Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

This happens to me quite a lot... Try a BIOS update from dell.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Thinking about picking up an M3800. Couple questions I'm hoping folks can answer for me:

1) I see someone mentioned something about a "dual drive" model. Is there some model that has extra space for a 2nd drive?
2) Does this guy have room for one of those small plug-in SSD's like this? Amazon.com: MyDigitalSSD SC2 Super Cache 2 42mm SATA III 6G M.2 NGFF M2 SSD Solid State Drive (128GB): Computers & Accessories
3) I'm trying to configure a machine online, but jeez, it just lets me pick my starting configuration, and beyond there, I can't make any configuration decisions. What's up with that?
4) Other than the screen, are there things I get with the higher configurations that I can't just upgrade myself with the lower configuration? Looks like the only thing changing in higher models other than the screen is the SSD and its size...

Thanks!

 

Most of this information is earlier in the thread but,

1. There are two battery sizes - the larger battery means no room for a 2.5" drive, MSATA only.
2. You'll need an MSATA drive, not ngff. Something like this - Amazon.com: Crucial M500 240GB mSATA Internal Solid State Drive CT240M500SSD3: Computers & Accessories
3. Dell is delaying or getting rid of configurations for normal people (for cost savings reasons). Business accounts can often still customize. Try calling/chatting.
4. Not 100% sure on that one.

 

Just wanted to note, the laptop does have a NGFF port...it's just being used by the wireless card. Don't know if it would recognize a SSD if you put one in that slot though.

 

Wanted to make a quick note here, after tweaking around the power options for my M3800 (Programs, Startup, Advanced power options e.g. power saving states and max CPU %'s), I have around 6 hours of battery life with metro IE. I use a program called BatteryBar to monitor my system's power draw and batttery life. Have found that Metro IE takes up the least power out of all my web browsers. According to BatteryBar, when I'm on my High Performance plan (that I configured), I draw around 20,000 mw to 30,000 mw doing CAD (2~3 hrs life), around 15,000 mw using just Firefox (4 hrs life). When I'm on Balanced (also custom configured) and running low load programs like OneNote or IE, I can drop all the way down to 6000 mw to 10,000 mw (10~6 hrs)

 

One notable feature of the top two configs (really 1 config, just a difference in the warranty coverage) is they use the higher capacity 91Whr battery vs. the 61Whr battery of the other configs.

 

1. All but the top-spec models have both an mSATA slot and a 2.5" SATA bay. The top-spec model includes the larger battery which fills the 2.5" SATA bay area (and removes the SATA ribbon connector itself), so you'd have to go mSATA-only at that point.

2. Both models have space for an mSATA SSD, roughly the same size as the unit you linked, but with a different connector. The M.2/NGFF slot on this system is used for Wifi. I'm not sure whether an SSD would be accepted there, but you'd then have to go without Wifi or use external Wifi in any case.

3. Welcome to the new Dell, unfortunately -- though in their defense, most other major manufacturers no longer (or never did) offer customization on the level that Dell did. Still, they do at least appear to be passing some of the manufacturing cost savings on to us. Laptops in a given segment are noticeably cheaper than they used to be, even without adjusting for inflation. But if you really do require configuration, as others mentioned, try the online chat function or calling up sales. Some have had success that way, though others haven't despite multiple attempts. The only surefire way to get customization capability seems to be to work for a business that has a Dell Premier account.

4. Only the larger battery, but if you can get Dell Spare Parts to work with you, you could even purchase that separately if you wanted. However, a few people have tried that (even armed with the part number) and nobody has yet succeeded yet, possibly due to parts shortages or because Dell hasn't yet decided to offer that part for sale, and of course you'd be writing off the cost of the battery included with the lower spec you purchased, but technically it's possible to buy a mid-spec model and create a higher-spec model yourself.

 

Has anyone found the right sleeve for this laptop?
Are MacBook sleeves fine even for XPS15/M3800?
I know that XPS15/M3800 is slightly wider than rMBP, but maybe there is some dimensions tolerance.

 

The newest version of Photoshop breaks the high dpi fix as written earlier because its internal manifest changed, so we need to create a new external manifest that tells windows to force dpi scaling on it.

This is easy enough to do, and here's some generic instructions that should work for many programs, not just Adobe. I fixed Capture One's tiny interface with it.

1. Allow Windows to execute external manifests by editing the registry:
Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
Locate and then click the following registry subkey:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\SideBySide
On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.
Type PreferExternalManifest, and then press ENTER.
Right-click PreferExternalManifest, and then click Modify.
In the Edit DWORD Value dialog box, click Decimal under Base.
In the Value data box, type 1, and then click OK.
On the File menu, click Exit to close Registry Editor.
2. Download Manifest View from here: Manifest View 1.0 - Kenny Kerr

3. Open Photoshop.exe, CaptureOne.exe etc in Manifest View.

4. Run your text editor as administrator and copy the manifest here. Remove leading dashes from word wrapped lines.

5. Add this above the final

HTML:

 </assembly>

tag:

HTML:

<asmv3:application>
  <asmv3:windowsSettings xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">
    <ms_windowsSettings:dpiAwarexmlns:ms_windowsSettings="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SMI/2005/WindowsSettings">false</ms_windowsSettings:dpiAware>
  </asmv3:windowsSettings>
</asmv3:application>

Note that CaptureOne already had this here, but marked TRUE. Simply changed it to FALSE.
Save to the program folder and name it whatever.exe.manifest

Whenever a program updates, you may need to create a new manifest for it to work correctly.

To undo this fix, just delete the .manifest file from the folder. To temporarily disable it, right click the .exe file and in the Compatibility tab choose "do not scale high dpi"

 

That was a great post! I'm considering the M3800 at the moment and am particularly interested in throttling issues. I'll be running mostly maths software like Matlab which can also push the GPU via GPGPU.

From what you're saying, CPU throttling happens due to TDP and not temperature, correct? Otherwise you'd be able to maintain high turbo clocks by pushing the fans to max. Has that changed? is there a way to force fans to max and prevent throttling via software like StopThrottling?

Could anyone please test some more humane CPU stress tests like XTU or AIDA64, instead of Prime95? Prime95 is known to push the CPU beyond what is normally achievable. Both XTU and AIDA64 reach much lower temps on my 3770K when stress testing it, and so do my Matlab simulations -- all using 8 threads.

Please don't crucify me if the following have already been asked/answered - I did read through this thread as much as my time allowed:

- is there any whine noise like on many XPS 15 ones? If yes, does it happen when on battery or when charging or both?

- could someone please weigh an M3800 with a 91 Whr battery and post the exact weight?

- anyone knows whether the M3800 has any better cooling than the XPS? They look the same form the owner's manual pictures.

- anyone knows why the M3800 is 1.88 Kg and the XPS 2.01 Kg (if indeed that's true) if they have the same chassis, screen, motherboard etc (quadro vs geforce doesn't explain it, it's essentially the same chip, nor can the lack of NFC account for 120 grams).

Many thanks in advance!