New M6500 Discussion Thread

Hello guys, I have searched this thread but did not find any issues relating to noise (not fan noise).

When I received my m6500 I almost immediately noticed a high-pitched noise (the type usually referred to as cpu whine) coming out of the center of the keyboard. Most accurate I could locate it was above the D and F keys.
I also had a faulty touchpad.

I ve been through 2 replacements so far (mobo and touch pad). This third touchpad seems okay although the high pitched noise persists.

I do have sensitive hearing indeed but it can be heard very easily from 3 ft away in a quiet room. Has anybody else experienced the same problem? And if it is not the mobo which was already replaced twice, what can it be?

 

You don't say what constitutes a large drawing for you. Although I don't use 2011 in day to day work (the hsbcad add on that I use isn't supported yet). Instead I use 2009 until my addon is ugraded. I fired up 2011 and loaded several 2 -4 Mb drawings and didn't notice any noticeable lag. One thing that can affect lag in 2011 is the QAT (quick access toolbar), having the properties palette open, and visual effect settings. I'm also using ACA 2011 instead of plain AutoCAD but that should only make my performance a little worse. All in all I'm please with my 6500. It's a major improvement over my M4300 that I'm retiring.

 

Never used AutoCAD so I just come up with some typical performance tips:
- which power plan do you use? Try "high performance".
- I have the older ATI m7740 and its Catalyst Control Center lets me choose between performance and power optimization. You might want to look for such an option as well.
- what hard disk or SSD do you use? If AutoCAD creates lots of disk IO you might want to use at least a fast hard disk with 7200 rpm or even better a fast SSD. In addition: I assume your AutoCAD files are on a local disk not on a network share, correct?

You can use "Resource Monitor" from Windows 7 to check if you see unusual high disk or network usage from any of your running processes.

I don't know how to check if the ATI card itself could be the bottleneck - maybe someone else can jump in...

 

The drawing I'm opening is 1.31mb... The lag it causes even results in a little mouse skipping over the toolbar, as soon as the drawing is closed or I reduce it to a small drawing (71.3kb) the problem dissappears. I'm loading up 3dsMax, shall see how that performs.

 

Hmm, I switched off 'Enable 10-bit pixel format support' on the ATI Catalyst control centre and then switched it back on again... now an 80mb drawing is mysteriously lag free... I'm not sure exactly what happened.

 

I just (re)discovered the Unigine heaven benchmark, which is a graphics benchmark for Linux and Windows.
Download | Unigine (3D engine for games and real-time virtual worlds)

It might be useful for those who are considering to buy the M6500 for rendering tasks. I'll post some results later this week and would appreciate if somebody could tell me if I should just use the maximum settings or if there are any standard settings that should be used for better comparability.
This is what the test offers, and since I'm running a 64bit system I think I should use one (or more) of the x64 options:

Code:

x64_1024x768_windowed_tess_disabled.sh
x64_1024x768_windowed_tess_extreme.sh
x64_1024x768_windowed_tess_moderate.sh
x64_1024x768_windowed_tess_normal.sh
x64_1920x1080_fullscreen_tess_disabled.sh
x64_1920x1080_fullscreen_tess_extreme.sh
x64_1920x1080_fullscreen_tess_moderate.sh
x64_1920x1080_fullscreen_tess_normal.sh
x86_1024x768_windowed_tess_disabled.sh
x86_1024x768_windowed_tess_extreme.sh
x86_1024x768_windowed_tess_moderate.sh
x86_1024x768_windowed_tess_normal.sh
x86_1920x1080_fullscreen_tess_disabled.sh
x86_1920x1080_fullscreen_tess_extreme.sh
x86_1920x1080_fullscreen_tess_moderate.sh
x86_1920x1080_fullscreen_tess_normal.sh

 

I'd like to sell my one and a half month old M6500, I bought it because I wanted the power to play games as well as do CAD work - but I'm so busy with work now I can't play games and I'd really like to downgrade to a macbook pro, those I work with use them and their good enough for what I need and I'm finding I do need portability after all! The M6500 is a great machine, undoubtedly, I just need portability and would prefer a smaller screen + less weight, I'm willing to pay £400 for my mistaken choice. I think I got a fairly good deal on it when I bought it, so this would be a great purchase for someone looking specifically for an M6500 and looking to cut a few hundred pounds off the price.

Here are the specs:

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 that I paid = £2688.00

It's lightly used but pretty much as new. I'm after £2200.00 so that I can buy a decent macbook pro. My ebay account is wormcraft. I'd like to use paypal but other arrangements can be discussed. Will ship within UK, courier fee to be negotiated (pending finding out how much various modes would cost). If you're interested please contact me on [email protected]. Thanks!

PS I also have a sturdy new £45 targus bag for it that I will include which means you're getting about £500 off!!!

 

Question: Anyone in possession of a displayport to HDMI adapter? If so, which are you using? Is there any audio/input lag associated with using the adapter? Looking to pick one up in the very short term. Thanks.

 

I bought this one:
Secomp Roline - Display-Adapter - HDMI, 19-polig (W) - 20-poliger DisplayPort (M) - Schwarz (12.03.3127)

So far I didn't try to output audio through it, actually I'm not even sure if NVIDIAs Linux driver supports it, but I will give it a try.
Anyway, if there is a lag, the adapter would be the last thing I'd suspect to be the reason. (I also have a DP-HDMI cable to cross-check.)

 

I got "mass storage controller" flag in my device manager. Is there any driver missing? My M6500 (A03) has 2 X-25V's configured as raid-0. TIA