Dell Precision M6600 Mobile Workstation: Businesslike and Capable

Workstations really are a diverse beast than your typical organization laptop, though modern day workstations look and behave considerably as PCs do. While the era from the workstation with custom, proprietary processing and graphics hardware is guiding us, the Dell Precision M6600 is amongst the new breed of mobile workstations; these programs endure the rigorous software and driver qualifications necessary to market to the specialist graphics or engineering markets.

The degree of overall performance you get in cellular workstations is remarkable. I am not merely speaking about CPU functionality, though the M6600 acquits by itself properly. I'm also such as its other touches, like the 17.3-inch RGB LED-backlit IPS panel with its extraordinary viewing angle and colour fidelity. The display supports the two capacitive and pen-based contact, too. The pen interface is valuable in some workstation-class programs, and the pen is pressure-sensitive, making it possible for for creative effects in Adobe Illustrator and other packages.

The exhibit is superb with photographic or video clip content. The M6600 we examined delivered having an Nvidia Quadro 4000M cell workstation-class GPU, which handles high-definition video properly. Upscaled DVD content was somewhat soft and noisy, even so. This can be not a gaming system, but you can perform games with reasonable body rates in case you dial down the detail configurations a little. For instance, in our checks, Grime three set for the Large preset ran at 53 frames for each second whilst Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War Retribution ran at 52 frames per 2nd at its Ultra setting.

Audio top quality for audio is rather good, if just a little about the brilliant aspect. Bass is missing, of course, but it can be satisfying ample and loud enough that you'll be ready to utilize the speakers when nobody else might be annoyed.

We also ran the Cinebench 11.five benchmark, which exams performance employing Maxon's Cinema4D 3D rendering engine. The M6600 managed a 5.80 CPU score, putting greater than a Core i7-960 desktop CPU. Within the OpenGL check, it hit virtually sixty frames per 2nd. We also loaded up Adobe Master Assortment 5.five and checked out Photoshop, Premiere Professional, and Illustrator. We didn't conduct efficiency checks with those packages, but subjectively the method was responsive even underneath load. Possessing a pair of solid-state drives and 8GB of RAM definitely helps. The pen-based interface worked effectively, as well.

The M6600 scored an incredibly substantial 152 on WorldBench six, a result that's about par to get a quad-core Intel Core i7-2920XM CPU. The battery lasted a sound four hours, 22 minutes in our run-down assessments, thank you to the Intel Sandy Bridge CPU along with to Nvidia's Optimus technology, which permits the technique to operate the majority of the battery exams employing only the built-in Intel Hd Graphics.

Both the keyboard as well as the pointing gadgets are superb. The laptop features a touchpad and a pointing stick, using a trio of mouse buttons supporting each. A few mouse buttons are essential for any workstation, given that several skilled applications can make use of all of them. The keyboard has an excellent experience, offering just the right amount of tactile feedback and necessitating low-pressure key presses. The layout is probably the most usable I've seen.

The M6600 also has a lot of ports. Five USB ports are built-in; two around the left side are USB 3.0 ports, and 1 around the rear is actually a combo eSATA/USB two.0 connector. You receive a lot of choices for check connections also, like VGA, HDMI, and DisplayPort.

Moreover to the pair of 256GB solid-state drives, Dell features a slot-load DVD-RW push, though a technique of this class and expense need to sport a Blu-ray burner as a substitute. Normal networking options are constrained to 802.11n and gigabit ethernet, but Dell does provide Bluetooth and broadband-wireless alternatives, in case you require them.

All this energy and usability arrive at a expense, in weight and in bucks. This specific M6600 configuration will set you back more than $5700 (as of September 19, 2011). And you'll desire a at ease bag to carry it in: Sans the ability brick, the M6600 weighs 9 pounds, three ounces. Together with the large, flat, monolithic electricity brick, the whole affair weighs eleven.25 lbs.

What you get for that expense and bulk can be a strong workstation-class method that should operate your expert apps with aplomb. The addition of capacitive touch is valuable when you are presenting work to customers or workers, although the pen touch enhances your innovative attempts. If $5700 is also prosperous to your blood, you'll be able to choose for conventional rotating tough drives, a lesser GPU, and in some cases a lower-performance CPU, however this kind of adjustments will not lessen the bodyweight and bulk. Once you pull the M6600 out of your bag, your clientele will know you happen to be serious about your operate.