Kaby Lake Precision pre-release discussion (5520 / 7520 / 7720)

What do you think could be the best HDD combination option to maximise both performance and storage?

 

Ha, if budget is not an issue, you probably want to look at picking up a Samsung 960 Pro 2TB aftermarket. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LY3Y9PH
It's in the fastest class of SSD available and higher than the maximum that capacity Dell is offering.

Otherwise, get one of their "class 50" SSDs for best performance (I believe they offer options up to 1TB).

You can get a 2TB HDD and use it for storage for things where speed isn't a big issue. Both of my systems have 2TB data drives that I use for working space and bulk storage... The SSD is more important for the OS, programs, and frequently used data. But you can always get a SATA SSD to fill that spot as well, there are aftermarket options for that up to 4TB. The 7520 and 7720 come with everything that you need to mount a SATA disk even if you do not purchase one with the system (mounting bracket and screws).

 

Thanks for the advise!
Pro 960 2 Tb is too much expensive for me, considering I'm already at approx 3k €with the configuration I'm working on.
I could go with a ssd up to 1 tb or 512 Gb as primary (OS,etc) and then think about a 2nd hhd for storage.
I was looking at the 7520 manual and I could not spot the place where the 2nd hdd could be placed.

My main usage will be running multiple VMs for my InfoSec and Software development labs.

What kind of ssd does Dell provide?

If i choose the 16Gbx2 RAM option do you think it could be possible to ask them to place those modules in the slots under the keyboard and left the other more easily accessible two empty for future upgrade?
Thanks a lot

 

Dell doesn't commit to specific SSD models, but rather commits that if you buy a certain class of SSD, it will meet certain performance criteria. M.2 SSDs are class 40 (slower ones) and class 50 (faster ones). (Note, even slower SSDs are ridiculously fast compared to a standard hard drive, and you may not be able to tell the difference unless you are doing a lot of I/O.) You will have to purchase a M.2 SSD (not a 2.5" SATA SSD) if you want to install a hard drive to go along with your SSD.

You could purchase either the M.2 SSD or SATA hard drive with the system, and then purchase the other aftermarket, if it saves you money or if you want to select a specific model drive. However, that complicates the warranty a little, as you will have to identify which piece of hardware you have trouble with in order to know who to ask for coverage, should you have a problem.

The 2.5" SATA bay is on the front side of the laptop near the battery.
http://www.dell.com/support/manuals...448A00-2520-420E-B3E1-321502EF5A68&lang=en-us

Dell normally (but not always) places RAM under the keyboard if you only buy two modules. I don't think you'll be able to make a custom request like this. In any case, it's actually not very hard to remove the keyboard and access the RAM slots, so I don't think that it's something that you need to worry much about.
http://www.dell.com/support/manuals...634325-62F6-40ED-BF70-978F825CCCD2&lang=en-us
You can actually just do step 4, you don't need to remove the keyboard cable (or battery/hard drive/etc. that it asks you to take out) to access the RAM slots. Won't have a lot of room to move the keyboard around if you don't remove the cable, but it can sort of be flipped over to the side allowing plenty of room to work.

[Edit]
The 7520 manual doesn't show where the M.2 drive is yet, it looks like they are missing a lot of components. Here it is in the 7510 manual, it will be pretty much the same.
http://www.dell.com/support/manuals...68B133-4438-497E-8C69-CC20CD2C2BDB&lang=en-us

 

2x NVMe drives in RAID0.

1x 2.5" backup drive.

 

Is the 7720 drive bay config the same as the 7710? Trying to understand the options. Looks like 2 M.2 and 1 SATA bay.

Ideally thinking about starting with a 512Gb NVMe and adding another NVMe and HDD later. Would the bracket for the HDD likely be included with the laptop?

 

The drive options are the same as the 7710 (two M.2 and one 2.5" SATA... or three M.2 if you install an interposer in the 2.5" SATA bay). The HDD bracket is included whether or not you purchase a 2.5" drive.

 

Does anyone have any stats on P Quadros vs M Quadros? Someone asked me how the P4000 compares to the M5000, they are wondering if buying the 7720 is worth the money. They are currently using a 7710 with an M5000 and I have no stats on P vs M.


Also, would the memory from a 7710 be compatible in a 7720?

 

You can look at https://www.techpowerup.com/gpudb/ and grab the shader count and clock speed.

M5000M = 1536 shaders at 975 MHz
P4000 = 1792 shaders at 1227 MHz

If those numbers are right, it is a 16.6% bump in shader count and 25% bump in clock speed. P4000 is unquestionably faster. In performance scales linearly with both, you are looking at perhaps a 45% performance increase (1 * 1.16 * 1.25). Would take some benchmarks to know for sure how much the improvement is, though.

 

I'm assuming that by now the M.2 slots are PCIe 4x (4-lane) and the 2.5 is SATA-3 (Hopefully Rev 3?). Thanks for the interposer tip - never dealt with those before. A SATA SSD is probably the highest I'd go for the 2.5 slot. More likely something like a 2TB HDD for backups and things other than OS/Progs/VM's.

<M.2 question answered here: http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/laptop/f/3518/t/19992358>