M6800 Owners' Thread

Isn't the Dell 1601 card wifi + WiGig + BT?


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Yes it is, but only 802.11n. Should have mentioned the '802.11ac' part...

I've been looking for an 802.11ac + WiGig + BT combo card, but these don't exist yet.

The only thing I found, is that Qualcomm Atheros and Wilocity are working on a tri-band card:
Qualcomm and Wilocity Launch Industry’s First Tri-band Reference Design Featuring Both 802.11ac and 802.11ad Technology

...but this is still in the reference design stage and no mention of BT.

 

I don't really use BT all that much - what do you use it for?

Given how many USB ports the M6800 has, maybe a USB Bluetooth dongle is the way to go?


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Hello.

Can someone please with a M6800 and K5100 tell me what is the part code from the system spec for the GPU heatsink? Is it the same as the one bellow? For those who don't know you need to just go online to dell.com and enter your service tag number and select system configuration and all the parts will show up.

Thank you.

K6D33 1 Assembly, Heatsink, Video Graphics Adapter, Nvidia, M6800

 

May I ask two questions, please?

1. Is the Chi Mei coating as grainy as they say it is?

2. Do you sometimes see vertical checkered lines (when you look closely) in dark areas of photos or films? For instance, if you'd be so kind to take a look at the attached wallpaper, do you see vertical checkered lines in the darker middle of the image? (Some N173HGE owners report seeing such lines...)

Thanks.

 

Got the info I was looking for. I can officially confirm that the nVidia heatsink is the same for K3100m K4100m and K5100m with the AMD one being different. This is good news to K3100m owners for easy swap to 780m. It's not like it used to be with the M6700 where there was a different heatsink for the K5000m.

 

1. Unfortunately I don't have a good reference display to compare to at the moment so it's hard to say how it compares to something else. I had an M6600 earlier with an AUO panel which was replaced with an Chi Mei when it broke down and to me the screen definitely looked worse after the change. For some time I also had M6600 and M6800 next to each other with Chi Mei screens on both and of those this M6800 looked worse because the colors have that yellowish tint but otherwise the sharpness looked about the same.

2. I don't think I do. At least nothing that would pop to my eyes. But I can see that background flickering with that as well, which is annoyingly present at pretty much all darker areas.

Overall, in my opinion, the screens really are one of the weak points for a machine this expensive. Looking back at the old conversations from the M6600 times, it's clear that those Chi Mei's shouldn't have been used in the first place. Also it's quite surprising that there's not even an option for an IPS screen for a laptop that otherwise looks like it's designed for graphics professionals with Workstation graphics and all. I guess they expect all such people to always use external displays... Also the touchscreen option has such an insane price in the Europe that it's not really a serious option at all.

And speaking of graphics, it would also be nice to have some "non-professional" GPU options for us that do not buy these just for Cad/3D use. A more powerful gaming card wouldn't be just cheaper but more likely to work in Linux as well...

 

Thanks a lot for the effort. It really helps me.

As for the flickering, there seems to be a solution to this - using the screen with a higher refresh rate. The N173 is reportedly good for 95-120Hz, and 67Hz as well any number beyond 74Hz seem to work in eliminating the flickering.

Here's a utility to create custom refresh rates with (which you can then select from the nVidia or AMD software): Custom Resolution Utility (CRU)

 

Greetings everyone.
I have been working toward upgrading my M6700, but I have also considered going with a new M6800.
What is everyone's opinion on the pros and cons of the m6700 or m6800?
I have heard about temperature control and performance issues from some people, but perhaps these were only the early versions that were released?
How is the battery life of the new models? The cooling? build quality?

 

I don't think the upgrade to the new series is worth it. Basically all you'll be getting is new - and only marginally faster, if at all - CPU options and somewhat better battery. Otherwise, the 6700 and the 6800 are essentially identical. It's easier to upgrade to a faster CPU, GPU, more mem and storage etc. on your 6700.