M6600 Owners Thread

Well, I just ordered mine. Bokeh's review (thanks, by the way, that must have been an awful lot of work) showed pretty much what I expected with regard to CPU performance... No throttling to speak of when the GPU is heavily loaded (there really shouldn't be any at all since the GPU and CPU heatsinks are partially independent of each other, but they're probably trying to avoid having to have a ~300w power brick for this thing), and-thanks (probably) to its higher TDP giving it more headroom-the 2920XM will actually run above its rated clockspeed indefinitely if it's loaded up.

I spent a lot of time playing with Dell's online configurator and found something that ended up working to my advantage. On the US site, there are four "Starting Points", if you will, from which you can start configuring your M6600-two with i5s, one with an i7, one with Autocad:


Obviously, most-if not all-of us are going to order an i7, so those of us that don't need autocad are going to want the 3rd one from the left, that comes with an i7 already, right?

Well, maybe.

It turns out that you can spec the i5 "starting points" all the way up to a 2920XM, a Quadro 4000 and 32GB of RAM if that's what you want. Why might you want to do that, as opposed to just starting with the i7 base configuration?

The i7 configuration includes a 500GB hard drive, 4GB of RAM, a fingerprint reader, bluetooth, and a webcam. If you order the i7, you're buying all of that whether you want it or not. The base i5 configuration, on the other hand, can be ordered with a 250GB or 320GB hard drive, 2GB of ram, no fingerprint reader, no bluetooth, and no webcam. It saves you something like $100 or $150 (I forget the exact number) if you do it that way, and you can still spec the 2820QM or the 2920XM or whatever you want.

Personally, I need a webcam and I need bluetooth, but I don't need a fingerprint reader and the first thing I do with any laptop that I buy after I make sure it works is pull the stock RAM and the stock hard drive(s), no matter what they are. So I saved like $70 and got a palm rest without the ugly fingerprint reader that I'll never use.

Final specs:

• FHD display (they have the touchscreen listed again, for those of you that are interested. I did not order it.)
• 2920XM
• Quadro 4000m
• 2GB DDR3-1333 (will be replaced w/16GB Kingston DDR3-1866)
• 250GB 7.2K HDD (probably a Seagate, judging by other peoples' drives. Puke. It'll be replaced with a 120GB Intel 510 SSD, a 120GB Runcore T50 mSATA SSD, and a 750GB Western Digital Caviar Black)
• Intel 6300, Bluetooth, Webcam, tray load DVD, extra A/C adapter, docking station, etc. etc.

Supposed to be shipped early next month, so... I may tear it down when I get it and see if I can get some part #s off the video ram to figure out exactly what its stock clock should be. Hopefully the Optimus stuff doesn't cause too much hassle. I suppose if push comes to shove I can just force it to use the Quadro and then I'll probably get the same battery life I was getting out of the W700-or would have gotten with the M8900-anyhow. *shrug*

 

Here are the viewperf 11.0 scores that were requested. Sorry but the download took a while... not sure but their servers seem a bit slow... anyone wanting to run the test use the mirror sites, it takes about 25-30 minutes from the Miami mirror (for me anyways).

Viewperf 11.0

Viewset | Composite | Multisample Performance
catia-03 | 18.72 | no result
ensight-04 | 17.67 | no result
lightwave-01 | 50.73 | no result
maya-03 | 54.08 | no result
proe-05 | 4.26 | no result
sw-02 | 39.90 | no result
tcvis-02 | 20.68 | no result
snx-01 | 22.44 | no result

Tompoucelevrai: As for the driver I used, I haven't even updated any of the drivers or software other than windows since I got the system (and need to return ). The driver version is 8.800.7.2000 from 2/1/2011. The test was run in the basic edition of 3d mark 11, I don't own it... also for the other scores: 3DMark Score P2996, Graphics Score 2724, Physics Score 6558, Combined Score 2818. My physics score was lower than yours...

Also as a side note; the update driver feature says this is the latest driver available...

Also a quick question, is there a method to backup or create a list of all the drivers installed and for the device that is installed. I want to know if they are giving different systems different drivers...

Siorus: It is true what you say, yet there still uis a 30% coupon that you can use and if you call and order there are many other changes that can be made. For example, I do not use the features from windows ultimate and asked to be downgraded to professional with xp mode. It saved me about 70-90 dollars and I got to keep the specs and parts I want. As for hdd and ram, the upgrades were cheap/free and will be moved to the secondary hdd slot or in an external enclosure for data backup. To also add to random upgrades, the slot load is great as there are no trays to break or have problems with (I also have two laptop dvdrw drives sitting on my desk if need be...) yet won't take odd/mini disks. And a $20 upgrade isn't too bad. So I just wanted to advise you to call and make the same order with a rep and you may getr a better price than ordering the system online. Just my two cents!

 

Looks like you specced out a good machine.

On the processors, I have a couple of comments.

Get at least the 2720qm processor. The gulf between the 2620m is wide when applications are good at multithreading. The new overclocking routines are very agressive on the quad cores and are much closer in clock speeds to the dual cores these days.

The 2920xm is a monster. The M6600 lets it run at almost 65 watts right out of the box until temps come up to over 80. We are talking all 4 cores under full load at 3.2ghz with no problems with no overclocking.

I know the specs say 2.5, but in real life it should be called a 2.8, because thats where it runs under extended full loads.

