Buying Advice | Precision 5 vs 7 series (and respective specs)

Hi everyone,

I would like to buy a new laptop. The laptop needs to be very powerful as I will be primarily using it for very large, complex financial excel models (huge amount of data and vast number of array formulas and scenario analyses, e.g. monte carlo, etc.).

I feel that the Dell Precision is very a compelling product in terms price/performance. However, I need some advice on which specs to chose.

Precision 5000: http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/pr...emea&ref=PD_OC

Precision 7000: http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/pr...&ref=PD_Family

• I definitely want the strongest cpu (however, I do not believe that the additional computing power the Xeon Processor E3-1535M offer compared to the Xeon Processor E3-1505M will be noticeable in excel).
• Which and how much RAM? (does it make sense to choose 32GB vs 16GB?, shall I go for ECC or non-ECC?)
• Which hard drive do you recommend? (obviously SSD, but there are so many options to choose from, especially with the 7000 series; e.g., M.2 PCIe Solid State Drive, MPWS vs Adata OPAL SSD 2.5 inch SATA 6Gb/s, 1M Hrs MTBF)
• As I travel regularly, the laptop should not be too heavy (should def. be 15"; Precision 5000 vs 7000 series)

Thank you very much for your help in advance!

 

If you go for the xeon cpu, get the ecc ram. Without ecc ram, the xeon is a complete waste. Unless you need the GPU power or prefer a 17" screen (and the added mass), you would probably be better off with the m7510. You could also look at the m5510 - the only downside is that the m5510 will apparently not accept ecc ram which is strange since it has a xeon option. Perhaps this will be addressed with a bios update. As far as the SSD, get the smallest hardrive and install your own; it will be much cheaper. If you go for the m7510 make sure and upgrade from the 45% gamut panel - it is pretty bad. The upgraded 1080p panel is nice.

 

As hodgeMN posted above me, the decision of whether or not to go with Xeon should be a decision based on whether or not you need ECC ram. The only meaningful differentiation with the Xeon is that it supports ECC ram.

I'm not sure if ECC ram is entirely necessary for your uses. Typically, people use ECC ram when they're dealing with projects where precision is an absolute necessity, like engineering and the like. I'm not certain if you'd gain any benefit from it for excel computations, but perhaps someone else can chime in here - my assumption would be that you do not need it, and could easily go with one of the i7 choices if you'd like. As for amount, I'd go with 16GB minimum. What I did was order with 8GB and add another stick of 8GB (with the same exact timings) myself for much cheaper. 32 would be best with 64 likely being overkill.

Regarding storage, the new NVMe drives truly do rock and offer a significant speed boost. They're really good for rendering as it enables files to be written much faster, but I'm not certain of the utility for someone like yourself. Many people say you won't be able to tell a difference between NVMe and SATA in standard use, but I suppose that likely has to do with how much file reading and writing you do as part of your workflow. They also list two NVMe options, with one being "high speed". The speed differences between these are fairly significant, even though they're both Samsung NVMe drives, PM951 vs SM951 (faster). However you might be fine with a single 2.5"/m.2 SATA SSD if you wouldn't benefit from the speeds of the NVMe ones.

That said, from there it comes down to many of your preferences and what you value the most. The 5510 wins in portability by far, but you're sacrificing a lot for that portability. Based on a consumer model, the 5510 is manufactured with more defect tolerance and generally weaker build quality. The included warranties supports this - 1 year with the 5510 vs. 3 years on the 7510. You're also getting less potential storage if you opt for the larger battery, where the 5510 will only have room for an M.2 drive and the 7510 allows for an M.2 and 2.5" SATA drive. Lastly, while the thermals aren't really an issue on the 5510, the 7510 will be much cooler and quieter.

The rest is more preference based, such as the need for more GPU power or input devices like clickpad vs trackpad with buttons. There's also the issue of whether or not you need a num pad, which the 5510 does not have. I will say that the trackpad/trackpoint on the 7510 doesn't make for a stellar experience and is rather basic but some people can't live without physical buttons. You can get a better GPU on the 7510 as well, the M2000M, which also allows you to disable optimus if you're into that.

One last note I'll mention is the screen quality difference... both 1080p panels, the 72% NTSC one on the 7510 and the only one on the 5510, have undesirable characteristics. The 5510's screen has worse viewing angles, casting a yellow tint to the screen when viewed off angle but has near 100% sRGB color gamut. The 7510's upgraded 1080p panel has a pretty noticable screen door effect and has slightly worse color gamut, but great viewing angles. These characteristics may also influence your decision.

I guess it's clear I'm biased towards the 7510, but I did a LOT of research before buying. For a while I was considering the 3510, which is kind of a crossover between the 7510 and 5510, but the significantly weaker GPU kept me away. If that isn't a priority for you I wouldn't rule it out, as it's likely to have better build quality with a standard 3 year warranty. Unfortunately it's by far the least popular model, as there's barely any info on it out there.

