Dell Precision 7540 and 7740 Owner's Thread

If the miniDP and HDMI connectors are in the same order as in the RTX3000 variant, then the GPU will be on the opposite side of the card. Anyway, this would be for a MB with complete different design, not to mention it is of version 0.1, which means that it might be engineering sample for next year's model. Just guessing.

 

So is the RTX 3000, though:

This is just confusing.

 

Hmm. They've never used the same set of GPUs in two different generations before. Though they are already pushing Turing to the max (given the power constraints) so maybe the 7X50 systems will have the same high-end GPUs as the 7X40 systems, if NVIDIA's Ampere cards aren't ready yet.

I rather doubt that they would put the GPU chip on the other side of the card. That would require a big change to the cooling system. It relies on the GPU chip and CPU being on the same "side" (up vs down), so the CPU would have to be moved to the "bottom" of the motherboard as well. That would mean that the entire system has been flipped "upside down" internally.

That might make more sense if this is really the 7550 card. I wouldn't mind the flip. Being able to get to the heatsink just by removing the bottom panel would be nice. As long as the NVMe drives are still easy to get to.

Anyway. That is a big pile of speculation. More likely, they've just swapped the order of those two video connectors. They're already in a different order in 7540 vs 7740.

The missing power connector is strange. That could have been moved to the other side of the card.

I wonder if they'll start using the same DGFF form factor for both 15" and 17". That would not be nice for 7730/7740 upgradeability, but in the long term it certainly would be more convenient.

 

Not sure if this RTX3000 is ES as well, based on the manufacturing date. Otherwise I have no idea.

 

I've asked the Dell rep on the announcement thread. Let's see if we get a response.

That said if this is for the 7540, it'd be quite complicated for Dell.

 

Followup on the solution to my problem with 1909...

Apparently the Intel Driver & Support Assistant is what was preventing 1909 from being offered for my 7740. I uninstalled Driver & Support Assistant, rebooted, checked for updates, and 1909 was offered. A few short minutes later and the update is complete.

What got me onto this was looking for error entries in the system event log. "queencreek" failed to start, that apparently comes as part of the Driver & Support Assistant, and one thing led to another.

 

After much research during this last month, going through a bunch of laptops, reading reviews, forum comments, getting bummed out by complains and problems about every model (like https://www.reddit.com/r/Dell/comments/by7lrb/help_with_xps_15_that_burned_up/)... I've decided to join the Precision 7540 club (the other main contender was the Thinkpad P53).
I do have a couple of doubts regarding the model configuration. I would be grateful if someone could comment.

1) Battery
What exactly is the difference between the 6-cell 97Wh Lithium Ion battery with ExpressCharge™ and a 6 Cell 97 Whr Long Life Cycle Lithium Ion Polymer Battery(3 Years Warranty)? If I already opt for the ProSupport warranty do I get anything from the extra battery warranty?

2) WWAN
If I opt for not including the WWAN card, will the screen still come with the WWAN antenna? I have no need for WWAN now, but would like to leave that option open for the future.
If it matters I'm going for the 15.6" UltraSharp™ FHD, 1920x1080 AG,NT, w/Prem Panel Guar 100% sRGB Carbon Fiber, IPS, Cam/Mic screen.

4) CPU
I'm undecided between the i7-9750H (no vPro) and the i7-9850H (with vPro).
I have no use for ME and rather avoid it since it is a security hazard. As such I prefer the non-vPro CPU since it should have ME disabled/removed.
One disadvantage is that the i7-9850H is stepping 13 and has fixes to the CPU vulnerabilities. While the i7-9750H is available in both stepping 10 and 13, so it's a gamble.
https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...ngineering-new-protections-into-hardware.html

5) Warranty
Which warranty option do you recommend? Thinking on going with 3Y Pro Support and Next Business Day Onsite Service
Does opening the laptop (including the keyboard to access the front RAM slots) and adding RAM and SSD voids the warranty? What if I break something? Does accidental damage covers it? I remember reading a comment here that it was really easy to ruin the threading of the NVMe cover screws.

Thanks

 

Congrats / welcome.

1. The batteries are basically the same. The difference is that the extra warranty battery has ExpressCharge disabled (in fact it has just about all of the battery charge customization options are disabled). ExpressCharge charges the battery faster at the cost of wearing it out faster. I this case I recommend that you actually get the "regular" ExpressCharge battery and set the battery charge profile as you like in the BIOS or Dell Power Manager app. There are a few different modes to choose from and you are not required to use ExpressCharge. You do not get the charge customization options with the long-warranty battery. (As an example, I have mine set to only start charging if the battery falls below 55% and stop charging when it reaches 85% in an attempt to maximize its life. I am not away from the outlet very often. You can select a configuration based on how you expect to use the laptop.)

2. You will get WWAN antennas included no matter what as long as you do not order a system with a UHD/4K screen. Users have installed a WWAN card aftermarket without any trouble.

3. ??? MissingNo

4. Eh. You'll have to make your own decision here. The difference in speed is pretty trivial especially since these CPUs will thermal throttle under sustained load, unless you take steps like repaste+undervolt.

5. ProSupport is nice because you always get a local person to talk to (not an outsource India call center). Of course, hopefully you never need to call them for anything...
Opening the laptop does not void the warranty. Adding/swapping components does not void the warranty. A tech may request that you restore the machine to its original configuration before performing service, if they suspect that your changes are the cause of the problem. (In practice, I've never had them do this to me...) If you break something then it is not covered by warranty unless you have paid for accidental damage protection or ProSupport Plus. (They will still service the machine but you will be charged for it.) Indeed, the screws can come installed pretty tight so you will want to be careful removing them the first time. As long as your screwdriver head is a good fit then it should not be a problem.

 

1. I wasn't very clear with my question. I meant, if I go for the 3 years warranty and the 6 Cell 97 Whr Long Life Cycle Lithium Ion Polymer Battery(3 Years Warranty) do I get a total of 6 years warranty for the battery.
In any case, for my use case the laptop is plugged 95% of the time. So having the battery customization options will be useful. So I'll go for the 6-cell 97Wh Lithium Ion battery with ExpressCharge and tweak things to maximize its life.

3. heh Don't know what happened there

Thanks for clarifying my questions.


I'll be keeping an eye on Dell's website during this week for any Black Friday deal in the UK.
BTW, there is an ongoing one in the Dell US website. For my config it was 900$ cheaper than in the UK.

 

No, batteries are warrantied separately. I think that you normally get a one-year battery warranty even if the rest of the system is warrantied for three years. The 3-year warranty battery is warrantied for... three years.