Amazon Product Best Price for a Dell Precision M4700 WS Laptop LOADED!!!

mrrsm

Original poster
Lifetime VIP Donor
Supporting Donor
Member
Oct 22, 2015
7,641
Tampa Bay Area
My raft of cobbled-together IBM T-60 ThinkPads ...and even a “New” HP “Off The Shelf” Tiger Direct Laptop I purchased as a Windows Box for the Lil Woman have all drastically let me down over the recent months. Everything that can go wrong ...Has Gone Wrong with them… you name it… Keys popping off the Keyboard… Touch-Pads getting Non-Responsive ...Hard Drive Failures… Poor Screens. Low Resolution and Back Light Failures… most of this stuff has gone sideways back to back with these machines too often and so about two weeks ago...I finally said Enough is Enough Already!

So I did my Due Diligence on some Dell Precision M4700 Portable Work Stations and found just a few that were LOADED to the Gunnels with everything they offer for Top Of The Line Hardware Upgrades and decided that if I can spend $500 + on a Plastic POS like the HP laptop… I can do much better by just getting a well cared for Legacy Dell Notebook Workstation that has been built to last with Very High Performance for the same amount of money. Lo and behold ...it came in today ready to run with Windows 7 64 Bit Professional installed… so I did a side-by-side installation of Linux Mint 19 and it went in on the 1 TB Drive without a burp. Dazzling Performance Differences!!!

The difference in having such a machine is a very big jump in all the most important features… and as I was putting The Dell Box through its paces… The Lil’ Woman brought me a cup of coffee… and caught a glimpse of the Nvidia High Quality Screen at its highest resolution with ridiculous color quality on the screen playing a familiar movie. After watching, listening and feeling how perfectly tactile the Keyboard was… She said… ”Stop what you are doing right now… I want one… and if you cannot find me one JUST LIKE THIS ONE… then I am taking it away from you, Big Boy.

So… I went right back to Amazon and found an Identical Machine for a bit more money than I paid for this computer ...and pulled the trigger once again. This PDF should tell you everything that is worth knowing about such a professional graphics style machine that Architects, Graphical Artists and CAD Designers and yes… even Gamers ...who want to do their complex work and play with reliability and blinding speed proving that these are well worth the money as Used Laptops that will outstrip most of what is out there on the Market listed as Brand New ...but for three times as much money.

http://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/...ments/Dell-Precision-M4700-Spec-Sheet-tab.pdf

So if it strikes you that you can use such a thing… Then Strike While The Iron is HOT for THIS one over at Amazon.com:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JYE7S1Q/?tag=gmtnation-20

One LAST thing… you WILL be able to find these Dells much cheaper as Refurbs out there… but they will probably be stripped down versions with much slower processors having fewer cores and less system RAM than 32 Gigs… with screens that are NOT TOP of the Line from Dell… so do your homework before choosing one that only LOOKS like these Machines...but will be Bare Bones by comparison.
 
Last edited:

mrrsm

Original poster
Lifetime VIP Donor
Supporting Donor
Member
Oct 22, 2015
7,641
Tampa Bay Area
It is worth a Follow Up mention here that if you wind up getting one of the Amazing Machines and if like me ...you rarely if ever use any Microsoft Windows Operating Systems... if you suffer any BSODs... STOP.... The problem will NOT be with the OEM Windows 7 64 Bit Professional OS...! You will wind up chasing your tail all over Hell and Gone looking for a problem driver ...or this and that... this will NOT solve the problems! The Best Procedure would be to first Shut Down the Box... then wait about 30 Seconds before pressing the Power Button and then tapping the F-12 Button a few times to bring up the Dell Processes Selection Screen.

Next... Arrow down to the "Diagnostics" selection and press the Enter Key. Dell's Diagnostics for This Quality Machine are EXHAUSTIVELY Good. And with mine... I went through the Dell Online OEM Service and Assembly Manual and discovered after a bit of Trial and Error that one of the Four 8 Gig 1600 MHZ Ram Sticks was throwing up on the console. So I pulled the Binary Evil-Doer from the Secondary Slot and left Three of the Four inside the Box for 24 Gigs of Ram and fired it up for another go at the Diagnostics. And...Voila' ... No More BSODs and the Dual Boot GRUB setup with Linux Mint 19 worked swimmingly smooth... side by side. I will have to say that of ALL the MS-OS I have had to wrangle with professionally over half my life... Microsoft Windows XP Pro SP3 and Windows 7 64 Bit Pro SP1 are the Best of The Lot.

After this... I Downloaded and Installed the Dell Service Assist Application and it did everything else necessary to read the Service Number ID from the innards of the machine and installed the BIOS Update ( that most concerned me and was the ONLY reason I did not just get rid of it)... and also every other Driver Update and necessary App needed ...automatically. The Follow On Re-Boot was perfect ...and its been 'Red Sails in the Sunset' ever since. I ordered a set of 8 Gig X2 Crucial Ram Sticks to match the ones in the Primary Slots.... just to have all 32 Gigs the same flavor and quality. It was more economical than just getting a single 8 Gig Stick.

I cannot say enough about the performance differences between these Business Professional Grade Dells versus whatever else is around out there as an excuse for Laptop Computing. When you Buy any Box in an As-Is condition... and at a very reasonable price... these occasional woes are to be expected. I try never to tout anything... New OR Used... that I have not thrown down my own Hard Cash on the Counter to own. or have personal experience with.. and so this purchase has turned out to be a nice one. I hope others will find it so if they decide to Pull The Pin for an incredible Dell Precision M4700 Laptop Computer.
 

mrrsm

Original poster
Lifetime VIP Donor
Supporting Donor
Member
Oct 22, 2015
7,641
Tampa Bay Area
Just a brief follow up to mention that I decided to get the "Back-Lighted Keyboard" and Brother... is this thing worth it! It has three brightness levels and a (10) second "Fade-To-Black" delay that works great... in both daylight ambient or dark room conditions. Not only the Letters and Numbers light up... by there is an additional amount of light outlining the spaces between the keys...which is an extremely helpful and cool effect when sitting without room lighting. The slightest touch on any key brings it to life (...think Han Solo in the '77 Star Wars pounding on the overhead console of the cockpit inside the Millennium Falcon here...) and the ten second delay is nice for those slight interruptions when you don't want the keyboard lit up like Christmas Tree and mess with your "Movie Watching Vision".

It took all of about Two Minutes to R&R in the New One: Shut Down the Laptop... Pull the Battery ... then Pull the Black Plastic Bezel encircling the Keyboard with your fingers ...gently does it.... unscrew the four hold down screws... then Peel the Clear Yellow Tape holding the Contact Ribbon to the Keyboard Underside (NOT on the MOBO Side...) and lift the Black Plastic Locking Tang... Slide out the KB Ribbon and lay the Old One aside. Reverse these procedures for the New One... Done. The Light Controls are marked in Blue and are under the Right Shift Button. EZ----PZ.:


https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016VOAZ8A/?tag=gmtnation-20

61b7iNo9%2B%2BL._SL1280_.jpg
 
Last edited:

Forum Statistics

Threads
23,273
Posts
637,495
Members
18,472
Latest member
MissCrutcher

Members Online