New M6500 Discussion Thread

Will the standard uk slim power adaptor work in japan ?

 

Whups. I was just dreaming of a way to configure an internal SAS. Dreaming.

I've still no clue if this will allow running NEC's OEM calibration software to calibrate the external monitor differently than the laptop screen, regardless of DVI or Display Port. The 2nd part is to be able to calibrate the laptop to a low luminousity. Few monitors can.

 

The M6500 has no SAS interface. USB 3.0 is the only way to attach drives with a bandwidth > 3GB/s (given that the USB 3.0 controller has enough PCI lanes).

I don't know this software, but since both interfaces are compatible and some people in this thread have already calibrated their screens I see no reason why it should not work.

 

Anybody try to upload photos recently? Having trouble with the site and it won't take my photos.

I have the HD Tune / SSD mini card results that I want to post.

 

Japan is samo samo on everything as the US (110volts, NTSC.etc)....those power adapters are universal voltage aren't they? I haven't even checked but should since I may be going to Greece with my Greek GF (to spend some money...haha)

 

yes...I recommend Advanced System Care Pro....deep cleans the registry and even the defrag that comes with works very well....for the registry I trust it as well as CCleaner...never let me down....many decent utilities.

 

Just installed a USB3 hard drive from LaCie. Their new rugged 500/7200rpm drive. Hitachi drive and a 2 year warranty for $150 direct. Easy formatting for windows and noticeably faster than esata to another Hitachi/g-tech. Powers the drive with just the usb3 cable.

Also loaded CS5 master suite. No problems so far and have done some work in Dreamweaver, Ilustrator and Photoshop. Photoshop's save for web command offers a preview setting that accomodates wide gamut screens nicely. Choosing doc settings for one view and un color managed srgb for the optimized window shows no high vibrance one gets with the monitor preview like in CS3 doing a save for web.

So considering everything is now fully set up on this laptop I can give it a 100% thumbs up. I have not used my workstation for 3 weeks putting this laptop through it's paces. I have to say it will be tough to start working again on my other machine is simply for the crisp and vibrant screen of the M6500 RGB LED.

John

 

about to purchase the M6500.

May someone please be so kind an answer some questions?

The M6500 will be used as DAW (Digital Audio Workstation)

1) May someone please be so kind and run the DPC latency checker, in order to assure that ASIO streaming won't be interrupted?

2) Is the PCMCIA slot fully "compatible"? I want to use a RME HDSP PCCard audio interface. Any experiences anyone?

3) I've got no experiences with SSD but I'm pleased to learn about the read speed, but also concerned with the write speed. So I tend to order the M6500 with one 256GB SSD for progs and sample streaming und one 500GB 7200rpm HDD for recording and everyday working with audio files/projects.

The best solution would have been to put the OS (Win7) on a 64GB miniPICe SSD, have a 500GB HDD for recording/audio work and a 256GB SSD for streaming. Isn't this possible? It seems I can only order a raid config when ordering a miniPCIe SSD, making it impossible to have a SSD and a HDD. Why is this?

4) I guess I will reinstall Win7 when the M6500 arrives. What are the steps to do this right? I mean, I read so much about SSD the last days/weeks and I'm unsure. Format the SSD "aligned"? How? BIOS? etc...

5) Will it be possible, (once Win7 is installed), to (re)partition the SSD, so I've got a OS partition and a "music partition"? Does that make sense with SSDs?


Thank you very much in advance.

 

I'm curious what other's impressions of running SSD in RAID 0 are on the M6500. Attached are the problems I have seen with very low IOPS using the M6500 compared to other RAID controllers using two Intel X25-M G2 80GB SSD's (HDDerased in between runs). I also had two Vertex LE's in a RAID 0 and got worse performance in RAID 0 using two drives than I did in AHCI with just one drive. I think something is wrong with the RAID controller in this laptop, hopefully something that can be fixed with a BIOS or firmware update.

 

Hi TabSel,

I hope that I can help with at least some of your questions, as I am also using my M6500 primarily as a DAW. When I was looking for a new laptop towards the end of last year, I had almost given up on finding something suitable when Dell announced in December that their latest flagship workstation had the new i7 processor's and the ability to take up to 16GB RAM. But what really caught my eye was that it had ISV certifiication for use with, amongst other things, Avid (Digidesign) ProTools and Cakewalk Sonar.

The PCMCIA, Firewire and expresscard have a Texas Instruments chipset which is what I think you are looking for. Most other Dell Models have a Ricoh chipset which often cause PCI bandwidth issues

On top of that was the ability to run 2 x SSD or 7200RPM SATA Hard Drives. I chose 2 x 250GB mechanical HD for now as SSDs are still quite pricey at the moment. But as you suggest, by having SSD drive for OS and then a large HD as the second drive you should get some increase in speed that way. There is a lot of info on this in the other posts on this thread.

The M6500 also has an eSATA port, and since March it seems the M6500 is supposed to ship with the newer USB 3 daughterboard which provides 2 x USB 3 ports I think. This would probably be the way to go particularly if running huge romplers or sample libraries. Personally I havent been able to upgrade to USB 3 yet as we early adopters of the M6500 are still waiting for news on when and how we can upgrade.

My main audio interface is a Sonic Core XITE-1. Welcome to SONIC CORE At the moment 64bit drivers for XITE-1 are not quite ready, so in the meantime I have the Primary HD set up as a dual boot with Win 7 32bit for my main DAW partition and Win 7 64bit for other things such as graphics apps and a couple of games

My Second HD is used for sample libraries and project backups, although I will probably get an eSATA drive sometime until I can get USB 3.

I havent bothered with a miniPICe SSD for the same reason you state but dont really know more about why that is the case.

I also did a DCP latency check using DPC Latency Checker v1.2.0 and this seems to run with a max latency of around 730 but the average latency is more like 500. It does seems to move between 200 to 650, and even though I have tried disabling just about every device in Win 7 Device manager I couldnt get it lower. However I didnt go into the BIOS and disable anything in there yet so it could be improved on.

As well as using my XITE-1 system, I also use the IDT audio device which has low latency ASIO drivers. Re the IDT device itself, some other users on here have had some issues with their audio device in the form on popping noises, but I have not had those same issues which seem to be specific to some M6500's but not others. Search this thread for info on the audio popping, as some people have been able to work around it or fix it in various ways.

But as far as using the M6500 as a DAW, so far it works very well. I use Cubase as my main sequencer and am able to run a lot of plugins and particularly VST instruments now that really struggle in my older main DAW (although that is mainly used with my hardware synths and other outboard gear).

Although most of the M6500 users here seem to be involved in GFX, Engineering or Photography there are a few who have been using the M6500 for Audio production and perhaps they can also chip in with their experiences and advice, especially question 4 & 5 as I also havent used an SSD yet.

If you are in US, then as a comparison look at the ADK laptops, as they do look very specced out as well, but was not economical for me to do from UK. ADK Pro Audio offers Apple Workstations for: Nuendo, Pro Tools, Sequoia, Samplitude, Cubase SX, Sonar 3, Pro Audio components, Pro Audio hardware, Pro Audio software. But for me I am actually quite pleased with my M6500. I would recommend doing at least some of the Win 7 optimisations as suggested on other DAW specific sites, such as disabling unneeded services, etc as this has made quite a difference here. But all in all it is a very nice mobile DAW.

Cheers.