M6600 Owners Thread

Probably not that cheap since they have to buy the internal hardware from others. It's all those other business expenses incurred that eat away at the profit margins. Plus they get hit with saturation and other sales lulls.

In 1988 I was looking for my first computer and at the same time someone was helping me out with some design work on a Apple Macintosh. I nearly bought a $6000 Mac-SE with a 9" B&W screen w/no software. I was so enamored with the GUI not knowing about Windows. Somewhere along the way I found Windows and in 1990-91 had a DOS2.0/Windows3.1 machine privately built. Specs: i486 w/Math Coprocessor, 4MB RAM, 240MB WD HDD, 12" VGA Display, 28K Modem, Tape Backup, Tower. That cost me nearly $3000 w/ software and was better suited to my needs. Glad I waited - dodged a Apple bullet.

My M6600 is the first serious multi-tasking machine I've ever had. I'll have open at the same time - Adobe Bridge and Photoshop, 2 iExplore w/ 10 tabs in each with streaming video and downloading, all Office applications and a RT trading program and instant messaging - easily switching between tasks and moving to the outdoors while running. And sometimes I won't reboot for a week. Heaven - finally. I end up generally more frustrated and angry with the software companies.

Me too, love all my Dells'. Glad we're here to help with some of the frustration and uncertainty. Sometimes they're a bit too vague with details which feels like runaround. One of their employees was very forthcoming with me about how the organization works and that put me much more at ease to pursue a resolution.

BTW: Kallias informs us RMA on outlet purchases is 15 days. Be sure to check.

Hey! Nice find

Fast shortcut if you know what is already needed. I'll add to M6600 reimaging thread.

 

That is a nice link to the drivers. Thanks Tommyxv

And your reimaging thread really helped me alot when I had to reinstall the OS and drivers on the first day I got the M6600. Without your reimaging thread, I could not have done that myself.

I did the reinstall several times using your list checking off each step as I finished it. Each time I got a little faster.

I hope you will continue to update that list for us newbies.

And yes when you order from dell outlet...watch out for that 15 day limit on returns!

Thanks.

 

Hmm...this say otherwise:

Returns | Dell

You may return your refurbished system up to 21 days from the date of invoice, with the exception of refurbished servers and storage. Refurbished servers and storage products can be returned up to 30 days from the date of invoice

 

It appears they have changed it because the XPS 17 I purchased and returned 4 weeks ago was limited to a 15 day return policy. I just noticed I cannot find the reference to the 15 day period that I had bookmarked.

Glad you pointed that out.

 

I hope you guys can help me with a small issue. I ordered ram, an ssd and a hdd. The ram and hdd will arrive prior to the ssd. I want to copy an external drive I am using as data and program drive to the new hdd (wd black 750 gb). My problem is how to do so and what software to use. The external is a 500 gb toshiba drive, so will the drive size be an issue? Also the ssd will replace my main drive (500 gb hdd --> 256 gb ssd), what is the best way to migrate the data? The ssd is the Samsung 830 drive (I did not wish to wait/pay more for the 840 pro model).

 

1. To copy files from an external drive to an internal drive just use windows explorer drag and drop (which copies by default if it is to a different partition) or the move or copy command from the menu, you should probably copy then delete the originals later when safe. The question is what programs are on the external that can be launched?

2. Use a cloning tool to migrate the OS to the SSD, or manually install the OS. Depending on where you bought the SSD the cloning tool might be part of the package. Good cloning tools should take care of the size differences automatically providing there is enough space on the destination drive.

 

1. I mainly have steam and a few games installed on the external drive. As for my main programs I placed them on the boot drive for speed.
2. Well I know the Samsung ssd comes with norton and wd has a download link on their site for the software, just wondering which would be better to use?

 

FWIW, I was just watching a video about SSD technology on Newegg. It is a three part introductory video on SSD for those new to that technology. The fellow said in the video that it is not advisable to copy over to an SSD, that you really need to reinstall the operating system onto the SSD to ensure maximum performance.

 

Ok, just wanted to make sure the OS wasn't dependent on the drive being attached. Simple copying of data files then should be sufficient.

As for cloning - I haven't personally done it. I'd say either one should be fine. Where you'll probably want to draw a line is with regards to any troubleshooting and how much time to devote to fiddling to get things to work. A new clean install takes just a few hours if everything is prepared ahead. Whereas cloning should be faster but any individual issues could extend that to much much longer. During the delivery wait, get the OS & Drivers for your system downloaded to the new WD HDD drive and ready for use. If the cloning process gets to aggravating there's an alternative.

 

I'd say just use Windows Explorer to move the files over, and then make sure that your new drive has the same drive letter that your external drive used to have and your programs should be happy. You can change drive letters in Windows disk management.