Old Dell M4700 with Intel Quad Core i7-3720QM good idea or not?

Lemaildetom

Lemaildetom

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I need a laptop but i don't have much money, like 400-500£.
I don't mind a brick and i have an external screen that will be connected and a couple of SSD which i can reuse from my old laptop.
I've seen some of these old dell which look as new but seem to be from 2012-2013!!!
Still they run win 10 pro, have 16GB of memory and if i look at the benchmark for these i7-3720QM they seem to be as powerfull as the newer ones? They have 4 cores too...

So good idea or not?

Can i get anything better for the money?
 
I had the precision M6600 which was the slightly older 17" version.

The precision range are very good, the M6600 was a tank and had tonnes of expansion options. They're workstation class laptops so pretty powerful versions of what was available at time of manufacture.

However, the second gen chipset in my one lacked windows 10 support. The storage controller drivers from intel were not available and the standard Microsoft version made the system wade through treacle.

So just be aware that while older systems may technically run Windows 10 they may not work as well if the driver support isn't there.
 
I have had a M4700 from new and use it every day, primarily as my desktop in work running a pair of Dell U2415 monitors. It has proven to be a really good workhorse for a range of image processing tasks. Mine has 2 SSD drives and HDD installed (2tb total) and 32gb of ram and it still feels quick compared to other workstations. It has been pretty reliable, I had the system board changed under warranty after a couple of years, other than this, it has had no issues. As a luggable workstation it is excellent, I used to carry it home every night but it is very heavy and I now use a small laptop at home and RDT, it is better for my back.
 
I think i will sell a couple of camera equipment i don't use very much and up my budget to something like 600-700 pounds, then buy something second hand or refurbished. That should give me some pretty good specs.
 
I've a Dell Laptop from that era (i5) and I've very happy with it. I'd happily buy that over lots of the newer laptops that are available.
If you don't need a laptop, then a desktop may be a more affordable option?
 
I have a Dell M6600 I think it is, cracking piece ok kit with the 17 inch screen.
there are a lot of different specs on these so as said look closely, worth noting on my M6600 you can only use 4 of the memory slots with a quad core processor
if you have a dual core only 2 slots. they also have pretty fine graphics cards in them.
 
weird but my M6600 runs w10 like a dream no issues but I did have to do a few driver tweaks but nothing insane.

lots of drivers for mine on dell site just used w8 64bit
 
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At the end i manage to find more money and for 850£ found a "as new" inspiron 15 7000 7567.
It has a 512gb PCI ssd, so there was a free space where i put my 1TB SSD from my previous laptop, all the bits needed where already there apart from four screw to attach the ssd to the bracket.
It has a 4k ips screen which is great, after calibration i get 100% srgb and 78 adobergb.
Very happy with it, only the keyboard i find is disapointing.
 
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