Precision M4500 Owner's Lounge

SSD performance

 

Those figures seem about right for the Samsung, if about 20% worse than what they got here, but there might be other factors at play.

The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News
The SSD Relapse: Understanding and Choosing the Best SSD - AnandTech :: Your Source for Hardware Analysis and News

In those links the Samsung performance does drop off quite badly though as it becomes "used", as poor as 1mb/sec for random write.

I don't know what the situation is regarding TRIM on the Samsung drives these days. It is supposed to auto-trim now totally independant of the OS. I don't know if the drive in those Anandtech tests had this functionality, or it simply hadn't kicked in yet because of the testing regieme (to make the drive used, as I understand they gave it a heavy work out in a short space of time across the entire drive - and the Samsung auto-trim requires a period of inactivity to slowly work through the trim process).

I was tempted to swap in an Intel X-series SSD to the M4500, but I'm always worried about ending up with a laptop where the wireless, bluetooth or hardware keys don't work quite right - as well as warranty issues - and finally the Samsung does have a sequential write speed TWICE that of the Intels (important for things like video editing), and you're not limited to 160gb which is currently as high as the Intel's go.

Compared to the fastest HD the Samsung's are still a revelation!

 

For comparison with the same benchmark tool, here is what an OCZ Vertex2 240GB SSD can do in my M4500

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<ASSSDBenchmark
XmlFormatVersion="1">
<Information>
<Name>OCZ-VERTEX2</Name>
<Firmware>1.10</Firmware>
<Controller>iaStor</Controller>
<Size>223.57 GB</Size>
<DateTime>7/23/2010 11:58:19 PM</DateTime>
<BenchmarkVersion>1.5.3784.37609</BenchmarkVersion>
<Mode>MB/s</Mode>
<Note />
<Signature />
</Information>
<SeqTest>
<Read>205.19 MB/s</Read>
<Write>132.23 MB/s</Write>
</SeqTest>
<Random4K1TTest>
<Read>9.84 MB/s</Read>
<Write>15.57 MB/s</Write>
</Random4K1TTest>
<Random4K64TTest>
<Read>122.97 MB/s</Read>
<Write>116.28 MB/s</Write>
</Random4K64TTest>
<AccTimeTest>
<Read>0.288 ms</Read>
<Write>0.411 ms</Write>
</AccTimeTest>
<Score>
<Read>153</Read>
<Write>145</Write>
<Total>376</Total>
</Score>
</ASSSDBenchmark>

 

No, that doesn't seem right.

 

Hi All,
I am new to this forum and I wanted to both thank everyone for your posts (they have been very helpful) and submit my review/experience with a newly acquired Dell Precision M4500 bought from Dell Outlet.

Since I have not seen much in the way of Linux reviews with this machine, I thought it would especially be helpful, since I run Linux exclusively and have it installed on this machine.

** Specs **

• Intel Core i7-820QM Quad Core Processor 1.73GHz (3.06GHz Turbo Mode, 8MB Cache)
• 1.0 GB NVIDIA Quadro FX880M
• 15.6 inch UltraSharp FHD(1920x1080) Wide View Anti-Glare LED
• 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz (2 DIMMs)
• 250 GB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
• 8X DVD ROM Drive
• Dell 1501 Wireless-N
• 9 Cell Battery
• Palmrest W/O Finger Print Reader
• Back-lit Keyboard
• No Modem

** Initial Thoughts **
This machine was an upgrade from a D820. Despite what I have read in several places, I feel the build quality of the laptop is very good. I have the seen the youtube video describing the looseness of the bottom panel but in all honesty I have yet to have any issues concerning this, and I feel its nitpicking.

A concern is, however, the heat that dissipates from the machine. Compared to the D820, the M4500 gets significantly hotter when doing tasks that use the video card or the cpu intensely. I found odd that the heat, however, comes mainly from the left side of the machine. I am considering the purchase of a cooler, and hope to follow up once I get it.

On the plus side, the machine is very responsive, and the HD screen is simply gorgeous. Since I am a graphics professional, I was concerned of how true the colors would be out of the box, and I am happy to report that out of the box it feels like a well calibrated screen.

