M6600 Owners Thread

Fixed this bug - apparently it was by turning off the setting in Dell Access Manager to do with making the fingerprint reader act like CTRL+ALT+DEL on login.


Also had a bug with the keyboard lighting not going on/off properly - just updated Dell Control Manager from the Dell site and that fixed it.

Anyone else update other things from the Dell site? I saw someone mention GFX drivers. Honestly I have no idea why there isn't some kind of Dell 'find updated drivers' software that automatically finds this for you.

 

Don't know if its helpful or not... but the Dell install of my Win7 was corrupt.
The cd image used was corrupt... mine got a wipe and clean install right out of the box.
(there was actually 2 reasons for this) #1 Dell mixed up my drives and they had to be be pulled and replaced. #2 Fortnax diligence found the OS and iso corrupt. All is otherwise seemingly fine on my M6600 (so far).

x

 

The 4000M is more of a cad &dcc than gaming...

THis (below) is a basic Benchmarch from Blackbox of my M6000 (not the best of reporters)

 

may be 4000m will be better in future but its out of question for me as it is a 1000$ upgrade in my country...its just insane......better get the firepro now and may change it to a better card after 2 years...

 

I don't use it myself, but I think this is a Dell auto update software:

Drivers and Downloads

 

Yes, i bet drivers are green. However the 8900m is a strong competitor.

 

Hi Guys,

I am thinking of getting an M6600. I've read on these forums where many of you advocate buying a stripped dow system and upgrading it myself. I love this idea and think that I have the hardware moxy to try it. My remaining question though is regarding updating the ODD. I would likely order it wit a tray load DVD RW.

If I do this, and want to update the optical drive at some point, what type of drive would I use. Would it be a 9.5mm or a 12.7mm drive height. Also - If you know of an ideal optical drive to get for this purpose I'd love to hear about it. (Like a UJ-XXX or what have you).

Thanks much for any help/information you can provide!

Chris

 

Pardon the question, was AC plugged or were you on battery at boot?
also you may want to check if speedstep is still enabled into bios. Maybe something was reset.

I know, you probably already checked it

 

I agree with you. In my opinion the 4000M and 8900M will stay close to each other in performance as both sets of drivers mature. I think the 3D Mark 11 results are an anomaly since the 3D mark 06 results are so close and consistent with other cards. Hopefully my M6600 will finally make it to me this week and I can provide more tests on the 4000M.

Assuming the two cards end up being close in gaming performance, this leaves you with some choices to make.

You can have the 8900M which is a fast card that uses 75 watts at full load, but can not use Optimus, may not be as fast in rendering, has no Physix, has no Cuda, and has no acceleration for Adobe CS 5 and 5.5. You also have to remember that this is still a Firepro card and while some software won't support it, it is still built for professional use as well.

You can have the Quadro 4000M which costs $740 more, uses 100 watts at full power, is built more for professional software than gaming, can use Optimus to save power, has Physix, has Cuda, and is built for Adobe.

What you end up with are cards for two types of users.

Lots of people have talked about the M6400 - M6600 as being fast gaming computers that they could take into meetings and look professional with. No offense to Alienware, but the R17x has always screamed gamer. An M6600 might not get as many nods at a gaming LAN party. For someone just looking for a very fast all around computer, the 8900M is perfect.

Lots of other people have depended on the M laptops to get their jobs done. These are the people that will have software that costs more than the machine it is running on. These are the people that will have to have the Quadro to get their work done as efficiently as possible. For them it is an easy choice.

I am personally in between the two camps. I run a lot of software that heavily benefits from the Quadro, but I don't run it every day. I do game, but much less these days. Since I do run Adobe CS5.5 every day and it gets a mild benefit from the Quadro, I will choose it.

I will be looking closely at the model with the IPS display and Quadro 5010M when the parts become available.

 

2 Questions

Did you replace the RAM with aftermarket RAM?

Did you upgrade to Firefox 5?