M6600 Owner's Review - Warning - Large pics - Personal Opinions

In my early jobs I was doing a lot of Adobe shortcuts. My hand across my thumb to my pinkie would hurt constantly. I switched to the Microsoft split "natural" keyboard and it fixed it. I still use that keyboard to this day. Buy a new one every other year.

I checked my keyboard today and it was unintentionally aligned with the middle of the spacebar on the middle of my main monitor. It is shifted to the right.

Now, if Dell shifted the keyboard on the M6600, it would work for us, but make more people mad. It would also not neatly fit on the computer.

My guess is that in the big scheme of things an M6600 will kinda feel like an E6320. There is just no keypad.

In reality, the keyboard might feel "off". To you, yes. To me, no. I am used to it. Or maybe I ignore it. I like the keyboard. You may never like it.

I used to own a 99' Saab 9-3. They twisted the driver's seat slightly to the left to
help with driving. Not a lot, but a little. Once I knew the driver's seat was not pointing 100% straight ahead, it would occasionally drive me crazy. Before I knew it, it was the perfect car for me. Over time, I was able to overlook that little quirk on the Saab. Then again, I am only partially OCD

I am going to agree to disagree with you. I like the keyboard. Something "bugs" you about it, so it is not quite perfect for you. I respect that. I just have a much higher opinion of the keyboard and mousepad placement.

 

Hi,

THANX A LOT for having taken the time to write out this detailed review! It was a major factor in my decision to get an M6600 over the Clevo even though that woulda had the 580m.

I ordered one with the 2920XM, the 4000m, 16gb 1600mhz and the 1080p MattAntiGlareScreen which is great and all but it doesn't have a solid state drive in it yet.

I read about the mSSD mentioned in the initial post and would like to know more about that. Unfortunately google doesn't give me much on the topic, so what exactly is a mSSD?
Is that one of those 1.8" microSSD's? If so would a Samsung MMCRE28G8MPX-OVBL1 work?
And also can that drive then be used as primary drive for the OS(-es)?

Also @Bokeh, since I see u've got a very similar setup to me, how long does your battery usually last? Does the 2920xm make the M6600 very hot and therefore increase the noiselevel of the fans on high load (I'm using 3D pysixsimulations quite a bit)?

thanks a lot for ur help
cheers
Ron

 

You should be able to get 3 hours with Optimus disabled and around 6 with Optimus enabled if you are being efficient with power management. You may only get an hour if you are intentionally running a full load on the cpu and gpu.

The 2920xm can lower its power to similar levels seen in the 2720qm. The difference is that the 2920xm can run at a higher TDP. Think of it like a wider spectrum of operating modes with the same base wattage.

Heat should not be an issue when you are running cpu or gpu intensive tasks. The cooling system is built to keep temps lower than they have to be so that component failures can be reduced. I have run multi hour video encoding sessions with the cpu under full load and the temps never got past the 70's C. The M6600 only gets warm around the back vents and the docking port under a sustained full cpu or gpu load. The fans do kick in and you can hear them if you listen for them.

 

Thx Bokeh, that's great info

As for the mSSD I finally found some info - it was "hidden" in the few of the 205 pages of the owners thread I hadn't read.
However it is still not clear what exactly this mSSD is.

I know now:
- I can boot from it
- it's fast
- turning hyperthreading off and moving pagefile to another drive will help save a LOT of space
=> great

I also found that Samsung PM810 is one of the options that fit in there. Now google tells me that's a 2.5"?!?!?! Is that "m" in mSSD referring to connector rather then physical size then? Also it seems some of those SSD's are able to boot from through the miniPort others aren't?
What exactly do I have to look out for when ordering a SSD card that fits in that extra port of my M6600?

Does anybody have a list of SSD's that will work? I.e. does the PM800 work as well (bootable?)?

THANKS A LOT for any info on this. I should be receiving my m6600 soon and would like to set it up right from the start

cheers
Ron



thx a lot again
Ron

 

The mSSD vs SSD most evident difference is the size. mSSD is about 1.8''. Any mSSD is a 1.8'' drive thus would fit in. In general one could use SSD to name both as they both are Solid State Drives, but you should specify the "m" for the micro size to clarify the difference.

Any 2.5'' would theoretically work in the other M6600. For reliability go for Intel SSD. If too expensive go for Crucial M4 (I just have received one today) or Samsung (if you don't care about reliability buy some OCZ -but I can tell you'd be very lucky to have them last more than a very few months).

If you want an mSSD the one offered by Dell is OK and it is really difficult (if possible) to buy it outside Dell.

Hope it helps. Cheers,

PS. Crucial specifically states the M4 works on the M6600. Same for memory, you select your laptop and they tell you the memory that works well on it.

 

Hi Valm,

thanks a lot for your reply. So mSSD's are the 1.8inches - great to know.

That info on the Intels and Crucials is quite valuable to - thank you. I went to the crucial site and had a look at the m4 series, however whilst they are said to work with the M6600 they are still 2.5" ( Crucial Solid-State Drives - Hard Drive replacement for notebook and netbook ) and you are saying they'd work in

....so just to be bulletproof here with other u mean the extra mSSD port NOT one of the normal two 2.5inch ports, right?

thanks again
cheers
Ron

 

The form factor of the mSata drive is the same as a full sized mpcie card. The form factor for the mSata is not the same as a 1.8" ssd. The m6600 has a pair of 2.5" drive bays in addition to the mpcie slot used for the mSata drive.

 

Ok thanx Bokeh. mSatas look more like what I thought needed to go in that mpcie slot. Maybe I wasn't entirely clear which of the slots I was referring too.

So what I want to do ideally is to have 2 1tb hdd's for storage in the 2.5" bays and a fast mSata SSD in the mpcie slot for a Win/Lin dualboot and possibly temp sim file drive.

What has been confusing to me is that i.e. the Samsung pm800 - which in another thread I read would work for my setup - seems to come in different dresses/configurations:

1.


2.

I am ASSUMING I need version from pic 1. right?!? Also does the same part number mean taking that plastic cover of 2. will reveal 1.?
Like this:

I did read that some of these mpcie mSata drives don't have the capability to be booted from. Is there a list somewhere that tells me which of these drives are bootable?

And what about reliability and speed? Are the Samsungs reliable?

thanks a lot your help is appreciated
cheers
Ron

 

Oh.. thanks @Bokeh, good to know too, I almost bought the wrong one then...
@Ronthendon Discard what I said about the 1.8 size, Bokeh knows much more on computers than me.
And yes, the Crucial M4 is a 2.5, you asked for a list of SSD... For mSSD it seems I need a list too...
But then, mSSD refers to 1.8 or to those for an mPcie card? both?

 

Hi Valm,

FINALLY found some more info here:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...gitalssd-bullet-proof-128gb-msata-review.html

&

http://forum.notebookreview.com/sol...age/541361-msata-1-8-sata-ssds-available.html

However to add to the confusion:

I was thinking about the BulletProof but will have to ask the vendor if it will work in the M6600 and report back

cheers
Ron