Dell (www.dell.com/precision) recently released three high-end mobile workstations: M4700, M6700 and the M6700 Covet models that post professionals will appreciate for their portability, with virtually no sacrifice in computing power.
Dell's Precision general manager and executive director Efrain Rovira kicked off the press preview and said that these devices embody Dell’s focus on smart design: reliable, high performance workstations that have features that customers want.
The Dell Precision M4700 and M6700 contain the mobile Intel QM77 chipset and third generation Intel Core i5, i7 Extreme Edition processors with Turbo Boost Technology.
This new Intel processor technology dynamically adjusts core clock speed depending on the application. For example, says Mano Gialusis, senior product manager, Dell Precision Mobile Workstations, “Take an Intel i7-3920XM CPU, Extreme Edition quad core CPU. The CPU has Hyper threading, which makes this quad core seem like an eight core CPU. The base freq is set at 2.90GHz. With Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, and thermal head room, this CPU will clock up to different levels depending on if it is turboing in quad, dual, or single core mode. In quad mode the max is 3.60GHz for each core. In dual mode the max is 3.70GHz, and in single mode the CPU will clock up to 3.80GHz.”
The M4700 supports three total drives with up to 1.8TB of total storage and the M6700 can handle four storage devices with up to 2.8TB of total storage, both with RAID 0/1/5 capability. All models can be customized with an SSD (128GB-512GB) main drive. Each model has 4 DIMM slots for DDR3 SDRAM that can take 16GB of 1866MHz memory or 32GB of 1600MHz memory.
The I/O ports include two USB 3.0, two USB 2.0 and one eSATA / USB combo. Video ports include one VGA, one HDMI, one DisplayPort 1.2, one IEEE 1394 (Firewire). Also featured are one RJ-45, one microphone, one headphone, a 10-in-1 media card reader, a SmartCard reader and a 54mm ExpressCard slot.
The M4700 is the more modest version with a 15-inch screen (1366x768 or 1920x1080), while the M6700 has a 17-inch (1600 x900 or 1920x1080) screen. Both have WLED and IPS RBG LED display options with the ability to set the display to Adobe RGB, REC 709 or DCP3 color space. Graphics options include the Nvidia Quadro K-series GPUS and AMD FirePro M4000 and M6000 with PCIe x16 Gen 3.
One configuration of the 17-inch M6700 includes a built-in Nvidia 3D Vision Pro with wireless active shutter glasses that allow for reatime previewing of stereo builds in applications with stereo functionality, such as Autodesk Maya. The M6700 will also offer optional 10+ finger multi-touch in the coming months. There is a stylish metallic Phoenix Red Covet Edition with a 17-inch screen protected by Corning Gorilla Glass.
The new workstations also have quiet dual fans for the CPU and graphics cards, and an easily ejectable primary hard drive caddy for projects that need to swap out hard drives frequently.
The M4700 and M6700 can power up to three simultaneous displays when undocked and up to five displays when docked, and are compatible with the Latitude E-family dock.
Dell Precision mobile workstations come backed with Dell ProSupport, Dell Data Protection|Encryption and FIPS fingerprint reader security features and ISV certifications.
All Dell Precision workstations are ISV certified for the top professional software applications from vendors such as Altair, Ansys, Autodesk, Adobe, Avid, Grass Valley, Matrox, Sony, Dassault Systemes, PTC, Siemens PLM Software, Barco, Schlumberger, Landmark, ESRI, FFA (Foster Findlay Associates), and Dynamic Graphics, among others.
All three new mobile workstations are currently available. The US starting prices are $1,649 for the M4700, $2,199 for the M6700 and $3,579 for the M6700 Covet.