Precision M4500 Owner's Lounge

Quick Question about to pull the trigger on the M4500. I want to get the 64GB SSD as the main drive and add a 2.5" 7200rpm drive to the main drive bay later. Anyone know if there is a special plug or tray or adapter needed? I'm assuming the main drive bay should be open when buying the SSD PCI card only, I can't get a definitive answer on if there is any additional hardware needed to install your own drive at a future date.

Luke

 

I'm not sure my answer is definitive but if you get just the 64 gig card, then the main drive bay should be empty. It's a standard 2.5" bay. It has a little piece of plastic you unscrew and put on the new drive so that it completes the case of the notebook the just slide the new drive in and go...

Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

 

That's my hope but I've been getting conflicting reports that if you buy it with the "SSD Card option only" something is missing and you have to buy the SSD card w/ 2nd drive option that forces you to buy their way over priced drives. Then again another tech said sure you just open it up and drop the drive in the empty bay and hook it up.

Anyone order this with SSD card only?

 

Hey all...my 4500 is on order now...I have the 1366x768 resolution coming and am a bit nervous that it isn't high enough...anybody have it and have thoughts?
Also, have any of you hooked up 90w power supply to this? does it give you an error? I hooked a 90w up to a 4400 and it didn't give me a message...

 

a) I would look at at least the next screen size up, your going to be staring at this thing a lot and 1366x768 is pretty rough, I was tempted by the RGBLED but really needed the 1920x1080 as I do HD video editing and need to be able to see every pixel.

b) I would stick to the 130w as the studio xps 15 which isn't near as powerful has issues w/ only the 90w

 

Ya...its already ordered so too late now...i can always swap out later if its horrible, but it will be in a dock (closed) with 2 external monitors most of the time.
At least i got my SSD!

 

I ordered mine via phone. Sales rep sent me the order confirmation ; i read it through... saw he made a mistake ; he didn't upgrade the screen to FHD 1920 x 1080 like I asked to ... the list said HD 1366x1768...

So then I had to call him again to have him correct it.

 

Hi all,

Great forum!
Fine comments on the new m4500. Really helpful so far.
I'm really tempted on buying one soon.
Although I've got two questions left.

Can one of the m4500 owners please check if the chipset of the express card "and" the pc card are Texas Instruments devices?

I'm planning to use the notebook as a DAW using Ableton Live as my main host. Anyone knows which processor will be most useful? The dualcore 620M or the 820QM/920XM?

Really looking forward to your replies . . .


Sander

 

Just canceled my order! Than placed it again I'm saving $389.00 for the same laptop. If you purchased with in the last 21 days call and get your credit. If you have one on the way cancel and reorder. original Delivery date: 05/5/2010 new date: 05/10/2010 not bad for a phone call.

 

I am considering buying an M4500. I am migrating from a D630. My problem is I need 2x DVI and 2x VGA ports with a dock. I am currently using the D/Dock with the D630 with a PCI mini card that gives me an extra DVI and VGA port in the docked configuration.

The problem is Dell seems to have discontinued the D/Dock product with the PCI expansion card option. The E-Dock does not support any expansion cards for graphics or anything else?

Is there any other way to get additional DVI and VGA ports (4 displays total)?