Dell Precision M6700 Owners Thread

Called Dell Tech Support this morning. They suggested to do a motherboard swap, so you were right hrana. Since the laptop is still within the 7 workday cool-off period, I called Customer Care and asked for a refund.

Next step is to call a sales rep to get an identical M6700 for the old price.

To be continued...

 

I recently noticed a slight bluish hue on the right side. Also when using the laptop next to the external displays is seems that my m6700 display has an overall reddish tint. It is most apparent when viewing light grey colours. I have set the red channel brightness to 40% (in the NVIDIA control panel) which seem to yield "proper" greys. I am not sure if this is something that I should be concerned about since it is adjustable in software.

EDIT: Actually, I have been using the m6700 in the docking station with the lid closed and 3 external monitors. It seems that right after I remove the m6700 from the docking station the display is noticeably "redder". After a little while the "redness" dissipates somewhat. I suspect that the increased heat that the display experiences when operating with the lid closed is causing it to go slight red (or redder). Even after the display "cools down" it is still slightly reddish (requiring approx. 45%-47% red channel brightness). So, is operating the m6700 with the lid closed potential detrimental to the display?

 

Yes, of course. Here it is:

PCIe 3.0 is now supported by the mobile Kepler series and an optional Turbo mode can automatically overclock the Nvidia card by a theoretical 15 percent if the laptop cooling system allows it. The implementation of this boost mode is done in the BIOS, but it is ultimately dependent upon the manufacturer of the laptop.



Source: NOTEBOOKCHECK

 

Well, Dell has put together everything for a second exchange. No, it wasn't the screen tint. Instead, the primary bay SATA connector was failing. It took out two Hitachi drives and the original Western Digital before completely dying. The Dell CS rep apologized a lot and said that they'll send a new system instead of doing a motherboard swap. Hopefully the third time is the charm.

*sigh* It took 21 days for the last exchange. Hopefully the third system comes in before Christmas. *sigh*

 

I know the feeling, this will be my third M6700 too. The first was delivered with the wrong processor (i7-3720QM instead of the i7-3920XM that I ordered), presumably caused by an SKU# mixup on the Dell website at the time I ordered my M6700 (online order). It took more than a month of calling and e-mailing Dell Customer Care and a sales rep to get things sorted out and the second M6700 ordered. Hopefully the third time's the charm for me too. We'll see...

 

I am planning on buying a m6700 however the ram and sdd options are too expensive to buy directly from Dell.

Therefore I was planning on buying an ssd and ram separately. The ideal solution would be 32gb of ram especially because it is so cheap. I was wondering though how hard it is to reach the ram slots below the keyboard.

Furthermore I was wondering what the quality of the normal 1080p tn panel is like. The quality of it on an elitebook is horrible.

Finally I was wondering whether the keyboard and trackpad are any good.

 

If you check or search in the other 6700 thread started by Bokeh (which I added his most relevant quote below), you'll see some stuff about overclocking the K5000. I commented in there too, I have been running my K5000 overclocked for almost 4 months. Temps are pretty much identical as non-overclocked. I used NVIDIA Inspector to set the clocks, I added this shortcut to the Windows startup folder in Start/All Programs to reset it to overclocked on each start, adding 200 MHz to the Memory clock and 120 MHz to the Base clock offset so they run at 1700/720 as Bokeh states for the 680M:

"C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Inspector\nvidiaInspector.exe" -setBaseClockOffset:0,0,120 -setMemoryClockOffset:0,0,200 -setVoltageOffset:0,0,0 -setPowerTarget:0,0

 

The screw size required for the WWAN, WLAN, mSATA and 1/2 Mini PCI slots is actually M2 x 3 mm and not M2.5 x 3 mm.

I can confirm that you can use the M2 x 3 mm screw that secures the primary HDD removal latch (located underneath the battery) for the mSATA and so on.

In the M6700, M2 x 3 mm screws are also used to:
- secure the drive-latch bracket to the optical drive (2x),
- secure the keyboard to the palmrest (5x),
- secure the palmrest to the chassis (If I recall correctly, 4x, located underneath the keyboard),
- secure the Bluetooth module (1x).

It is actually quite easy to access the RAM slots underneath the keyboard. Have a look at the M6700 Owner's Manual for a detailed description of how to remove the keyboard trim and the screws that secure the keyboard. You can download the M6700 Owner's Manual here.

The quality of the TN panel is actually quite good. Because it uses white LEDs, you can see some uneven backlighting, e.g. in the (black and white) boot screen. It all depends on what you're planning to use the laptop for. If you need 100% AdobeRGB color gamut, you should go for the (more expensive) IPS screen. Note that you also need a different video card for the IPS screen. The standard AMD FirePro M6000 video card doesn't support 10 bit colors, required for the IPS screen.

The keyboard is excellent, and actually the best I have personally seen in any laptop. In my case, there's no keyboard flex whatsoever.

The touchpad is very good too, with three 'real' mouse buttons. It also supports 'edge gestures' in Windows 8, to activate the charms bar, app bar and app switcher.

 

The RAM under the keyboard can be reached without much difficulty. You remove the keyboard trim (it comes off easily with a flat-head screwdriver or small knife), remove a few screws, slide the keyboard out, and there are the RAM slots. I did the same thing, bought 32 GB of RAM separately, and the install took no more than 5 minutes. There are instructions for replacing everything in the manual which is available on the Dell support site.

I have the regular 1080p screen and I think it is great. Best laptop display I have ever had. Colors are good, brightness is excellent, viewing angles are good (for a TN panel). I know it's not up to the level of the IPS display but I'm not a graphics guy so I'm quite satisfied with it.

No complaints about the keyboard. Be sure to get the backlit one (people complain that the regular one has flex). Trackpad is decent but doesn't seem particularly great to me. I barely use the trackpad (always have a mouse plugged in), so I can't really compare it to other laptops.

 

@Koeniekoenie: I forgot to mention that I have the backlit keyboard.