Dell :: Deciding Between M4400 And M6400 (both With QX9300)
Nov 21, 2009
I bought two laptops from Dell Outlet M4400 and M6400. Really need help deciding which one I should keep (and add to my signature) and which one to send back. I am sure this community can help me make an informed decision. Thanks.
My usage:
-Development - VS 2008, MS SQL and tools.
-Graphics - Limited Photoshop (Beginner to Mid level)
-Virtual Machines - 1 to 2 at any given time
-Always ON configuration
-NO Gaming - sorry I suck at games!
-Occasional Travel
M4400: $1500
QX9300 - 2GB - 80GB 72K RPM - RGB LED LCD - NVidia 1700
My plan is to swap the 80 GB with my tablet PC's 120 GB and install 320 GB in modular bay also get 4 GB RAM bringing total cost to about $1650
Pros: Manageable size, RGB LED
Cons: Additional cost for RAM and modular bay HDD, Not sure about TrueLife Glossyness yet!
Pros: Pretty much everything
Cons: Low res LCD and BIG+Heavy even for occasional travel or meetings.
I could find cheaper configurations but I picked the one's with QX9300. There are some available in both machines that are T9900 and are ~$300 cheaper.
Questions:
1. Am I making the right decision by getting QX9300 given my somewhat non power usage? Is heat an issue in either? I do want to future proof at least for 2 years.
2. If I go for lower CPU should I go for x9100 or T9900 or Q9000/9100, they do show up occasionally on the outlet site.
3. I really find the second hard drive option useful. Does the slightly higher mobility of m4400 justify additional cost to buy and install the mod bay HDD?
4. Are the prices reasonable for the configurations above? I can find a m4400 with T9900/4GB/250GB/WXGA for ~$1150 and a M6400 with T9900/4GB/NO SSD for ~$1200
Specviewperf is probably a better openGL benchmark,particularly for the common openGL software used,but is a rather unreasonable download size compared to this,which does a short openGL test as well as cpu rendering tests.
So if some owners of any of the Precisions can post a score here,it will probably be helpful to prospective owners as to what sort of comparative performance between models and specs there is.
I am a Thinkpad user but extremely interested in the Dell M4400 and M6400 because of their seemingly better screens. I would love to get details on these screen, most importantly are the IPS ("FlexView")?
Questions:
1. What does "Edge To Edge" mean? 2. What does "RGB" mean? 3. Are any of these screens IPS "FlexView"?
M6400:
17" WUXGA UltraSharp Display (1920x1200) Resolution 17" WUXGA RGB LED Back-Lit Display (1920x1200) Resolution 17" WUXGA RGB LED Edge To Edge Back-Lit Display (1920x1200) Resolution
M4400:
15.4" WUXGA TrueLife RGB LED display (1920x1200) featuring 100% Adobe® Color Gamut 15.4" WUXGA AG day light viewing (1920x1200)
The M4400 supports dual-channel DDR2-800 memory. The M6400 supports dual-channel DDR3-1066 memory. Both systems have a FSB that operates at 1066 MHz.
I'm trying to understand if the different memory technologies ultimately make a difference for computational (i.e. math on large data sets) performance in these particular machines.
Consider an M4400 and M6400 with identical CPUs and amounts of DDR-2 and DDR-3 memory, respectively. And suppose that all relevant memory latencies are identical. For the sake of this question, I don't care about power consumption and heat (which is obviously a benefit of DDR3).
Question: Since both machines support dual-channel memory operation, the maximum effective bandwidth of the memory bus is doubled. So the dual-channel DDR2-800 can achieve 12.8 GB/sec transfer rate, while the dual-channel DDR3-1066 can achieve 17 GB/sec transfer rate. In either case, these rates are higher than the 8.5 GB/sec rate that the FSB can achieve, so it seems that performance in both machines is limited by the speed of the FSB (1066 MHz). Is that correct?
