Hands on Dell Precision 7710

Thank you very much for your reply. What I intend on doing is having one of the 1TB PCIe drives as my OS drive and not touch that - I will just setup the other 2 1TB PCIe drives as a RAID 0 volume of 2TB.

RAID 0 is already default on the 7710 (as it is on my 9550).

Just looking around the menus on F12 on my 9550 - I entered "Device Configuration" and it lists Intel RST Raid Driver and the 2 drives (mismatched on my 9550) but doesn't allow for RAID configuration as they are mismatched and one is the OS drive (I presume)

Since I am not touching the OS since it will be on a separate drive and will just be doing RAID 0 on 2 identical 1 TB PCIe drives and also the fact that I believe the RST software comes preinstalled on the 7710 - is It necessary to install the Intel F6 driver in addition to the already preinstalled RST RAID Driver? I'm not sure what role the F6 driver plays if I have no intent on including the OS drive in a RAID array..

 

I have Dell 7710 precision. I was wondering if anybody else has experienced that no mater what you do I doesn't turn on (put an remove the battery, change the AC/DC adapter, check output, etc.,).
I am contacting Dell Support because I have had this laptop less than four months and it is a total annoying crap at this moment.

 

Good question. I don't think I have the knowledge to answer though. Maybe someone else can pipe in?

 

Oh yes. I spent many hours with Tech support with my first 7710 on BSOD issues actually and mine had this same problem about half the time of not turning on. I wasnt even trying to get that solved with dell tech as I was focused on the BSOD issues and figured I would get to this turn on issue later. If you give Dell tech more than one thing at a time they get way side-tracked. Anyway, they eventually replaced my mobo for the BSOD issue which did not fix that but low and behold the turn on issue was fixed and perfect after that. My 2 cents is yoou need a motherboard to fix that problem. Sorry.

 

As I understand it (and I may be wrong, I've not setup RAID yet), there are two RST components that are available for downloading from Dell. One is the RST Driver (that is the F6 driver). The other download is the RST application/console.

The RST F6 driver download is optional according to Intel if you have Windows 7 or higher and also dependent on array size. Because Windows comes with drivers itself.

http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/boards-and-kits/000005611.html

 

The refurbished m7710's have been on the market for a month or so. And while you can get some very good deals, there are some common issues that I have noticed after buying 10 for a client - ended up having to return 5 of them:

1. Missing plate/cover for the ram slots underneath the keyboard. This will cause a large amount of keyboard flex just above the space bar to the right. Ironically, Dell would not send this part out. Had to return 2 because of this. I guess the refurb department figures this part was considered optional in the original Dell design.....
2. Missing m.2 ssd covers - These help dissipate heat for the SSD. Found this on 3 of the laptops and was usually in conjunction with the missing ram slot cover from above.
3. Missing hard drive caddy
4. Numerous missing screws - keyboard and motherboard area. I guess the refurb people again figured these were optional in the original Dell design
5. 2 systems still had another companies data/os on them. Pretty clear the refurb department did not even look at or bother to touch these; ironically these had all the required parts....

You can get some great deals on these at the outlet, just make sure and look over your system. Dell warranty is also decent on these as well - especially if you add pro support.

One of the machines that apparently did not have its drive wiped.....

 

I've honestly come to the conclusion that Dell has the worst ordering system, sales people, and order support people on the planet. Your experience doesn't surprise me one bit.

 

I've ordered a few laptops via Dell outlet and saved alot of money doing so. I've had some arrive with physical damage (wasn't a scratch n dent purchase but was supposed to be a refurb). That was about 4 or 5 yrs ago and seems to still happen occasionally. I have to question how thorough they are when inspecting and "testing" them. The display had been damaged badly on one. They replaced the display assembly via onsite NBD technician dispatch. The Pro support is great in that they did support the issue very well. Just be sure to check your Outlet systems thoroughly after they arrive. And I would definitely get ProSupport, especially on an Outlet purchase.

 

The outlet does allow one to get new tech at a great price. I just have to wonder at the additional cost that Dell incurs for terrible refurb work.

 

Just got my new 7710 yesterday and still in the process of setting everything up but so far it has been without incident or BSOD's. With regard to RAID - the RST software was already installed so setting up RAID 0 on the 2 1TB PCIe drives was a breeze. With regard to the TB15 Dock - that was also easy - the Thunderbolt Controller Driver and Thunderbolt Firmware update as well as the Asmedia drivers were already on the system (build date of the system was April 4) so I installed the remainng drivers under the Dock section of Driver Downloads and the Dock is working perfectly.

I did a quick Crystal Diskmark and am only getting 800 or so for both read/write on the system drive and the RAID0 volume. The drives are all Samsung SM 951s PCIe NVMe so the read should be in the 1500 range - I'll have to see what further tweaking I can do (all advanced power setting are set for maximum performance). Is there something in BIOS that I should watch out for - I went through all the settings already and made sure they were set for maximum performance?

The display color fidelity seems better than on the XPS 9550. I have it set for sRGB (same as on the Dell UP3216Q monitor) and at least on visual inspection the colors seem identical.

The system works beautifully with my video grading software (Davinci Resolve 12) with excellent real time playback of 4K 60p clips (some of which were heavily graded) - I do have the graphics setup so that the Nvidia Quadro M5000M is the global default for all programs.

Barring unforeseen problems, I'm quite a happy camper with this system so far.