2011 laptop: the features to look for

[Ilya]

what will be the actual price of this laptop and should I get the discount on this laptop?

The Dell Precision M4600 and M6600 will go on sale globally starting May 10 starting at $1,678 and $2,158, respectively.

In a few days pricing details for various configuration options should be posted on Dell's website.

 

[Ilya]

Both Precision models are now available on Dell's web site for configuration and order, though delivery is not promised until the end of the month.

The price of M4600 starts at just $1209 (though who would buy Precision mobile workstation with Core i5 and just 2 GB of RAM?!) and then it sky-rockets from there.

Here are some reasonable configurations:

M4600 with Quad Core i7-2720QM, 8GB, DDR3-1600MHz SDRAM
AMD® FirePro® M5950 Mobility Pro Graphics with 1GB GDDR5
15.6" UltraSharp™ FHD(1920x1080) Anti-Glare LED-backlit display
500GB 7200rpm HD
$2059

M4600 with Quad Core i7-2820QM, 16GB, DDR3-1600MHz SDRAM
NVIDIA Quadro 1000M with 2GB GDDR3
15.6" UltraSharp™ FHD(1920x1080) Anti-Glare LED-backlit display
256GB (SATA3) SSD Drive
$3484

And if you really want to go Extreme:

M4600 with Intel Core i7-2920XM (Extreme Quad Core 2.50GHz,8M cache), 16GB, DDR3-1600MHz SDRAM
NVIDIA Quadro 2000M with 2GB GDDR3
15.6" UltraSharp FHD(1920x1080) PremierColor IPS RGB Anti-Glare LED-backlit display
128GB SSD Minicard Drive and 256GB (SATA3) SSD Drive
Blu-ray Disc burner
$5619

 

[diogen]

I'd minimize RAM/HDD and buy aftermarket.

Diogen.

 

[Ilya]

Good point about aftermarket RAM and HDD! (Though we will have to consider the effect on Dell's warranty support)

 

[Ilya]

On SSD. I am glad Dell offers the SATA3 option.
What I am currently struggling with is whether to go with a 128GB SSD Minicard Drive and a bigger hard drive, or a single 256GB SATA3 SSD.
The dual drive configuration sounds very attractive, but I am afraid that the Minicard Drive will not be as fast as the SATA3.

 

[diogen]

I believe looking at SSD's that can saturate SATA2 today is living on the bleeding edge, i.e. very low ROI.
I'd pick a 7200rpm drive (maybe a 60SSD as a boot drive) and 4-8GB of RAM. And in 1-2 years upgrade both to SATA3 SSD / 32GB RAM (without paying $8K+).

Diogen.

 

[Ilya]

IPS Display

To continue our discussion of features, here is a relatively new one: IPS display.

IPS (stands for In-Plane Switching) is an LCD technology which aligns the liquid crystal cells in a horizontal direction. IPS technology provides more accurate colors with no color distortion from any angle.

Why this is important? Suppose you are editing a photo (or video) and the image looks too dark or too saturated. So, you adjust it with your editing software to make it look better only to find out that it looks completely different when printed or when viewed on another monitor. Even on the same laptop screen the same image looks very different when viewed from different angles. Try tilting the screen on your laptop and see what happens to the colors! That's a problem!

If you plan to do a lot of image editing on the laptop itself then the IPS option might be worth consideration. However, for the extra price ($370, in case of the m4600) you could buy a good external monitor!

 

[riffjim4069]

Okay, I finally ran my 2 1/2 year laptop into the dirt and, after looking for the past three months, finally picked-up the computer I wanted at the price I was willing to pay (i7-2630QM, 8GB, Blu-Ray, Backlit, 2 USB3.0, 8-in-1 card reader, etc.). However, I had to settled on the fact it comes with Mobile Intel HD graphics when I wanted the 1GB Nvidia GT 540 Graphics. I don't do a lot of video editing, gaming or other GPU intensive operations, but when I do I don't feel like waiting nor lolligagging. I know very little about the on-board Intel HD graphics on this CPU. Is there any hope or I should I start looking at TigerDirect (laptop will arrive next week)?

