Dell Precision 7710 External Heat Testing

Below are images of the 7710 from a FLIR thermal imaging camera. The 7710 was left running at full load for 45 minutes on a solid wooden desk. Power pull from the wall averaged 200 watts with dips to 187 and spikes to 204. Room temp was 67F. All images are taken with the camera set to auto-scaling so the bar on the right hand side will show the min and max temps in the image. Important - The ranges of each image will change, so you need to look at the range bar on the right. The temp in the top left is whatever is in the cross-hairs at the middle of the image. All readings are in Fahrenheit (F).

The 7710 runs much cooler than I was expecting.



The image above shows the temperature of the keyboard. The max temp is 96.9F / 35C with the area just above the keyboard showing 86.7F / 30C. The 96.9F / 35C reading is the surface in between keys.



The hottest spot I could find in between keys is 102F / 38C.



Here is an image of the bottom of the system. The hottest part on the bottom is the INSIDE of the E-Dock connector at somewhere around 109F / 42.7C. Note that the heat is well contained and away from the battery and 2.5" drive at the top of the image. Typical bottom temps (after 45 minutes of full cpu/gpu load) is 101F - 103F / 38.3C - 39.4C.



Another image of the bottom of the system with the crosshairs in the middle. Temp is 103F / 39.4C. Max E-Dock internal temp is 112F / 44.4C. The bottom temps are close to the one competing workstation measured 107.6F / 42C and MUCH lower than another system measured at 141.4F / 60.8C (source).



Above is the surface temp of the E-Dock. It is the hottest part of the system at 110F / 43.3C. It is well below the OSHA lower limit of 120F for prolonged exposure to metal objects.



Back to the top of the system. Max heat that I could find on a keyboard surface is 92.3F / 33.5C.



After an hour, I able to find a slightly hotter area between the keys at 106F / 41.1C.



Here are the exhaust plumes from the back of the system. Note the reflection in the back of the lid.



Keyboard surface temps are maxing at 91.6F / 33.1C. Trackpad, battery, and 2.5" drive are all running very cool in the upper 60's(F) to lower 70's(F). Note how well the system isolates the heat to the back of the machine.



Temp of surface below right exhaust plume - 109F / 42.7C.



Surface temp below the left exhaust plume - 106F / 41.1C.



Surface temp in the middle of the back of the machine is 88.7F / 31.5C



Image showing the isolation of heat from the display. You can see the the hinges are in the 80's(F), but the display is 15F cooler.



Temp of the right heat sink INSIDE of the system is 128F / 53.3C.



Temp of the right heat sink EXTERNAL metal is 110F / 43.3C. This is the part of the part of the system you could touch with your hand.



Temp of the left heat sink EXTERNAL metal is 108F / 42.2C. This is the part of the part of the system you could touch with your hand.



Temp of the left heat sink INSIDE of the system is 128F / 53.3C. It would be highly unlikely for you to touch this surface.



More plumes.

 

I wonder how this would compare to an older precision m6500 with fx3800m, which is my old system. The older being a much much hotter running 1st gen i7. I've been very pleased with how cool running my 7710 has been

 

Both systems have to get rid of around 200 watts of heat. The M6800 made a big jump when it went to the 1 piece monolithic heat-sink for the CPU/GPU. The 7710 seems to be a significant step up from that at keeping the heat isolated from the user and all directed out of the back. Somehow, the 7710 got quieter too.

 

Superb work Bokeh! Thanks for all the work put into this. What is the tested configuration actually?

I am (pleasantly) surprised looking at the results, looks like they put a lot of thought into this (thermals-acoustics-performance triangle is always some sort of compromise with notebooks).

What do you generally think about the build quality (compared to older generations). Did you notice any difference?

 

Intel Xeon E3-1535M v5
32GB 2133 MHz RAM (4x 8GB)
NVIDIA Quadro M5000M
LQ173D1 4K Display Panel
2X Samsung 512GB SM951 NVMe drives in RAID0
Intel 8260 Tri-Band WiFi
Intel DSL6340/DSL6540 (Alpine Ridge) 40Gbps Thunderbolt 3

Keyboard quality is up. Overall materials quality and feel is up. I see the 7710 has a solid step forward over the M6X00 series. Thermals and performance are at the top of what the chips can offer - the system will run under full load at max turbo speeds forever. NVMe is a huge step up on storage speed.