Hands on Dell Precision 7710

They will likely refresh the CPU and GPU options and call it the 7720, but it will otherwise be very similar (including in terms of appearance). It is normal for them to keep the same look for a few generations. I'm hoping that they will fix the keyboard layout though...

Broadwell was skipped because Intel was having trouble getting the high-end mobile CPUs to market. Lenovo and HP also did not ship high-end Broadwell mobile workstations.

Alienware systems with i7 quad-core CPUs and high-end GeForce GPUs (Kaby Lake and Pascal) have been recently announced to ship in November, so maybe we will hear something about the Precision refresh before the end of the year...

 

Question on External Monitors..
I just had an online chat with dell and they told me this laptop will support 3 additional monitors 1920 x 1200 (in addition to the native one) all in extend mode if using the E-Pt Plus port replicator..
http://accessories.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=331-7947#Overview
Anyone confirm this?
Much appreciated..

 

Yes it is supported. Options for three 1080p external monitors are:
ePort dock, use DVI/DP + DVI/DP + VGA on dock (or, DVI/DP + DVI/DP on dock and one port on the system, not dock)
- or -
TB15 Thunderbolt dock, use any three out of the four connectors on the dock
- or -
WD15 USB-C dock, use mini-DP and HDMI on the dock and also mini-DP or HDMI on the system

 

Awesome - thanks a bunch...

 

I think a few pre-release kaby lake laptops were at PAX West (Razer Stealth 4k kaby lake i7-7000u series) so expectation of release in october for those non workstation kaby notebooks sounds reasonable.

 

I was curious about this also they announced the current 7710 Precision workstations last October. I didn't know it is normal for them to keep the same look for a few generations as I have not really paid attention to the workstation cycles in the past.

Although I guess it makes sense I mean other then the CPU, GPU and SSD options how much could they change it in a year? Could they make a mcuh thinner version this soon? I guess its possible its technology what about the resolution could it get any higher this soon it already has a 4K option.

 

They pretty much follow the industry trends with things like SSD choices and display options. After all, these are standard components are produced by other companies and just purchased by Dell to be put into these workstations. Not going to see higher resolution than 4K anytime soon.

The most edgy thing I am expecting is, maybe they'll offer two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports instead of one

 

Yes, two USB-C/Thunderbolt ports would be nice, Also and I was just thinking of this not sure that it applies to workstations however I have recently been seeing some notebooks announced with upcoming 120HZ refresh rates I think G-Sync? and what about HDMI 2.0 although I guess with an addition of having another USB-C/Thunderbolt port that may not be necessary.

 

@notebook303 My question, how important is 120Hz and G-Sync for workstation graphics? Are there any downsides to these features? Aren't those features more for gaming? The AUO109B is pretty sweet so I don't have any complaints for my mostly programming development and videos that i do (I'm crude hobbyist film maker). I don't think I've used HDMI as long as I've had DP as an option. I've only used HDMI with devices that would connect to a TV (game console, old DVD player) or if a laptop doesn't have DP (yuck). When I need to watch my films on my TV I feed it through a stream from my linux server to my raspberry pi (I said I was crude right) via ethernet to the TV via HDMI.

But if those features (hdmi 2, gsync, 120Hz) do not have considerable downside then I'm not against adding them to future precisions. Does HDMI 2.0 have better bandwidth for resolution than DP version that is on the 7710? I don't even know which DP version I have actually.

Regarding adding another thunderbolt 3 port... I've not used the one I have, yet.

 

The main benefit to HDMI 2.0, I think, would be 4K/60Hz support. HDMI 1.4 only allows 4K at 30 Hz. I think it's quite possible that we'll see this.

Pretty sure Intel GPUs don't support 120 Hz displays (could always change at the next generation) so that would be a feature that only works if you have Optimus / graphics switching disabled. Maybe a premium panel choice that does not allow graphics switching if it is present. (They've done this before, with the IPS display and 3D display options in the M6700 for example, or the high-DPI options in the M4800.) I'm not very familiar with G-Sync, but it seems like this might come "out of the box" with a new generation of NVIDIA GPUs. (Might also require graphics switching disabled.)

But... time will tell, we'll find out in a few months.