Precision M4400 Owner's Lounge *Part 2*

@precision user....I bought a late engineering sample from ebay, although the retail one's on ebay have come down a lot in price now....I still wouldn't pay what dell want's for faster cpu's.

Don't think I've ever spoken to an Indian tech person with dell [have with HP], but I've only contacted them twice since 2002, probably depend's on your geographical location, all my sale's have gone through the droid's in the Malaysian call center.

Can't remember ever hitting a rude one, they're all pretty useless [as illustrated by your non upgradable sales rep], but extremely well mannered all the same, the most trouble I've had is with getting part's, where I've been hung up on a couple of time's for asking question's that were obviously a bit too difficult or too much of a pain to deal with, so it pay's to get extension's and name's [even though they are obviously pseudonyms ] before you start telling them what you want.

I'm pretty sure they've been using the same old magnetic cassette tape for their telephone waiting music since 2002 also.

 

Are you talking about the second HDD being in the "modular drive"? Or something that is separate from the DVD drive? The rep said that it was a separate drive. But the sticky thread in this forum talks about the only option being the DVD drive swap out.

And you can go from the Core 2 Duo to a Quad core? The techs said that would need a different motherboard.

 

The non-upgradeable sales rep was an American. The guy who said that I can upgrade it was an Indian. You would think that Americans working for an American company would know more about their product than an Indian routing calls to other departments! I'd rather have an Indian or any guy from any nationality who knows what they are talking about than someone with the badge of the richest country in the world but knows nothing. Absolutely no offense to Americans. I live here.

 

I have definitely encountered "useless" people from both sides of the world though they tend to be Americans most of the time, since they are whom I talk to the most. The worst part is when American reps get really rude when you question their knowledge. I called lenovo to get a price quote for the t500 and asked him something about the TPM. And he just went on like "I don't even know what you are talking about" and didn't bother to ask the people around him or anything. That guy was the worst! Indians would have put you on hold and asked someone else or said something like "I'm sorry sir, let me transfer you to another dept.". Yes, after a million transfers you get really angry! But they don't at least yell or do something unprofessional from my experience. And that was obviously that one sales rep, and there have been useful people I have talked to. Really nice people at that.

 

No board change needed if you look at the "quick start manual" here: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/M4400/en/setup/X001CMR.pdf you will see the extreme core 2 quad listed under processors. It doesn't specifically list the Q9000, Q9100, and Q9200 processors but they are supported without any software/ BIOS changes. Plug and play.

For the second hard drive I am talking about using a Numodeus caddy to carry the OEM HDD in the optical bay. I figured it was a cheaper alternative to buying the 160GB X25-M. It would also keep my total storage up at 320GB (only 80GB would be SSD speed). I will also be buying the Esata/usb cable from them that will allow me to use either the DVD drive or HDD caddy externally through the Esata port. Though the two are hot swappable and could be put in as needed. The only time to use the cable is when I want to burn a DVD from the HDD or rip one on to it.

If you were really into spending money you could buy 2 160GB X25-m (about $1000) and put one in the caddy, but the M4400 will not support RAID0. So you would have more storage but not more performance... Seems a waste to me as most any program could be transferred to the SSD if you needed it to run fast. If need be I may even upgrade the HDD to a 500GB unit for half the cost of another 80GB SSD if I need the space (which I don't see happening).

 

That's nice! Thanks for the info. I will be buying a 320 GB HDD with Free Fall Sensor and be using that as my main drive. I already have the external cables and connectors, so I am buying a silicon case to cover the one that comes with the laptop (80GB 5400 rpm) for transportation. I will post up my final specs once I go with the wire transfer.

 

This is what I am getting.

Precision M4400, Intel Core 2 Duo P8700, 2.53GHz, 1066MHz 3M L2 Cache, Dual Core
4.0GB, DDR2-800 SDRAM, 2 DIMM for Dell Mobile Precision
Internal English Keyboard for Mobile Precision
Documentation (English) Latitude E-Family/Mobile Precision
512MB NVIDIA Quadro FX 770M Precision M4400
80GB Hard Drive 9.5MM, 5400RPMfor Mobile Precision MX400
No Fingerprint Reader for Mobile Precision M4400
Black Wide Screen WXGA+ LCD for Latitude M4400
Genuine Windows 7 Professional64-bit, w/ media, Mobile Precision, English
Genuine Windows 7 Label, Latitude, Vostro and Mobile Precision Notebooks
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth 2.1 Minicard for Latitude E/Mobile Precision
No Modem for Mobile PrecisionMX400
130W 3-Pin, AC Adapter for Mobile Precision
US - 6 FT, 3-Pin Flat Power Cord for Mobile Precision
8X DVD+/-RW for Mobile Precision
Cyberlink Power DVD 8.3,with Media, Dell Relationship LOB
Roxio Creator Dell Edition 10.3, Media, Dell RLOB
Microphone only for Mobile Precision 4400
Intel WiFi Link 5300 (802.11 a/g/n 3X3) 1/2 MiniCard for VPRO Latitude E/Mobile Precision
No Intel vPro Technologys advanced management features for Latitude, Mobile Precision
Resource DVD with Diagnostics and Drivers for Vista Precision M4400 Notebook
6-Cell/54-WHr Battery for Latitude E/Mobile Precision
15.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA+ LCD for Mobile PrecisionM4400
No web cam w/ microphone for WXGA+ LCD for Mobile Precision M4400
Dell Hardware Limited Warranty Plus Onsite Service Initial Year
Basic Support: Next Business Day Parts and Labor Onsite Response 2 Year Extended
Basic Support: Next Business Day Parts and Labor Onsite Response Initial Year
Dell Hardware Limited Warranty Plus Onsite Service Extended Year(s)
Standard On-Site Installation Declined
CompleteCare Accidental DamageProtection, 3 Year
Info, Complete Care
Intel Centrino 2 Core Duo Processor
Visit www.dell.com /windows7upgrade for Windows 7upgrade eligibility, RLOB


Subtotal: $1401.84
Shipping & Handling: $0.00
Tax: $98.15

Total: $1499.99

 

Feel like you just got ripped off?!

By the way, it's not a refurbished system!

 

I don't feel too bad. You guys seem to get a better deal down in the ol' U S of A. I just priced my system out that I purchased 11 months ago. I paid $1830CDN (w/free shipping) back then and if I was to buy the exact same system today, it would cost me $2589 + $100 for shipping.

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8600 (2.40GHz, 3M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Ultimate Downgrade,XP Professional SP3 Install,E
LCD DISPLAY 15.4" UltraSharp™ WUXGA (1920x1200) CCFL Display
INTEGRATED WEBCAM Integrated webcam with microphone
MEMORY 2.0GB, DDR2-800 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
HARD DRIVE 250GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM with Free Fall Sensor
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink Power DVD™
GRAPHICS CARD NVIDIA Quadro FX 770M, 512MB
BATTERY OPTIONS 6 Cell Battery
INTERNAL KEYBOARD Internal English Backlit Keyboard
WIRELESS CARDS Intel® WiFi Link 5300 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
BLUETOOTH Dell Wireless® 370 Bluetooth Module
WARRANTY & SERVICE 3 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 3 Year NBD Onsite Service
ACCIDENTAL DAMMAGE PROTECTION 3 Year CompleteCare Accidental Damage Protection

 

Just saw the 8gb Ram discussion. Some people report that 8gb isnt supportet properly with VT machines?

What they report: each VT machine only gets 1gb Ram. 5 Machines = 5gb and so on, which leads to a waste of money, because you still have only 5gb working and a huge swap to hard disk... if this is true an upgrade to SSD would be much more useful.