Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge *Part 2*

Thx for being the guinea-pig

 

Correction: found problem for window freezes, wasn't related to driver. However I can say that my Hulu programs look better with 186.81, same settings in Nivida et al. With the beta they seemed 'washed out', not sure why. I am using the flash prerelease 10.1 from adobe.

 

The differences are mainly in mobility indeed and i think that should be the thing to consider. If you're going for the M6400 i would at least get it with the RGB LED as well. The Q9300 has been giving some people (minor) heat issues but others have been doing fine with it so that really a matter of stress testing it and see what happens.
I think both laptops are decently priced for the configs they have.
Maybe not much help this way but for me it would be a question of how often am i on the move and do i mind carrying the extra .lbs of the M6400.
Besides that both are great machines.

good luck

 

Out of those two I would go with the M4400, purely because of the WXGA+ on the M6400, if it had WUXGA, even the non RGBLED, I would take the M6400, especially with the SSD and extra drive,ram.

Will be interested in what you decide and for what reason's


PS.don't buy a modular bay from dell if you keep the M4400, newmodeus sell's good quality 2.5" one's for very reasonable price's unlike dell's 1.8" version's, plus there's even cheaper one's on ebay without locking latch

 

@x7web - I am a programmer as well and don't do much (if any) gaming. Based on the information you provided, especially the need for mobility, I would highly recommend the m4400. I am EXTREMELY happy with mine (it has replaced my development "tower" workstation), and have not had ANY problems to date. I too run multiple virtual machines (using Virtual Box). I haven't had any heat issues - although I did replace the thermal paste on both my cpu and gpu heat sinks.

My answers to your questions below:
1. Am I making the right decision by getting QX9300 given my somewhat non power usage? Is heat an issue in either? I do want to future proof at least for 2 years.

I purchased my m4400 with the QX9300 for two reasons: First to allow for effective power usage of multiple virtual machines, and secondly, to try and "future proof" as much as possible. Heat has not been an issue for me and I am extremely happy with my choice. Again, please note that I did replace the thermal pads with Arctic Silver thermal paste to control temps. There is a "how to" posted somewhere in this forum.

2. If I go for lower CPU should I go for x9100 or T9900 or Q9000/9100, they do show up occasionally on the outlet site.

I recommend the QX9300 for the reasons indicated in question 1 if you have the available cash... That said, I don't have any insight into the other CPUs.

3. I really find the second hard drive option useful. Does the slightly higher mobility of m4400 justify additional cost to buy and install the mod bay HDD?

I use a USB HDD as a second hard drive with my machine. One of the reasons I chose the m4400 was specifically for the docking station option so that I would be able to drive my two 22" monitors without having to plug and unplug cables whenever I sit at my desk. I just leave my external HDD plugged in to the dock so it's there whenever I'm at my desk. When I'm mobile, the 320 GB internal drive is plenty to get the job done for me.

4. Are the prices reasonable for the configurations above? I can find a m4400 with T9900/4GB/250GB/WXGA for ~$1150 and a M6400 with T9900/4GB/NO SSD for ~$1200

The prices you quoted appear to be extremely reasonable IMO. I purchased mine about 6 months ago with all the bells and whistles (although I did minimize the RAM and hard drive so that I could replace them after market - Dell is WAY over priced for hard drives and RAM) and I paid quite a bit more then the prices you quoted. The prices have definitely come down.

Good luck and please post your final decision! Check my sig for my config. If you have any questions, post them or PM me.

 

Hey guys
i just re-ask, did anyone tried call of duty modern warfare 2 on m4400?=
im still happy with my m4400 its a really really great laptop.

regards, sebastian

 

dude, whats up with posting the same thing in three threads? its against the forum rules!

 

Post moved to dedicated thread "Help deciding between m4400 and M6400 (both with QX9300)".

 

Update from Downclocking issue:
- cleaned Fan
- replaced Pads with Arctic Silver5
- installed new Wlan driver
-- Up to now no more throtteling

 

Sorry, first time posting - wasnt sure where I would get most response so posted as new thread and in m4400/m6400 owners thread. Now that I am getting responses in all three I realize one place would have been best.