Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge *Part 2*

The voice of experience hehe. Yep new models are to be avoided until the kinks are straightened out. HP Envy 15 just shipped this week, and seems to have its share of issues. I have another two months or so before I really need to make a decision, and I think it will be an interesting two months in quadcore land.

What we're seeing with the Core i7 Mobile rollout is several consumer models but nothing in the business segment yet. Quadcore means new requirements WRT cooling, although the i7 doesn't have the thermal envelope of the QX9300 it's still 45W at peak load which means many current C2D-based designs will have to be redesigned. Especially thin-and-light metal designs like Envy 15 and Apple will have some issues there, with excessive heat transfer to the casing. The interior of the Envy 15 is more or less 50% dedicated to cooling.

It will be interesting to see how Apple tackles the i7. The design concept of using the unibody casing as a heatsink only works up to a certain point. With the high end MBPs being popular for pro video editing, they have to be designed for handling full load over extended time. HP Envy dropped the internal ODD to make room for cooling.

With M6400 update OTOH cooling surely will not be an issue - replacing QX9300 with 920XM should lower power and thermal requirements considerably. As I understand it that update is probably further away in time though.

 

Oh well I bought it from dell outlet as a "scratch and dent" and it does have a tiny scratch and a tiny dent which doesn't bother me. I ended up cleaning it with some lysol which worked fine.

 

Does anyone handy know if there's a hard disk tray you can substitute for the slot load CD/DVD? And if so is there a compact case to mount the optical drive in to use as an external drive? I don't use it much and have a full sized external I use more and the idea of a third drive would be way cool for me from several standpoints.

And while I'm begging info, if my computer through the esata port recogonizes an external drive, and Acronis lets me add it as a system disk, can I put an OS on it, and if the answer is yes what happens when I don't turn the external on (it's not USB powered) before booting the system? Like now I always get my two choices, Win 7 or 'older operating system' and if I add, say Vista Business on the external will the boot choices change according to whether the external drive is on or will my computer blow up?

And lastly, what's the real story on using LCD TVs as monitors? The plus and minus' points. I don't have a TV so personal experience is out. And if they're good, what is a good 32" TV brand or model choice for a monitor? I've been thinking of buying the Dell high end 24" display, it's very nice but also close to $700 (not taking into acct. any deals) and a 32" HD TV is at least 200 bucks cheaper. I've seen people using them as monitors and they looked OK but I didn't really study the image quality except to note that I could read a contract from three feet away.

 

In general it's up to the computer what devices can be booted. It would be VERY surprising if the M6400 can't boot off the eSATA port though. Normally the BIOS has a boot priority order, and if the eSATA drive is not there (and is at the top of the list) then the next drive is booted.

I have two disks on my thinkpad - one in a tray that replaces the removable ODD. My BIOS allows me to select at startup which drive to boot from.

 

I'm about to buy a used model M6400 covet(4 months old).

specs:

Intel® Core™ 2 Extreme Quad Core QX9300 (2.53GHz,12MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
-NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M 1 GB
- 4 GB ram (going to upgrade to 8GB (4x2gb))
- Dell Wireless 5530 (HSDPA)-minicard + GPS
-17-inch WUXGA RGB LED edge-to-edge 1.920 x 1.200
-Intel Wireless 5300 802.11a/g/n 3x3-minicard
- not sure if it has the blue ray dvd player
- 3 years warranty included

Buying this used model will save me at least 1500 euros.

I do have a few questions. I own at the moment a HP 8710W
specs:
- Core 2 Duo T9500 2.6GHz
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 3600M
- 4 GB ram
- Blue Ray
- 160 GB HHD 7200 rpm

I talked to a few tech friends and they said that the upgrade is very minimum. There is hardly any noticeable speed difference between the t9500 and the QX9300. I also been advised to get a notebook with a I7 chip. This would mean that the XPS 16 would be a better upgrade as it supports 16 GB ram too.

Also the weight issue seems to be a problem for many. I must say that i travel daily with the 8710w and use it during my commute too. So eventhough the H8710w is lighter than the m6400, i am accustomed to carry a mobile workstation around that will last about an hour and 30 minutes on batteries.

Reason for considering an upgrade is that I need to expand the memory and Hard Disk. I do a lot of 2d/3d work and graphics. Having all these programs open at the same time requires more than 4 GB ram. Upgrading this on my current system will mean i would have to at least spend 600 euros. I also need to upgrade my hard drive as i need more space. A 256 GB SSD drive will cost me another 600 euro. And last but not least, upgrading to a more powerful quad core for the 3d applications would significantly improve production. Therefore i opted for the M6400.

So, that said, is it worth upgrading from a HP8710W to a HP6400? Price would be around 2500 euro for the system plus another 60 euros to upgrade the memory. Or shall I get the XPS 16 with the core I7? I can also wait a month or two and hopefully see the core I7 being implemented in the M6400. But i would risk losing this deal.

 

if i buy an m6400 like this , how much works in wireless mode ??

p9700 - 2.8ghz
8gb ram
2x ssd or 1xssd + 500gb 5400 backup
fx2700
covet or full led 1920x1200 monitor

al with the 9cell battery

 

what do you mean "how much works in wireless mode"?

 

without electric cable connected

 

you mean in battery mode not wireless
Wireless refers to connecting to your internet/broadband /router without the need to plug in a ethernet cable.

In battery mode you might get 90 mins or so power.

 

only 90 min ?

and with your sistem ? 15 min ?