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

Received my 7720 two days ago. Just had an evening to beak it in. Not very happy at the moment however. The screen is horrible!. The back lite bleeds so bad, worse than my 8 year old worn and torn dv7 HP pavilion. ProSupport said they are going to send someone to replace it as soon as I am available. however, I think the lid is actually a little warped. @Dell-Mano_G , did you guys shop the replacement UHD's out to the border lands of the mongol desert and the afgan kush or what?

 

If possible, can you post a picture of the screen showing backlight bleeding and also one of the warped lid?

I don't get that last part. If ProSupport is willing to replace the screen at your earliest convenience, it sounds to me that the UHD screens are not in short supply.

 

No. Dell can supply SSDs from any manufacturer, as long as it meets the class 40/50 criteria. The storage class guarantees a minimum speed for the drive, not a specific brand or model number.

The 7520 can have either one 2.5" drive + one M2 drive or two M2 drives (using an interposer in the 2.5" drive bay).

No. The 7520 can have no more than two drives.

 

Dell does not commit to a specific manufacturer or model for drives, but rather, they commit to certain specs and will choose a drive that they have available that will meet those specs. (Pretty sure the class 50 drives have always been Samsung, but not the 950 Pro or 960 Pro, it is an OEM model like the Samsung SM961, which is also really nice.)

The 7520 only supports two drives. It has one NVMe slot and one 2.5" drive bay. You can install a second NVMe into the 2.5" drive bay by using an interposer/caddy thing, but you will have to source that part yourself if you do not buy the second NVMe drive with the system, it does not come with it if you do not buy two drives. (The system does come with the bracket that you need to mount a SATA drive in the 2.5" drive bay, even if you purchase it without a 2.5" drive.)

The 7720 is the same except for it has two NVMe slots instead of one. You can install a third NVMe drive in the 2.5" drive bay with an interposer/caddy thing that does not come with the system (unless you purchase it with three NVMe drives).

You can purchase RAM separately if you like. Make sure that you get the correct speed. I've seen a post in the past from someone who tried to install faster ECC RAM than what Dell ships in the 7710, and instead of downclocking it, the system would just not boot up.

[Edit] - I see that I was ninja'd

 

Sorry...

 

This might be the reason for the bleeding. I'm well aware that most of the recent IPSes are nothing to write home about, but this one is praised as roughly equal when compared to the old DreamColors/PremierColors (minus the obvious difference 8bit vs 10bit). These are not my words though, haven't seen one in person, so there's that.

 

@Dell-Mano_G Have dell ever considering Hyper-v Discrete Device Assignment support, which is to say exposing ACS(Access control service) control from BIOS to OS so that we can assign PCI-E device to Hyper-v Virtual Machines, for precision 7720? I really want to running CUDA applications inside a linux VM (for running Tensorflow and do some machine learning experiments) while having the capability of using word or powerpoint in the host windows at the same time, and can ever do video editing and gaming when I am not using the VM. I can't express my disappointment finding out that the precision 7720 I received do not support this feature(with CM238 chipset and Xeon E3).

And I am sure the discrete graphic card in 7720 is VM Reassignable, due to its properties showed in device manager. Its when trying to dismounting it I get the message saying "The current configuration does not allow for OS control for the PCI Express bus. Please check you BIOS or UEFI settings." I know this is a feature asking, and you might say that DDA is not supported without a server version of Windows. But for now, DDA is supported in latest version of windows 10 Pro, and thing like vt-d is not enough for today's virtualization task, especially when things come to the most hight end laptop of Dell. Please consider supporting this feature.

 

After nearly 10 days of having a useless UPS-tracking-number I saw on Thursday morning, that they printed the package sticker. After that everything runs quickly: Starting in Netherland, leaving Waalwijk, arriving and leaving Frankfurt and arrives at 4am the last UPS station. Since 8am it is on its last track to me. I think, I will get mine at 6 pm today - normally we are one of the last addresses of the UPS-afternoon-track.

 

Here is what it looks like in the dark, with a black background, i had to crop it into a quarter screen shot because ibam trying to post from my phone.
Its not that there is a supply shortage of the existing screen types, there was a problem with the original producer, and they were outsourced to a new manufacturer as i understand., Dell@Mano G maybe can confirm this?

 

i made a comparison of the SSDs.

(A) DELL CLASS 50 SSD - Minimum Committed Specs [for 256 GB, as shown in the table in a previous post in this thread]

SEQUENTIAL READ
2100 MB/s
SEQUENTIAL WRITE
1200 MB/s

RANDOM READ
300 KIOPS
RANDOM WRITE
100 KIOPS


(B) Samsung SM961 [for 256GB, as shown in http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/products/flash-storage/client-ssd/MZVPV256HEGL?ia=831]

Sequential Read
Up to 3100 MB/s
Sequential Write
Up to 1400 MB/s

Random Read
Up to 330 KIOPS
Random Write
Up to 280 KIOPS

(C) SAMSUNG 960 PRO [as shown in http://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/minisite/ssd/product/consumer/ssd960.html]

SEQUENTIAL READ
Up to 3,500 MB/sec
SEQUENTIAL WRITE
Up to 2,100 MB/sec

RANDOM READ (4KB, QD32)
512 GB: Up to 330 KIOPS (Thread 4)
1024 GB: Up to 440 KIOPS (Thread 4)
2048 GB: Up to 440 KIOPS (Thread 4)
RANDOM WRITE (4KB, QD32)
512 GB: Up to 330 KIOPS (Thread 4)
1024 GB: Up to 360 KIOPS (Thread 4)
2048 GB: Up to 360 KIOPS (Thread 4)

RANDOM READ (4KB, QD1)
Up to 14 KIOPS (Thread 1)
RANDOM WRITE (4KB, QD1)
Up to 50 KIOPS (Thread 1)​

It seems that SAMSUNG PRO 960 is significantly faster than the minimum committed Class 50 SSD by Dell. Though the Samsung SM961 is much closer to the performance of SAMSUNG PRO 960.

And SAMSUNG PRO 960 is also lot cheaper than the Dell options.

But are there any issues with using user-installed Storage disks?
I found some minor hassles in terms of warranty here (http://en.community.dell.com/support-forums/customercare/f/4674/t/19612528):

* The act of adding a Dell HDD (hard disk drive) does not "by itself" void the originally purchased computer warranty. That HDD has its own 90 day warranty. Dell will not cover any data on that HDD.

* The act of adding a 3rd party HDD does not "by itself" void the originally purchased computer warranty. The HDD manufacturer warranty would cover the HDD, not Dell. Dell will not cover any data on that HDD.

* If you break any Dell hardware (motherboard, sata port, etc.) while installing HDD, this is not covered by your originally purchased computer warranty.

* Dell will not troubleshoot any hardware or software issues while the added HDD is installed.​

Anyother possible issues?

(I am not able to find the 'interposer' thing, any links for that would be helpul)