** Linux Info & issues **

OS: Arch Linux 2010.5 x86_64
Kernel: 2.6.34

***** Installation
Installation was fairly straight forward. However, the Dell 1501 wireless card is not supported out of the box, and therefore I had to install the base system using the ethernet card. Once the driver was downloaded, and compiled, it has worked fairly well. There are a few quirks, however.

***** Ethernet & Wireless
For some odd reason, the wireless card and ethernet card switch names between reboots. The ethernet can be eth0 on one boot and the next time, it may switch to eth1. Same goes for the wireless. A minor gripe for me, but it ruins any kind of automatic wireless management through Wicd.

The Dell 1501 wireless card is reported as being the Broadcom 4313. The driver I used is the Broadcom-wl driver. Source for Driver Here

***** SD Card Reader
As of this writing, I have not been able to get the SD card working properly under linux. I get the following error when putting any sd card:

Code:

mmc0: error -110 whilst initialising SD card

***** Touchpad
Although the touchpad works, including tapping, I am unable to get any scrolling. Upon further inspection, Xorg isn't even loading the synaptics driver. I think it has to do with the touchpad being stuck in a PS/2 Mouse emulation mode.

***** Turboboost & CPU Scaling
This an area I am also not sure if it's working properly working or not. When I enable the ondemand scaling governor, it reports only one core dynamically scaling. I have been unable to see the Turboboost feature working at all despite it being enabled in the bios.

I have read that this is simply a reporting issue on Linux. That despite it only showing one core scaling, it really is scaling all cores. No confirmation on this yet.

***** Tips/Quirks
When I installed Arch, the pcspkr module was automatically loaded. Unload it so that there are no loud beeps in the console when auto completing items, or backspacing at the beginning of a line.

On a side note, using alsamixer, mute the "Beep", else a loud noise from the speakers is heard when rebooting the machine. Seems this is a way to get system beeps through the normal speakers and it scared the hell out of me everytime I heard it

That's all I have to report for now. If anyone has any workarounds for the items mentioned, I would appreciate a response. Should any updates come up for these issues, I will come back and edit this post.

Thanks!

 

** New NVIDIA Drivers on the dell m4500 driver page **

Drivers & Downloads

Version 257.59 posted 7/23/10 for windows 7 x64, not sure about for other operating systems.

Installed and all is well.

 

of course it should be hot of that core i7.

Thanks for sharing.

 

Dear Forum Member,

Problem 1: I am having problems with the M4500 Multi touch-pad. The touch pad becomes unresponsive after random intervals and then gets back to normal. The pointing stick is never affected. I have tried installing the new driver available on the Dell support site but this didnot help. How can i rectify this problem?

Problem 2: Precision ON feature is not responding. I have configured this and set a password but when I try to run this from power off mode, it does not accept the configured password.

Please help..

Regards

K09

 

Hi,

I got my M4500 ordered 07/20 and it has just been shipped.

I wanted to max it out, but had to make some cuts due to cost. I would of liked the i7-920XM but settled for the i7-820Q, the 64Gb pcie SSD but settled for the 250Gb HD, and at least 8Gb DDR3 but settled for 2Gb.

When it comes to the memory, I can get a better deal for 8Gb through Newegg. Can I run anything faster than DDR3 PC3-10600 w/noticeable results.

As for the HD, I plan to order a 500Gb Seagate Momentus XT Hybrid drive with 4GB solid state memory for the time being, w/an SSD in the future.

Can more than one HD be installed in the M4500. If so, then I could set up a
small SSD for the OS.

Finally I went w/the Intel 6250 Wireless w/WiMax card vs. the 6300. Would I
have been better to go w/the 6300 instead? Does the M4500 come standard w/a third antenna wire for the 6300?

Thanks.


