New M6500 Discussion Thread

My father has an M17X R1. I had to work through some issues unique to that model, so I know that machine very well. The R2 has the same chassis, but fewer quirks.

The M17X is bigger and heavier. It screams look at me, I am a gamer. There is nothing subtle or understated about it.

It has a piece of darkened glass in front of the LCD panel that slightly dims the brightness, but makes blacks and colors richer. The lid on the M17X is one of the heavier parts.

The M17X has a fan for the CPU and each GPU. The heat sinks are massive and you can tell they took care to not let them get blocked. On the other hand, I have been very impressed with the cooling on the M6500. My *guess* is that with 1 GPU the M6500 would be able to dissipate more watts of heat with its 2 fans vs a 2 fan M17X. Add a 2nd GPU and that 3rd fan, and I am sure the M17X would have more capacity. The M17X does a great job at keeping the heat on the bottom of the machine while the top stays cool.

The M17X will be capable of getting higher frame rates in games. Especially with that 2nd video card. Find specs for a single GTX 280M or GTX 285M and you will have an equivalent card for the Quadro FX-3800M.

If you don't need the rendering abilities of the Quadro or Firepro cards, don't need a notebook that looks "professional" in a business climate, and don't mind the larger weight and bulk of the M17X R2, then get the R2. The M17X is built for people that want to game on a notebook with the fewest possible compromises to gaming on a desktop machine.

You could take an M6500 to a LAN party and unless it was a covet no one would be too impressed by the outward appearance. That's probably the point.

 

Ok well I have the M7820 right now in the unit. The games I play from time to time are: CS: Source, TF2, BF2/BF1942, WOW, and some older games from time to time. Nothing huge new on the horizon that I want to play except for the expansion for WOW.

 

If I got the accessory part # correct then here is one source
DELL 230 Watt AC Adapter with 6-ft Power Cord for Dell XPS M1730 Laptop : Laptop Accessories | Dell

Can't recall the dell forum where I believe I had read lots of complaints (oh yes perhaps it was ihatedell.com) but regardless it seems that at least some here have had no problems and perhaps the power brick issue is similar to much of Dell's so-so quality control. If interested in researching more you might try
Dell complaints :: Index

I have owned Dell's for past 12 years and while quality and service has gone downhill I am still considering purchase so I am not a Dell basher.

 

That is a completely different power supply. It is for the Dell XPS 1730, not the M6500. It also has a larger plug on the end of it that is not compatible with the M6500.

Many of the issues that you might have read about the XPS1730 had to do with the motherboard or power supply losing the ability to know what wattage the power supply was.

This has nothing to do with the 2 available M6500 power adapters.

I went to the ihatedell website and searched for M6500. 1 post. And it was the press release when it was announced.

You have 3 posts to your name, in those 3 you put out incorrect info, you link a site called ihatedell.com, you say that for 12 years Dell's quality and service have gone downhill with nothing to back up your statement, and you say your not a Dell basher? Not trying to be rude, but you kinda sound like your another company's fan.

If you can find it, please show us where you read that the M6500 has power adapter issues.

 

Debguy, is your Bluetooth working with Lenny? (assuming you have it) IMWTK

 

Out of interest, any of you keep an eye on how much resale M6500's genrally go for? how much would my M6500 go for should I want to resell it? It's a month old... had no problems, all works perfectly.

