Dell Precision 7540 and 7740 Owner's Thread

A couple of spots on your analysis that I want to comment on.

Doubtful about this one. Heat is directly related to power consumption and there is no indication that the Xeon consumes more power than the i7/i9... They are subject to the same power limits.

I don't think that this is true either. The CPUs are really quite similar so the performance hit from the security patches would also be basically the same. (Mobile Xeon is less different than a Core i7/i9 than a server Xeon is... they really just tacked on ECC memory support.)

I wouldn't worry about power/heat/performance differences when choosing between the i7/i9 and the Xeon, when looking at the CPU specifically (unless you want to try to override the power limits). What I am not sure about is what the increased power use of ECC memory vs regular memory is.

 

I use the phoronix test suite, usually running timed linux compile. On the 9880H it takes 100 seconds to complete, on the 9980HK it takes 101 seconds. That is without undervolting. Be sure to only compare results from the same compilation version. a 4.18 build seems to go faster than a 5.4 build for instance. Mine were run using 5.4.

 

Hi all,

Long time thread reader, first time poster. I am really appreciating all of the info on this thread, I have learned a lot about my machine!

Xeon E-2276M, 64GB ECC RAM(Crucial, added later), Radeon Pro WX3200 DGPU, 3x Samsung 970 EVO Plus 1tb, 4k IGZO, Intel AX wifi, No fingerprint reader, Intel ME Disabled. ~4.5 hours battery life with the long-life extended warranty 6-cell.

Just wanted to address one thing about Windows Pro for Workstations. Dell would not let me order the machine without that, so I chose Ubuntu and just bought Windows 10 Pro off the shelf. Saved about $200 doing that. I don't think I am missing anything by not having Pro for Workstations, but if anyone knows otherwise I would love the feedback.

 

Pro for Workstations has some extra features that Pro does not. Almost all of these have a hardware requirement behind them and the Precision 7740 cannot use them. I think the only thing you get out of it is the ability to format volumes as ReFS. It's totally a cash grab from Microsoft, I'm sure there is some rule in the OEM agreement that any system with a "workstation CPU" must include their workstation OS.

Precision 7510/7710 was the first generation to include Xeon CPUs. It launched towards the end of 2015, before Windows 10 "Pro for Workstations" was a thing, and you could order that with regular Windows 10 Pro. Pro for Workstations didn't show up until late 2017 and only then was this requirement added.

 

I had strongly suspected that was the case. Thank you so much for the informative reply!

 

I did the same and got ubuntu for free. I will add windows when I get it. saved me 20O+ €

 

The one downside to this that I am aware of is that Dell Support will not help you with Windows issues if you call them. When I installed Windows on my 7540, I had a problem with the installer asking for disk controller drivers at the first screen of the install. I had never encountered this before so I thought I needed some special driver for the machine. Dell ProSupport was giving me a hard time since I didn't buy the machine with Windows. It turns out it was bad installation media, I just had to make the USB Windows installer drive again. Just be aware that if you need help with Windows you will likely have to go through MS and not Dell.

 

Thinking on going for this build
- Xeon E-2276M (6 Core Xeon, 12M Cache, 2.80GHz up to 4.70GHz Turbo, 45W, vPro) ---- xeon for ECC RAM support
- No Out-of-Band Systems Management
- Quadro RTX 3000 w/6GB GDDR6
- 15.6" UltraSharp™ FHD, 1920x1080 AG, NT, w/Prem Panel Guar 100% sRGB Carbon Fiber, IPS, Cam/Mic
- Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX200 2x2 .11ax 160MHz + Bluetooth 5.0 ---- AX200 seems to be better supported in Linux than the Qualcomm Atheros
- Palmrest with Smart Card, Fingerprint reader, & NFC ---- maybe the NFC will come in handy and 14$ extra isn't much
- 6-cell 97Wh Lithium Ion battery with ExpressCharge ---- EC will allow me to configure the charging options, so I'll have it charging only between 30%-70%
- 180W AC Adapter 7.4mm
- 3Y ProSupport Plus and Next Business Day Onsite Service ---- for the 5y I'd have to pay an extra £400
- Dell - Laptop privacy filter - 15.6-inch - black

Will upgrade it with a
- Samsung 970 Evo Plus 1TB
- 64 GB of ECC RAM

Any suggestions?

 

It's been a decade ago that I was using Linux (outside of a VM) but back then I found that support for Intel Wi-Fi cards was excellent (Intel writes the drivers and commits them to the kernel themselves) while support for Atheros Wi-Fi cards was pretty dreadful.

I get prices might be different in your territory; I'm looking at US prices.

The thing that I would think about would be upgrading to the 8-core Xeon. $228 isn't terrible and you can't (easily) upgrade the CPU later.
And it looks like $55 to upgrade to the aluminum lid over the carbon fiber one. The carbon fiber lid has a sort of "soft" feel and it is actually pretty easy to damage (scuffs/scratches). Something to think about.
Backlit keyboard?

 

Hello

Receive yerstoday my new toy Dell Precision 7540.
Update it to latest BIOS.
Was playing around with BIOS and RAID controller and found that in RAID controller menu there is tab "RAM DISK Configuration"
Does any one know what is this? Try to dig in google and could not find anything mentioning about it.
Does it create RAM disk from available RAM?
Any info or Manual how it work?

Thanks