Thanks!

 

[isaacmorseMI]

Okay, I finally ran my 2 1/2 year laptop into the dirt and, after looking for the past three months, finally picked-up the computer I wanted at the price I was willing to pay (i7-2630QM, 8GB, Blu-Ray, Backlit, 2 USB3.0, 8-in-1 card reader, etc.). However, I had to settled on the fact it comes with Mobile Intel HD graphics when I wanted the 1GB Nvidia GT 540 Graphics. I don't do a lot of video editing, gaming or other GPU intensive operations, but when I do I don't feel like waiting nor lolligagging. I know very little about the on-board Intel HD graphics on this CPU. Is there any hope or I should I start looking at TigerDirect (laptop will arrive next week)?

Thanks!

I've never had any good experiences with the Intel Graphics Card in my Toshiba Satellite. I can't do any gaming at all or any HD Video editing. If possible I would get the Nvidia Graphics.

Sent from my iPad 2 using the SatelliteGuys App

 

[diogen]

Sandy Bridge has decent onboard video.
Heavy video editing, high-end gaming - no. Everything else - yes.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4083/...core-i7-2600k-i5-2500k-core-i3-2100-tested/11

Diogen.

 

[Ilya]

Not only the integrated graphics is pretty good in the latest Sandy Bridge-based laptops, but it also saves a lot of power: extends the battery life up to 50% compared to the same laptop running nVidia!

If you do decide to go with nVidia, make sure your laptop supports nVidia's Optimus technology, which will automatically and seamlessly switch the laptop to its integrated graphics when the GPU power is not required.

Sent from my iPhone using SatelliteGuys

 

[Steve Mehs]

With the extended battery, on my laptop I get about 3 1/2 hours using the Intel graphics, about 2 hr 45 min using the ATI graphics.

 

[DodgerKing]

Ilya,

What did you end up getting?

 

[Ilya]

Ilya,

What did you end up getting?

A MacBook Pro!
No kidding!

For some development and testing tasks I needed a Mac. So, I went ahead and purchased a MacBook Pro.
But since I only need Mac OS for very few tasks, I installed Windows 7 on it, and kept Mac OS in a smaller dual-boot partition.
Surprisingly, Windows 7 works rather well on it. I didn't expect that. So, for now I am just using the MBP for both Windows and Mac OS. Windows mostly.

This is not a replacement for the powerful Notebook PC that I was looking for. The MacBook Pro is not powerful enough for my needs and is lacking some very important features, like USB3. And the keyboard is not too Windows-friendly. So, I am still planning to get a new notebook, but I think I will wait another year, now since I have this toy to play with.

P.S. It does have Sandy Bridge!

 

[DodgerKing]

Did you use bootcamp?

Sent from my iPad using SatelliteGuys

 

[Ilya]

Did you use bootcamp?

Yes, of course!

 

[Foxbat]

With the extended battery, on my laptop I get about 3 1/2 hours using the Intel graphics, about 2 hr 45 min using the ATI graphics.

When I was considering a notebook, battery life was a big issue for me. This isn't my primary computer, but I wanted something that I could travel with and give me everything I needed (except for a terabyte of movie and audio files!) which I was able to get with the MacBook Air.

Yes, I probably paid two to four times what most people pay for a notebook, but the thing sips juice from the battery like it a 90-proof Scotch. I've seen the battery indicator routinely show over four hours after I've been surfing for a couple of hours. The most I've seen is just over ten hours, but even I doubt that was real.

If I use the Air to watch my Sling Adapter on my Dish ViP 722k, the fan kicks in and the battery life drops a lot faster. I haven't timed it, but after watching a couple of hour-long programs, I figure I could watch at least one whole movie and most of another while on the road.

Regarding Windows, I went with VirtualBox for PC emulation. For what you pay for it (free) it works great. It's biggest issue is in the graphics support. I haven't been able to get Aero to work in VB.

The recent issue of Consumer Reports came out and they had their Top Picks for laptops broken down by screen size. They are planning a full Laptop review in the December issue.