New M6500 Discussion Thread

The new M6500 should get a lot better battery life since on idle the i7 consumes less power than the C2Q and the GPU is also optimized to draw a lot less power than its predecessor. I would think it could get 2 hours with low brightness and everything shut off.

 

photogeek you could make sure your power profiles are set to power saving and turn down your screen brightness when u dont need full power

the best way to save power is spend a few hours lowering your vcore for each multiplier using rmclock

search for rmclock in here and you should find plenty of info

it will reduce temps and power consumption by quite alot

 

I don't think i7 is supported by RMClock unfortunately.

 

Thanks for the tip. I will check it out. Do you know if rmclock will work with Windows 7 64-bit?

Is there some type of Nvidia utility where I can underclock the FX3700? This seems to be the major power culprit.

Also, can't touch the screen brightness. The laptop is primarily used for photo editing and I have calibrated and profiled my screen using the EyeOne XT. My screen brightness is already set to about 25%,which results in about 110 cd/m2 (the correct setting for photo-type work).

Thanks

 

My estimated delivery date isn't until the first week of 2009 and it was ordered last week. I configured it with the 820 CPU, 3800M GPU, and RGBLED screen. Kinda thinking about the possibility of dropping the 3800M for the FireGL and bumping the CPU to the 920. Will any of the 3 GPU options support the dual 2560x1600? Here's the quote from notebookcheck:

"A highlight of the Precision M6500 is that it also supports displays with an extremely high resolution. According to Dell it can handle up to two external 30-inch displays connected via display port (one directly at the case, the other via docking station) at full resolution (2560x1600 pixel)."

Reference: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Hands-On-Dell-Precision-M6500-Workstation.23070.0.html

 

All 3 GPU's support two 30" displays via the dock.

 

What type of applications and work are you doing? Some programs are CPU intensive and will benefit from a faster CPU, while some depend on the GPU - where specific applications can prefer either nVidia or ATI cards...

 

it's possible to take the m6500 covet with the m7740 and not with the fx3800m ???

 

I will be trying to do all of my work (software developer) under VMWare at all times, with the host OS just being a host. The last time I tried to do this with a 1500M on a Core Duo 2.23ghz, some of the programs requiring more GPU (Windows Presentation Foundation) were not feasible. I tried a beta Windows 7 at the time under VM and it was not running fully featured (Aero disabled) and I believe gave a warning about the graphic hardware accelerator not being capable? That's why I want the fastest possible GPU I can get! Nothing is really that CPU intensive in my line of work.

 

This is my order with the following specs:
1 Precision M6500 : N-Series Silver Base S
Processor : One Intel Core i7-820QM(1.73GHz. 8MB.Quad Core) 1 S
Display : 17in Widescreen WUXGA (1920x1200) Silver with RGB Led LCD Panel 1 S
Camera : Integrated 2 Mega Pixel Camera With Microphone for Silver Base 1 S
LCD Back Cover : Silver with RGB LED 1 S
Documentation : English Shipping Docs 1 S
Resource DVD : N-Series Mobile Precision M6500 Diagnostics and Drivers 1 S
Ship Accessory : English Set-Up and Features Doc for ATI FirePro M7740 Graphic Card 1 S
Memory : 4GB(2x2GB)1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel 1 S
Hard Drive : 500GB Serial ATA (7200RPM) (Free fall sensor) 1 S
Raid Controller : All SATA Hard Drives, Non-RAID for 1 Hard Drive 1 S
Optical Drive : 8X DVD+/-RW Drive Slot Load no software 1 S
Power Supply+Power Cord : UK/Irish 210W Slim AC Adapter with UK/Irish Power Cord 1 S
Battery : Primary 9-cell 90W/HR for Silver LCD Panel 1 S
Carry Case : Not Included 1 S
Graphics : 1 GB GDDR5 for ATI FirePro M7740 (with 1GB dedicated memory) 1 S
Wireless : EMEA Dell Wireless 1510 (802.11a/b/g/n 2X3) Mini Card 1 S
Wireless : Dell Wireless 365 Bluetooth 1 S
Keyboard : Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Backlit Keyboard 1 S
3Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day - Minimum Warranty 1 S
Base Warranty 1 S
No Warranty Upgrade 1 S
3Yr CompleteCare Accidental Damage Cover 1 EX

Total ￡1,945.27 Includes VAT (equal $3166.4)

any comments or suggestions ?