Dell intros Core i7 Extreme Precision M6500 mobile workstation

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Matthew DeCarlo

Matthew DeCarlo

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Dell has introduced the Precision M6500, a new Core i7-packing mobile workstation. Prices start at $2,749 and include a 17" WXGA+ display, a 1.6GHz Core i7 720QM processor, 2GB of DDR3 1066MHz RAM, a 1GB ATI FirePro M7740 graphics chip, a 160GB 5400RPM HDD, an 8x DVD burner, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, a nine-cell battery, and Windows 7 Professional.

Configurations scale up to a 17" WUXGA LED display, a 2GHz Core i7 920XM Extreme Edition, 16GB of DDR3 1333MHz, a 1GB Nvidia Quadro FX 3800M, dual hard drives for up to 1TB of storage (various RAID options are available), a Blu-ray drive, 802.11a/g/n Wi-Fi, and Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit. This setup won't come cheap, of course. Prices rise above $9,000 with some high-end configurations.


The Precision M6500 isn't especially light at about 8.5lbs, and features your usual connectivity, such as Bluetooth 2.1, USB 2.0, Firewire, VGA, DisplayPort, Ethernet, and eSATA. The system comes with a three-year "basic limited warranty" and next business day on-site service. Other, more expensive options include four-year end user support. Orders placed today have a preliminary ship date of December 22.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/37168-dell-intros-core-i7-extreme-precision-m6500-mobile-workstation.html

 
Thats an intense laptop. I did notice the HDD is a bit lacking though. Maybe for cost savings?? A 250GB SSD or a platter drive with at least 7200rpm (if not 10k) would be a great compliment to the other high stats.
 
I guess the video card is more of a workhorse on the dell, but still for personal use i would never drop that kind of money when i can get something "better" in my mind for 1/2 the price. Maybe this makes sense if you are a video editing professional.
 
For nearly 3000 dollars I better get more than a freaking brand name. For 3000 bucks, I could get a core i7, a sweet video card, a huge solid state hard drive, and 4 gigs of the same, if not better, ram in a similar laptop. What the hell, Dell?
 
A powerful laptop for sure but definitely not worth the price. I'd rather have a kickass desktop instead, or as compdata mentioned, a HP quad-core laptop which costs much less.
 
I think people are missing the fact that this is a workstation laptop and isn't geared for gaming/home use. I did a quick check on the 1GB ATI FirePro M7740 graphics chip and I found one used on ebay for ~$450 so new it would cost even more. Workstation graphics cards aren't cheap.
 
compdata said:
This sounds like a total rip of as far as price is concerned. For example the
HP Pavilion dv8t Quad Edition series comes with the same processor, but base model includes blue ray, 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 230M , 4 GB RAM, 320GB hd, n wireless, etc. . . for ~$1100./url]
Click to expand...

Totally different product, totally different target market, it's comparing apples and oranges. Look again at the video processors listed on this machine - this is intended to be a graphics workhorse, with hardware aimed at shear number crunching, not a general purpose gaming-ready GeForce card. And it comes with 3 years of support.

This is not a typical notebook for a general user, this is a targeted workstation, and the pricing is on par (or less) than a full-fledged desktop workstation. I know the knee-jerk reaction is usually brought on by sticker shock, but this is aimed at industries that throw big money at solid, reliable, well-backed equipment. Keep in mind that the license seats for the software this notebook would be purchased to run will probably add up to more than the cost of the computer. You probably never see a pimped out brightly painted version of this computer under Joe CollegeStudent's arm (unless he's an engineering student with a huge trust fund and an unhealthy love of finite element analysis).
 
Vrmithrax said:
compdata said:
This sounds like a total rip of as far as price is concerned. For example the
HP Pavilion dv8t Quad Edition series comes with the same processor, but base model includes blue ray, 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 230M , 4 GB RAM, 320GB hd, n wireless, etc. . . for ~$1100./url]
Click to expand...

Totally different product, totally different target market, it's comparing apples and oranges. Look again at the video processors listed on this machine - this is intended to be a graphics workhorse, with hardware aimed at shear number crunching, not a general purpose gaming-ready GeForce card. And it comes with 3 years of support.

This is not a typical notebook for a general user, this is a targeted workstation, and the pricing is on par (or less) than a full-fledged desktop workstation. I know the knee-jerk reaction is usually brought on by sticker shock, but this is aimed at industries that throw big money at solid, reliable, well-backed equipment. Keep in mind that the license seats for the software this notebook would be purchased to run will probably add up to more than the cost of the computer. You probably never see a pimped out brightly painted version of this computer under Joe CollegeStudent's arm (unless he's an engineering student with a huge trust fund and an unhealthy love of finite element analysis).
Click to expand...
I agree, these workstations are geared towards WORK. Companies that need there employees or even employees that work at home could benefit from this laptop.
 
Damn this laptop looks great. No matter its a DELL one. Too bad i live in a "second-level" country so we don't even have QUAD laptops!! I'll be going to Germany to get this baby :)
 
My question is that with all the troubles they are having with their warranty service agreements at the moment, how do they plan on bringing in customers to buy this?
 
The pricing on some of the options is crazy. Switching from dvd to blu-ray costs $502! Most people who buy this aren't going to pay the prices on the website. They're going to get a discounted price through their sales rep.
 
It is a very nice laptop, but despite the targeted market I think it is still pricey, and the options to get improvements in the hardware are ridiculously expensive, I agree with compdata, the HP offers more value, I know that the graphic processor is not that wonderful but it is not a bad laptop, and in HP online store you can get it for $899
 
Wow that is a bit expensive! It looks like a great laptop but Some of those components do not seem worth that kind of money! The wireless card is only b/g, what about N standard?
 
"Prices rise above $9,000 with some high-end configurations"

I think i'll have to pass on this one :) . I'm trying to think where this would actually be useful...maybe someone needing to do lots of CAD and ProEngineering on the go..a video editor of some sort needing to encode lots of video at once on the go quickly? And even then as freedomthinker said...overkill.
 
Again, people seem to be missing the point of this laptop. It is NOT an everyday laptop, it is NOT for the general user. The hardware is specifically tied together and optimized for peak performance and reliability, as this will be a number-crunching juggernaut that the technical professionals using it will rely on for their livelihood. @lfg18, you can't compare an $899 HP laptop to this, they are not even remotely connected - the mobile workstation video card in this Dell laptop alone is more than most standard laptops, and you need to understand that these workstation laptops are often purchased exclusively BECAUSE of that high end video processor, the consumers in this target market will not settle for crap mobile gaming or integrated GPUs.

As for why the options are so much, it's because they are all top of the line components that are guaranteed to be solid and reliable, not the bargain "cheapest crap we could find that works" components you usually get in everyday laptops. Your $899 HP laptop has the lowest cost components that can be found, which are even cheaper as they are bought in huge lots, while these workstations have more brand-name type components that are bought in smaller lots, since there will be much fewer sales of these workstation laptops than mainstream units.

If you still think the price disparity is ridiculous, try looking at true desktop workstations vs. standard PCs. The prices on decent workstations often dwarfs even the top-of-the-line gaming rigs.
 
Not worth it... it's not like you will be traveling the world everyday and doing intense computer work while at it
 
@Vrmithrax

I don't care if it IS a bunch of high quality parts. That price tag is mostly the brand name. I could just as easily put together a really nice laptop with top notch quality parts at ibuypower.com and come up with a comparable laptop that would serve me just as well. And I'd be getting a LOT more for my money. Besides...there's only so far a laptop can go in terms of reliability. It's not like this thing is running a RAID setup or anything fancy.
 
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