Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

If you have the 61 WHr battery (rather than 91), then you would have a gap at the corner of your machine rather than the battery running all the way across. That gap is where you would install a 2.5" drive, though if you didn't actually order a secondary drive, Dell probably didn't include the SATA bracket and ribbon cable for you to install one yourself. Someone in this thread managed to order it from Dell Spare Parts for $15-20, I believe, and posted the part number.

UPDATE: Can't find the post with the part numbers myself, but checking on Dell's internal parts lookup tool, I believe these are the two components you would need to order through Dell Spare Parts:

21YWY HDD Bracket,9530 ASSY,BRKT,HDD,9530
DG95V HDD Interposer Cable,9530 ASSY,CON,HDD INTRPSR,9530

Curiously, that second item which I believe to be the SATA ribbon cable is only listed for the XPS 15, not the M3800, even though both systems list a few different 2.5" drives and Googling around shows M3800 orders with that part number in the item list. So it seems like a listing omission on the parts lookup tool.

If memory serves, those are exhaust fans, not intake fans. I wouldn't bother with a cooling pad on this system. Under regular usage the fans almost never spin up at all, and the majority of users have not had issues with throttling. Those who have were typically running synthetic tests that simultaneously max out the CPU and GPU, which it turns out is a rare real-world condition. The M3800 in particular seems to have even fewer problems with throttling than the XPS 15, possibly because its GPU is clocked lower than the XPS 15's GeForce.

 

With the 61Whr battery you have space for a 2.5" drive (you'll have to wait to discover if that's what is in the notebook) and also an mSATA slot (which is where the SSD will be if the main bay is empty).

Regarding cooling, the internal fans blow the hot air out of the back so a cooler blowing cool air at the base should improve the airflow. However, I suggest you wait to find out if the supplementary cooling is necessary.

John

 

How do you figure that blowing air directly at an exhaust vent would be good? Typically it's not optimal to have two streams of air blowing directly at each other. If the system fans were intakes, it would make sense to blow cold air directly into them to increase airflow, and conversely if the cooling pad were sucking air back, then that would (maybe) help remove exhaust air faster. But blowing cold air directly at hot air traveling the opposite direction just makes it harder for the hot air to get away. At best you're just cooling the air immediately outside the system, which is pointless; the goal is to get cold air INTO the system (which you can't do through this system's exhaust vents) or else extract hot air faster.

If you look at datacenter cooling designs, you'll notice there's always a cold aisle, the front of the rack where AC air comes in from the ceiling, and a hot aisle, the back of the rack where servers exhaust heat and where the AC return vents are placed to suck that air away.

 

When looking at a second drive I think the M3800 requires a 7mm vs 9mm drive. Check into that before ordering.

 

That's true, a 9.5mm drive won't fit. You'll need a 7mm. Good catch.

 

The air inlet vents are on the bottom and the exhaust vents are along the back so a cooler that blows air onto the base will tend to blow extra air into the bottom mounted vents.

If you haven't read the M3800 Owner's Manual that shows how it is built then get it.

John

 

Ok, that makes sense. I was picturing a cooling base that has its fans at the back of the system since that's been true of most of the ones that I've seen, but if he's got one that has fans mounted at the front, I agree that would make sense even if it turns out to be unnecessary.

 

OK. I see where you are coming from.

I was envisaging somethig like this which both improves natural ventilation with air from the sides and has two fans to blow air against the bottom of the computer.

John

 

Thanks v much for the feedback and insight. Very helpful.

What do you mean I'll have to wait to discover what's in the notebook? You saying that because mine isn't a standard build (512gb/61Whr) or because its from the outlet store?

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Just checked the order confirm spec sheet says 2.5" Sata SSD. Guess it's not a 512 mSata...

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