M4800 Owner's Thread

I got mine a couple days ago, basically exactly the same machine as the OP. The screen is great IMO - I do CAD work, and not much rendering, so I can't really say much more than I think it's great to look at.

I swapped out the HDD for an SSD almost right away (I have more RAM on the way - I was pleasantly surprised to see the easy-to-get-to slots were left empty despite being called "primary"). I also decided to give Win 8 a go for the faster boots and better handling of the high resolution.

I am having the same Optimus issues others are mentioning - I have contacted Dell about it and been told it's a Win 8 driver incompatibility issue (i.e. it's Intel's fault) - I realize now that I never looked to see if it was enabled on the Windows 7 install it came with, but it sounds like it's not. At the end of the day, it's definitely not a deal breaker for me. I've been pretty pleased with the battery life I am getting, but I haven't really had a chance to really put the machine through it's paces yet.

 

Hey guys I always thought this laptop was out of my league but with a 20% coupon it would be within my budget limit. Can you post or pm me the coupon pls?

 

Dota2 really isn't taxing graphically, if you want to benchmark it graphically use a super heavy game such as Crysis 3, Metro: Last Light or Bioshock Infinite.

 

Of course, no problem. The company I work for has a URL that links to their "Member Purchase Program" site. I went to that page, and entered in my "membership code." I'm not exactly sure how that works, but I just navigated and shopped at the Dell website normally. The weird thing is that I had the Precision m4800 already in my cart from a previous (non-company) shopping session. When I logged into my company page, the m4800 was still in my cart, with the discounts applied.

It was definitely a strange situation, but I went ahead and ordered it anyway due to the great price I got.

 

I have a question for those of you who have re-installed your OS. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Dell does NOT provide the Windows 7/8 install disc, correct? If this is true, for those of you who swapped out hard drives or rearranged primary boot drives from SATA III to the mSata slot, for instance - how did you re-install Windows? Did you have your own install disc? Thanks!

 

I have a couple questions about the M4800 if someone has the time or ability to answer them:

What are the core/memory clock speeds on the K2100m?
Would the M4800 be compatible with the older E Port Plus docking stations? I have two of these that I was using with my M6600 and it would be a major plus if I could use them.
What is the fan profile like on battery and plugged in, i.e. does the fan constantly run or does it cycle on/off depending on a temperature threshold.

Thanks!

 

I would think you could google the clock speeds of the K2100m. I've heard the M4800 is compatible with the older docking stations looking online. The fans cycle on/off depending on use. Unless you're doing something demanding the laptop is silent in my experience.

EDIT: Here's a really nice site I use to look up video card specifics. Includes the specs and a bunch of benchmarks. Linking the page for the K2100m.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Quadro-K2100M.98900.0.html

 

I received a Windows install disk along with the machine.

 

No, Dota 2 isn't graphically demanding. You can still compare it to how other cards do in Dota. Looking at the below link it's pretty impressive. Granted the benchmarks are probably outdated. The card(AMD ATI FirePro 5100) at 80 FPS matches and beats the performance in this one game to some top tier cards. Like I said initially it's the only thing I've had a chance to benchmark, and it could just be some sweet magic culmination of the current drivers, card, and Dota.

Computer Games on Laptop Graphic Cards - NotebookCheck.net Tech

 

Is the windows install DVD version 8 or 8.1?