New M6500 Discussion Thread

The S is indeed for serial, but that refers to the transfer protocol of a single drive. SATA is bit-serial, i.e. one bit is transfered after another. PATA is byte-serial/bit-parallel. One byte is transfered as a whole, which means that the bits of each byte are transfered in parallel. This is where the S and P come from.

What I was referring to was the design of the bus system, not the protocol. If you have a look into an older desktop PC you'll find that each (of the usually two) PATA cable has two ports for storage/optical devices. Those two devices have to share the bandwidth of that PATA channel.
In a desktop PC with SATA you'll find that each drive has its own exclusive cable, and therefore can use the full bandwidth (if the SATA controller allows that).
The same layouts go for laptops, even if you won't see any cables.
So in contrast to PATA, SATA drives can work totally in parallel. The only question is: Can the controller handle that?

 

Thanks again for your explanations, very appreciated.

And for the controller: lets find out

 

Hey Joe -

Glad you figured out that the issue with the DVD/CD burner was software compatibility. Even more happy that it was caused by software that was not a part of the Dell OS image. I know it must have been a pain for you, but at least it was not broken straight from Dell.

On the Intel Rapid Storage Technology induced boot issue, here is a shot in the dark for you to try. In Windows 7, the service from Intel that starts up the IRST software is set up as Automatic (Delayed Start). You might go into your services and change it to Automatic and see if that helps.

Thank you again for sharing!!

 

My M6500 arrived mid afternoon after much pacing up and down the room - the delivery guy wanted to make sure I was who I said I was because 'people sign for these things and then they sell them and pretend they never recieved them before anyone realises they were delivered to the wrong place'... :/

Initial impressions are good, it's a lot thinnner and slightly lighter than I imagined, just in the process of installing all my software. Had one bluescreen earlier, hopefully it was just a one off, everything else seems to be working fine. Can't wait to see how it performs!

 

I just received my M6500 yesterday, and so far I'm loving the setup. Has anyone here done a clean install of Windows and gotten the Precision On button working? Every time my computer boots it shows "Error: Flash module not found". I disabled that program on startup, but the button isn't functional. (I set up RAID 0 w/ 1TB instead of the 250GB HDD it came with, so I couldn't use the factory install; but even the factory install had an issue when trying to load the Precision On functionality.) Any links / information would be appreciated.

 

I am trying to debate on keeping this M4500 or going up to a M6500. For the most part the unit will stay docked at work (will move it around occasionally for meetings.) I also have a macbook air now to use for ultraportable. Any suggestions??

 

I went to the m6500 from an m4400. I'll never get the 15inch precision again. For the m6500 you must get the RGBLED, it's perfect for a 17 inch screen.

BTW, I pack in it with the cooler in a briefcase style bag and take it with me 3 times per week in a Solo Bag from Best Buy, 59 bux. No wear marks or scratches. Get the slim adapter. BUT, it is heavy relatively speaking. I wouldn't want to be carrying it all day...but from the car to an office is no problem. (It's not 'harder' to take with me than the m4400, just heavier) IMHO

 

Thanks, yeah I had a M6400 almost 2 years ago and I have a backpack that handles the job. But yeah when I need something small and light to use I have the macbook air.

 

@theZoid what kind of cooler do you have for the 6500?

 

The backpack that I use is a swissgear and as for when its sitting around I am using a dock.