M4400 as a Workstation? Quality?

Hi,

I've been a diehard thinkpad fan for years and I'm looking to upgrade from my T60p. I love the build quality, but I've been reading too many issues with the FireGL V5700 in the new W500 series. Moreover, I've read good things about overclocking the Quadro M770 to get closer to the M1700 speeds. So I'm now looking at the Dell M4400, normally I abhor the chassis construction of Dells, but the all magnesium casing of the 4400 series looks very good.

First, coming from a thinkpad, will I be satisfied with the build quality of the Dell?

Second, I'll be primarily using autocad, rhino and 3ds Max and have a question about the effect of screen resolution on the acceleration of the viewport displays in the various programs. Normally, I'd get the highest resolution screen possible, but will there be significant performance degradation from sxga+ (1440x900) to the wuxga (1920x1280) display when using these viewport accelerated programs due to the more demanding resolution?

Third, considering that the system uses DD2 memory, will I be able to upgrade the cpu to other Core2 ES chips that you can find on ebay? It looks like these chips use pins, I haven't been keeping up to date with the new mobile intel chips, are they all pga rather than bga format now?

And finally, when can i except some sort of deal on these systems on either the Canadian or American sites? I've been seeing a lot of 30% deals on inspirons and xps systems, but not on the precisions.

Best,
Joseph

 

It doesn't take much power to have a good workstation experience in my opinion. I use CATIA v5r17 and just having a quadro graphics card (even if it is old) make a huge difference over integrated and gaming cards. I am sure you will be okay.

I am also looking at getting the M4400 for a workstation, mainly for CATIA. The largest assemblies I deal with are around 1GB and my desktop has an old Quadro card that is at least 3 years old and it handles it great.

 

Don't know about the other programs you listed but I've been using AutoCAD for 20 years and find that it really likes CPU horsepower, but most of the time it doesn't care that much about GPU performance.

 

Thanks for the insight.

I agree, CAD 2D isn't demanding on the GPU, my biggest problem right now is with Rhino (which uses openGL) and 3Ds Max. Right now it seems that the view ports work better in Rhino when they are 1/4 rather than full size, which is why I inquired about the resolution.

 

Did you ever think of a HP Elitebook 8530w?
its the same power as the M4400, but with a thinkpad-beating buildquality.

I like my M4400, but i have a T60 aswell and the T60 pwns the M4400 build.

 

How exactly ?

 

Well...
1) The buildstructure of the displaychassis is much better in the T60. u can put a full coffeemug on it without any flex. --> very strong display chassis

2) if u open the T60 Display 90° u can lift it while holding only on the display chassis. the 90° opening doesnt change --> very strong T60 hinge

3) Thinkvantage > Dell control point

4) The T60 has a fullframe Metall chasis with a black plastics skin. This concept is stronger vs flex than the metal alloy coating chassis in the M4400

 

I haven't seen a M4400 in person. How does it compare to the case of a mac book pro?

 

Well...1) The buildstructure of the displaychassis is much better in the T60. u can put a full coffeemug on it without any flex. --> very strong display chassis

thers virtually no flex at all on my M4400 display. its fairly thick magnesium alloy. ??

2) if u open the T60 Display 90° u can lift it while holding only on the display chassis. the 90° opening doesnt change --> very strong T60 hinge

if i do the same thing with my M4400, the palmrest section moves down slightly. I dont see how tightness of a hinge has anything to do with hinge strength. Just because a vault door is easy, not stiff to open, dosent mean the vault has bad hinges

3) Thinkvantage > Dell control point
this is true. hopefully DCP will improve. After all, its just at its first version now. at least they got rid of that horrible quickset


4) The T60 has a fullframe Metall chasis with a black plastics skin. This concept is stronger vs flex than the metal alloy coating chassis in the M4400
the M4400 has a magnesium alloy rollcage (which is the same as your "fullframe metal chasis"), plus a magnesium alloy base and LCD back cover.

 

This is the first time I have heard about HP's workstations being Thinkpad quality or better. I had never really considered them before. If this is true I am really interested in them. Do you know if any local stores have these so I can see for myself?