Dell M6500: A Precision Strike on Bling
by Jarred Walton on March 9, 2010 3:00 AM ESTDell Precision M6500: Works as Advertised
Reviewing the M6500 has been a bit of a shakeup for our normal notebook and laptop tests. As a workstation class product, we had to look at additional tests to try and determine value. Ultimately, the recommendation is pretty straightforward: you buy a mobile workstation with certification to run the particular software package that you need for a reason. You can try the Dell Precision Workstation Advisor, though I suspect it will likely just confirm that the M6500 is capable of running your particular application. So that's the quick summary: if you want a mobile workstation, the Dell Precision M6500 delivers on all fronts.
So the M6500 is from the "big is beautiful" school of thought. It's sturdy and built to last, with an attractive industrial design aesthetic. If you want something that looks fancy, or you want a lighter notebook, the M6500 isn't for you. It weighs nearly nine pounds (more with the power brick, which would definitely be required), and it can suck up quite a bit of juice under load. Opinions on what makes a laptop look "good" obviously differ, but there's something to be said for a less in-your-face notebook. Personally, I'd take an M6500 chassis over the Alienware M17x chassis, even if the younger crowd may think the M6500 looks "boring". Boring it may be, but at least it doesn't come with a glossy LCD and a plastic casing! We can only hope that Dell will release an update so that the LCD will calibrate better with the alternative profiles, as right now you'll need to use the NTSC preset (i.e. LCD native) with a 1.8 gamma setting to get an acceptable result. Elsewhere, the design works very well, with the cooling configuration performing well and managing to keep both temperatures and noise levels in check. This isn't a CULV laptop by any means, but the industrial design definitely helps moderate heat and noise.
If you're in the market for a mobile workstation, then of course the M6500 is definitely worth a look, particularly if you're after higher performance. Looking around, there's nothing faster from HP right now (the EliteBook 8730w uses a T9600 and Quadro FX 3700M). The only competing option we can find right now is Lenovo's just-announced ThinkPad W701 series, with specs similar to the M6500 and a built-in Wacom digitizer or a slide-out secondary LCD. The ThinkPad W701 is scheduled to begin shipping this month, and it includes a built-in X-Rite color calibration utility that runs when you close the lid; hopefully that will handle all the calibration properly so you won't need to worry about manually tweaking settings. But the M6500 is already shipping and the new quad-core models include USB 3.0 if you're not a stickler for color accuracy. It's also nice to see the dual-core i5 M6500 version, as not everyone needs the power of an eight-threaded i7 beast. If you want a high-end workstation GPU but you don't demand as much from your CPU, an i5-520M/540M version will cost far less than the system we tested and should still run circles around older Core 2 Duo systems (and will likely give Core 2 Quad a run for the money).
Would I personally buy the Precision M6500? Of course not, but it's not designed for me. I simply don't use software that would make it necessary. For those of you who have more complex software needs, look at the above slide; if you run any of those software packages the M6500 is a worthy candidate. Just as trying to game on a notebook with integrated graphics doesn't work well—when it works at all—trying to run workstation applications without a workstation GPU produces generally unacceptable results. If you run professional graphics software packages for a living, getting an appropriate GPU in your system will pay back in time saved very quickly. The Dell Precision M6500 simply takes your average workstation level of performance from a desktop ~18 months back and stuffs it into a notebook. It's not without flaws, but overall the M6500 presents a very nice package for mobile professionals that need all the performance they can get.
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geekforhire - Friday, March 12, 2010 - link
Some things I forgot to note:The cost of mine was a little more than half the amount quoted in the article - complete. This a beast of a machine is available for a modest premium if you just resist the temptation of designing with only bleeding edge equipment.
When I ordered mine, the Core i5 processors were not available for the M6500. That may be part of the intent as part of the prerelease whisper from the manufacturer, but as of yesterday they still aren't available for the M6500.
There's a wonderful article on the virtues of the Core i7-720QM processor from last fall, here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mobile-core-i7...">http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/mobile-core-i7...
geekforhire - Friday, March 12, 2010 - link
Here's a link to the Core i7-790QM processor spec sheet from Intel:http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43122">http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=43122
Here's a link to a page on the Intel website which helps decode what the processor numbers mean.
http://www.intel.com/products/processor_number/ind...">http://www.intel.com/products/processor_number/ind...
