Hands on Dell Precision 7710

Aaron, you are not understanding my question.
I am removing one old drive. Install a new drive, and install O/S on it. Remove the new drive and replace the old drive. I believe the Intel Raid Controller will recognize the old Raid 0, but I want to make sure

 

Once you break a RAID array by removing a drive your data will be gone. If you remove an old drive and put a new drive in then your data is gone. If you install windows and then remove that drive and put the old back in, your data will be gone. You will have to break your RAID 0 array to install the new drive and then again to install the old drive.

If what you are trying to do is remove one drive and install windows on that single drive and then try going back to your old raid config, that will work. I would recommend removing all 3 drives if you're going to do that.

 

I can remove all three old drives, that should not change anything. The question is whether the Intel Raid controller will recognize the old Raid when I put back the old drives.

 

It should.

 

Many thanks Aaron.
If I use Clonezilla/Macrium Reflect, after cloning will I be able to boot from both the original HDD and the new SSD? Anything I need to do for this dual boot?

 

What is your goal, two different Windows installations to boot from? After cloning you will be able to boot from either drive (using "F12" at the Dell logo screen to select which). Unless you have a particular need for two different Windows instances, I'd say just wipe/format the HDD after you clone and use it for extra storage.

 

Yes, two different Windows installations to boot from.

I decided to do a seperate install of Windows on the SSD.
After install, I had the option of booting two Windows versions. The first version would boot into the SSD. The second version (which I assumed would boot into the original HDD) had very weird behavior - it would go to the bios reboot logo a couple of times by itself, and then the computer would just shut off. After a couple of times of this, it gave BSOD. I tried setting the boot device preference via F2 Bios options, but no change. Finally I was able to get to "reset to factory defaults" menu, and did the reset. The computer now only boots to the original reseted windows install. I still see two boot devices in Bios. One is "Windows Boot [something]" the other is a string of characters.

 

I often use my 7710 to edit 4k video in Premiere Pro. I use proxies so the 7710 keeps up just fine during editing. When I export out, however, my CPU temperatures always reach 100C (on at least 2 cores) and pretty much stay there, whether I'm encoding via hardware or software, in Premiere or Media Encoder. I assume it is throttling the CPU to keep it from going above 100C. Some of the exports take around 3 hours. How bad is it to run at 100C for 3 hours at a time, maybe 3-4x per week? I have a push-pull fan setup (cooler pad plus exhaust port fans) and it doesn't seem to help much on temps (though maybe pushes out the throttle a bit).

Intel Core i7-6820HQ
32GB Dual Channel DDR4 2133Mhz
Nvidia Quadro M5000M w/8GB GDDR5

 

Hi Kengo, How are temps during normal workloads or at idle, does it remain lower temps or is it always running hot? Wondering if the higher temps aren't from poor performing fans or inadequate thermal compound and maybe able to improve temps by addressing those? Or maybe it is just a really heavy workload and is expected?

I don't have the knowledge to say if running 100C for long periods repeatedly is bad or not. If were me, I'd not worry unless it was result from other faults such as fans or thermal compound. If it burnt out or became a problem, I have pro support for another few yrs, but if not it is still not terrible price to replace board (about $350 I think) if purchased from parts selller outside of Dell store.

 

I will be calling (or chat) with Dell pro support this weekend. Need a replacement touchpad (palm rest assembly?). The surface coating is peeling off and it really affects being able to use trackpad (finger sticks on uncoated surface). Also, it looks ugly with it like this.

I have non-fingerprint reader palmrest, just the smartcard variant. I looked around online for replacement but could not find in stock parts. SO I'm really hoping Dell covers this. They should.