Edit: Added additional insights.

 

Thank you both very much for this extensive responses.

1) I understand that ECC is better than non-ECC, however, as already pointed out by Div033, I do not believe that it will be much of much advantage for computations in Excel.
In this context, thank you for pointing out that the i7 will be a smarter choice than the Xeon if I opt to choose non-ECCs.

2) I reckon that one hard drive will be sufficient (512GB) as I will move older files to an external hard drive. Just to summarize, do I understand correctly that you recommend the M.2 PCIe High Performance Solid State Drive, MPWS?

3) Does the issue regarding the screen quality (when looking at it off-angle) also hold true for the UHD IGZO(3840x2160)?

4) Altogether, I would be very open to choose the 7510 over the 5510, however, it offers less mobility (as it is much bulkier) and as I will be traveling on a weekly basis, I assume that the 5510 would be the right choice. Do you agree with this?

Thank you very much.

 

This review at notebookcheck is of the 5510 with the IGZO screen.

To add to your confusion, I'm wondering whether to mention the Latitude E5570. It's not a thin as the 5510, is slightly heavier (which is compensated by a lighter PSU), has a good range of CPU options but you don't have to pay for the GPU which I don't think you need., so the bottom line is less which might be of interest if you are paying the bill.

John

 

Thank you for your feedback John. In the UK, this model comes with a i5-6300U processor. This processor not be fast enough for my purposes. I currently have an i7-5500U. The reason why I need to buy a new laptop is that this processor is simply not powerful enough.

 

Regarding your questions:

2. I'd say this comes down to how much you're willing to pay to have the "best of the best" and be an early adopter of the tech. For me, the prospect of 4-5x faster than SSD storage was exciting, but Dell's prices were not. I instead opted for a 500GB HDD and added a 950 Pro later, which I'm enjoying. All that said, if you're leaning towards the 5510 with a larger battery your only option is the M.2 PCIe High Performance Solid State Drive, as the self encrypting OPAL drive isn't something you'd need. So, by default, yes, that's the one you'd want.

3. Unfortunately yes. This is a characteristic of Sharp's IGZO technology. My old M3800 had it as well. One thing to note is that the backlight on the 4K screen is capable of wide color gamut, meaning ~90+ percent of Adobe RGB, which is pretty cool. Edit: Actually, based on the notebookcheck review, the tint doesn't seem that bad. It also seems to be reddish instead of yellowish, which is likely due to the different backlight they're using. Definitely not as pronounced as the 1080p or 1800p screens, though.

4. As someone who travels a lot, believe me portability was really high up there on my priorities. For a long while I wondered if I should return the 7510 and spring for a 5510 with a warranty addon, but ultimately I feel I made the right decision for me. I had a lot of problems with my M3800 and it seems that trend has continued into the 5510/9550 based on the "list of common problems" thread on the XPS board. This was a major factor for me as I'm rather picky about defects that others may not care much about like excessive coil whine. Ultimately, I sacrificed the portibility so I wouldn't have to deal with these problems again. It is cumbersome to carry around, but not excessively so to the point of fatigue. Travel would definitely be easier on my shoulder if I had a 5510, though.

If you highly value portability and don't absolutely need the thermal headroom and extra GPU power, the 5510 or XPS 15 is your best bet. Just do your research on the potential issues and spring for an extended warranty.

 

There must be a way to order faster CPUs in the E5570 if you know who to ask. E5570 stock currently at Dell UK Outlet includes the i7-6600U and the i5-6440HQ. These have maximum single-core speed of 3.4GHz and 3.5GHz respectively. I've grabbed one with the i5-6440HQ. I would add that the 14" E5470 is also available with the i5-6440HQ if you value portability. The outlet stock doesn't currently include the faster SSDs (although supported by the E5470 and E5570) but I think that storage read/write performance isn't a critical part of your requirement. I'm 99% sure that people have reported that 16GB RAM modules work OK in these notebooks.

John

 

On this note about the E5570, the Precision 3510 uses the exact same chassis, yet you can certainly configure it with an i7 quad core. Again, I recommend looking into this model if you're wanting something more sturdy but still portable and don't need a powerful GPU.

The E5470 can be configured with a quad core i5-6440HQ or even an i7-6820HQ here in the states and would be the most portable but would likely present some thermal challenges. Not sure what's available overseas, or if the precision 3510 is even an option there.

 

The Precision 3510 is configurable at Dell UK. The price looks reasonable - better than the standard configurations for the E5570. Note that Dell's info states that the 45W CPUs are down-rated to 35W (cTDP) in the E5570 / E5470 (I've seen the E5470 with i5-6440HQ listed in Dell UK Outlet). However, I wouldn't expect to to affect the single core maximum performance. The cooling system should be able to handle this power - it looks similar to what is in my E7450 which has a 15W CPU plus the Nvidia 840M (about 20W). I like this cooling system because it can handle the CPU heat very quietly.

John