Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

The one advantage to having the factory config handy is that if you get a particularly unhelpful tech support person who wants you to do a clean windows install, you have a clean Dell-blessed image you can install very quickly.

That said, the Dell image on mine was pretty clean. This is the first machine I've bought since 1997 which I haven't felt the need to get rid of the factory image (indeed, I went back to the factory Win 8.1 after trying a custom Win 7 install.)

If WSIWYG is your main app, I'd definitely get the XPS over the M3800, although I'd take a serious look at actual gaming laptops with bigger GPUs. The Razer Blade (14") for example has a 765M with twice as many CUDA cores as the XPS or M3800, and around twice the memory bandwidth as well.

By contrast, the K2100M in the M4800 has 1.5x as many cores, and only about 10% more memory bandwidth.

You might check back with them to see if they support SLI; the Lenovo Y510p might be an option if so -- the GT 755M SLI configurations are pretty affordable when they go on sale.

 

Unless you're dual-booting, there's no down side to Secure Boot I'm aware of. It's basically just another protection measure against rootkits that try to load before the OS and thus remain undetectable to the OS and any AV solutions running on top of it.

In terms of UEFI, if you enable UEFI and ALSO disable Legacy Option ROMs (a config supported on Win8 and later, but not Win7), your machine can boot a bit faster. That setup is also required for Secure Boot. How MUCH faster I'm not exactly sure because you can't switch between the two and boot the same Windows environment. The official answer is that to switch to UEFI now would require a rebuild, but it was mentioned a few posts ago that there are other options, such as using the Windows System Image utility to back up your disk, switch to UEFI, boot into a UEFI-aware version of the recovery tools, and restore it. Another option was using a Linux Live CD to manually create the required EFI partition layout. So you basically either need to do a rebuild or really know what you're doing to get around that requirement.

There are some other benefits to UEFI that may or may not matter to you. This is a pretty good article on the subject: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/features/381565/uefi-bios-explained

 

I use both of those applications as well. OnPC won't care which laptop you choose. WYSYWYG I do not believe will scale their icons so be prepared for VERY small buttons (or change your screen resolution). Sounds like it will run a tad better on the 750M but keep in mind that the 750M seems to be throttling a bit sooo it might just even out. I'm actually surprised at the reply from Cast as I thought a good portion of their beams were OpenGL which should run better on the Quadro but I guess they are still using a lot of DirectX.

I'm currently running WYSYWYG on a laptop with an NVS4100 and it isn't horrible....but I'm only running 1280x800 with only around 40 movers and yeah, it could be a whole lot smoother. I imagine the 750M is quite a bit quicker.

I was very close to doing the 3800...but then I realized there is no way to put a Firewire port on the thing right now. So I'm now waiting to see if the W540 is going to ever have a touch screen. It weighs a bit less than the Dell 4800...both of which have faster video options and an express card slot.

 

I see. I might just reinstall sometime, after reading into Secure Boot it seems like something I might like to have and maybe it will boot faster. I'm paranoid enough to run a system and hdd password while on campus anyhow haha. Also partially because I'm interested in using the Dell key...I used my own disk to install Win8 for fear of bloatware, but it doesn't appear like there's that much associated with this model. I feel like I'm missing out on some things being on a fresh install; namely, the fact that Dell enables Flicks for the touchscreen (by default, Win8 only seems to allow it for touchscreens using a stylus, but somehow Dell got ahold of it for their capacitive one )

 

Wait, what? Ok, time to drop some knowledge:

- A system password is pretty absurd, and so is an HDD password. Use whole disk encryption and kill two birds (more effectively) with one stone. You'll still be required to enter a password before you boot, and encryption (if you use a good password) is going to be much more effective at securing your data than an ATA password, not to mention make data recovery from another system (especially through a USB adapter) easy rather than difficult to impossible. If you're still super paranoid, set a BIOS admin password and disable other boot devices so nobody can boot your system from alternate media -- though with strong encryption, all they'd be able to do is wipe the disk anyway, not read the data. If you have 8.1 Pro, BitLocker is a fine choice. If not, then unfortunately your options are limited. TrueCrypt is a fantastic (and free, open-source) option, but it doesn't support GPT disk layouts that are used with UEFI systems.

- I do fresh installs too, but mostly to reclaim disk space that Dell allocates for factory image restores, etc. I was surprised how little bloatware was on this system.

- If you feel you're missing out on a fresh install, it's just because you haven't installed something or haven't configured it. But there's absolutely nothing touchscreen-related that you need to install in terms of applications or utilities to get full functionality. Flicks on the touchscreen work fine for me, and you should definitely NOT be using a stylus on a touchscreen....

 

With Windows 7 it won't make much of a difference at all. It works but there is no added functionality to speak of. (In fact it may be better to stick with legacy, I've heard complaints that it is hard to get into the F8 boot menu when using UEFI with Windows 7.)

Windows 8[.1] includes some features that actually leverage UEFI. Secure boot prevents malicious software from modifying the Windows bootloader by checking that it has a valid signature before running it. You also get to set up your boot drive with a GPT partition which means you can boot a volume larger than 2TB (maybe rare in laptops but not for much longer). It also allows the system to boot a bit faster and the boot appears more seamless.

Some reading material:
Designing for PCs that boot faster than ever before - Building Windows 8 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs
Protecting the pre-OS environment with UEFI - Building Windows 8 - Site Home - MSDN Blogs

 

Is anyone having problems with the touchpad? Mine works during my log-in screen but as soon as it logs in the touchpad ceases to work. Both the touch input and wireless mouse input still work, however.

 

Check to see if it has been disabled accidentally by Fn key. (On M6700 anyway this behavior is user-specific and the touchpad will always be active at the login screen if there is no user logged in.)

 

Which key combination would then unlock it? It also says it is on when I got into Control Panel and check the status of the touch pad.

 

You didn't specify whether you're using Dell or generic Synaptics drivers, but my guess is that somewhere is an option to disable the touchpad when an external mouse is connected, which might for some reason cause your touchpad to still show as enabled when it's been disabled for that reason (rather than explicitly by you selecting "Disable"). The fact that it disables only after login reinforces that feeling, since that preference would be a user-level rather than system-level option. I'd dig around for that. Or, you know, try disconnecting all external mice and see if it magically works all of a sudden.

There isn't a touchpad function key on this system. However, if Dell Quickset is installed, there's an option to toggle the touchpad in Windows Mobility Center.