Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

Welcome to the club! My order was just summarily cancelled today. There are two people who are "monitoring" my order progress on Dell's side and no one informed of of the cancellation. Also, there does not seem to be a new order to take its place.

Well, there's your problem... It seems that the new 3x40 processors may be gumming up the works at Dell.

 

So 3 different people (including me) have had their orders cancelled. I finally got the hold removed on Dell's automatic reorder. I spoke to my account rep and he stated that if I asked for Windows 8 in my system that it would cause an additional delay of a week. He said he'd knock $15 off the price of my system so I can get the upgrade from Microsoft. I noticed that the video card and screen part numbers are different for Windows 8. I need some help... is it worth canceling it or should I just stick with Windows 7?

 

I just heard back from my sales rep today. He was very apologetic and said that he has never seen anything like this in the two years he has worked at Dell. So, he resubmitted my order and my new delivery date is Oct. 26th. He also said that he has expedited the order and he is also working with the fulfillment team to try and get it shipped as soon as possible. This experience has been a little frustrating, but at least my sales rep seems like he is on top of it.

I doubt that the actual hardware is different. I suspect that the different part numbers just reflect the different drivers that need to be installed to accommodate Windows 8 (but I could be wrong).

I guess it comes down to whether Windows 8 has any features that are compelling to you. Personally, I think of Windows 8 as an answer to a question that no one asked. For me, there is nothing in Windows 8 that warrants the potential compatibility issues. Win7 is a great OS and everything I use works well with it. I prefer to go with the devil I know...

 

hrana, i'd go with the windows 7 config, especially if you get that 15$ discount. Personally, i plan to have both on separate drives, Windows 8 brings some nice under the hood improvements like the ability to schedule and force TRIM on SSDs instead of leaving to the whims of the god if idle computers like in Windows 7 among other things. You may or may not like the new interface, but if you can live with the new interface, Win 8 is a nice upgrade, That said, until i'm entirely familiar with it, i'll be keeping Windows 7 on the notebook as well.

 

Well its touted as a more secure upgrade. For many, the advantage alone may be well worth the price of admission. That's assuming it works at least as well in all other areas. Some people also claim it's slightly faster. But i haven't yet seen any side-by-side comparisons to substantiate that yet.

On the negative side, the touch screen capability makes it a software totally different than anything we're used to. The learning curve can be a bit off-putting for some.

 

So finally heard back from the rep after 20 hr wait. He sent a new order confirmation, showing a November 8 delivery. More than a month after the original order date!

I really don't understand how Dell expects to sell to business-grade customers with these kinds of delays and lack of communication.

Also, the processor is still listed as i7-3740QM but now has a different Dell part number??

 

I think that was part of the whole problem. For some reason they changed the part numbers for the 3x40 CPUs, and that threw off a bunch of orders.

 

Any word on touchscreens? Any rumors on the quality, brightness etc on the screen?

 

Just checked the driver download page for Windows 8 and the video drivers were pulled, probably explains why i was unable to download yesterday.

 

It is the same story here. The CPU part numbers changed. My order will be arriving on 11/2. I suggest you get in touch with the customer care associate (not sales rep) keeping an eye on your order and ask them to expedite it.

As for the Windows 8 issues, I appreciate everyone's response. It turns out that Windows 8 cannot be configured at this time with a fully loaded system. Mainly the webcam and FIPS fingerprint reader SKUs don't work when Windows 8 is selected on the customer facing website or on the sales reps' systems. Because of this reason, I gave up and will stick to Wndows 7. My sales rep will either comp me $15 to get the Windows 8 upgrade directly from Microsoft and/or they will send me Dell-branded Windows 8 recovery disks. I have been promised that all the hardware is Windows 8 compatible and no hardware revisions will be made to the M6700 due to the new OS.