M6600 and M4600 are coming in Feb.

THANKS for clarification! So this mini SSD seems to be a good and solid option together with classical HDD.

Best, Walter

 

I beg to disagree, sorry Here is why:

- even if an application cannot fully utilize the fastest CPU today (mine do), it will probably be able to do it in its near future version. And even if it doesn't, faster CPU means more agile multitasking. For instance, with enough RAM and a super-fast CPU, I can run 2 instances of my NLE, each rendering a separate project - and the completion time will be almost half of that should I run those 2 renders in succession!

- regarding the price/performance ratio: when buying a high-end product, it's always good to configure it as completely as only possible. To me, paying a premium price for the Precision 4600/6600 workstation hiding a mediocre CPU is like buying a BMW 5/7 with a 2 litre engine. If such an engine is enough for someone, BMW 3 would be a much wiser choice...

 

what if you need more space in youre car

But seriously, i do agree with you when it comes to system configuration.
I think the 2720qm is the best cpu in terms of price performance ratio.
The 2820qm is still reasonable, but when it comes to the 2920xm, i just couldnt convince my self that i realy need the extra 0.2 ghz clockspeed

 

Except the difference isn't that big. Between the lowest end (available) quad core (2720QM) and highest end quad core (2920XM), the cost difference is $850 and you only get 300MHz (2.2GHz to 2.5GHz) and 2MB (6 to 8MB) more. For most users, this difference is pretty small (max say 25% faster, but on average, a lot less). If you're willing to pay or the that difference can be recovered by your work, then sure go for the faster CPU, but for the rest of us, the difference in speed is not significant enough to warrant the cost.

 

Just to add -- Think of it this way - the price of the 2920 upgrade is ~$850 - depending on vendor. For the extra at most 25% processor speed (debatable depending on app) you spend ~850 -- that plus lets say selling your 4600 for half on ebay (lets say ~$1000) in one year gets you enough money for next intel platform and processor. Which will be more than likely be 20% faster than fastest machine (actually its only the fastest if exclude things like the clevo x7200 with dektop cpus) the above poster wanted to spend $6000 on. He would save $4000 and have a faster machine a year from now.

It is something you should consider before recommending just the fastest machine around (which is dead simple to click through on any configurator). And though the car analogy is interesting, computers tend to depreciate even faster than cars (figure 2 years max before its near valueless unless you buy an apple) so its a poor analogy.

 

For laptops, I always buy the cheapest model/configuration that is adequate for my needs, because laptops get stolent or damaged easily. That's why I almost always buy used -- the four laptops listed in my signature cost me only about $1K total. If I have to buy new, I would opt for the slowest CPU.

 

@pianowizard:
In that case you wouldn't look for a Precision in the first place.

 

i too would have gone for the 2.3ghz quadcore...if i had bought it myself. but since its a free replacement from dell i can live with it. at least its still better than my old machine since i wouldnt have had the budget to upgrade for at least another year or two...

on a side note, how much do you think i can get for my processor if i ebay it, should i want to upgrade to quad? although im not too sure if i want to do that until the warranty is over...

 

i wouldnt touch a second hand consumer grade notebook unless i knew it was barely moved from a desk and had light usage.

the business grade ones have better spares availability and build quality, so second hand ones tend to be pretty good....in fact i bought my X201 second hand and it was in mint condition (it was only 6 months old and had 2 and a half years left on warranty)

 

I would still look for a business-class laptop, i.e. a Latitude/Precision, a Thinkpad, an EliteBook, etc. I just don't need it to be screaming fast.