For more info on matched FSB and memory ratings under Core 2, see: [url]
Considering getting a new laptop. Was pretty much sold on the m1530. Now the 1640 is a contender. Main use of laptop will be for watching movies, web surf, multimedia/web design etc..., casual gaming and lastly school/study. These are the two spec setups I've been looking at. Obviously the 1640 would be quite a bit more $. Is the RGB LED LCD really worth it? I am sure movies would look sick on it but is it really that much of an improvment compared to the high res LED option on the m1530? How does the ATI compare to the NIVIDA in this case?
I want something around 12 to 13", fast, that can handle the latest windows without lag or anything.
I don't plan to play games on this laptop, maybe some movies. I will usually be using it for Word, internet, and regular things.
I saw this Vostro 1320 and this are the specs that Dell is offering, which seems pretty good for the price:
My System Details Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, with Media, 32-bit, English Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T6670 w/ VT (2.1GHz, 2MB L2, 800MHz FSB)
4GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 800MHz, 2 DIMM 320GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive with Free Fall Sensor 13.3 inch WXGA Anti-Glare Display 8X DVD+/-RW with double-layer DVD+/-R write capability, Roxio and Cyberlink PowerDVD™ DX 8.1
Intel® Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD Dell Wireless™ 1397 802.11b/g Mini Card Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth 2.0 Vista Integrated 1.3MP Webcam and Digital Mic with webcam
Subtotal$635
Im did a research on reviews of this lappy on notebookforums but can't find any. Please if someone have this laptop, would you please recommend it or give your opinion of it .....
im looking at the retail version of the hdx(bestbuy or newegg) and have a few questions.
1. Ive read that HP will usually use cheap memmory for gpu's thus leading me to believe that they use ddr2. Is this correct?
2. The retail comes with a tiny 1366x768, which i cant stand and i see the only other option is the 1920x1080 which i think is extremely high for a 16inch screen. What are the thoughts on the two resolutions and is there some middle ground, like a 1600x900 option through third parties?
3. Can someone post some links of the hdx with the 130m gt gpu benchmarks?
I have an E6500 with a T9400 CPU (Core 2 Duo, 2.53 GHz, 1066MHz FSB). I would like to upgrade it to a CPU that is either a quad core or dual core with hyper-threading. The only CPU I can see that is even a possibility is the QX9300 (Core 2 Extreme, 2.53 GHz, 1066MHz FSB).. The CPU I have is listed by Intel as supporting BGA479 and PGA478 sockets. But, I don't know which my motherboard has... The QX9300 is only listed to support PGA478 sockets. Reading on here, it seems like even if I am able to upgrade, I might be opening myself up to heat problems... .. OTOH, I also read that the the E6500 is identical to the M4400 except for the lid. And the M4400 is available with the QX9300 CPU... So, can anybody tell me if I can replace my CPU with the QX9300? If so, would it require anything more than just buying the new CPU?..
I bought an Intel QX9300 online for my upcoming Alienware m17x. When I tested the QX9300 in a Dell Inspiron 1420 today, the system fail to boot into bios.
Does anyone know if Inspiron 1420 motherboard support qx9300 or not? I am trying to figure out if I received a DOA chip or not.
I would like to know if anyone recently bought a HDX18T with the QX9300 processor? I asked HP and they said that the Intel Extreme Tuning Utlity was pre-installed with the QX9300 processor, but can anyone verify this?
HP recently added the QX9300 CPU to the list of processors for the HDX18T Notebook. My question is, will HP Include the Intel Extreme Tuning Utility with the notebook? The Intel XTU will allow you to overclock the QX9300 Extreme processor... it would be stupid to pay so much money for the cpu without being able to overclock it... Intel claims that the utility will ship with OEM systems?
Yup me again, in my hunt to determine if M6400 is right for me as it costs just about as much as a used car, I want to make sure its a good investment before I buy it.
What is the main difference with the M6400 and the M6400 Covet?
I configured both with the same specs and the Covet is about $900 more in price?
i recently bought this laptop and im running stress tests on this laptop w/ prime95 and told by a fellow board member(who has been of wonderful help) that they detect issue w/ my heatsink mounting/paste for my quad core qx9300. it was stated that thermal throttle shouldnt happen until temperatures into the 100 celsius range on a laptop?
