M4800 Owner's Thread

A lot of our M4800s are beginning to ship out, so I thought it might be good to have a localized discussion for us instead of barging in on the M6800 discussion. I should be receiving my unit in 2 days time, upon which I will be taking it with me on a trip, so I will do my best to post some information. If there are some special requirements for starting this thread that I have not covered, please let me know.

Specs:
Intel Core i7-4800MQ
Ultrasharp QHD+ (3200x1800) Display
8GB DDR3L 1600MHz RAM
750GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
NVIDIA Quadro K2100m 2GB GDDR5
Dell Wireless 1601 2x2 802.11n+BT+WiGig
9 Cell 97Whr Battery
8X DVD+/-RW Slot-load Drive
Internal English Backlit Dual-Pointing Keyboard
Webcam and Microphone Array
USH only, no fingerprint reader

Add-ons:
E-Port Plus Docking Station
DisplayPort-DVI Adaptor

Subtotal: $1747.04

This is the $1989 model with the backlit keyboard, dock, and adaptor added on and a 20% off coupon.

Reviews:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Dell-Precision-M4800-Notebook.104416.0.html

Questions to be Answered:
Optimus confirmed with QHD+ display?
There will be no graphics switching on the QHD+ display. It will only be available on the FHD and lower models.

Battery Life?
Since dGPU is required at all times for QHD+ display, I would estimate 3 hours typical use and 4-4.5 hours by really trying every battery saving strategy while still using the computer.

Battery life on the FHD and lower models is not yet known.

Noise?
The system is very quiet and cool under normal usage. With heavy use of CPU and GPU together, a loud but low pitched (less irritating) fan noise can be expected. It is however perfectly acceptable.

 

Can the combo eSATA+USB port on the m4800 (safely) power something like a 5.25" BD-RE drive using a cable like these:

12V 5V Dual Power eSATA USB 2 0 Power Combo to 22Pin SATA Cable for 2 5 3 5 Inch | eBay

I know it would be flat-out impossible if the "USB" side were USB 2.0, but I suppose that if it's USB 3.0 (and has 12v power available), it might not be *completely* insane. I'm planning to get a proper BD-RE drive in the fairly near future, but in the meantime, it would be nice if I could just repurpose the drive from my old desktop PC (assuming the m4800 can actually supply both 5v and 12v power, and supply enough of it, to power the drive).

I'm actually kind of shocked... I thought that powered eSATA boxes suitable for a 5.25" drive would be something like $12.99 from China on eBay since it would be little more than a stamped steel box with a 12+5v power supply and some passthrough connectors, but it looks like for all intents and purposes, they don't even exist. They're all eSATA+((USB2|3)|firewire), and most of them cost almost as much as the drive itself.

 

Pretty sure the combo port is still just USB 2.0.

 

I actually have one of these cables I got from NewModeUS for free a few years ago with the E6410. It works quite well with the notebook sized drives but it did not (then) have nearly enough power to power anything more. I don't think this has changed.

 

It'll work for 2.5" drives, for 3.5" it might also work. I have the exact same cable and my E6500 works fine with 2.5" drives. I have yet to try a 3.5" drive. The port will need to support 12v, but I think the M4800 still only supports 5v since it is a esata/usb combo port.

 

Yeah, now that I've thought about it, I don't think usb3 + esata would be possible in one plug, because usb 3.0 puts its extra contacts (12v, d2+, d2-, and irq) in the same place that a combined usb+esata port puts the esata pins.

It's kind of a shame they had to eliminate firewire entirely, instead of just doing what Lenovo tends to do... move it to the dock for all eternity.

Is there a "SPDIF out" signal lurking somewhere on a pin pair that can be repurposed? Likewise, when it's operating in Intel HD graphics mode, did Dell implement the optional circuit that allows it to repurpose the VGA port as YPbPr (mapping Y, Pb, and Pr to the pins normally used for G, B, and R, requiring a funky cable w/hd15 at one end, and 3 male RCA at the other)?

Any idea what the mystery bay next to the WLAN card is for? I'm guessing it's mini-PCIe and intended for the wireless dock, but I haven't seen any documentation for it.

Also... is there an Android-compatible RFID chip hiding inside, somewhere? And if there is, can I assume that Dell blew its OTP fuses so that only *they* can use its Secure Element, as seems to be the universal case with *everything* that comes with a RFID chip that has no particular purpose?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 4

 

One of my colleagues got a M4800 today, pretty much the same config as mine. Updated BIOS to A03 and there is NO option for switchable graphics in the BIOS. Device manager also only shows the NVIDIA card. This is not looking good.

Update: Tried to update drivers, Intel driver will not install as the system does not meet minimum requirements (doesn't see Intel iGPU). Will probably be returning mine now (will ask Dell support again to make sure it has Optimus), if it really doesn't I hope they will waive the restocking fee as I clearly asked and was told that Optimus was enabled on K2100m and QHD+.

 

AFAIK, Optimus is fundamentally incompatible with QHD, 120hz, and IPS displays with 10-bit color because Optimus depends upon the Intel HD graphics, and Intel HD can't deal with QHD, 120hz, or 10-bit color.

That said, as an engineer, the non-support by Intel sounds more like a "management/marketing" decision than one based on actual hardware limits. I'd be shocked if Intel *didn't* have an undocumented/unsupported mode capable of faking 10-bit color on IPS by outputting 8-bit color with 10-bit timing, padded with 00, and Intel/Nvidia/Dell just didn't feel like supporting a mode that would have confused & angered most nontechnical users (and probably would have worked only under Linux).

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 4

 

That is right, however I believe that the display used in this years QHD+ M4800 is not a 10 bit IPS screen like the old PremierColor Ultrasharps from before, but the same one as the QHD+ M3800 and XPS 15, both of which support Optimus.

 

M3800 with QHD screen is confirmed working with Optimus.
(Retina MBP also has switchable graphics with the resolution almost as high.)