Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Please excuse my ignorance on this machine. I have had it two days and my M2400 worked just fine with the 3011U through DVI and displayport for 2560x1600.

BUT, the port replicator for the M2400 was attached directly to the M2400 and the DVI and the displayport connections came of said port replicator.

The M3800 has fewer choices:

1. I can directly attached an HDMI cable to the 3011U, which just gives me 1920x1200.
2. If I run DVI, cable comes through the port replicator, which is attached by USB (3.0 I hope on the left side of the M3800). Again this just gives me 1920x1200.

Solutions?:

1. I also considered an HDMI->display port adapter, but my local Fry's electronics does not have the adapter. I am not sure this would get me the full resolution anyhow.

2. I guess I could buy the 3014U and run for sure HDMI 1.4 (Yes DELL is hopeless for not explaining this). And this is a lot of $$$ when I have a nice monitor here at home (and the same at work).

3. I have been reading about PowerStrip that ran read and apparently write the EDID data from the monitor. This EDID contains the list of capabilities of the monitor. If I were to edit it to change the capabilities for HDMI of the monitor, perhaps that might work. I have read that for similar monitors, you can go with higher resolution, but decrease the refresh rate to 30 Hz (I do not need 60 Hz as I am not a gamer, but do graphics editing).

There is apparently another copy of these parameters somewhere in the registry. I think that can be edited without messing with the monitor.

Comments cheerfully accepted- I have had a mobile precision workstation since the beginning and have high hopes for this machine.

 

Trust me you'll notice if you run 30 Hz. Even the cursor looks laggy. Using a registry hack that allows the GPU to force output of a certain configuration (even one not listed by EDID) is MUCH safer than rewriting the display's EDID, but we're talking about having to buy a $4 cable/adapter to deliver a result superior to either of those options without any hacks or risks associated with what you're talking about. How is this not a no-brainer to you?

 

Thanks, I was editing the response above while you replied. I guess I can get the adapter, but I am not sure a passive adapter will work. See this:

HDMI to DP or VGA to DISPLAY PORT? - Flat Panel Monitors - Computer Peripherals

Obviously it is cheap and worth the shot, but my local electronics store does not have it, so I have to order one.

Problem with a registry hack is that the 3011U Dell I believe is built to reject signals that are not compatible with its EDID, so I think even that 30Hz hi resolution image would get rejected. But, I am interested in hearing about the hack.

I believe you used to be able to do this through the NVIDIA control panel, but I see that is degraded.

 

The machine has DisplayPort, that will work the best. Get a mini-DisplayPort to DisplayPort adapter/cable.

 

I will give it a shot. There must be a store near San Jose that has one.

BTW, are you running this USB port replicator? Seems like the video connections are flaky.

 

1. There's no such thing as an HDMI to DisplayPort adapter (i.e. HDMI source into DisplayPort display), and that likely wouldn't solve your problem even if one existed unless this mythical adapter supported HDMI 1.4. There's DisplayPort to HDMI (which ALSO wouldn't solve your problem since the display can't accept HDMI 1.4 even if the DisplayPort connector could send 1.4, which I'm not sure it can), but not the other way around. The reason is that a DisplayPort source is capable of switching to HDMI signaling when it detects an HDMI display on the other end, but a DisplayPort display isn't capable of accepting an HDMI signal on its DisplayPort input.

2. The D3000 port replicator's ports are limited to 1920x1200, no matter what you do. That too is listed in its manual and specs page.

A passive adapter is just fine since Mini-DP to DisplayPort is an inherently passive change; the only difference is the physical shape of the connector, not the signaling pattern. The only time you need an active adapter is if you're dropping to VGA or dual-link DVI, but otherwise as long as your DisplayPort/Mini-DisplayPort output is DP++ capable (which every laptop and desktop graphics card I've ever seen is), you can use passive adapters to get to HDMI or single-link DVI -- but neither of those would be appropriate in your case.

You're overthinking this quite a bit at this point. You're not the first person in the world to need to use a DisplayPort input on a display with a laptop that has a Mini-DisplayPort output; this has been done countless times, in fact I'm doing that myself on this laptop as I type this. Take the path of least resistance and get back to enjoying life.

 

I am sorry for my gross stupidity. I started reading the forum from the start and have come to the profound realization that there is a MiniDP output [thank-god]. Mine did not come with a manual. I did not recognize the port. So, I just need the mini to regular size adapter, and hopefully good to go. I'll see who's open on superbowl sunday in San Jose....

 

No worries, if you didn't realize you had a Mini-DisplayPort output, I can see the cause of confusion. Fyi you might be more likely to find a Mini-DP to DP cable than an adapter, like this one: 6ft 32AWG Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort Cable - White - Monoprice.com. Either this type of cable or a regular DisplayPort cable with an adapter would equally well.

 

Well, after a calm 75mph run down 280 to Santa Clara and Central Computers, I am up and running in full resolution... this is sweet. They had dozens of cables... but only Mac White!

I will start reading... who knows what lies on page 4!

BTW, one of my hobbies is Astrophotography and I am running some very complex software for astronomy on this machine, called PixInsight, does very well on the benchmarks for PixInsight.

 

Performance-wise, expect this laptop to perform on par with a modern i5 haswell desktop and mid-range workstation card, which is amazing for a 5 lb, 0.75" thick laptop. For small-medium assemblies I would be surprised if you ran into any performance issues. I work with fairly large assemblies and it's still perfectly adequate.

In my opinion you don't need cutting-edge hardware to run Solidworks as long as you develop good practices and habits for dealing with large assemblies (use isolate before editing parts, set parts to lightweight, etc.).