Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

Thanks for the responses on the color thing....I was positive that there wasn't a Silver colored model out there but that is what the Dell Outlet is calling it anyhow.

To me it looks greyish but there are many "shades of gray"...

My business partners all looked at me strange and asked if I REALLY needed that much horsepower in a laptop. I most definitely don't at this point in time but I suppose I am future proofing.

Bokeh.....I want to thank you VERY much for the detailed review you did and how patient you are with all of us in the forum here....your review tipped the scales for me. I was getting a business notebook come hell or high water....YOUR review and the folks here in the Precision thread REALLY helped me decide!


On a lighter note....Dell is certainly proud of the Docking Stations ....

I managed to purchase one off of EBAY for $80 including shipping....I am very happy with that because my wife would have my privates if I went and spent another $200 plus shipping on one.

Cheers

 

Hi Everyone!!!!!!!!!

Great inputs thus far!!!!!.....

While my M6700 is still in shipping my beautiful and talented wife asked if we should consider the IPS screen....

REALLY?????? While in shipping??????

She does NOT need this now but after a really great exchange of comments with Baiii (thanks a ton btw)......a suggestion was made to just get an IPS external monitor if she actually finds she requires this.

Anyone have any other thoughts on this????

She likes big real estate for photo editing so with the docking station I purchased.....can she do this???

I believe this can be possible...if not I have to change the options on our purchase....I don't want to restrict her creativity but at some point I have to make certain we aren't tossing things away.

Cheers,

Mike

 

Definitely possible, the dock will have at least a VGA, DVI and display port out, more if it's the larger one. You can drive pretty much any monitor with that.

Also, I finally updated my BIOS from A08 to A09, everything went smoothly, but it still scares the hell out of me when I flash a BIOS.

 

Hello ladies and gents....can someone point me to the biggest baddest SSD I can put in my m6700? I have an Intel SSD 160GB in my Vostro Nirvana 13 incher and it's so much faster than the Precision on certain operations that I'd like to speed up the ol' m6700. Sorry if this has been hyped, just busy with work and this is a long thread!

saludos!

 

If you can find one...
Newegg.com - Crucial M500 960GB SATA 2.5" 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter) Internal Solid State Drive CT960M500SSD1

 

Have used Intel, Crucial, and Samsung. All work well. Fastest was a pair of Intel 520 series 180gb drives in Raid0. Very close behind is my current pair of 500gb Samsung 830s in Raid0. You get over 1tb/sec reads. Now that Windows 7 and 8 pass the TRIM command to Raid0, you don't have to worry about slowdowns over time.

The downside is that you have taken up both 2.5" slots and doubled your risk of storage failure. You also add a few seconds to the boot time by having the raid config screen splash up.

Thanks for the tip of the hat there. Trying to get back and post more. My M6700 experience has turned very boring lately. The machine just works without any issues. The only blip is when someone comments on Red color of the Covet.

One thing I guess I could add...

Being a display purist, I thought I would not like the glass covering the display on the Covet. There is some glare in bright situations with high contrast objects reflecting on the screen, but in normal office or home environments it is a non issue. In a controlled environment for editing, it is a complete non issue.

I do a lot of work with the M6700 in completely random places when we are streaming or capturing video. The fact I can clean the gorilla glass in front of the panel with a wet cheap bathroom paper towel and not have to worry about scratches is nice. I would never dream of doing that with a regular matte screen. I also don't have to worry about dust or toddlers with rubber spatulas touching the screen.

Anyhow...

I hope you get a good system from the Outlet. Will be around to help you get through the early questions.

 

Personally, the thing that attracts me the most about the gorilla glass is that people can't get their dirty fingers directly on the display. I really don't like people pointing to something on the screen and touching it.

Regarding the color, if I ever get the funds and the time, I might try to get a second chassis and have it painted black ir a very dark blue or very dark red, something that is starting to border on black. Since the chassis is metal for the most part, it's definitely something that van be done. Some people in the Alienware forums have done it on the older m17x and the newer m18x. Here's the one Mr. Fox did on his m18x: http://forum.notebookreview.com/ali...difications-custom-builds-35.html#post8790813. Something similar could probably be done on the M6700.

 

Actually, I have no problem with the color. I think it adds just the right amount of spice to an otherwise completely utilitarian chassis. Then again it was its sleeper looks that attracted it to me most. Still, there's no way any one color is going to satisfy everyone. After all, can you imagine a white Precision?

 

I can already imagine how dirty it will look after a month. It still would be nice, heck, I wouldn't mind paying a little extra for non-standard colors if Dell were to offer that option.

 

Tijo,

I would have to agree with you on that one but perhaps the Precision Market is not as diverse as the "consumer" market.

I echo your sentiments....while I LOVE the standard "BLACK BRICK" of thinkpads....standing out a bit from the rest of the room in a business meeting can be beneficial in some areas!



UPDATE: The Dell order status site is a bit convoluted as many of you have certainly experienced! Multiple calls yesterday finally garnered a SOLID result!!!

M6700 has shipped (even though the ship date on the site is in the future...LOL)...FEDEX has the package and it should be here on Monday! Too bad I will be at a competition then and will have to get it on Tuesday.

It is all good!

If anyone is interested I will post the "unboxing" pictures to see what comes in.....It will be interesting to see just how "she" ships here! Docking Station may or may not be here but I will do the same for that!

Thanks for all the help! Considering I am VERY XP savvy and pseudo Vista savvy....this step to Win 7 Pro will be a slight learning curve. I am still contemplating getting an SSD for many reasons (speed being one of them) so please bear with me as I navigate the new OS and an "ideal" setup for what we have at the business and at home!

Thanks again for all the help!!! Someday I will be able to give back a bit!

Mike