M6600 Owners Thread

Just go this computer myself recently.

What to do to enable this stylus screen touch?
Which drivers to update? Have entered my service tag, and then all drivers occur. Have installed several of them, but they still appear (thought perhaps they would dissapear after they had been installed).

Hoping for a quick reply on these 2 matters

 

Dell's driver site is NOT that competent. Even though you give it your service tag, it still hands out drivers that aren't necessarily for your machine, and it certainly doesn't only the list the ones you haven't installed yet.

 

In the offer i got from Dell for the M6600 the memory speed is 1600MHz.
Anyone know if this makes big difference from regular 1333MHz?
Price difference from 12GB (2x2GB + 2x4GB) 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel to 16GB (4x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 Dual Channel is about 200usd. Money well spent?

 

Hi,

I've just received a new M6600 (i7-2720, FirePro 8900, 8GB Ram) and I'm shocked at how bad it is. I haven't tried the internal performance yet, but the design / build quality is not what I'd call premium - the keyboard and even the main body flex. The screen is so bad I thought it had a protective film on it!

I can't believe the device I've received is supposed to be this bad. Have I got a duff one or are they all like this?
I've had a look with HWInfo and I've got the Chi Mei display - has anyone had any success getting a better display out of Dell?

Anyone else feel this way? Or are you all happy with this Laptop?

Thanks

HS_One

 

There is a little bit flex at the keyboard and the palm rest on the left especially if there is no express card place holder or express card integrated.

Sounds like a Chi Mei display.

It is a Chi Mei display!

I had this display and my reaction was as same as yours.
That was the worst display I have ever had and I have ever seen.
I got a replacement display the AU Optronics AUO B173HW01 v.5 internal Dell code H8D3K v.5 and now I am very happy so far.

It is likely that the Chi Mei display has a "standard bug" (not a feature) or even is the world's worst display not beeing defective.
It will be nice if somebody from Dell takes position to the Chi Mei display disaster!

 

Thanks for the quick reply Robotti80!

I'll get a call logged with Dell support first thing tomorrow and take it from there. Out of interest, was there anything else specifically wrong with your display (dead pixels, colour cast, etc.)?

I'm a software developer and I build applications for photographic systems so I need a good quality screen. I've had a Dell XPS M1710 for years which has a great screen on it, which is why I'm so surprised how poor this screen is.

Hopefully I can get this sorted out quickly, because the specs on the rest of the system look really good, and I'd like to try it out. If not it will have to be returned.

Thanks

HS_One

 

No, it is not worth that much money for a 3-5% gain in real world tests. If it was half that cost (via a third party), maybe...

By the way, video (especially 3D) relies on speed; not so much bandwidth after a certain point. The memory latency in time is the CAS latency divided by the clock frequency. Therefore, the following are the important numbers to consider regardless of the marketed bandwidth since you're really limited to the bandwidth of the processor, not the memory:

CL7 cycles @ 1066MHz/sec = .0066 x 10 = 6.60 nanoseconds

CL7 cycles @ 1333MHz/sec = .0053 x 10 = 5.30 nanoseconds

CL9 cycles @ 1333MHz/sec = .00675 x 10 = 6.75 nanoseconds

CL9 cycles @ 1600MHz/sec = .0056 x 10 = 5.60 nanoseconds

CL11 cycles @ 1600MHz/sec = .0069 x 10 = 6.90 nanoseconds

CL11 cycles @ 1866MHz/sec = .0059 x 10 = 5.90 nanoseconds

CL12 cycles @ 1866MHz/sec = .0064 x 10 = 6.40 nanoseconds

CL12 cycles @ 2133MHz/sec = .0056 x 10 = 5.60 nanoseconds

Can you see the pattern here? Regardless of CAS and bandwidth, all these sticks are pretty level across the board when it comes to real world throughput. Overall, I would much rather run CL7 1333MHz than CL11 1600MHz for the obvious reasons above since the latency speed bump would outweigh the small bandwidth improvement on the higher freq. memory. Unfortunately, such memory is still somewhat rare and expensive. In my case, I did see a small improvement in Adobe CS5 while peaking the M6600 i7 2720QM 1600MHz FSB with some G.Skill 1600MHz CL9 memory, but it was nothing to write home about. You would need to find some CL8 1600Mhz (5.0ns) memory to start having some fun, but good luck finding that in a 204-pin package at a reasonable price. In the end, again, we are still talking about 3~5% performance differences so it means nothing at this stage unless you simply want to show your friends some high clock numbers.


Scott-

 

I do similar work and the current screens I prefer are:
1. AUO B173HW01 v.4 (glossy - 92% CG)
2. AUO B173HW01 v.5 (matte - 72% CG)
3. LG/Phillips LP173WF2 120Hz capable (glossy and matte - 72% CG)

My first M6600 came with the AUO v.5, which is very nice, but I like glossy screens better for my use so I did the panel swap with a v.4 (Dell# X919N).

The CMO screens that Dell has been shipping these past few weeks are junk...

Scott-

 

Thanks for the part numbers Scott_RC-TEK, they should come in handy when I speak to Dell support in the morning.

Just wish I'd noticed the forum posts about this before ordering.

HS_One

 

Scott, thanks for the detailed information, i had to Google some of the words to understand but i do understand now
Its easy to fall for the temptation and add some extras. I´m still waiting for the release of IPS panel before ordering.