M6600 Owners Thread

Thanks. Phew!

 

Hi, after two years of almost daily use of my M6600 I thought I'd finally sort out a laptop stand. Does anyone know if this ok for use on it's own:
E-View Laptop Stand for Select Dell Latitude Laptop / Precision Mobile WorkStation : Computer Accessories | Dell

If I do get a dock with it, there seems to be a USB 3.0 one now available, but from reading around it may only work at 3.0 speeds for IvyBridge machines, i.e. not the M6600. Does anyone have one of these to confirm?

I was also wondering if the laptop's USB 3.0 ports could be used whilst plugged into the e-dock. My monitor also uses the HDMI output currently, but I don't see a solution to that other than using an alternative cable.

 

I am using that stand with dock, I dont think it really work if you plan to use the laptop keyboard when mounted though. (the elevation is pretty high in the back) Also, w.o dock, it may slide around? There are no lock mechanism w/o the dock.

With m6600, the dock will not have usb 3.0. not sure what happens if you use the 3.0 dock, maybe the port wont work or they work at 2.0 speed.
All the side ports works when docked, Scott said the back port work as well (hdmi). You can probably get a dvi to hdmi adapter if you want the monitor plugged in the dock.

 

I'm using the Dell PR02X USB 2.0 docking station, and the USB 3.0 coming out the side of the laptop still works. Us a DVI cable instead. DVI doesn't carry Audio though.

 

Yup, I can confirm that with the PR02X all docking station USB ports work, as do all the notebook USB ports, including the 3.0 ones.

 

Likewise, I can also confirm all ports remain active when docked.

Scott

 

Just got my SD card, the internal reader is pew pew pew compare to the one on u2711 ~~

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2 x64 (C) 2007-2013 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : Crystal Dew World
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
* MB/s = 1,000,000 byte/s [SATA/300 = 300,000,000 byte/s]

Sequential Read : 76.242 MB/s
Sequential Write : 47.720 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 73.035 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 41.310 MB/s
Random Read 4KB (QD=1) : 7.749 MB/s [ 1891.8 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=1) : 1.035 MB/s [ 252.8 IOPS]
Random Read 4KB (QD=32) : 7.593 MB/s [ 1853.7 IOPS]
Random Write 4KB (QD=32) : 1.062 MB/s [ 259.2 IOPS]

Test : 50 MB [I: 0.0% (0.0/59.7 GB)] (x2)
Date : 2013/12/11 17:12:05
OS : Windows 8 [6.2 Build 9200] (x64)

Card is this PNY

 

Not bad at all.

 

Thanks Guys that's really helpful!, an e-port is now on the way to me.

I have another question though that I have been struggling with concerning some form of mass data storage approach, ideally making use of the eSata port, but if not that the firewire port and as a last resort the USB3 ports.

My machine currently has:
256mb mSata SSD,
500Gb HDD
2nd internal drive - empty
Processor: i7-2720QM
RAM: 16GB
SystemBiosVersion: DELL -6222004
SystemBiosDate: 11/19/11
Dell drivers last updated on install around 2 years ago.

The eSata approach
Internally I therefore do not have a RAID set-up, but I would really like to connect via the eSata port to an enclosure containing 2 HDDs in RAID 1. The HDDs being 2 4TB (Seagate ST4000DM000 4TB 3.5 inch Desktop HDD: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories),

I have spent many hours reading through this thread, looking for the occasional flurry of comments on the eSata situation. As far as I can see the problem centres around users with internal RAID configurations and / or where port multipliers are called upon.

In my case I don't have an internal RAID configuration and I was wondering if anyone could recommend an enclosure that does the RAID 1 business itself so that it should work when connected to the M6600.

I was looking at this type of thing, which seems to be fairly self contained, but I would only need a 2 HDD version:
External SATA RAID Enclosure - 4 Bay | eSATA | FireWire | USB | StarTech.com
RAID Enclosure - 4-Bay External SATA Hard Drive Array | StarTech.com

The USB 3.0 or firewire options
I wasn't clear on whether the same RAID problems applied to connecting via firewire and usb3.

Again if possible connecting to the pair of HDDs in RAID 1 would be the ideal, possibly looking at the above or something like these:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Startech-Du...0+Hot+Swap+Trayless+SATA+Hard+Drive+Enclosure
StarTech 3.5 inch SATA Enclosure for Dual Bay SATA External Hard Drive Enclosure: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

But if raid is not possible at all I would also consider just having an enclosure with the two independent HDDs not in RAID, and just manually copy one to the other once a day (hopefully doing it the right way around), unless there are potential issues with this too.

The last resort would be to purchase 2 single HDD enclosures, but I was hoping to avoid this if I could.

Thanks,
Adam

 

If you are using the drives for data (not booting the OS), you can use Windows's built-in mirroring support, you don't have to find an enclosure that does it for you nor do you need to manually copy files. Mirroring and striping has been built in to Windows since XP I believe, and Windows 8's "Storage Spaces" feature makes it even more flexible.

Side note - I once tried a Firewire enclosure that did auto mirroring, but it trashed the good drive when the bad one began to fail, losing all of the data anyway. Make sure whatever solution you settle on is proven to be reliable and don't go off what the box just says it can do.