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Keep 17" Precision Models Professional - 16:10 Displays, USB 3.0 & Firewire
March 18, 2011
25 Votes
Status: Archived
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Dear Dell Precision Team:
I really debated over purchasing the M6500 for nearly a year, but I bought a $5000 MacBook Pro instead because the forums didn't lead me to believe that the entire M6500 featureset was reliable and properly implemented. Keep in mind the M6600 will be passed over as well if certain criteria are not met. This idea won't get a lot of votes because there aren't a lot of workstation users, but it doesn't mean that it doesn't represent a fair share of that market. Here we go:
1) 17-inch 16:10 1920 x 1200 Pixel Displays are Perfect, so DON'T mess with this! A 17-inch 16:9 display is a write-off, so ignore your suppliers on that and insist on high-quality RGB-LED IPS 16:10 Displays for the future high-end. Touchscreen and 3D are cool options too, but not as important as aspect ratio. No Compromise.
2) Great USB 3.0 and Firewire Performance. Make sure USB 3.0 works well out of the box (unlike the M6500), and keep the 6-pin Powered 1394 port on the M6500 intact or even upgrade it to Firewire800. Use the highest quality controllers that you can on every component. No Compromise.
3) Low Latency Drivers are Key. Make sure that all those beautiful components don't get in the way of the CPU being able to deliver the realtime performance we desperately need. If this means implementing hardware RAID instead of software RAID, or custom USB drivers, then do it. No Compromise.
I want to believe that the M6600 will not make the mistakes the M6500 made; and that it won't introduce more setbacks of it own. Dell Precision means No Compromise, so deliver on it.
P.S. It is advisable to start implementing Thunderbolt in the next generation of workstations. This standard will affect a lot of future pro A/V gear.
MERGED IDEAS:1
Bring back the 16:10 displays
May 9, 2011
Status: Archived
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May 29, 2011 Comment Link
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Posted By: Backbutton
The widescreen movement was silly but hyped by cost cutters--not all of us are gamers and watch movies on our laptops and not do serious work. if people demand 16:10 or 4:3 by voting with their pocket books, suppliers will provide the 16:10's and 4:3. Suppliers hoaxed the widescreen on consumers, touting it's movie watching and consumers did not protest. Now 4:3 is gone, and 16:10 is on the way out. If there was an alternative provider, and enough consumers to buy, this would not happen.May 19, 2011 Comment Link
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Posted By: aaron44126
Another vote for 16:10. A workstation-class laptop should be made for working (not watching movies), and when it comes to working, more screen space is always a plus. I currently have a 16:10 WUXGA laptop display and I'm looking at getting a Precision next time around and I am disappointed that I would have to lose screen space to "upgrade" to a new machine. Like others, I would gladly pay a premium to keep a full WUXGA screen.Apr 22, 2011 Comment Link
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Posted By: AverageConsumer
I don't really care if the monitor is 16:9 or 16:10, really they need to work on making high resolutions like 1080 standard first imo.<3 my 1080p XPS
Apr 21, 2011 Comment Link
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Posted By: winoffice
@bill_b:Again, a 1366x768/1600x900/1920x1080 screen resolution is unusable, especially for business. This is Precision we're talking about, and as before, most people here are willing to pay a premium for a 1920x1200 screen.
In fact, I'm sure the parts suppliers (and even rivals of Dell!) are themselves looking at IdeaStorm too. I bet they see that there are many people here, in the business department, who are not into 16:9, so I'm not buying into this rationale yet.
Apr 20, 2011 Comment Link
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Posted By: bill_b
The development teams are looking at many of these issues for the M6600 as we speak. I am not sure when, but the "tide of 16:9" will likely affect the Precision line at some point. The glass panel suppliers have begun to move to nearly 100% 16:9 production already. 16:10 will be few and far between some day.
Apr 17, 2011 Comment Link
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Posted By: CyJ
It would make sense that people who own accessories that use Firewire would still be using the connection. I have an external hard drive that uses USB 2.0 or Firewire.
Apr 17, 2011 Comment Link
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Posted By: AverageConsumer
People still use firewire?x10000 on usb 3.0 and thunderbolt.
Mar 28, 2011 Comment Link
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Posted By: CyJ
icaris75, Please stay tuned for more news on the new mobile workstations in the coming months. :)Mar 21, 2011 Comment Link
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Posted By: CyJ
Thanks for the additional information icarus75. I'll have your input forwarded to the appropriate department.Mar 21, 2011 Comment Link
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Posted By: icarus75
Hey Cy_J. Please ignore the previous post....The 2010 and the 2011 MacBook Pros do not have USB 3.0 support. The Precision M6500 was advertising USB 3.0 in the USA in July when I made my decision. But, the forums were giving very mixed messages about USB 3.0 performance on the M6500 - saying that the NEC controller was disabled by default in the BIOS, and that when enabled, it wasn't necessarily working. Now forums don't always tell the whole story, but they sure do affect perception. That's why launches have to provide the right information with a highly-functional products. Unfortunately, Dell's USB 3.0 "launch" wasn't even a launch. [May I note that Apple has a webpage devoted to explaining Thunderbolt?]
At that point of making a purchase, FireWire800 on a MacBook Pro seemed like a theoretical compromise, but I knew that 100MB/s of stable performance would work better than 400MB/s of theoretical performance (especially without a guarantee that my Precision would arrive with USB 3.0).
But the bigger problem was that the Canadian website still listed the M6500 with 4 x USB 2.0 Ports (and for several months thereafter). With Dell Canada only being a shadow of a company as of recent, I could not trust an outsourced salesman to give me correct information about what my M6500 would arrive with. [On a side note, I could never trust that my tech support is going to be any good if the salesman for a $6000 workstation isn't even a Dell employee - yes I asked him on the phone where he was located and who he worked for. A 3rd-Party Indian salesman? Really?!]
On the flip side, I knew that whatever Apple listed on their Tech Specs page is exactly what a MacBook Pro would arrive with. And I knew that a 3-Year warranty meant that I could walk into an Apple Store and get the help I needed.
I would love to really talk at length with Dell sometime about the shortcomings in how their website information is often represented, but a "Survey" option popping up every few times I log onto the Dell homepage is not the way to get relevant info from me. The fact is that Dell botched the sale of the M6500 to me on several fronts including the sales personell (or lack thereof), and it didn't inspire confidence in purchasing a premium product.
Reply to me, and I'll even give you a phone number if you want. I have plenty of things to say! I'd even work for Dell temporarily just to try and get such shortcomings minimized. But who am I? Just a lowly musician from rural Alberta who doesn't know anything.
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