 

That's a totally valid point, although it's also dependent on you getting a decent sales rep. For me, for whatever reason, that seems to be easier said than done. I've dealt with three, now-one online and two on the phone.

The first one i talked to online about two weeks ago trying to confirm one way or the other if the FHD display was TN or iPS. This is what followed:

------

Agent: "How may I assist you today?"

Siorus: "Hi, I'm looking at purchasing a couple of M6600 mobile workstations; I've just got one quick question for you: Is the FHD display an IPS panel?"

Agent: "one moment"

Siorus: "sure"

Agent: "it is FHD, also if you are ordering more then one machine I can get you great pricing"

Siorus: "i've got a coupon code for 30% off; can you do better than that? I know it's a full HD display, and I know it's LED backlit, but I'm wondering what kind of panel it is-i.e. if it's a TN panel, or an IPS panel, or a PVA panel or perhaps something else, and whether it's backlit with white LEDs or RGB. Basically I'm trying to assess the actual quality of the display; HP offers their "dreamcolor" panels, which are IPS, and I believe they'll do 100% or more of the Adobe colorspace. But a lot of cheaper laptops (and desktop LCDs, in fact) use Twisted Nematic panel construction that typically has poor viewing angles, color shifts when viewed off-center and issues with color accuracy in general, so...

Agent: "what is the coupon code?"

------

.........yeah. Ok then. So no help there. He also sent me a followup e-mail in which i asked him about switching from a Quadro to an M8900 at a later date if needed, and I simply didn't get a reply.

The first person that I spoke to on the phone was actually very helpful; she confirmed that it's a TN panel (which we already knew, but I didn't at the time), and she tried to get me an ETA for the Quadro 5010 and the IPS panel, but couldn't. I wish i'd gotten her extension, because the second person I spoke to over the phone today was a complete idiot.

I called one last time to find out if they could do any better than 30% over the phone. They couldn't. Fine, no problem. I figured i'd take a couple of long shots and ask them if i could specify the AU Optronics panel specifically to avoid the issues that colvilj is having. The question went completely over her head. So did my wanting to confirm that the machine will have 4 DIMM slots even though i spec'd it through the i5 page. The sales rep tells me "It has one DIMM." I said "I understand it has one, but it takes 32GB of RAM max. 4x8GB. I just want to confirm that all of the M6600 boards have 4 RAM slots." "It has one RAM slot." "It does not. It has either two or four." "Let me check..." I waited about three minutes, hung up and ordered it online.

if you have a good relationship with a specific sales rep, by all means i'd recommend calling them. But all of the machines that I spec at work are Lenovo (laptops) or custom-built by yours truly (desktops) unless i have an emergency come up of some kind and need a system *NOW*, so I do almost zero business with Dell. They evidently have almost zero interest in helping me out as a result.

At least their prosupport should be decent, based on past experience (although that was with a 1st gen XPS something like 6 years ago now).

 

That's interesting Wired360, the 5950 firepro on the precision 4600 got similar scores is VERY slightly behind in performance in the same benchmark if not on par. But at least gaming performance is FARR better.

Is it worth 20fps in maya for $740 bucks.....prob not.

Edit: the 5950 benchmark I saw was using the 2920xm cpu so that *may* have helped with the scores, or maybe not?

 

I was on "Dell automatic," but I switched to "ultra performance." I still have the click, but it otherwise works fine.

 

Does anyone know if the optical drive is a 12.7mm or a 9.5mm?? Spending $400 for a blu-ray burner upgrade is pretty steep, especially if an aftermarket burner can be had for less than half the price.

My thinking is: order the tray-load DVD drive, and replace it with the Sony BD-5740H-01...which is a 12.7mm drive...and which can be had for ~US$160.

Thoughts?


Thanks.

 

It is a proprietary 9.5" variant. Aftermarket ones won't fit I am afraid.

 

I know that you have a 2920xm and 4000m but which HDD were you using while running the benchmark? also how much ram?
P.S. - Nice review btw.

There you have it. Comparison of graphic cards.

quadro 4000M vs ati firepro 8900M -

In terms of just performance the 4000M is a clear winner. CUDA and PHYSX will definitely be a big help to those who are planning on using it for work.

Gaming performance between the 8900 and the 4000 is fairly close. Take it as a tie.

In terms of battery life as we have seen earlier quadro with the help of optimus is getting at least 4-5 hrs of battery life where as i'm getting around 2.5-3 hrs of battery life when running it in extended battery mode (no wifi, just practically idle) from 8900m otherwise anywhere between 1.5-2 hrs. 4000M bags a win here as well.

Price- everybody know that 8900M is about 700$ cheaper. So no doubts here.

Overall if you are buying this system mainly for work or you require a better battery life out of your machine or you got a spare 700$ go for the 4000M. Otherwise buy the 8900M and enjoy a great VFM.


P.S. -



Max GPU temps i've seen yet.



SPECviewperf 11 and 3d mark 06 scores. These benchmarks were run using stock drivers, stock HDD (500GB 7200rpm), & stock RAM (4gb 1333MHz).

 

However people here are neglecting to mention that the 4000M is overclocked while taking on a stock M8900. If you run the M8900 overclocked, it will still smoke the 4000M in gaming performance. I won't mention ISV-Certified Apps, cause any Quadros can kick a FirePro in that department hands down.

Hardware performance the FirePro is still far superior. It just fails at being optimized in ISV-Certified or CUDA work unlike the Quadros.