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

I have not much to add to Aaron's response, except to say I've been a long-time Lenovo Thinkpad and Lenovo Mobile Workstation user. After the W520/W530 laptops, I plain stopped considering them in my business procurement cycles. First, the W series had external plastic shells - they had a solid magnesium inner frame, but that external frame would chip and fracture fairly easily. Using superglue to repair a workstation chassis just doesn't seem correct. I don't know if that's still the case with the P-series of workstations, but when you compared the W530 series to the solid battleship of an HP Elitebook 8770W, you really question those choices.

The presence of an optical drive to me is the biggest reason to ditch the P70 or P71. Just a few days ago, my elementary school son saw that I had a CD out on my desk and marveled at the rainbow colors on the back. He'd never seen one before in his life. I have an external USB drive for those emergency occasions that I really need to pull some legacy drivers or what not off of an optical drive - but other than that, it's a completely legacy format, and I don't want the power budget or space budget to go towards something i never use. Neither Dell nor HP ship CDROMs integrated into their laptops anymore.

Also, the one or two instances where Lenovo snuck in spyware/adware into their Thinkpads disqualifies them instantly, for life.

To be honest, this Precision 7720 is my first foray into Dell laptops. I also have great difficulty with the fingerprint reader, like others here, but I also admit there are teething issues that could go away with a later revision of the driver. I'm a little spoiled by "Touch ID" on the iPhone, which is a high standard to match - it just works and it always works. But aside from that, I am quite happy with the Dell experience.

 

How bad were the AMD FirePro W7170M and 5170 vs the 600m and 3000m from nividia. As I see there were driver issues with the amd on the precisions. Also is any one getting the new amd Radeon Pro WX 7100 over the nivida on the new 7720?

 

Yes, it is not nearly as nice as Apple's touch ID. Dell has been using the same fingerprint reader since the M6600 I think (since 2011, five generations now) and I don't expect updated drivers to do much to improve the experience at this point. It works fine but you have to get used to it, and like I mentioned in my previous post, it is not a fast reader. Scan your finger in different positions during enrollment, and you have to hold it still for a few seconds for it to get a good read.

(I have a USB fingerprint reader that I use while my laptop is docked and closed, and it is miraculously fast by comparison.)

 

I just tried to hold my finger for a longer time (4s or more), but it still does not recognize my finger (I was trying to add a new finger).

 

HP has 200W TB3 dock for the zbook that has two cables sheathed as a single cable (TB3 + power cable). It is proprietary but is a neat solution.
http://www8.hp.com/us/en/workstations/zbook-dock.html#belarus
Perhaps Dell could do something similar for their TB docks and laptop designs in the future.

 

Order a 7520 the other day and I'm waiting for it to be shipped now. Any must knows before it arrives or things to do as soon as it does?

 

@PrecisionFan: Did you already receive your 7720? According to the tracking page, mine has left the manufacture facility on 15th of April, but no ETA is mentioned. I'm curious how long it takes for shipping.

 

My 7520 is coming to the UK. It left manufacturing on the 13th and is out for delivery today. It took 5 days to get to the hub in the Netherlands. Shame I'm not at home today to receive the delivery...

Sent from my ONEPLUS A3003 using Tapatalk

 

Seems I will have to settle for the 7520.

A few queries about the 7520's storage options:

1. Can I get to know the brand/model name of the 'M.2 PCIe Solid State Drive Class 50' and the 'M.2 PCIe Solid State Drive Class 40' listed in Dell's website?

2. I have read in a lot of forums that the samsung pro 650 is the best in class disk to have.
Bought separately, Can the 2nd disk be fitted with a 512GB/1TB Samsung 960 PRO or Samsung 960 EVO?

3. Is there 3rd disk available in 7520? I remember seeing the option for a 3rd disk in the configuration page few weeks back. But now it only shows options for 2 disks.

Thanks!

Edit: Removed a product link I accidentally posted.

 

The same questions here for the 7720, what is the brand/model of the class 40/50 disks?

I want to configure a 7720 with two 512GB M.2 sdds, but configuring it with the cheapest Dell HDD and buying two separate Samsung 960 pro M.2's to replace it is a lot cheaper.

Does the same trick apply for the RAM? Configure it with the cheapest Dell RAM option and buy 32GB ECC seperate?