Precision M6400 Owner's Lounge *Part 2*

well about that : https://forums.tomsguide.com/threads/non-oem-battery.326507/

it appears that Dell did have a "battery whitelist" in like 2005 (inspiron 600m), but i've never tried a non dell battery in my m4800 so i don't know if that's still a thing or not

 

Try to check this out with the seller. I think they are using some chip that can fool the laptop.

 

So after a bit of looking on ebay / amazon / local market :

dell m6400 covet : 174€

keyboard : 30€
ati m7820 : 114€
2x caddies + sata "adaptors" : 22€
oem dvd drive : 27€

oem dell 240w : 25€
battery : 61€ for 73wh | 90€ for 86wh | 130€ for oem dell 90wh

+ 10€ of ddr3, because it's probably a 2*2gb configuration, not a 1*4gb.

Thank god i have some ssd and hdd laying around too.

But even with that (and the ram + qx9300), I feel like it's not a good option : the whole project is gonna cost me between 463€ and 532€ (550$ and 632$ respectively).
So i think i'm gonna pass on this one, and wait a bit more. (i spent less than 500$ for my complete m4800, including upgrades)

Or i could get a standard (but complete) m6400 and then at least get a rgb-led screen, but those are rarer than a covet edition i feel like. How much does it cost to convert a m6400 into a covet ?

 

Just look for all the orange parts (+fingerprint panel and battery) separately on ebay and calculate the final cost. It would definitely cost you more than 150€. This is why I said it's worth getting the whole laptop given it's in a working condition.

 

ok thanks so i might get it ; but : i found a m6500 with a dead motherboard for 85€, are the caddies the same as the m6400 ? (this one already have the keyboard, the dvd drive and the battery, which appears to be the same so it should work in the m6400 (and if i'm lucky it has the m7820 in it))

edit: checked with the seller, it's a m7740, still better than a fx2700m but still dx10)

 

M6500 and M6400 have different case parts even though they seem to look same. The bottom case is different, I've had M6500 and saw that. But there is a couple of same elements like battery and keyboard. I recommend you to look for detailed pictures of each part for both laptops separately and compare them to each other.
I just wanna tell you if you want to get a new bottom case, the metal ventilation grid will probably get bent because of high temperature going from the videocard heatsink. The other one will probably change its shape too.
I got my M6500 with 5000M installed. It had the metal grid deformed too. After replacing F3700M with 5000M, I got the orange set and got the same deformation there later. You can't avoid it. I was wondering why it goes that way. I've tried applying force trying to bend it myself when my 5000M was producing a lot of heat, but got no success. But it gets deformed so easily when doing nothing.

 

I plan to keep the covet case, the orange make it stand out compared to other black / grey laptops. So i will try to straighten the bent in the covet. The m6500 would just be a part bank in my case.

edit : my m4800 grill is still straight, despite the 4940mx pushing the heatsink to its limits

 

are you sure the m7820 (or 7740) will bend the grill ? your 5000m has 100 watts of TDP, while the ATIs are at 50 and 60 watts of TDP. (and the dead m6500's grill is still straight)

 

Ok so in the end I bought the m6400 covet & the m6500 (negociated 10€ off), but i'll update in about 3 weeks, i'm currently not a home.

 

You should have asked the seller of the covet why it has the grid bent when it's hosting FX2700M (65W TDP.).

I don't know why it happens like that, but I didn't drop my M6400. I'm sure it's because of high temperatures.
Anyway, congratz! You've got both.