So are there any really happy M6400 owners?

I see a lot of "can't run CS4" and "can't run 3dsmax" comments, but not so many "CS4 is smoking on my machine" comments. Is poor performance in certain apps a constant with M6400s? I hear a lot of good things about the display, but it won't really be worth it if the machine is slow.

 

My machine is great, although I had to fix a few issues myself. I'm very happy with it. Dell actually called me up and offered me a new machine as I'd been suffering from a few issues. i didn't actually ask them. Not sure whether to accept or not....

Anyway, typically it takes a while for new machine to settle down as early adopters are often the first real-world test groups. It is a pain, but it isn't anything new.

 

I have no issues at all. I run maya 2009 on mine and the entire adobe suite with no issues. It's pretty much the best laptop I've owned.

 

cpaek72, are you running CS3 or CS4?

Anyone else having good luck? I don't want to be looking at a $3500 Dell when a $1600 Sager will run my apps better

 

According to my DELL contact, I was one of the very first M6400 owners in Austria. I am also one of the happiest men

This notebook is quite simply fabulous. There are a few minor issues, but the build quality, screen, keyboard, noise/temperature and above all, performance, make for a great experience.
I have been using notebooks as my primary workstations since 2001, 6 days a week, up to 16 hours a day, and many machines have passed through my hands - IBM thinkpads, HP 9xxx notebooks and some more. The M6400 is the best, by a wide margin.
I am using this notebook for software engineering, database testing and server administration (Quad Core, 8 GB, 2*320 harddisks, Vista 64). Ten browser windows, a big outlook with 50000 emails (> 2 Gb), Photoshop, Mindmanager, 3 VMs and some other programs - all running easily - smooth, cool and silent. On my old HP notebook, whenever I started up outlook or booted one of my VMs, I had to spend the time eating, showering or taking my daughter to the kindergarden. With the M6400, I start my outlook while simultaneously booting 3 virtual machines in a fraction of the time. The M6400 just slices like a samurai blade through a wall of tasks and applications, each of which would eat up all system ressources on my previous high-end notebooks.

Not to be overly emotional, but in the last weeks I got a feeling of "coming home". Finally, I found myself more than a notebook: It's more an ultra-efficient tool and a companion I can rely on. I am gaining extra productivity - 1 or 2 hours a day.

I think I am in love

 

Roland T, that's great to hear. That sounds alot like me. I spend a lot of time on my laptop, and I keep a lot of apps running. Right now I have two VS2008 instances up, Management Studio, Firefox (about 7 tabs), IE (one tab), RDP into a desktop machine and one VM. That's about typical for me.

Do you mind me asking when you ordered/received yours?

 

yeah, every new big laptop is going to come out before every issue can be worked out. They cant possibly know every combination of hardware and software is going to be thrown at this thing and what issues can arrise.

Little issues aside,
I am with Roland T. I absolutely love this thing as it feels like the best laptop and also a piece of artwork. I love the design. I love the covet color.
I have no idea what will top this in the future when I need another laptop. I cant imagine.

My ONLY complaint is the sound sucks... - BUT, I would NEVER expect good sound from a laptop not to mention a laptop this thin. My 9100 (Dell) had SUPERB sound because it had a sub which would be too big for this laptop. I say SUPERB but what I mean is crappy, but good for a laptop. One just cant ever expect good sound from a laptop.
Thats why speakers are not just built as 1" drivers suspended in mid air. Cause they would sound like crap if they were.
Its really a non issue how good sound is in a laptop.
I just got spoiled from my 9100 having better than average sound.

 

Order date was October 8th, delivery November 19th.
It seems to depend heavily on the configuration, especially CPU, screen and VGA and should now be much faster. I configured another M6400 in December with Dual Core, delivery time would have been 2 weeks.

 

Well, mine is fabulous as well. I also have this sound problem. Hope that Dell shoots out a new driver soon.

Ah, and Maya 2009 confuses me a little. After editing some verts every time I start to navigate (pan, rotate) the viewport falters. It looks like there's some "caching" goin' on. But after that's finished all works fine - till the next navigation

 

I wouldnt say its a none issue exactly. Ive previously owned a 9300, probably the same chassis as your 9100 - the sound on it is really good and this was actually the reason I choose the m6400 over the clevo models, I assumed the sound would be as good as my 4 year old 9100 but looking at your post (m6400 yet to arrive) looks like its not going to be.

oh well.