperatures, gives a nice summary on one page. This for me gives all but Intel HD4000 temp, which you can see with e.g. GPU-Z

Good luck!

 

You're welcome - hope it works out good for you.

I went to Radio Shack on the way to Home Depot today and bought an Anti-Static Mat/Wrist Combo package. Now I have no reason not to get in there more often and clean better.

 

2. No Optimus with the IPS screen.

3. There's no BIOS option or anything to force the machine to only use the Intel GPU. However, there are controls in the NVIDIA control panel to tell it which GPU to use for which apps, and you can switch it to "Integrated only" by default instead of "Let NVIDIA decide"..

 

Noise will not be an issue as both pair of fans do not produce any sound when running on 5v that usb will provide. I've got 2x Sharkoon Silent Eagle 1000 that were used as case fans and 2x Gentle Typhoon 1450 that were used on cpu heatsink. Both pairs are silent and quieter than anything else up to 9v or 3/4 of their rated rpm at 12v.

Of course airflow is very important - I've learned alot on my old nc8430 and desktops I've assembled over the years. Fans will be pushing the air into the notebook and needed measurements to know how to place them so that i can "blow" air on pretty much entire bottom surface.

My m6600 will come with ati card so information about hd4000 is irrelevant to me. HD temps shouldnt be an issue as only ssd will be tortured and it never exceeded 45c no mater how much work it was doing in my current 8530p. Other two drives shouldnt be of concern also as i will most likely dig trough my old cd-s i know i had some dos thingy where i was able to mess with Acoustic Management of the drive - slowing seek time but reducing overall noise.

Key is the placement of two 120mm fans - if i cover most of the perforations on the bottom of the notebook with them i wont mess up any airflow.

My cooling pad will not be made to get passive operation but rather for my 1 day a month gaming session with friends - usually they last for 6-8 hours and helping to relive latent heat that accumulates in chassis and all the other components of the notebook goes a long way to system stability and longevity. Heat is the biggest contributor to degradation of electrical components.

 

DarkyDark,

I made a mistake. Switched numbers. Then rechecked and wrongly switched sides. I had a feeling something wasn't right. Your picture shows the rear warped. It isn't.

#2 is corrected.

#1) 14.4375 (14 7/16)
#2) 3.6875 (3 11/16)
#3) 9.0625 (9 1/16)
#4) 1.0625 (1 1/16) A and B are equal.
#5) 3.750 (3 3/4) A and B are equal.

Sorry about that.

It's an optical illusion because the bevel is rounded there whereas #5 bevel is cornered. Seems larger would fit, but it isn't.

 

Hi Guys,

Just thought id say hello and see if i could get a quick question answered. Just ordered myself one of these systems for work as the desktop finally died and i didnt like the current range of desktops much. Ive ordered the standard screen version (non-ips, hoping to never open the laptop!) with a 4gb nvidia 4000 card, the advanced eport and a couple of external monitors, solid state blah blah blah, you know the drill

What i wanted clarified was regarding the number of external displays - i keep finding conflicting information on the interwebs regarding how many i can use.

What i would like is to run 3 external through the eport, so i guess i was thinking 2 dvi or display port and 1 vga - is this actually possible? The monitors are not displayport 1.2 so i dont think i can daisy chain them, but i would like 3 external monitors if possible. Otherwise ive read that some people use 2 and the integrated with the optimus setting turned on in the bios, but ideally i would like to never have to open the laptop at all.

Any pointers in how to set this up or if its possible or not would be very appreciated.

Cheers

Kris

 

I don't have a dock so I can't check for sure but my current understanding is that this should be possible. With the M6600 you would have to use Optimus to pull this off, but the Kepler-based Quadros in the M6700 support at least four displays and I haven't found or heard of a monitor configuration that doesn't work.

 

I am running three monitors with a dock (older one that only has USB2). I have them connected to the two DVI and the one VGA on the dock. Seems to work fine. I have not tried the displayport. On my M6500 I had before the 6700, I added a third, fourth, and fifth with USB2 DVI adapters. I have not tried more than three on the M6700, but read you can hook up 5. I have the Covet with the IPS and no optimus.

Hope this helps.

Mike

 

Thanks for the responses... this is sounding like i should be able to do what i want. Just need to make sure i have enough desk space for my wall of monitors

Had a tracking update and should be getting the beast on Thursday - cant wait!

 

1 - All of the IPS panels are made by LG. I prefer the Covet version because it keeps dust and fingerprints off the screen. It is also VERY tough glass. I thought the glare might be an issue, but it is not. The new Chimei panels that I have seen in a couple of other recent Dells are very good. Chimei seems to have gotten their stuff together after the negative feedback. LG seems to be have the best native white balance.

2 - Optimus does not work due to Intel's built-in gpu being limited to 8 bit color. Both of the GPUs have to share lookup data for Optimus to work.

3 - There is no reboot mode. I wish there was a reboot mode, but my guess is that you would have screen issues from the 8 bit color mode. With the Alienware, it is using a 6 bit panel, so there are no issues when switching.

4 - Get the new E Port Plus with USB 3.0. Make sure you get a 240 watt power adapter with it.