Precision M6700 owner's thread

[martin778]

Btw, what panel option is the CMN173HGE (DELL HDKPV) / monitor ID CMN1720?

 

Also just bit the bullet and ordered the M5000M from China...I have the 210W PSU, not sure if it's enough. I've seen the new 240W one but I use my 6700 in a docking station. it works with a 210W though.

[Aaron44126]

1 hour ago, martin778 said:

Also just bit the bullet and ordered the M5000M from China...I have the 210W PSU, not sure if it's enough. I've seen the new 240W one but I use my 6700 in a docking station. it works with a 210W though.

 

Same power supplies can be used with or without the dock.

[martin778]

Perfect, saves hassle with swapping power bricks.

 

What do I need to convert my 6700 to webcam model? Just the webcam PCB and bezel?

[Aaron44126]

6 minutes ago, martin778 said:

Perfect, saves hassle with swapping power bricks.

 

What do I need to convert my 6700 to webcam model? Just the webcam PCB and bezel?

I don't know if those are the only things. There's a separate cable that goes from the webcam to the motherboard, and there may or may not be a variant of the display enclosure itself to have a place to "mount" the webcam PCB.

[same23]

Hi ,  i plan to buy dell m6700 for about 150€ , the m6800 did not work out

it got i7 3740mq

16gb 

and TN 1920x1080  does the m6700 come with TN panel ? 

and how can i find out if it is LVDS or eDP panel ? or the base specs it came with ? through servise tag? 

and got few question :

i plan on upgrading the gpu first some options  i can buy 

wx 7100 for 105€ from dell 7710/7720  this seem like best  option 

 

quadro p3000 for 195€ doesnt seem like good option 

 

Quadro RTX 3000 for  175€  from  hp zbook 17 g6 

 

Quadro P3200 for 154€ from hp zbook 

 

 

 

 

[martin778]

If you can buy a working M6700 for that money I wouldn't think twice. They go for 2-3 times that in good condition.

No idea why but there looks to be 10-20 HP versions (8770W) offered for sale to maybe 1 M6700, the M6700 is much more rare.

 

The base model 1080p is TN and LVDS.

 

I wonder how many Covets (red/orange case) of these were made.

[same23]

So do u think I can swap it for some ips panel ? 

Would the LVDS cause problem for wx7100 ? Thanks 

[Aaron44126]

My understanding is that eDP only works with NVIDIA GPUs in this system. Newer AMD GPUs that don’t work with LVDS might not work at all. In any case, the chassis cannot accept a “standard” eDP panel without some light modification. (I think @TheQuentincc managed to get a 4K panel working in there at one point.)

[JadeRover]

On 2/5/2025 at 9:53 AM, same23 said:

So do u think I can swap it for some ips panel ? 

Would the LVDS cause problem for wx7100 ? Thanks 

 

Hi, well it all depends. 

 

First if you can get your hands on the service tag of the m6700 you can, after jumping through some hoops, get access to the specs of the model you inputed.

 

Scrolling down you'll find parts for the screen. The ips is FHD premium color or dream color. And that's the only option. Anything else is TN. 

 

However if you have the 120hz 1080p 3D screen that is the only one that has an edp screen side connector. It's 40 pin 4 lane one meaning with the cable for the 120hz screen anything up to 4k is possible, including 1440p 120hz or 1080p 165hz,etc..

 

All other screens : 1080p 60hz TN and 900p TN have a 40 pin LVDS connector.

 

The very odd config is if you have the 1080 ips screen (I have it) basically you have a 40 pin edp cable going from the motherboard to a converter board on the chin of the display. This converts the 40 pin edp to 50 pin lvds that is used by the ips display.

 

However gpus will see the screen as an edp one because the gpu has to output edp to the screen. The sad part is that dell uses a non standard edp connector on the ips display converter. Meaning if you want to upgrade to a more recent ips edp display the only solution is to get the 120hz cable. 

 

Hope this helps! 

[same23]

thanks for more insight @JadeRover 

i cant really find out service tag  because the sticker is peeled off 

I bough it , it will probably come  after 3 day or so . 

 

on the listing  it says that it got  1920x1080 TN 60HZ so i dont really have much hope 

 

if  it would be eDP panel i will buy wx 7100 if not i will buy quadro t1000 or quadro rtx 3000 

 

[nforce4max]

On 2/5/2025 at 5:36 AM, Aaron44126 said:

My understanding is that eDP only works with NVIDIA GPUs in this system. Newer AMD GPUs that don’t work with LVDS might not work at all. In any case, the chassis cannot accept a “standard” eDP panel without some light modification. (I think @TheQuentincc managed to get a 4K panel working in there at one point.)

