New M6500 Discussion Thread

I dont really know what country you are from, but I can get an even better one from www.dell.dk (Denmark) without any discounts ... I haven't gone 100% into the details, but it doesn't seem to me like you are getting much of a discount ... and afaik Denmark is a really expensive country ...

 

Great reply, so the edge to edge has no real value either? hmmm learning that these notebooks are way over priced for just looks and to think some people just pay retail and don't even try to shop around.

I need a rock solid system, looks are nice... function, reliability and speed is the #1 priority and a USA support is key in my book. Looking to upgrade the ram as well, guess I can buy my own 2g/4g 204 pin dims, prob save some more money this way?

I'm now thinking of just dumping this order and going for a more bare bones system and buy my own hard drives and memory parts. I guess the CPU is still pricey though. The price I paid was better than the above quoted price you just posted. So in theory I received a fair price, question is do I need the covet as for mentioned.

Thanks again.

 

Dropping the memory and HD to the bare minimum and ordering it from an online reseller would save you a few hundred. The edge-to-edge is reportedly just a glossy screen (if you like that sorta thing) that is cosmetically better because there is no ridge between where the glass and case meet. Think of it as a completely flat surface.

I've already received mine and here are my thoughts:

1) Should have specifically requested the extra 2.5" SATA Drive Tray and Interposer for the 2nd HDD bay. It only came with 1 and to mount the 2nd drive this piece is required! I have posted a link on where to find it earlier in this thread.
2) Intel WiFi 5300
3) Dell 365 Bluetooth
4) 210/240 Switchable AC Adapter
5) 8X DVD-RW

 

So by this you mean you should have bought these 5 items also for your newly bought system or? Sorry for all these stupid questions, but I'm just trying to find out of what to get for myself, so I will be 100% happy

 

I paid around $4700 + tax for my Covet, with a i7-820; 8GB RAM; 128GB Solid State Drive (for OS) and 320GB Second HDD (for VMs and projects).

Originally I ordered the non-Covet; but after talking to the sales folks, they convinced me that the Edge2Edge screen might be a better choice for my needs because it has a glass covering - which is easier to wipe clean. I could really care less about the orange color, but the glass screen is only available on the Covet. I have a Macbook Pro 17 unibody that has the non-glassly screen and I have to be careful when I clean it.

The sales person upgraded me to the Covet for the exact same price as I configured my original non-Covet; throwing in the NVidia card. I originally ordered the ATI as graphics wheren't that important and the FirePro seemed like a nice card on its own. But now I'll have a chance to play around with the CUDA SDK. Wasn't planning on that, but it'll be nice. Also I really wanted to get the Wireless USB option (UWB card) but its not available with 64-bit OSes. Then I discovered that Wireless USB has been in limbo for the last 3 years and the only peripheral readily available is the Dell wireless docking station for $400+; so no real loss.

I hope I receive it soon - its been in production for the past few weeks, and was already delayed from a 12/23 shipping date now to 1/5. This will be my first computer with a SSD Hard Drive, even if its not an Intel drive I expect the Samsung to be snappy compared to a mechanical drive.

 

I have a large business account and my pricing for that exact configuration is $3729.00. You won't get that pricing but it shows you there is room for them to come down a bit.

I have to agree that there is really no benefit to the Covet.
The only option they add is the edge to edge class and the orange paint job which adds roughly $300 even on the business account.

Given that the screen is exactly the same on the standard M6500 I don't see that money well spent when you can upgrade to the extreme processor which from what I am seeing provide much better performance.

I just returned an M6400 with Edge to Edge glass and while it looks pretty in certain light, it is basically a mirror and the worst part is the glass rubs on the keyboard so you always see plastic marks on the glass when the lid was closed.

 

You might also research the difference between the nVidia 3800m and the ATI graphics card. It seems to me that the ATI is better designed (40nm chip, better performing DDR5 ram, lower power (less heat) for essentially the same processing capabilities), while the nVidia has much better marketing. As best I can tell, the only real advantage of the 3800 might be for processing video using Adobe Premier. If you don't need the capabilities of the 3800, you can save a substantial amount by going with the ATI, which has very close to the same overall capabilities.

 

Here are the pictures of the annoying key scrub on the glass with the edge to edge. And let me tell you I am very careful with this laptop and it goes in a bag that puts little to no pressure on the screen.

You can also see how absolutely horrible the reflection is.

Does it look pretty, yes, is it functional, no.

See my next post for the Matte screen cleaning fix.

 

See pictures for this thread attached.

This is by far the easiest and best product I have used to clean LCD screens and reflective plastics like cell phone glass and screens.

The Monoprice screen clean solution is safe on LCD and has antistatic properties. It comes with the microfiber cloth which is key to help lifting finger prints and dirt.

This is a screen that was completely abused. The only thing that did not come off was splashed on coke that ate away at the screen.

This took me about 30 seconds to clean and I would say it came out close to 90% of what it was new. And again this was a screen someone did not even care about or clean once in 3 years.

 

Yes, but due to some company budget requirements I had to keep the price down. I will be upgrading all of these items in the near future on my own dime.