Dell Precision M6600 Mobile Workstation: Businesslike and Capable

Workstations are a various beast than your normal organization laptop computer, even though modern workstations seem and behave much as PCs do. Even though the era in the workstation with custom made, proprietary processing and graphics hardware is guiding us, the Dell Precision M6600 is amongst the new breed of cellular workstations; these systems experience the rigorous computer software and driver qualifications necessary to promote to the specialist graphics or engineering markets.

The level of overall performance you get in cellular workstations is extraordinary. I am not only speaking about CPU overall performance, although the M6600 acquits alone properly. I am also including its other touches, like the 17.3-inch RGB LED-backlit IPS panel with its remarkable viewing angle and shade fidelity. The show supports the two capacitive and pen-based touch, at the same time. The pen interface is beneficial in some workstation-class applications, and the pen is pressure-sensitive, enabling for innovative results in Adobe Illustrator and other plans.

The display is superb with photographic or video clip materials. The M6600 we tested delivered with the Nvidia Quadro 4000M mobile workstation-class GPU, which handles high-definition video clip well. Upscaled DVD material was a little soft and noisy, however. That is not a gaming program, but you'll be able to play games with affordable body premiums should you dial down the detail options a bit. For instance, within our tests, Grime three set towards the Large preset ran at 53 frames for each second while Warhammer forty,000: Dawn of War Retribution ran at fifty two frames for each second at its Ultra environment.

Audio good quality for audio is rather excellent, if a bit about the brilliant facet. Bass is lacking, naturally, but it really is pleasing enough and loud ample that you will be prepared to make use of the speakers when no one else might be irritated.

We also ran the Cinebench eleven.five benchmark, which assessments functionality making use of Maxon's Cinema4D 3D rendering motor. The M6600 managed a 5.80 CPU score, inserting greater than a Core i7-960 desktop CPU. About the OpenGL check, it hit almost sixty frames per second. We also loaded up Adobe Grasp Collection 5.5 and checked out Photoshop, Premiere Professional, and Illustrator. We did not carry out efficiency tests with those packages, but subjectively the technique was responsive even below load. Possessing a pair of solid-state drives and 8GB of RAM surely will help. The pen-based interface labored properly, also.

The M6600 scored a really large 152 on WorldBench 6, a end result that's about par for a quad-core Intel Core i7-2920XM CPU. The battery lasted a sound 4 hours, 22 minutes in our run-down tests, many thanks towards the Intel Sandy Bridge CPU in addition to to Nvidia's Optimus technological innovation, which makes it possible for the method to operate nearly all of the battery assessments utilizing only the built-in Intel High definition Graphics.

The two the keyboard as well as the pointing units are superb. The laptop computer boasts a touchpad along with a pointing stick, that has a trio of mouse buttons supporting every single. 3 mouse buttons are necessary for a workstation, because several expert applications will make utilization of all of them. The keyboard has a great sense, offering just the correct quantity of tactile suggestions and requiring low-pressure important presses. The layout is amongst the most usable I've observed.

The M6600 also has lots of ports. 5 USB ports are built-in; two within the left aspect are USB three.0 ports, and 1 around the rear is really a combo eSATA/USB two.0 connector. You obtain a lot of alternatives for check connections also, like VGA, HDMI, and DisplayPort.

Additionally towards the pair of 256GB solid-state drives, Dell includes a slot-load DVD-RW drive, although a technique of this class and cost need to activity a Blu-ray burner rather. Common networking alternatives are restricted to 802.11n and gigabit ethernet, but Dell does offer Bluetooth and broadband-wireless possibilities, should you need them.

All this electricity and usability can come at a expense, in bodyweight and in bucks. This certain M6600 configuration will set you back about $5700 (as of September 19, 2011). And you will desire a at ease bag to hold it in: Sans the power brick, the M6600 weighs 9 lbs, three ounces. With the large, flat, monolithic energy brick, the entire affair weighs eleven.twenty five lbs.

What you get for that expense and bulk is actually a solid workstation-class method that ought to run your expert applications with aplomb. The addition of capacitive touch is helpful when you happen to be presenting function to clients or workers, although the pen contact enhances your imaginative efforts. If $5700 is as well abundant in your blood, you can choose for classic rotating difficult drives, a lesser GPU, and in some cases a lower-performance CPU, although such modifications would not reduce the bodyweight and bulk. Once you pull the M6600 out of your bag, your clients will know you might be serious about your perform.