The i7-720QM has a 45W package, 4x1.6 Ghz processor cores with HyperThreading, 6M cache, DDR3-1066/1333 memory, 8GB max physical memory limit, and a "Turbo Mode" which allows a few cores to spin up to 2.8Ghz (note that all processors cannot operate at this speed simultaneously, but is available when some cores have been dynamically turned off and the TDP would not be exceeded).
Naina - Wednesday, March 31, 2010 - link
I like what you said about the Dell M6500. I am a photoartist and work mostly with Photoshop. I do thisprofessionally and I am travelling a good deal. I like the Dell M6500 but am not sure what configuration to look at which would meet my need for speed and space.
I wonder if you could make a suggestion.
Naina
icrf - Tuesday, March 9, 2010 - link
I've been using an M6400 at work for the last six months, which is very similar to this. The chassis looks the same, but it's generation older hardware (Q9100 / FX2700M).On the docking station front, I apparently ended up with the cheaper one. It has DVI, DP, and VGA ports, but it won't drive both the DVI and DP, so I have to run one of my two external displays on an analog VGA connection.
hko45 - Tuesday, March 9, 2010 - link
I haven't seen any other comparable docking station to the E-Port Plus -- to be able to connect to two monitors through the same kind of ports (DVIs or DisplayPorts). When you're editing images, you need to make sure that both monitors are reasonably alike. That's why I would only buy Dell's Precision or Latitude (not all) laptops -- just for to be able to use that docking station.icrf - Wednesday, March 10, 2010 - link
Some of my co-workers have dual-DVI (but no DP) docking stations. We're just developers, so the accurate color reproduction isn't all that important. Honestly, if I could have gotten the thing without the Nvidia graphics, I'd of been better off. I never render anything in 3D. I was just looking for a 17" 1920x1200 chassis with a speedy quad core and 8 GB of RAM. Unfortunately, the office wouldn't spring for a SSD, as I think that would have made the most difference. I get the feeling random read is the biggest bottleneck.Fanfoot - Thursday, April 1, 2010 - link
The laptop I see on Dell's site doesn't appear to bear much of a resemblance to the one you describe. The one I see has a max of 4GB of RAM, comes with 32-bit Windows, has no USB 3.0 support, and is very expensive. Even basic WiFi isn't included in the price of this thing. Three drives? Where does it say that? I assume one of the drives you're counting is the special 64GB Flash drive, probably a mini PCIe card, but still, show me where it says you can swap out the SLOT LOADING DVD for a second full sized 2.5" drive, something I'm used to with Thinkpads, but that is otherwise uncommon.From the machine that I appear to be able to configure on Dell's website, I'd say both HP and Lenovo have better, more capable, machines in this range available today. The one you talk about sounds fine, but I see no way to configure a machine like that on Dell's website...
holytouch - Sunday, April 11, 2010 - link
i think you should go back to dell.com and try again. the laptop he describes is there, and contains the specs within the review. make sure you look at the 6500/6500 covet. i ordered mine with win7 pro/64bit with no issues.honestly, it couldn't be any easier to see that the machine he describes is on the site.
tozndsand - Saturday, June 19, 2010 - link
I have heard that i5-i7 processors are not supported by Adobe CS5. Is that correct? That would be a deal breaker for many. ThanksDellVictim - Tuesday, April 10, 2012 - link
I am frustrated with how many positive editorial reviews this machine is getting. I bought one with all the trimmings (twin HD's with RAID etc) and before long at all, started having lots of issues. One of the HD's has been replaced 4 or 5 times, the motherboard 3 times, the graphics card twice, the screen, and it's currently broken, again, despite two dell technician visits - the last of which left telling me the RAID was rebuilding and all was good. Less than 30 minutes after he left, there was a beep, the computer restarted, got stuck in the dos BIOS screen and when I pressed F1 to continue it told me that there was now NO bootable disk! I'm fusious. I have been without my laptop and important data now for over three weeks. So much for next day service, everytime they need to get parts, they seem to be out of stock for several days, then they don't ship them early enough in the day for me to get them next day. They leave voicemails saying they'll call you later and they don't. They won't give you a direct dial number to your service representative. They won't pass you through to the team that deal with refund/replacement requests and that team seems to take 3-4 days to decide that despite the appaulling history or clearly recurring problems with this machine, they don't feel it deserves either a replacement or refund. Instead, they'll send someone out a week later with insufficient parts to make it worse!I don't think I need to explain the moral of the story here folks.