Precision M4500 Owner's Lounge

Yup...sounds about right

 

You could have taken a look three pages before, but here it is:

P/N: MMDPE64GEDXP-MVB (D1)
Model: mSATA 64GB
Firmware: VBM72D1Q


Also, ekuns, who has the minicard factory-installed, posted the following regarding his machine booting linux:

ata4: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
ata4.00: ATA-7: SAMSUNG SSD PM800 mSATA 64GB, VBM72D1Q, max UDMA/100
ata4.00: 125045424 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32), AA
ata4.00: configured for UDMA/100
scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA SAMSUNG SSD PM80 VBM7 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 125045424 512-byte logical blocks: (64.0 GB/59.6 GiB)
sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3 sdb4

 

Nice to see such a good forum! I am considering buying a precision M4500 and am curious of the manufacturer of the primary 64GB SSD. Can anyone tell me the info about this?

There are so many discussions in the thread, so maybe you've discussed that before, but I can't find the exact location. Thanks!

 

Another concerning is about these two options:

Intel® Centrino® Ultimate-N 6300 802.11a/b/g/n Half Mini Card
&
Intel® Centrino® Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250 802.11a/b/g/n and 802.16e Half Mini Card

The latter one is more expensive than the former one, so I guess it has a better performance. Is that right? Can anyone explain that a little bit?

 

Use the search function or look one post above yours...

 

The difference is in the 802.11n operation, where multiple concurrent data streams are supported. The cheaper card is a 2x2 (two input, two output streams), the more expensive card is a 3x3, IIRC. Theoretical maximum speed per channel is 72.2 Mbit/s, so in theory the maximum is 144.4 MBit/s for the cheaper card and 216.6 MBit/s for the more expensive one.

In reality, it will depend on where you live. Out in the woods, wooden building - you should see all three channels perform near the maximum specs. Downtown apartment, densely populated, many WLANs around you, concrete building: it will be significantly slower, chances are that 3 channels are not even available.

 

Thank you recluce! I know that 3*3 is better than 2*2, the confusion is that the cheaper one (6300) has a 3*3 and I am not sure why the 6250 is more expensive than 6300.

 

The 6300 is a 3x3 card, the 6250 is a wifi and a WiMax card, hence the higher price.

 

This is the primary reason here. If you have no use for WiMax don't spend the extra money.

 

My refurb M4500 is very unstable. It hard locks within minutes of booting windows. It has no issues outside of windows and all the diagnostics pass. This makes me think it is a windows or driver issue.

I have switched over to AHCI Sata mode and flashed the BIOS to A04. I am reinstalling windows 7 pro and will follow the reimage guide to the letter to try to get this thing working.

Does anyone have any suggestions for specific drivers to either try, or to avoid?

I don't need any of the vPro or TPM stuff working, no fingerprint reader, etc, I just need the hardware such as the NIC, Dell Wifi, Nvidia, and Intel storage.

Thanks in advance.