M6400 vs M6500, which is better?

For you owners, I am planning on buying one of these laptops, which would you guys recommend and which was the better model. I have learned from owning the Inspiron 1520, that I have — that the latest model is generally not the best.

The reason for me not purchasing the latest model of any laptop is the following: WUXGA doesn't exist anymore, which is absolutely annoying and no I'm not going to pay $9340284025820 for the 15" MacBook Pro with a 2880x1800 screen.

I will be using dual-hard drives and a mSATA drive would be nice but it isn't essential for my needs. Personally, I'd rather get a lightly used M6400/6500 and trick it out myself (e.g. upgrade processor and etc), as opposed to wasting money on a MacBook Pro.

 

The M6500 has USB 3.0, I think some of the first batches don't, you want to look for the blue plastic in the port on the right side. Really everything that the M6500 has is one generation better or faster than the M6400. CPU, video card, memory, slots, etc.. The M6400 is getting old, its 4 years old now. Months ago I spent a long time researching and finally settled on a M6500. A few days later I came accross a awesome deal on a Scratch and dent M6600 and bought that instead. I got it for the price of a used M6500 and I'm glad I did! I plan on replacing the lid and base soon to get it presteen again. Its only 1 year old and still has warranty, I haven't tried to transfer it yet. One drawback though is the M6600 screen is Wide 1.77 ratio, compared to the 6500 which is 1.6 so you loose the CAD/document type work area. But its great for movies because you don't see any black bars top and bottom. I would spend some time researching all the specs. A lot of people swear by their M6500 and won't go to the M6600 even. GL Let us know what you get

 

Honestly, the change from 1920x1200 to 1920x1080 is something you can adapt to easily enough. I don't miss the extra 120 pixels that much, on lower resolution display, the pixel loss feels more pronounced for some reason even though it is less in terms of the amount of pixels for 1280x800 vs 1366x768. 1600x900 vs 1440x900 doesn't really change anything, no loss of vertical real estate there. By the way you can usually adapt your workflow pretty well between 1200p and 1080p.

 

The case is the same. The main difference being the new generation of CPUs (although, they're slower clocked so they lose some of the advantage), somewhat stronger GPUs (go for the M7820 if you can find it - faster and cheaper than Nvidia cards, plus much lower TDP; FX3800M is just an overclocked FX3700M, still based on the ancient G92 GPU) and the USB 3.0. If you can find a configuration with an XM CPU, M7820 AMD card and the RGB-LED screen, it would be worth it

I have a fully specced M6400 so I don't care about the M6500 much, though I'd like to upgrade it with an M7820.

 

It isn't much of a problem with Photoshop or Dreamweaver as it is with Vue Infinite and Lightwave where I have more tool bars than work space. And overall, it just doesn't look right at all, there was something about the 1920x1200, 1680x1050, 1440x900 and 1280x800...I hope we see something like 2560x1600 on a laptop in the near future because that would be an ideal resolution.

Hmm, that sounds interesting. I was leaning towards the M6500 as well because the M6400 is a bit older than I would like it to be as well. I do want a quad-core CPU but I believe the M6400 has the Core 2 Quad (which most people tell me aren't really true quad-core processors, I still don't know why). But I do have a few questions for you:

1.) How do the CPUs compare with each other and which has the better CPU?
2.) Are there alternative options to nVIDIA on both laptops?

I probably wouldn't waste money on the FX3800M but M7820, how is that video card? If worse comes to worse, I'll just buy the constituents of the laptop separately and just put it together myself?

USB 3.0 is definitely worth the upgrade because when backing up my hard drive, it would definitely come in handy. I refrained from getting the M6600, in fact I actually had an opportunity to acquire one and not have to pay for it but I refused because I wasn't going to be satisfied with it. I'm not a fan of anything that isn't WUXGA, perhaps it's the primal nature kicking but when it comes to screens, size is significant.

The black bars never really bothered me when I watch movies on my current Inspiron 1520 (also a WUXGA screen).

 

I think those quads were made by using two dual-core dies essentially, but I don't see what's the problem with that..

1. As I said already, it's the M6500 as it has the newer generation CPUs.
2. Also answered this - the AMD M7820 is the alternative. The only problem is that it was the cheapest of the bunch so most of the top-specced units come with Nvidia cards.

The used cards from laptops are way overpriced so it's better not to count on that as an economical solution.

The black bars argument for cutting our screens down is like the lamest excuse ever. Every decent movie comes in a cinema format which is wider than the 16:9 anyway, plus the fact that you don't really use the laptop for movies..

 

Ahh okay, thanks for your help.

Another question I have, since I have such a difficult time finding the M7820 would the M7740 still be better than the Quadro FX 2800/3800?

And if I find a suitable one, would it be as easy as opening the laptop up and swapping out the Quadro for the FirePro?

I can't seem to find many Precision systems that sell w/the M7820, there is a used one floating around but as you said, the price isn't worth it.

 

How much are you looking to pay for a M6500 that is in good condition? The one I was looking at before had the M7820 and went for just over $600. It had the original box and everything. Most of the M6500's are FX 2800, people tend to hold the price up higher for the 3800m version. The M7820 is more rare to find that is for sure, but it is the best for games. You should have no trouble swapping the cards out. You may want to see what other cards with the same core might work. I know the GTX 5 and 6 series cards work in the M6600, The 5 series needs vbios flash though.

 

Well, this is the laptop that I want and since it's business class durability, I don't mind spending the money on it at all. I'm just looking for a viable replacement without sacrificing screen space.

 

The Nehalem processor in the M6500 was a game changer for video processing. The 3800 was also good for its time. We still have an M6500 in daily service in the office with the i7 920 and 3800M.