14 DAY TRIAL // Dell has long since started updating its notebook offering with the latest mobile chips in the Intel family. It was an obvious evolutionary step, given the fact that the Penryns not only do they add some more horsepower to the laptop, but they are also more energy-efficient and preserve the battery life for longer periods of time.
If the previous upgrades targeted only the high-end notebooks in the XPS M1730 family, the new update adds the Penryn flavor to the Precision offering, namely the M2300, M4300, M6300 notebooks. The new 45-nanometer chips from Intel are not the only novelty, however, as the M6300 model now comes with the new Nvidia Quadro FX 360M video card.
The 14.1-inch M2300, 15.4-inch M4300 and 17-inch M6300 are now available in either 65-nanometer Core 2 Duo version or with the T8100, T8300, T9300, and T9500 45-nanometer CPUs, that work at a default clock speed of 2.1GHz, 2.4GHz, 2.5GHz, and 2.6GHz respectively. The new processor offerings will come with the same price tag as their Merom-based Core 2 Duo counterparts. As far as the product page is accurate, the high-end Precision M6300 notebook will also be available in a special edition with the Core 2 Extreme X9000 "Penryn" quad-core running at 2.8GHz.
The other important part of the upgrade is the addition of the latest Quadro FX 3600M 512MB GPU, that will be optionally replacing the default Quadro FX 1600M 256MB video card, but only in the high-end Precision M6300. Before rushing to upgrade, be aware that you will still have to pay some extra $699 for the new GPU.
The Precision series of mobile computers comes with up to 200 GB of hard drive storage space that can be replaced with only 64 GB of solid-state drive. Each notebook can pack up to 2 GB of DDR2 system memory and comes with pre-installed versions of either Windows CP or Windows Vista operating system.