M4800 Owner's Thread

Hello, everyone!

First time posting on this forum... I've been following a bit of this thread for a while, and finally decided to pull the trigger and order an M4800. I'll now have to wait 3 weeks for it...
The main specs are as follows:

i7-4810MQ
8GB of RAM
500GB Hybrid HDD
AMD Firepro M5100
FHD display
8X DVD+/-RW
Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 802.11ac/a/b/g/n 2x2 + BT 4.0 LE Half Mini Card
Windows 7 Pro

This configuration was not exactly hand-picked by myself. In my country the price difference between pre-configured systems and custom ones was just too large to make the latter a worthy option. So I chose the pre-configured "variation" that I thought would best suit my needs (and my budget).

Anyway, the main thing I would like to modify in this setup (and the reason for his post) is the HDD. Being now used to work with an SSD in my desktop, I find it very difficult to go back to an ordinary HDD for Windows and programs.
So this is my question for you guys: will I be able to plug in an mSATA SSD (i.e. Samsung EVO) and use it for Windows booting? If possible, is it a pretty much straight-forward process or do I have to fiddle with some things? Would you find more advisable to just get a 2,5" SSD to replace the hybrid drive or the optical bay?
Also, do you think this could pose me any problem warranty-wise?

Thanks in advance for your input!

Cheers!

 

While a hybrid drive is no match for true SSD, you do know that the drive is basically a small SSD + large HDD, do you?

 

Just plug in msata and you r golden. No warranty issues as long as you dont brake anything.

 

Yep, I am aware of that. It just happens that I plan to install a fair deal of professional applications (AutoCAD, Adobe Photoshop, Indesign, Illustrator, etc.) and maybe even a game or two that I would like to run with the fastest speed possible. Not only - just like you said - the hybrid's performance is not on par with a decent SSD, there's also the capacity issue. The SSD part of a hybrid amounts to something like... 8 GBs? That won't definitely be enough for me. But thanks for your heads-up!

Well, I do not really intend to brake anything
I'm interested in the mSATA solution because it appears to me as the "tidiest" of the solutions... Not only it requires minimum fiddling with the hardware, it would also allow me to retain both the 500GB drive for storage AND the optical drive (which my recent experience tells me will be less and less used... but still can come in handy from time to time).
Since you state that it would be a plug-and-play, hassle-free procedure, I'll probably go ahead with that. Thanks a lot!

 

Note you'll still need to image or reinstall windows onto the SSD.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Sure! That won't be a problem. I was already planning on doing a fresh install when the machine comes.
My main concern was that for any reason an mSATA drive would not show up as a "bootable" one, but given the feedback here in the forum it looks like that won't be the case.

 

Hello,

Is FHD screen option as good as QHD+? I mean, viewing angles mainly. Both options state UltraSharp, which makes me think that FHD should be pretty good.

Basically after being disappointed by Lenovo's offering decided to switch to Dell... and so far m4800 looks closest to what I want.

Thank you in advance.

 

No, it is not as good, by wide margin. It is just a common business-class TN LCD, not really a workstation-class display. The “UltraSharp” branding is by now fairly meaningless: it seems any Dell’s FHD and up carries it.

 

Wow, that's sad... gets me back to square 1. Thank you for your reply.

 

get QHD model. it has just really good display by SHARP.

good in QHD, color resolution.
bad in QHD, less battery juice due to non availability of switchable graphics option. that is (30%) less not a deal breaker for me as if your were doing something serious you'd want normal keyboard chair and large screen anyway. so I slap it on dock. I have both D5000 and Eport, both are useful, but if you need reliability in terms of display latency and color reproduction normal dock is the way to go.

HP has a model that got good screen in category 17 inches but thats no longer considered portable by me. its like saying goes "camera that is in the bag, tends to stay in a bag"

if you ask me, I think both of these laptops are made on same plant. so you are choosing only minor differences. dell I think more mass produced and has better after-market support.