Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Sorry, I was only demonstrating the old issue as huge...not the new one. My unit was an XPS 15 new version and I apologize for not listing our troubleshooting, but we did everything you mention to no effect....hence why we sent it back. It is a shame that the new Intel drivers came out on the 13th...just too late to try those out as well.

 

Question for anybody who has the spec with the 512GB SM841 drive AND is running Win8.1 PRO in UEFI mode: Can you test BitLocker? I'm curious whether the built-in encryption on the SM841 is compatible with Microsoft's eDrive standard introduced for Win8, which would mean the drive would encrypt instantaneously rather than BitLocker overwriting every sector in the drive with software encryption. I know Samsung has an impending firmware update for the 840 Series that will enable eDrive compatibility, but since that firmware won't be usable on the SM841, I'm hoping the 841 shipped with that capability since hardware-level encryption interferes less with routines that may be baked into the SSD firmware, like autonomous garbage collection separate from OS-controlled TRIM. And of course initial encryption and permanent decryption would be a whole lot faster, and encryption/decryption regular usage would require no CPU overhead whatsoever.

Otherwise using the drive's native encryption is typically accomplished by setting those BIOS-level HDD unlock passwords, which the drive then uses as the basis for its encryption key.

 

Eventhough it was to be expected that the CPU wasn't going to be configurable, It's still a disappointment now that the Dell officially published the options on their website. . A 2.2 GHZ is quite low for a workstation and the price is quite expensive. Even the current Macbook Pro is cheaper considering it's from Apple. A 2.3 GHz MacBook Pro with a faster PCIe-based flash drive with 2 thunderbolt connections cost $100,00 more. For $200,00 more you can upgrade the CPU to a whopping 2.6 GHz.

 

And get overheating machine where components drain more power than its power brick can provide. I've seen too many people buying MBPr for various production jobs, just to return it within first month and replace it with a proper workstation.

 

Too bad there's no configuration I want.

 

Dell and "configurable" is a thing of the past apparently

 

The prices have been updated on the Canadian Dell site. $2827, $3497, $3867!!! Keep in mind, the XPS is 1561, 2061, and 2461 for the same specs pretty much. I dont know if the quadro is worth over a $1000!!!

 

Price is up on US site as well
2249 for base qhd model, come with 256gb sdd though.

512gb is 2499 vs 2299

1 year default warranty for both

 

I'd be inclined to agree when I look at the 4th gen Core offering (in Norway at least)...

 

On the US site it is mentioned that the weight for top configuration XPS15 with "91 WHr, 6-Cell Battery (integrated)" is 4.44 lbs, while for M3800 with "9-cell, 91Whr primary battery", it is 4.15 lbs.. Is true that M3800 is lighter with same battery capacity or is this an error?