Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

FWIW, my M4800 is great with SW (I do have the K2100M, but I wouldn't expect too much of a difference in performance with either the K1100 or even the G 750M until you hit very large assemblies). I have never really seen too many issues running SW (09-14) on gaming cards - the biggest "drawback" is that you can't use real view graphics, but I find that more of a distraction and always immediately turn it off anyway. I actually had more issues with our Quadro 3800 FX cards at work than any other card I've worked with.

For your CAM and FEA needs, you'll be better served by the higher TDP CPU in the 4800 as well. For most CAM, you'll never see a difference, but try generating HSM toolpaths on a complex 3D surface with rest machining turned on, and you'll definitely appreciate it (I can clarify that sentence if needed, haha). I ran into this the other day and it was the first time I ever saw the system use more than 4 or 5 of the 16GB of RAM. For the record, we were also able to generate the same toolpath on a machine with only 8 GB, so having less is not a limitation - it will just take longer.

 

Well everyone has their own tastes and preferences ..its a pity it didnt work out for you. Im pretty particular about the keyboard too and I had a chance to use the XPS 15 keyboard and loved it, but anyways, just a question....if you have had some time to use it, whats your opinion about the computer. Put aside your personal distaste for a couple of the features, is everything else as expected? No actual problems with the machine? No problems such as waking from sleep mode, and and problem plauged Intel Wifi card? I have had a couple of bad experiences with Dell computers in the past and the XPS 15 forum has many users having all sorts of problems. Just want to know if the machine is problem-free. Thanks. Good luck with any new product you pick up.

 

So I'm trying to decide between this, the Thinkpad W540 and the M4800 as a replacement for my M4400. So far this is the leader despite a few negatives. One I'm worried about is the glossy screen. It appears to me that Apple puts an anti-reflective coating on many of their glass screens. Can anyone comment about the reflections on this screen vs say low cost glossy screens?

Thanks

 

I have excluded the rmbp 15 . Buy M3800 or M4800 .

M4800 configuration:
- Screen FHD (1920x1080)
- Intel ® Core ™ i7- 4800MQ
- 16 GB RAM 1600Mhz
- Nvidia K1100
- Battery 97 Wh
- 256 GB SSD (boot WIn 7 Pro x64)
- Wireless LAN and Bluetooth:
Dell Wireless 1506 ( 802.11gn )
Intel Centrino ® Ultimate -N 6300 ( 3x3 802.11n Mini Card half-height )
Intel Centrino ® Advanced-N 7260 ( half-height mini card 802.11ac 2x2 + BT 4.0 )
Dell Wireless 1550 ( half-height mini card 802.11 a / c 2x2 + BT 4.0 )
Dell Wireless 1601 ( 802.11n Mini Card half-height + BT + 60 Hz WiGig 2x2 )

-Mobile Broadband and GPS:
Full-height mini card Dell Wireless ™ DW5570 Multi-mode HSPA + / -42 Mb / s
Full-height mini card Dell Wireless ™ DW5808 Gobi 4G/LTE


Can you tell me the brand of ssd ? Model ? SATA 2 or SATA 3 ?
Having the ability to choose which wireless card do you recommend ?
Using much the internet with wireless pen ... I'm tired ! I would like an integrated connection . What do you recommend ?
How long does the battery last? Are there any problems switching video card with the base model with FHD screen ?

PS: I will choose the configuration from the store Dell Italian .

 

Funny you mention sleep-wake problems: I have the M3800, Win 8.1 Pro and sometimes when I wake it up again the displays remains dark and I need to turn it off and back on again.
Also as I´m running on battery atm sometimes the display brightness goes up or down by itself. Doesn´t happen very often but I observed it a dozen times or more now with my laptop.

I agree in some way with the person who uses way to many punctuation marks though: The keyboard is a little small and the spaces on the left and right might have been used a little better. Maybe a numpad wouldnt have been a mistake.

 

Passi, i would ask the same question to you as well. If you put aside your personal feelings about the keyboard (which is a personal and subjective issue) how are you finding the system? U mentioned sleep-wake issues on occasion. I know from teh Dell 7537 (Inspiron 15 7000) that there are a few people that have that issue, but i understand Dell is aware of that so you would probably see a fix at some point...hopefully. No comment about the screen brightness - maybe something to take up with Dell. But anything else such as whining noise? or issues that are of greater concern or is the system working like a charm otherwise? I owned an XPS 12 9Q33 which is probably the worst computer purchase I ever made...that system has major issues due to image retention with dozens of users having complained about it due to the LG screen..which thankfully this system does not have (uses Samsung) and I dont want to find any major issues like that on this system, the couple of things u have mentioned seem like they can be fixed with a driver update. The X1 which was also a consideration for me has a hinge problem. Those "hardware" or poor manufacturing issues concern me above all else. thanks for the feedback..its very helpful.

 

One time after a windows update the fans went bonkers during the re-start of the system and it didnt fully boot. force rerestarting it fixed that. so far the computer is really quiet, nothing to complain about on that topic. screen is gorgeous, I love the touch function, use it all the time. right when I got the system I had some issued with the sound, but after restartin it twice it was working. as I already wrote a couple of pages earlier my WLAN card is making problems so I will have it exchanged once Im back from my holidays. touchscreen is reacting perfectly and the corning glass feels really classy. mousepad has no issues. usb2-to-lan dongle doesnt work with my kind of router, but thats fine as long as the wlan kind of works.
it´s really a pitty though that there are almost no desktop programs suited for the QHD+ resolution on a windows pc.

putting aside those smaller things I am really in love with it. its hard to find comparable specs in laptops as beautiful as this one...and I wanted a good looking one ;-)

 

Can you comment on how you find the gloss screen glare, if you work in a room that has light?

 

The only time glare has been an issue for me was when I was at the airport sitting with my back to the enormous windows looking out onto the runway area on a sunny day -- and even then the glare was more of a noticeable irritation than a total blocker. In regular indoor lighting I haven't had an issue at all. Even though there will technically be some glare if you intentionally look for it even in those conditions, it's subtle enough that your eyes will naturally tune it out when you focus on the content of the screen. The content being reflected is in a different focal plane from the content on the screen, which makes it easy to avoid the distraction of a mirror effect when it's not extreme.

There was a photo in either this thread or the XPS 15 thread a while back showing this machine and a Retina MBP side by side. The photo showed (and the person who took the photo confirmed) that they exhibit about the same amount of glare.

 

The display going up and down is the adaptive brightness function, which you can turn off in Power Options > Advanced. I did because I don't always agree with the automatic adjustment, and I like to have the brightness adjustment buttons correspond to an actual change in brightness rather than half of them being non-functional because the upper end or lower end of the brightness scale is unavailable.