Precision M4500 considerations...

Question

Hi, I was thinking about acquiring a powerful laptop-alternative for my ageing desktop system. Initial goal was to have something that could handle some VMWare Workstation stuff. So needs lots of RAM and sufficient diskspace. I also appreciate a good screen: enough screen estate without losing portability. Functionality and robustness goes before looks. The Precision M4500 looked like a nice system for this, and while reviewing it I started to entertain the idea to also consider it the de-facto replacement of my 4 year old 2GB Athlon X2-3800 desktop. However, a couple of elements (down below) make me hesitate... Would be nice to hear feedback: - the price difference between a fast dual core and the cheapest quadcore isn't that much. I suspect that the quadcore is worth it in a scenario where the performance is most needed for VMWare workstation v6.5 in particular. Only reason against it, apart from the price, seems to be that maybe the fast dualcore still has better single-thread performance. But in this case I don't think that has priority. - obviously I would take 8GB of RAM and Windows7 professional 64bit - I seem to have read a review that talked about TWO harddisk bays in this system, but the specs are totally silent about this... No possibility to configure a second disk, although the option is 'kinda'  there. It is an element that started to get somewhat important once I started thinking about using the laptop to completely replace my desktop, because 500GB is somewhat on the low side for that. I'm a bit surprised that there are no 1TB or 640MB options, since those are available already. One option could be to order the 250GB version and then manually upgrade with a 1TB disk. What specs would be important to watch out for in that case? - of course I also looked at the available docking station in the 'desktop replacement' scenario. I had first considered a displayport-to-DVI adapter cable to be able to use my current flatscreen, but with the dockingstation that is of course taken care off already. HOWEVER: before this laptop-story, I always had in my head that I would continue a couple more years with my desktop, and would crank up its performance with an SSD as bootdrive, and a USB 3.0 adapter to have faster external storage link. Reusable stuff that would extend the desktop's life without being lost investments. So from that point of view it's a bit disappointing that the docking station only has USB2.0 interfaces. In that respect I was wondering: is it realistic to expect the availability of a USB 3.0-supporting dockingstation for the M4500 in the (near) future? It is a high-end performance-oriented system after all, so to me it seems reasonable that DELL would release such option once USB3.0 gets past its infancy and reliable. If this is unlikely, how would I get USB 3.0 support into my M4500? Is there a type of cardslot that supports USB 3.0 without sacrificing performance, and how pricy would such card be approximately? TIA, JH-man

beamslider · Answer

There is a MSATA slot on the motherboard. You can install a MSATA SSD card in the slot as a hard drive. I have a Samsung 256GB MSATA card in the slot as a boot drive and use the hard drive in the machine as a data disk. MSATA is small card around the size of a wireless card.

You can also use an adapter to replace the DVD with a hard drive in that bay.

Check the specific processors you are looking at but in general the duo cores are clocked faster than the quad cores and there is very little difference between them.

Doubt as the M4500 is several years old that Dell will be making any new docking stations for it. Some of the other model docking stations will work with it. But USB 3.0 Devices can already be used on USB 2.0 ports so what would be the point without USB 3.0 support on the motherboard?

beamslider · Answer

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=0BD-0012-00013 $20 for USB 3.0 Express card.   I am sure there are several others.

Locked Topics – Laptops General

Was this post helpful?