Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Well, I went ahead and just bought the RAM from Dell. With tax it was $121.08, which feels like a total rip off, but I maybe the warranty is worth the extra $50 or so.

 

I've been following this thread since last Dec; Thanks. Finally decided that the M3800 was as good as it was going to get for my needs.

I purchased the customized version maxed out on all specs except w/just the w/500gb hybrid and smaller 61wH battery. Expected delivery date was May 6 but just notified they shipped yesterday ... fingers crossed

Plan is to start by removing that default drive and installing 2 new Samsung SSD's
Drive 1 - mSata SAMSUNG 840 EVO 500gb
Drive 2 - 2.5" SAMSUNG 840 Pro 512gb

So thinking I will do a clean OS install on the mSata. Questions I have:
- Should I go with the Win 8.1 USB media or stick with Win7 Pro (currently use Win7 64 - no experience w/8).

- Any pointers or checklists? Maybe there is a list/wiki of all necessary M3800 drivers with the order in which to load for a successful clean install?

- Is the included Dell media good enough or is there some other package I should download?

After I get Win (#?) up and running on the mSata, I'll insert the 2nd drive (data drive) in 2.5" slot and (slowly) copy over data from previous machine via USB 2.0 adapter.


My Use: this machine is for graphics and video editing (mostly adobe). Currently have CS5 but with the QHD maybe I should "rent" Adobe CC? Anything fixed/better with latest versions?
Illustrator
Photoshop
Fireworks
Premiere

Thanks in advance!

 

Couldn't you get them both on the same network and transfer over ethernet (provided you have the usb>ethernet adapter)?

 

I'm not so worried about this part. I can just let it copy overnight.

Moving ~400gb of <100mb files from a 750gb Seagate Hybrid to the 840 Pro SSD. After that will (quickly) move ~100gb from the 840 PRO to the EVO mSata to balance it out.


So far I found the following link to Dell drivers but past posts have suggesting going to component sites:
Drivers & Downloads | Dell US

 

If you're concerned about driver install order, etc. take a look at the XPS15 wiki. I'm sure most of the info there is relevant.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Am I looking at the right XPS 15 wiki? XPS 15 Wiki has a list but no ordering, lots of info specific to gaming and no info on "clean installs".

Hopeful not to introduce windows issues from the start. Planning to collect all the info on my experience and add to the wiki (if successful)

 

Chipset
GPU
Audio
Wirless
Network
the rest ....

If you need details , i will post it if you guyz need

Go with Win 8 , the touch screen + win 8 makes all sens !! and it's coming from a Win 7 fanatic !!

Congrats for your purchase

 

If you install W7, YOU HAVE TO USE A SPECIAL DISK FROM DELL.

I used a normal W7 install disk to install it, installed all my apps (took hours), only to find Windows wouldn't activate. Dell embeds the activation code in the BIOS or something and you have to install Windows with their special disk, or it will not activate.

I'm having tons of issues with W7 (read the last dozen pages of the thread, tons of crashing and other issues), so I would suggest going with W8 (as much as I hate it).

 

The Win7 vs Win8.1 debate has ebbed and flowed in this thread a few times already. Some don't want to take the time to learn Win8 because Win7 does what they need, others appreciate some of the new features and/or maybe just adapt faster. Fwiw, I hated 8.0 the two times I tried it (Consumer Preview and RTM) so much that it took me longer to install it than it took me to decide I couldn't stand to keep using it -- but I love 8.1, especially after the just-released Update 1 package. Learning curve was minimal, I noticed a few things Microsoft removed or made more difficult that irked me (mostly in Network and Sharing Center), but I noticed a lot more new stuff that I really like. And once you enable log on to Desktop rather than the Metro interface, you're basically set. After that, just realize that the Start screen is just a glorified Pinned Start Menu items, and the All Apps view is just a full-screen version of All Programs from the W7 Start menu. And you can just start typing in that interface to start a search. This also helps: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/getting-around-tutorial.

The drivers you need are on the Dell Support page you already found. Sequence doesn't really matter, but the sequence someone posted above me is a common pattern that people follow. You don't HAVE to go to NVIDIA/Intel's sites for the latest GPU/WiFi drivers, but you can if you want to. It was more important a few months ago when Dell was hosting old versions that had some problems (particularly WiFi), but Dell's hosted versions are now more current. You can skip the Dell Digital Delivery app unless you bought software from Dell with your system. You can also skip the 8.1 Driver Cab file and the Lite-On SSD firmware update. Everything else you should get. Oh, and despite the name on that WiFi driver, the wireless card is in fact Wireless-AC, not Wireless-N.

The Dell USB stick should be fine if you want to install 8.1. Otherwise, you'll have to source an ISO. As for reinstalling Win7 clean, the poster above is right that due to the weird way the licensing works on this system, apparently you need to request special Win7 media from Dell to clean install it.

Checklists, common gotchas, how-tos, and fixes to common complaints are all documented in the XPS 15 Wiki that you found. I'd highly recommend reading it, since it covers a ton of ground that's already been covered 50 million times in this thread.

Lastly, if you're installing 8.1, make sure your BIOS is in UEFI mode BEFORE you boot from media to clean install Windows!! And also make sure you choose the UEFI boot option if you have both Legacy and UEFI options. This is covered in the XPS 15 Wiki.

 

OK, Win8 it is. If you have specific details that would be incredibly kind of you to post. I haven't setup a clean install in a very long time and always concerned about stability.

Other than drivers, some other points I'm stuck on:
- Should I format and/or partition the new 500gb mSata ssd drive before Win8 install?

- Changes in the bios before removing existing 2.5" hybrid drive and inserting the empty mSata?

As far as Win8 clean install itself I found a few videos. Anything specific to the m3800 would be great. Will download all the latest drivers and have ready to go on a USB key during setup.

Thanks!