Quantity Item Number Description

1 224-8093 Mobile Precision M4500
1 317-4605 Intel Core i7-820QM Quad Core 1.73GHz 8MB for M4500
1 317-3637 2.0GB, DDR3-1333 SDRAM, 2 DIMMs for Mobile Precision
1 330-8884 Internal Backlit English Keyboard for MPWS
1 330-1652 Documentation (English) Latitude E-Family/Mobile Precision
1 320-8835 NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800M Graphics with 1GB2 dedicated memory for M6500
1 342-0619 250GB 7200rpm Hard Drive for M4500
1 330-7455 No Fingerprint Reader and No Contactless Smartcard Reader, M4500
1 320-8840 15.6" Full HD (1920 x 1080) Wide View Anti-Glare LED Display for M4500
1 421-1619 Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, no media, Mobile Precision, English
1 330-6322 Genuine Windows 7 Label, Latitude, Vostro and Mobile Precision Notebooks
1 430-3659 Dell Wireless 375 Bluetooth Module, Dell Latitude E
1 330-7402 Bluetooth Cable
1 313-6453 No Modem for Mobile PrecisionMX400
1 330-0834 130W 3-Pin, AC Adapter for Mobile Precision
1 330-1525 US - 6 FT, 3-Pin Flat Power Cord for Mobile Precision
1 313-6461 8X DVD+/-RW for Mobile Precision
1 421-2692 Cyberlink Power DVD 8.3,no Media, Dell Latitude/Mobile Precision
1 421-1190 Roxio Creator Dell Edition 10.3, No Media, Dell RLOB
1 313-9329 Integrated megapixel VGA webcam with single digital microphone, M4500
1 421-1201 Dell Webcam Central Software Dell Latitude/Mobile Precision
1 430-3823 Intel Wireless Advanced-N + Wi MAX 6250 802.11a/b/g/n, 802.16e Half Mini Card, M4500
1 330-7461 No Intel vPro Technology Advanced Management Features, Dell Latitude/Mobile Precision
1 313-3673 No Resource DVD for Dell Optiplex, Latitude, Precision
1 421-1795 No Precison ON, Precision Mobile
1 312-0248 9-Cell/90-WHr Battery, Dell Latitude/Mobile Precision
1 410-2395 Trend Micro Internet Security,English,30-day trial, Dell Optiplex, Precision and Latitude
1 468-7403 For complete functionality of Office 2010 purchase your product key card at www.dell.com/business/pkc
1 468-7439 Microsoft Office Starter 2010,OptiPlex,Precision and Latitude
1 909-1828 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus Onsite Service Extended Year(s)
1 909-1837 Dell Limited Hardware Warranty Plus Onsite Service Initial Year
1 923-2982 ProSupport for End Users: Next Business Day Parts and Labor Onsite Response 2 Year Extended
1 926-5180 ProSupport for End Users: Next Business Day Parts and Labor Onsite Response Initial Year
1 989-3449 Thank you choosing Dell ProSupport. For tech support, visit http://support.dell.com/ProSupport or call 1-866-516-3115
1 983-8252 ProSupport for End Users: 7x24 Technical Support and assistance for end-users, 2 Year Extended
1 984-4780 ProSupport for End Users: 7x24 Technical Support and assistance for end-users, Initial
1 421-2998 Media Kit,Win 7 Ultimate 64bit,MUI,Dell OptiPlex, Precision and Latitude
1 421-2604 Cyberlink Power 8.3 AND Roxio Creator Dell Ed Media for DVD+/-RW,Dell OptiPlex,Workstation and Latitude
1 330-9014 Resource DVD with Diagnostics and Drivers, Dell Mobile Precision M4500
1 330-5874 Intel Core i7 Processor

 

Hi @all, hi tom_bell07.

Registered today because of an problem i have. I own an M4500, i7 720, Quadro FX 880M, Win7Pro64 and I use an DisplayPort to HDMI Adaptor to connect the M4500 to an Sony TV.

Using the A05 driver, the TV is recognized in the systems sound settings as an audio device. Even the name ist displayed correct.

By updating to the A07 driver, the display works as usual but the TV isn't recognized as an audio device.

Can someone confirm this effect.

I had the same problem when I had the M4400 using the Nvidia drivers instead of the official dell drivers.

Greetings