 

The WX7100 works in this model with the 120hz panel just fine as I've daily used this setup for about two years before upgrading to an M6800 reusing the same card with that machine as it was also edp. W7170M and the WX7100 from the 7710 and 7720 work almost flawlessly with the exception of the W7170M being thicker.

[martin778]

What is the thermal pad thickness on the M5000M vs K4000M, everything the same? Or should I just leave the old pads where they are and repaste the core only?

[Aaron44126]

5 hours ago, martin778 said:

What is the thermal pad thickness on the M5000M vs K4000M, everything the same? Or should I just leave the old pads where they are and repaste the core only?

 

When I did K5000M → M5000M, I just reused all of the pads and it was fine. IIRC, M5000M has one additional VRM at the top that isn't present on the Kepler GPU cards, so you just need to make sure that the pad covers it.

[martin778]

Perfect.

 

By the way I think I will be dropping the HP machines in favor of M6700's. Already set my first M6700 to multiboot on 2x 1TB SSD's, booting everything from XP, through Vista x64 to Win 11.

The 8770W has a nicer touchpad, better CPU temps and is way easier to work on but the M6700 has 2 advantages - both HDMI and DP outputs as well as Optimus. Dell also doesn't need dismantling for cleaning the fans and heatsinks.

I howerver despise that plastic frame around the keyboard on the M6700, very prone to breaking.

 

Is this the "RGBLED" screen upgrade for the M6700 some folks are talking about?

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005001717835178.html

What would I need to do to install it, buy a different screen cable only, or is it the same LVDS cable?

 

I plan to keep only one HP, my 8760W that I built from 3 different ones and only just lately managed to score the Dreamcolor panel, which is indeed quite gorgeous.

[Aaron44126]

45 minutes ago, martin778 said:

Is this the "RGBLED" screen upgrade for the M6700 some folks are talking about?

https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/1005001717835178.html

What would I need to do to install it, buy a different screen cable only, or is it the same LVDS cable?

 

The RGBLED panel needs many parts to install.

• The panel itself
• The display enclosure (it is slightly thicker to hold the RGBLED panel)
• Interposer board which goes between the motherboard and the panel
• Two cables — eDP to interposer, interposer to panel
• ...Maybe also a metal side-rail thing that is needed to "mount" the panel into the display enclosure

Also note, if you install the RGBLED panel then you will not be able to use Optimus. That only works with LVDS panels in this system.

[martin778]

Sounds rather impossible these days with almost no parts for these machines. Might as well try to find one that already has the IPS panel 😞

 

So it's the same as with the DreamColor HP's - they also have a separate interposer board screwed down to the inside of the lid.

[TheQuentincc]

On 2/5/2025 at 12:36 PM, Aaron44126 said:

My understanding is that eDP only works with NVIDIA GPUs in this system. Newer AMD GPUs that don’t work with LVDS might not work at all. In any case, the chassis cannot accept a “standard” eDP panel without some light modification. (I think @TheQuentincc managed to get a 4K panel working in there at one point.)

yeah eDP panel are thinner and doesn't have the same structure, you need to cut a bit of the panel metal bracket to fit in the M6700 iirc, it's not that bad and pretty easily feseable. To be honest I recommand this "upgrade", the 3D/eDP cable is pretty cheap and there is much better display available than stock LVDS display, I believe you can use any 40pins/4 lanes eDP display.

 

Also if anyone is in Europe, I have a 3D/eDP cable for M6700 to sell.

[same23]

I am pretty confused it is lvds or eDP ? 

[Aaron44126]

Your display is plugged into the LVDS connector, and the eDP connector is sitting there unoccupied.

[nforce4max]

3 hours ago, same23 said:

I am pretty confused it is lvds or eDP ? 

 

M6700 has the option of using either as there is a connector for both so panel swapping is much better than on the M6800 for example.

[same23]

 

Thank you for answers.

 

1.So i can just  swap the display down the line  for the eDP with different cable ?

 

2.got some strange charger for it could it be dell Alienware 330W charger ? ( The sticker is peeled off) 

 

3.   can I  scrape the palmrest

 So it won't be so sticky?