Like many other SSDs, Samsung suffered from degraded performance once a drive was in a 'used' state, but with the latest firmware and TRIM support that's no longer as much of a concern. Considering the enterprise market, that's not especially surprising (Anand has managed to brick both an early SandForce as well as a C300) Dell goes the safe route like most OEMs and uses Samsung SSDs. Dell has SSDs and encrypted SSDs available, but what you won't find are the top performing Intel SSDs-or Indilinx, SandForce, or C300. The only area where maximum performance isn't an option in Dell's configurator is the storage department. Our test unit came in the Energy Star configuration, though without both power bricks we can't confirm whether the 'Energy Star' power profiles actually make a significant difference. Dell also ships the M6500 in an 'Energy Star' compliant package, which consists of a slim 210W/240W power brick (presumably higher efficiency, though Dell doesn't make this clear) and requires an NVIDIA Quadro GPU. Note that at present, USB 3.0 is only available if you select a quad-core i7 configuration. The unit we received for review is now slightly 'outdated', as Dell is now shipping M6500 systems with Core i5 CPUs and optional USB 3.0 support. Right now Dell 'only' supports 4GB SO-DIMMs, which isn't a huge problem considering 8GB SO-DIMMs are very difficult to come by (and expensive) still, given the target market we're a little surprised Dell hasn't validated any 8GB SO-DIMMs. The memory department in particular deserves special mention, as the M6500 has four SO-DIMM slots compared to the typical two (sometimes three) we see in most other notebooks. You can configure up to a Core i7-920XM, three SSDs/HDDs, a Quadro FX 3800M graphics, and up to a whopping 16GB (4x4GB) of DDR3-1333. Take the best mobile parts (at least as far as raw performance is concerned) and they're nearly all available as a configuration option. The specifications of the Precision M6500 are a Who's Who list of high-end components.

Price as configured: $4698 (with $310 instant rebate) Starting at $1799 (with $310 instant rebate) HD Audio (2 stereo speakers with two audio jacks)Д©-Cell, 11.1V, 8400mAh, 90Wh extended life batteryД¤-year/5-year extended warranties availableДў/3-year extended battery warranty available Dell Precision M6500 Configuration Options Let's start with a quick rundown of the configuration options. We're also ecstatic that we don't have to worry about fingerprints marring the exterior for a change. It's definitely not going to challenge any thin and light notebooks for the pure mobility crown, but it's great to get a notebook that doesn't try to proclaim it's awesomeness with a bunch of superficial bling. The M6500 marries high performance components with an understated aesthetic.

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