Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

For people who are used to doing clean installs, this exercise is actually pretty routine, so it's not really any more time than you'd take anyway, and Intel and NVIDIA's sites are hardly turning over a rock in cyberspace or very difficult to find -- but I do get what you're saying. And for what it's worth, at this point it seems that all of the required drivers for the M3800 are now on Dell's Support page. Going directly to the component manufacturer's site for certain drivers is sometimes a good idea simply because you're more likely to get the latest driver that way, but it's also often optional. The reason it became so important on this system in particular is because the original Wifi drivers that shipped with this system (and that were listed on Dell's site) caused some throughput and connectivity issues that were resolved in a newer driver available from Intel -- but that driver is now also available from Dell. Apparently the Intel USB 3.0 driver for Windows 7 (not required on Win8) was also missing from Dell's site, but that's now there as well.

And ordinarily Dell's site does in fact have everything you need to get set up again. The issues encountered thus far have been a combination of at-launch issues not having been fixed yet (not uncommon when any new model launches) and this particular system having lots of cutting edge technology, which makes it even more important to have the latest drivers since bugs are still being fixed rapidly. For some people, buying a laptop right at launch that comes with the latest and greatest hardware is worth potential inconveniences such as these, and for others the benefit of things just working and staying simple is worth waiting a while for launch issues to be sorted out and for new hardware to get better drivers. There are merits to both approaches.

But all that said, it's true that wiping and reinstalling Windows is not for the very faint of heart, especially with all of the optional technologies that you may or may not want (Intel Smart Connect, Rapid Start, and Smart Response, Dell Quickset, etc.) So if you've never done a clean install before, it helps to at least have access to people who can help in case you end up in a jam -- like some of the people on this thread! :thumbsup:

 

Well, I would add to this that this clean-install thing is also, in 99.9% of cases these days, completely unnecessary and nothing but a pointless ritual. As a general rule, you'll gain exactly nothing from the exercise, certainly on a Dell workstation-class machine. These things have little to nothing in the way of bloatware on them to begin with, and if you don't like any of the stuff that's there, just uninstall it. Oh sure, there may be a couple of hundred bytes of stuff left over in the registry and the filesystem here or there, but in the age of several-hundred-GB hard drives it's utterly ridiculous to even waste a thought on that.

Bottom line: If for whatever reason you enjoy doing a clean install of the operating system, then by all means go ahead and do it. But if you don't, and certainly if you either do not feel confident, or don't have the time to waste on this, then there's absolutely no reason to go through this, and no reason to feel you might be missing out on anything for not doing so.

 

As mentioned, I am using a macbook pro 15" cote et ciel sleeve. Its tight but works great!

 

I had been meaning to ask you how you liked your m3800? I can't remember if you pulled the trigger on one or not, but I swear I thought you did. If so, what do you think of it? I don't want to assume, but I get the feeling you aren't too happy with the m3800? I would welcome your feedback!

Thanks in advance for your reply!

 

I don't have it yet; current estimate is for middle of next week, although in my experience those estimates are often on the pessimistic side. I'll post my impressions once I have the machine.

 

I've had my M3800 for a few weeks now and while I decided to go for a desktop and sell it, I have grown more fond of it lately. There are plenty of great, detailed opinions posted so here are just a few highlights from me:

Pro's
- The screen is great, it's my favorite part. I only opted for the 1080p version, but it's still one of the nicest screens I've used. Extremely bright. I never use it at full brightness.
- I like the touch screen with Windows 8, but I dislike finger prints so I don't use it any more lol
- I have the smaller battery and I get 4+ hrs of browsing with lowered brightness and keyboard light off
- It's thin, but solid. It has a nice weight to it

Con's
- Keyboard is cramped. I miss having a 10key
- Soft touch palm rest attracts dust and isn't the easiest to clean

 

Check out the HP Zbook14

 

I have a problem I discovered with my M3800 on my first road trip.

I have an iPhone which I synch through iTunes. AT home and work I use the USB dock. All was well.

But when I when on travel I directly connected the iPhone to the M3800 and it was not recognized (as anything).

I spent some quality time with Apple to no avail, but when I got home it synched again through the docks.

Anyone have any ideas here?

PS Enjoyed the computer on the trip and got great battery life 5-6h.

 

To make sure I understand this correctly, does the dock use its own hard-wired cable or does it use a regular cable that you detached from the dock and attached directly to your phone (which didn't work)?

If it's the former, the alternate cable you used could be bad. And even if it's the latter, it could still be the cable. I once had a Dell D-Series Dock that somehow had part of the connector on one of its USB ports ripped out by one of my USB cables. That cable was useless anywhere else (it wouldn't fit into other ports) and that USB port in the dock was useless with any other cable (it was missing components), but that unique pairing of that messed up cable and that stripped-out port continued to work perfectly reliably until I ended up throwing out the dock when I got a new system. If you're using the same cable with and without the dock, I'm wondering if something like that may have happened between the cable and the dock.

In any case, if you haven't already, try another cable before you assume the problem lies with your M3800.

 

They don't have detailed spec up yet, but from everything I can see, it's just a Latitude E6540 with a FirePro FirePro W4170M rather than a Radeon HD 8790M.G

In short, from what's known on the M2800, and assuming the same as the E6540 on what we don't know:
- No touchscreen, no QHD option
- I can't compare the graphics cards for professional use, but the 8790M in the E6540 is pretty good compared to the 750M in the XPS 15 -- maybe just a little faster: Radeon HD 8790M vs GeForce GT 750M
- The 47 watt quad core CPUs (-4800MQ) that is used on the E6540 will be faster than the 37-watt i7-4702HQ, but it may or may not enough to make a difference on bursty workloads -- it may be potentially worth getting the heavier machine if you are running workloads that keep all 4 cores running continuously. ARK | Compare Intel® Products
- The E6540 has an bay (normally with an optical drive) and an ethernet port built in, and it supports docking. It uses a 130W power supply that's bigger than the one on the M3800. This will probably all be the same on the M2800
- The M2800 definitely has a 10-key, and the same style of keyboard as the E6540
- The E6540 has externally-interchangeable batteries and can use a 2nd battery in either the bay or on the docking connector (for up to 3 total); for those into extreme battery life, this can help a lot. No firm indication this is the case with the M2800, but seems likely.
- The E6540 is about 7 pounds in a real configuration, so about 2 1/2 lbs heavier than the M3800. This is probably also true for the M2800.

The base pricing seems similar between the announced pricing on the E6540 and the M2800; if you need the graphics chip for professional opengl software, the M2800 might be worth waiting for. Otherwise, as the more mature model the promotions are likely to be better on the E6540 and they're already available in the outlet.

The above are all speculation until Dell releases formal specs, but the pictures already issued are the spitting image of the Latitude series and the E6540 in particular.