Base Silver Base, Clarksfield, USB3
Microsoft Operating System English Genuine Windows® 7 Professional (64Bit OS) Recovery DVD included
Memory 8GB 1333MHz DDR3 Dual Channel (4x2GB)
Keyboard Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Backlit Keyboard
Video Card 1 GB GDDR5 for ATI FirePro M7820 (with 1GB dedicated memory)
Hard Drive 320GB Serial ATA (7200RPM) (Free fall sensor)
Optical Devices 8X DVD+/-RW Drive Slot Load with Software included
Wireless Networking EMEA Dell Wireless 1510 (802.11a/b/g/n 2X3) Mini Card
Shipping Documents English Shipping Docs
Gedis Bundle Reference W08M6502
Standard Warranty 3Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day
Enhanced Service Packs 3 Year Warranty - NBD
PalmRest No Contactless Smart Card
Bluetooth EMEA Dell® Wireless 365 2.1 Bluetooth™
Documents for Graphic cards English Set-Up and Features Doc for Graphic Cards
Order Information Precision Order - United Kingdom
Primary Battery Primary 9-cell 90W/HR Battery for Silver LCD Panel
Carrying Cases No Carry Case
Processor One Intel® Core™ i7-820QM(1.73GHz, 8MB,Quad Core) Memory runs at 1333MHz
Windows Live Windows Live
Dell System Media Kit Mobile Precision M6500 Diagnostics and Drivers
Camera Integrated 3.2 Mega Pixel Camera with Microphone for Silver Base
Color Choice Silver with RGB LED LCD Back Cover
Image Restore Dell Backup and Recovery Manager for Windows® 7
LCD 17in Widescreen WUXGA (1920x1200) Antiglare Silver with RGB Led LCD Panel
Microsoft Application Software Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 ( Excel Starter 2010, Word Starter 2010)
CompleteCare 3Yr CompleteCare Accidental Damage Cover
Raid Connectivity Raid Controller : All SATA Hard Drives, Non-RAID for 1 Hard Drive
Protect your new PC English Trend Micro™ Internet Security(15 month subscription) Antivirus Software
Power Supply UK/Irish 210W Slim AC Adapter with UK/Irish Power Cord
Biometric Identification - Fingerprint Reader No Fingerprint Reader

Total cost inc VAT = £2688.00

 

I have no idea if it was actually working, since I have no BT peripherals. But at least ifconfig detected the interface and the LED was on.

 

Thank you. I'm looking at other monitor options now for my m6500, other than the 3008wfp. Especially since that particular model has now been discontinued recently and has been reported as having input lag because of the scaling it does at all resolutions, including native. I'm thinking of either two U2410 running at 1920x1200 (that would require the dock though unless the u2410 allows for daisy chaining via a 2nd display port), or a 16:10 30" at 2560x1600 monitor using just the one display port.

The hp zr30w is awesome.
A New 30" Contender: HP ZR30w Review - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

...and expensive. But I would like to see if a 30" LED comes out in the next eight months or so. The zr30w uses CCFL and can get quite heated. Would be nice to see a big monitor with two display ports for daisy chaining. Then I could run two 30" without a dock. That would be rediculous - but NICE!

Ideally I would like it to have:
30"
16:10
2560x1600
non-scaling at native resolution
DisplayPorts (preferably two for daisy chaining)
LED backlighting

all while retaining the same or better awesome brightness, contrast, color gamut, etc of the Dell and Hp monitors that are available today

 

Oh, my new replacement m6500 laptop is here. Has been for about a week now. It is working flawlessly. Trackpad is functioning beautifully and no more display blackouts which previously required a reboot to correct.

Bonus, it has USB 3.0 whereas before my system did not. Also received two new SAMSUNG 256GB SSDs with latest firmware. Both were Samsung PM800 SSDs. Both drives support TRIM but they had different firmware #s. Both F/W #s are new as of Aug 1st 2010 according to Dells driver download pages. I've reimaged the new drives from my backups via Acronis. Worked great

new SAMSUNG SSDs and firmware:
My previous Samsung drives that came with my original system back in Feb were a PM800 and PB22-J. The original PM800 that I had supposedly supported TRIM but I was never 100% sure. The Original PM22-J firware definately did not support TRIM.

Anyway, if you ordered your system from DELL with SSDs, you will want to confirm that you have the latest firmware to support trim. You will also want to enable AHCI in the BIOS if you had not done so previously. This will also require you to reinstall the OS after setting to AHCI in the BIOS, but it is worth it in my opinion.

*FIRST ATTACHMENT IS ORIGINAL PB22-J which did not support trim
SECOND ATTACHMENT IS NEW PM800 (ovbd7) which does support trim (I'm using this to replace the PB22-J as my data drive)
THIRD ATTACHMENT IS ANOTHER NEW PM800 (ovbd1) which also supports trim
FOURTH ATTACHMENT IS ORIGINAL PM800 which did support trim but is older firmware

*edited: added another photo. Also made a correction... both new SSDs are confirmed to be PM800. Seems the PB22-J (my old data drive that was replaced) are a bit outdated? Not able to update firmware and therefore they did not support trim. If you have a PB22-J you should call Dell to request a newer model which does support trim. Kindof bogus that they'd ship an M6500 with drives that do not support TRIM.

 

The Dell factory installation of Windows should have the different HDD access mode drivers pre-installed so that you won't get a BSOD if you switch mode. I you have installed your own Windows and want to change to AHCI then read this thread.

John