Dell Precision 7560 & Precision 7760 pre-release discussion

Oh well that's a smaller difference than I thought. I guess the benchmarks on userbenchmark.com are misleading. Though the extra VRAM is nice (*cough cough* Nvidia only putting 8gb on the A4000, the graphics memory hasn't changed in 3 generations)

Also, about the 3466mhz ram option, is there a way for aftermarket ram upgrade to be able to achieve those speeds? I heard it needs XMP which only the stock ram modules have

 

Another thing to consider here is passive power draw. Since there's 16GB of VRAM on an A5000, that's got to impact the life of the battery when you take it places, unless you can really _really_ turn off the GPU now when mobile. It wasn't like this for the Precision 7730, but perhaps things have changed in the models since then. I think the main benefit of the A5000 is, if you have some thermal headroom, like a cool room, and perhaps an external laptop cooling solution (I've found fans pointed in the right direction can help out the Precision cooling solution), then you'll be able to see some benefits from that. But unless you have specific needs for 16GB virutal models, I don't think $1100 worth of differences!

One thing though, I've heard that the RAM on the Precision line is very sensitive and people have had very mixed successes buying aftermarket RAM. For the Xeon series, it's almost impossible - just try shopping for 32GB ECC SODIMMs, it's like shopping for unobtanium, at least with my Google-fu. And, maybe you can get the right modules, and then the laptop won't boot up, or it will be unstable, or you won't be able to get warranty service with these modules. None of these are problems with the NVME drives (it's easy enough to swap the default NVME drive back to the chassis if you need to), those really are best bought aftermarket, but I wouldn't mess with the RAM, personally.

 

I suppose the generic 3200mhz crucial (or micron?) ram will work in the Precision 7750/7760 as people have had success with it for the 7750. I'm opting to buy ram afterwards because $170 saved is a considerable amount (for 2x16gb 3200mhz ram). Though I guess I will have to live without the 3466mhz option.

And as for external cooling solutions, for my XPS 15 7590, I have a fan with a cardboard tube cutout so that one end of the tube attaches to the fan and the other tube sits under the laptop. This feeds cold air into the GPU fan as well as cooling the VRM's in the back. The fan is also positioned so that it keeps the deck cool as well as blowing away the hot exhaust air.. I also have it propped up on some old flipbooks. There is also an ice pack (at room temperature) on the left side to cool down the case since it gets quite hot after I put thermal pads over the vrm's. In addition to repasting, I can get a ~30% improvement for CPU and GPU.

I hope a similar solution is possible on the Precision

If the bottom cover on the case gets hot, it would make for a good heatsink to be cooled.

 

Somehow, Optimus was a bit broken on the 7530 (and probably other 7000-series systems) and some users have had to jump through hoops to get it to shut off the dGPU properly. Leaving an Adobe product like Lightroom open and minimized would somehow kick it into behaving correctly (go figure). @Ionising_Radiation can tell you about this... On my 7530 the GPU does actually shut down properly when graphics switching is turned on, I've never really had a problem with it.

I don't think extra cooling will help get more performance out of the A5000. These high-end GPUs hit the power limit and power throttle well before they get too hot (my experience anyway). They were designed to operate at well over 200W (in desktop cards). (On the other hand, it is quite easy to get the CPU into thermal throttling range.)

Agreed on RAM, I've heard mixed stories from people trying different aftermarket modules. Something "basic" and well-supported like Crucial or Samsung would probably be the best bet. Gaming brands like Corsair are more of a mixed bag when it comes to the success rate on more recent systems.

Bottom/rear of my Precision 7530 does get really hot sometimes. A couple of times it's been where I had to adjust my grip when picking the system up to move it (not like it's going to burn me... but definitely uncomfortable to hold). Fortunately they seem to have kept the hotspots away from the keyboard/palmrest.

 

I would think before repasting. Dell has upped their game on the thermal side in the last couple of years, so disturbing the factory paste job might actually get you worse performance. Here's a fun video series with one of their top thermal engineers. one two three four five six

 

I think it's important to know whether base 3 year warranty still has on site hardware repair or not. just because they PUSH for sending to a depot, it doesn't mean on site is unavailable...

Can someone clarify?

 

The base warranty has on-site service. A big plus with Pro Support is you will get someone higher up and local to talk to immediately rather than being pushed over to the India call center or whatever. But even with the basic on-site service warranty, if you can convince them that you have a hardware issue then they will dispatch a tech with the part to swap in. (Sometimes I hear about them asking someone to send the machine in anyway, perhaps because they don't know which specific part to replace, or because they want to take a look at an issue in more detail. In this case you should be able to push back and just get a full system replacement, and then send your old one back to them.)

 

I only did it on the 7590 specifically because others reported improvements.

I have almost burned myself multiple times from touching the bottom cover of my XPS....

 

Glad I got ProSuupport.... almost didn't include it due to budget

 

So is there a negative to the A5000 over the A4000 other than cost? Will it consume the battery more or run hotter or does that depend on the tasks?

Separate from the video card, one concern I have is using it in class or a meeting where you might have to have in on your lap (no table available), it will blocks the vents on the bottom and assume get hot as well.

Also, what is the expected run time on battery if just using some MS office apps and browsing the web?