M6900 - What specs are you hoping for?

I'm hoping that the next nvidia mobile quadro GPUs will have the power efficiency of their maxwell GTX brothers. And I really hope Dell adopts the M.2 PCIe SSDs too. And it would be nice if there is a more power efficient/cooler operating CPU. And with all that being said, it would be nice if the new laptop were reliable with no overheating issues out of the box (fingers are crossed).

Actually I'll likely get an m6900 regardless, unless I learn that they are just really really poorly made. I've been pushing my current laptops beyond 4-5 yrs usage, so I need a new machine.

regarding the display, that is of course very important. But I'll also have it connected to a dock and external displays. but when I travel without the external monitor, the laptop display will be important. I just don't count it as important as the other things I've mentioned.

FYI, I see that Samsung is ramping up their M.2 PCIe SSDs in anticipation for up coming mobile workstation laptops, etc. That is good new and makes me hopeful that m6900 will support M.2 PCIe

Samsung Mass-Producing SM951 PCIe M.2 SSDs | techPowerUp

 

They manage to make the new AW 17 around the size of the old m6800. Hopefully, they do a full chassis refresh on the m6900. The old chassis had been used for 3 gen so this should be it.

 

Yes, I hope so also. With slimmer storage via M.2, more power efficient GPU via Maxwell (cooler running), and hopefully cooler running CPU, etc. I hope for a lighter weight chassis.

But I understand that there will likely be accomodations for optical drive and conventional HDDs and those type things may keep it from being trimmed too much.

As for the appearance, the Mobile Precision line has always looked classy to me. If they could just make it lighter and less bulky, while not compromising cooling, I'd be very happy.

 

Enhanced expresscard slot. For some strange reason manufactures seem to be phasing out this slot when thew should be doing just the opposite. With so many ports in transition, its the closest method for a laptop to stay current. At least Mac offers Thunderbolt.

Well to be fair, these are workstation after all, so there's only so much trimming one can expect. Its akin to asking for a lighter HD pickup truck.

Agreed. Although I'm not totally against an update. As is, it retains its value better that way. Besides, its not something that Mac appears to be bothered with.

On the other hand, there is that minor annoyance with the battery/chassis combination. Still, with a little tweaking it shouldn't the that hard to work out a fix.

 

Yeah I would like to see ExpressCard slot continued in the Mobile Precisions, (or maybe if there is faster bandwidth ExpressCard slot than the 2.0 standard? I don't know if there is). I'd also like to see included a Thunderbolt (or preferably Thunderbolt 2) port. I've seen desktop PC motherboards with Thunderbolt built in at the back I/O shields. Thunderbolt has better bandwidth than ExpressCard 2.0. But just the cables themselves are expensive, let alone the devices. Mobile workstation owners I don't think would mind paying the steeper price of thunderbolt if it helps them in their work.

 

Exactly what I mean by enhanced. Its the expansion that will keep laptops from becoming obsolete overnight. Can we now then 86 VGA?

Its the single greatest advantage Apple has. And unlike DP, there is a cost. However, its one I'm sure most workstation user would gladly be willing to pay for.

 

Hmmm, here I was thinking the M6800 speakers to be quite good! You guys should hear speakers on a Fujitsu laptop.

I would appreciate an optical out jack on a professional laptop, though.

 

I wonder if Dell will wait for the Intel Skylake CPUs due 3rd or 4th qtr this year. I really don't want to wait til 3rd or 4th quarter, but I will if Skylake has considerable improvements over Broadwell (Broadwell is a shrunken die compared to haswell and therefore cooler running, but uses same haswell microarchitecture).

Dell probably wouldn't release a Broadwell m6900 and then later in the same year release the m6900 with Skylake processors. So maybe Dell will just wait until Skylake at the end of this year?

Skylake is the 14nm "tock" step to Broadwell and will feature a graphics processor with Direct3D 12.0 capabilities, Thunderbolt 3.0, SATA Express, AVX 3.2 support, MPX Memory Protection Extensions, and various other improvements.

 

Ah, I just read your post. I posted similar thoughts above. Yes, I hope for Skylake as it seems to have many nice improvements such as thunderbolt 3. And of course, much improved efficiency from maxwell quadros would be very nice.

 

I definitely would not mind waiting until the end of the year if it means getting Skylake and the advantages that may bring. The Precision line, especially the M6XXX are built so well, I doubt I would look elsewhere for a replacement to my M6600.