M6600 - my nightmare experience

Maestro! Seen you in the M6500 + 6600 thread and you are absolutely a maestro in this. Do you mind to share what to disable and how to optimize it> I only manage to get, at best, 128ms buffer..........lower than that, carckle and noise, with error.

Running Cubase 5 with RME UFX, Win7, 64 Ultimate.

Thanks!

 

Seems like the OP got a lemon (BSODs, etc), didn't like the three hard drive problem (valid), and decided to return it. Did everything properly, which means it was a PITA full of incompetence.

Nightmare experience, sure, but it doesn't seem to paint Dell in a bad light.

I do have to wonder what percentage of Precisions have some kind of problems; or percentage in buckets by severity.

 

I agree it seems likely that I just got a lemon, unfortunately, and I'm sure that many Precisions are fine.

I think what really irked me was that the three hard drive problem was known to Dell even before I called them the first time, but that two months later this show-stopping issue had no ETA for a fix, even to the technical account manager with whom I spoke. They simply should not have sold a laptop in a configuration that was known to become unbootable after installing Windows.

The irony is that throughout the experience I was getting separate calls from the Dell business follow-up team trying to sell me more stuff! They still email me occasionally.

 

I have been looking to replace my Tower DAW with a notebook and this alone has me looking at Sager or other power machines. I buy outlet Dell exclusively (as the bleeding edge is very short term) and never bought or needed Extended Warranties, but two months to settle a known issue for the Precision line is a bit concerning.

Cakewalk Sonar who I have been using (along with Cubase, prefer Sonar) recommends Dell Precision and HP Elitebook as well as some custom builders who build on Sager/Compal bases which if bought direct from non audio builders is less expensive.

 

Hi!

In the end, I got a Samsung NP700-GC-S01UK laptop. After a clean install to avoid the Samsung power management software, it works brilliantly for audio: I'm able to track glitch-free at 64-sample buffer sizes using an RME Babyface.

I looked again and again at the business-line offerings from Dell (and HP too), but they just didn't offer the value of the Samsung laptop, and after my experience with the M6600 I wasn't persuaded that paying more would get me a more reliable machine.

After a tax-back offer by Samsung its price was about a third of the M6600!!