1) i start the test and all 4 cores are steady running through tests
2) after 3 min, the first 2 cores max out at 91, 90 celsius while the last 2 are 89,88. The first 2 cores start going down in temp to about 76, 75 and never complete another test while the last 2 cores are 85, 86 celsius and run through an additional 8 tests afterwards.
can anyone give more feedback or possibly try these tests also? i run 64 bit vista also.
I just setup my brand new M6400 (well brand new from dell outlet). My config is QX9300, Dual HardDrives (primary is SSD), Nvidia 2700. I connected two external monitors using ePort plus dock and as I begin working on this new setup,
I notice a faint (but irritating once your ears tune in) churning/hissing/clicking (hard to describe) sound from the system. I have updated Bios to latest version. Os is Win 7 64bit.
I guess I'm about to get a mobile workstation. I already got an M90 it is great. Only one dead/stuck pixel and the front panel silver button paint came off in a few month of usage.
But I love it. So I am thinking of getting an M6400. Can you back me up on this one..?? Please if you own one tell me the pros and cons.. Have you noticed any Dead/stuck pixels.
What about built quality, feel, comfort, performance, heat, cooling, fan noise, screen quality ( thinking of LEG or RGB LED)..
Any creeking noise while opening the lid or holding or working on the laptop?? Any thing you can tell me about this beast of a machine will be a great help for me indeed
2 Intel X25-M 80GB SSD drives will be replacing those 80GB's.
First - my first thoughts are that this system is Fantastic!
The screen is great - its an LG, fantastic colors, no dead pixels. Typical viewing angles for non LED screen, not great, but not noticeably bad either.
No noticeable bleeding, no graininess - very happy with the screen.
Ran 3Dmark 06 (1280x800, stock drivers) - 11,619
GPU temp was around 80 C - not bad at all.
So far, very happy. Putting the SSD ddrives in now - will post more thoughts as I do more. Will post pics ASAP.
Update 1: 2 80GB SSDs are in place - this has Intel's Matrix Storage which allows the creation of one RAID1 volume (which I will use for valuable data) and a RAID0 volume for the rest of the space - this is very nice - get the benefits of both types of RAID in one system!
Update 2: The power brick is completely absurd. Its HUGE - 210W. The good news is that I plugged in a 130W from a M4400 and although I get the popup about the AC adapter not being at least 150W, it does charge the battery and allow the system to run. To me, this is an acceptable alternative to lugging around the giant brick, at least for most things on the road - Later on, I will test the system with this adapter and see what kind of slowdown is caused.
Pics:
RAID Setup:
Next to a M4400 (that I believe I'll be returning very shortly):
Next to an older E1705 - these are virtually the exact same size - its astounding what new tech can cram into the same space
Whilst working away at my desk, M6400 docked it just powered down.
Pressing the power button causes it (the power button) to light briefly and then go out. Pressing FN+Power (as requested by Dell Tech) does nothing at all.
I've tried it with another PSU (I got 2, one with M6400, other with docking station) - and if you plug the PSU in, and then hit power on the laptop - the blue light on the PSU goes out - and doesn't come back on till the power is cycled. The M6400 does nothing during all of this.
The PSUs work just fine with my D820.
Dell techs are coming tomorrow to fix it. I'll let you know what they say!
I've just bought a refurbished M6400. It comes with no preinstalled OS. I have a dell install disk for Windows XP SP2. Is it ok to install this on my M6400? I will then update to SP3 over the web.
I guess i will also need to install drivers for the graphics card, etc etc.
Please let me know if you have any advice and pitfalls to watch out for.
I'm also considering adding a second hard drive. What drive specification do i need?
I recently noticed that you can not configure a 64bit covet any more, which results in not being able to configure more than 4GB Ram. Also, the covet has only a few specified configurations that are allowed.
Is there an issue with the 64bit? Anyone know why Dell removed the 64bit options?
