M6600 and M4600 are coming in Feb.

I noticed that with the last generation change. I can only guess the following.

Dell is well known for succeeding by limiting heir overhead through use of just-on-time delivery. They do not stock large quantities of anything (or so the story goes). This would mean they don't have a large stock of almost-old parts to sell. I also noticed as they phased out the M4400, they started limiting the configurable options.

You may also notice a similar thing in the outlet. Right now is the time to buy Mx500 in the outlet. They have a regular supply of units to turn around. if you look at older generation laptops, their prices are silly in comparison (not more expensive, but they offer little or no incentive given the age of what is offered). Once the Mx600 models are readily available in the outlet, the prices of the Mx500 won't go down much from where they are now.

 

My M4400 cost $1009 in the outlet plus around $270 in hardware upgrades ( 500GBHDD, 802.11abgn WiFi, T9600), and it was well worth it to me. I wanted a decent machine that offered a good quality 1920x1200 display in a size smaller than 17" and the Precision M4400 was perfect.

 

The Dell Outlet has some phenomenal deals if you look hard enough.

 

For sure, but I'm surprised there are currently no M4500s given the amount of M6500s. If one does not absolutely need the 15" portability, both Dell and HP are offering awesome value in their ATi equipped 17" workstations (which are both 16:10). HP had an 8740w for $899. It was i5/M7820. In term of performance per dollar in a business supported machine, that is hard to beat.

Anyway, my overall point is that if you want perf/$$ you are better off getting the current generation machines now in the outlet rather than hoping to pick something up NEW (as in, not refurbished in outlet) on clearance when the new gen comes out. The M4500 however seems sold out for now though.

 

I completely agree about wanting to use the laptop as a laptop without a ton of extra stuff like an external monitor. I just suggested it because it is an easy fix if you don't mind the extra stuff lying around. Sadly, it looks like the 16:10 screen options may be going away. What about the current generation Dell M6500? You could try to get a M6500 from Dell in the outlet store as they are fairly cheap right now. I saw one with the Intel i7-740 and the Quadro 2800M for only $1,150. That is fairly good with the 3 year warranty that they provide, and they have 16:10 screens still. I used to have a Macbook Pro and I used WinXP on it exclusively. I only had OSX installed as a backup in case something happened. It worked fine in Windows, however it's not the best in the sense that none of the manufacturer's drivers would recognize the Apple hardware in Windows. I had to load the video drivers, etc. that Apple provided. While it was easy and straight to the point, it wasn't updated that often as in once or twice a year. So say you needed this bug fix that Nvidia released in their latest drivers you might not ever be able to get it on your Macbook in Windows unless Apple released a new driver pack. Windows should work the same on the Mac as it does on any PC, but for me sometimes the drivers, timely bug fixes, and support are what can make or break the deal. Just something to think about.

 

I've been fighting off the urge to order one of the older generations of Dell, HP or Lenovo workstations for the fact that I don't want to miss-out on new technology.

Sandy Bridge should be nice, but what I'm more interested in is the improved FERMI architecture as well as increase in CUDA cores on the new Quadro graphics cards.

The reason being is I'm a graduating physics student and I am interested in using the new Quadro cards to compute simulations which can bog down a CPU rather quickly.

Is anyone reading the board using their professional grade GPU to do anything similar to this and could shed some light on whether or not the computing power of the new nVidia cards is worth waiting for? Also, if this is too OT I will create a new thread elsewhere! Just ask, I won't be upset!

 

For the M4600, with the new design, anyone know if there will only be one battery size?

 

The M4600 is really fat, so I think that a 94-98WH battery is in it.
When you look at the pictures, at the back there is no space, so it must at the bottom.

 

How could one get M6600, and replace display with M6500 type?
There is lots of vertical space. Horizontally you would get a gap.

 

I wonder if it would be possible to swap out the innards of an M6500 with those from an M6600?