Hands on Dell Precision 7710

Thank you for the tip. I was thinking that there should be some software to do just that, and SharpKeys is it.

I have used it to remap the sound key to the rarely used Insert key, which is some progress.

Still, ShapKeys cannot fix the lack of more physical keys, which is what is needed (4 fewer keys). Remapping further keys to be the Home and End would imply losing the functionality of the mapped keys.

I am using the numeric keypad for the Home and End keys, but it has the disadvantage that Num lock has to be off, which is not evident since there is no led on the Num Lock key, and requires trial an error (and further key presses, which is further time lost).

I still cannot understand why they have reduced the number of keys, when there is so much space.

I strongly believe that they should manufacture a new keyboard with the missing keys located, for example, under the numeric keypad. Small keys would fit well there without altering the palm rest.

 

Now I can be an official part of this thread - Bought a Dell Precision 7710 last night - arriving next Monday .
I spent around 2 years researching various 17.3" laptops , finally arriving at the Dell super machine .
I'm very happy .

 

Cheers , Ygo
It really took me over 2 years to arrive at yesterday's decision - it may be overkill for my needs but the price I paid was on par with Alienware 17 or an MSI GE70 - Less than a Clevo P771DM - Specs are -
i7-6820HQ - 16GB Ram - Nvidia M3000 - 256GB SSD - 1TB .all for less than £1700 .
I wanted a sturdy , well built machine - I could have bought a Lenovo Thinkpad P70 but I chose the Dell Precision 7710 .

 

Questions on the 1920 x 1080 screens.
I am used to glossy screens, really like the crispness of them and have absolutely no issues with glare
Anyone have an idea how these compare in crispness to the Dell glossy screens (such as Inspiron - I know cheaper - but I have seen many of them and texts are very crisp)
I will mostly use this for trading and having crisp clear charts is really important.
Viewing angle not too important - seldom is the screen viewed from any angle.

PS thanks to everyone posting here - learning so much about these laptops...

 

For "crispness" I do not have any problem with the anti-glare screens in these laptops. I have a 1080p IPS panel in my 7510 and the individual pixels can be seen with no amount of blurring/smudging from whatever finish they put on the screen. The main difference you may notice from the glossy screens is color — it's not bad at all on the anti-glare but I think you can get deeper blacks on a glossy screen.

Before I got my M6700 I came from an Inspiron with a glossy screen and had no trouble at all getting used to it. (I actually strongly prefer the anti-glare because of the light environment I was in, I could often see glare from lights above or behind me on the screen with the glossy display and that was annoying.)

 

I used to have an Asus 13" Zenbook pro with a %99 sRGB IPS panel. The laptop was well built (aluminum body), super light and relatively fast even for its modest specifications. Its strongest point IMO was its screen. The quality of image was amazing. Anybody who happened to see it, was immediately impressed. As time passed, 13" became too small for me particularly due to my growing presbyopia. I decided I needed a 17" laptop even though I do appreciate the light weight of ultrabooks.

I quickly got a used Precision M6600. The built construction and quality was amazing. It was a very heavy laptop but I knew what I was getting into so didn't complain about it. However, the screen, not being PremierColor or even IPS, left me dissatisfied particularly, after being spoiled with the magic of my previous laptop's screen. I tried to see if I can find a used M6600 or M6700 with a PremierColor screen which proved being difficult since apparently very few of these laptops were sold with a PC screen. M6700 still sells for quite a bit despite its age. I could locally get one with a PC screen, an extreme CPU and 32GB ram for about $1000. I noticed it may even sell for more than that on Ebay!

On the other hand, I was suspecting the lcd panel technology has advanced in recent years to the extent that the image quality on a high-level modern screen must be better than perhaps, the best of the older generation such as the 1080p IPS PremierColor/DreamColor ones found in HP Elitebook and Dell precision line of laptops. so here I am, ended up with a refurbished Dell Precision 7710, UHD IGZO screen, Xeon E3-1535M Processor, Quadro M5000M, 64GB ram and 512GB nvme SSD drive.

I think I got a real deal. If buying new from the Dell store, I would have paid a lot more for the same configuration. You know Dell, like Apple and most other companies loves to charge a premium for hardware upgrades. The laptop despite being refurbished looks literally looks like new and everything so far seems working without a problem.

I proved myself right: the image quality on this screen is amazing to me, as a photographer who is sensitive to the matter. I got my new laptop yesterday and at the same time, I also received my new Dell 4K UP3216Q monitors. They both meet my IQ expectations. The built quality seems equal or better than Macbook pro but with one huge advantage: One can literally dismantle the laptop to all its pieces and reassemble it. I am not worried even if this laptop doesn't carry a warranty. I can always do it myself. Actually, I am thinking I don't need all this power since I already have a powerful desktop workstation. I may decide to downgrade it: the GPU is too mu for me; I don't need 64gb ram on my laptop (my desktop has 64gb ram) and even the nvme 512GB drive is not quite what I need. I also checked and the ram is non-ECC which is surprising for me. I ordered 2x16GB of Crucuial ECC ram today. Once it's here, I'll swap out the non-ECC rams for the ECC ones. I am planning to pull out the precious GPU to put it on sale too. I may even go for a previous generation K3100M/K4100M. Most of my rendering and Photoshop work is done on my desktop so no reason for such a powerful gpu in my laptop.

Lesson learned: the screen matters.

 

Wow, I am certainly going to try it.

 

New BIOS version 01.06.06 has been released as of August 9th.

Fixes & Enhancements
Fixes:
- Resolved Intel soft Guard Extension driver install issue.
- Resolved boot time problem when Hyperthreading is disabled.
- Resolved Dell Thunderbolt Dock issues.

Enhancements:
- Support Win10 Enterprise.
- Updated TI Power Delivery firmware.
- Update Realtek USB LAN firmware.
- Updated Embedded Controller firmware.
- Update Intel Processor Micro code.
- Added embedded LAN MAC address display item in BIOS setup menu.
- Added Attempt legacy boot item in BIOS setup menu.
- Removed Data wipe support when NVMe SSD attached.
- Updated suspend/resume protections.

 

I received my Crucial ECC memories (2x16gb, 1.2v 2400 cl17) and I am having problems in installation: with only one dimm in slot B , the system starts; with one dimm in slot A or two dimms in slots A and B (or C and D), the system doesn't start. Anybody has encountered similar problems? Solutions? Thanks.

 

You should call Dell for troubleshooting, it could be a bad RAM slot, and they would have to replace the motherboard. I have had a Precision 5510 with bad RAM slot in the office already... It happens.