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

Thanks, Aaaron44126. You are always an enormous help and today is no exception!

I will forget about the Xeon processors and go for the i7 and get the IGZO screen which is more future proof I feel.

I remember when I bought the M6600 that I had to buy Dell's cheapest RAM option and then buy the RAM I actually wanted elsewhere and install it myself.

Same with the number of HDs. I now have three HDs in my M6600 and am not using the mSata space. For the 7720 there is no DVD player so I believe I could have two HDs plus one M.2 NVMe. In fact I was told I could choose the M.2 NVMe at the time of purchase and get the OS installed on that by Dell. I would then install my two 2TB HDs for storage and other stuff.

Are there any config options in that regards? Any thoughts or suggestions re the RAM and HD config?

Thanks again.

 

There is not room for two HDDs in the 7720. There is only one 2.5" SATA bay. You can only have one HDD, plus up to two NVMe drives. (Or three NVMe drives if you mount one of them in the 2.5" SATA bay, with an interposer.) Yes, this is a step back from the M6600 which had room for two 2.5" SATA drives (not counting the optical drive bay).

 

That's very interesting, thanks. I was told by the Dell Sales person that I could have two HDDs and one NVMe, though I must admit I trust you more in that regard as you probably helped when I bought my M6600 too. Thanks again.

Any other suggestions or comments on config ideas are welcome.

 

Do the M.2 drives have to be nvme/pcie, or can they be the cheaper SATA variant?

 

SATA M.2 drives also work.

 

Is there any info available about the NFC reader that comes with 7520? I would like to know the part number of the reader, what is the chipset used, do you need to install any extra drivers, are the any photos available of the reader itself?

 

I don't know the part number, but I can tell you that it uses a Broadcom chipset, you do need to install extra drivers (though they are pulled from Windows Update automatically or baked into newer versions of Windows 10), and there isn't much to actually see aside from the little "wireless" icon on the left side of the touchpad.

 

Thanks @Aaron44126 for the info. I hoped it to be a NXP chipset. Could you please tell what is its Device instance path listed in the Device Manager? I would like to collect some further info about it.
I was interested to see the assembly photos to find out if NFC reader could be installed by a user later on.

 

There are two devices in Device Manager related to the NFC reader...
NFC USB Bus Driver - USB\VID_0A5C&PID_5834&MI_03\6&81A7E03&0&0003
NFC Proximity Provider - BCMNFCUSB\NFC_PROVIDER\7&13787E1F&0&257

(This is for the Precision 7510, but the 7520/7720 have nearly if not identical hardware for ControlVault/NFC.)

 

Hi all. Now that I've had my 7720 for quite some time now(I ordered it on the first day it was possible to do so), I wanted to make a progress report. First, the specs: Xeon E3-1505Mv6 3GHz / 64GB ECC RAM / 4k IGZO screen / P4000 nVidia / Backlit KB / Intel WiFi. I put in an aftermarket Samsung 2TB NVMe SSD within minutes of opening the box, uninstalled the original HDD but kept it handy.

The machine is very ideal for a developer who is not too mobile, but does need to up and move the whole thing now and then. Normally it's docked and drives two external monitors and KB/Mouse. VMs save and start very normally. Sometimes when developing within a VM, it does feel a bit sluggish, but I also have a database VM running, 1-2 other VMs running at the same time, possibly a backup is running, and it's very possible that I'm simply asking too much of a 4 core notebook. Sometimes I 'Save' the VM and that focuses the resources more on the active VMs and that helps.

The screen is very, very beautiful. There is a faint 'bright spot' when it's full black when turning on, but when the screen is actually used, it's fine, and a very beautiful 4K display. Sometimes Windows 10 is a little confused on how to render things on the different resolutions external monitors, but that's likely because I hop into VM remote desktops and it has too many layers of abstraction to deal with. I run some 4K YouTube nature videos now and then to see the full beauty of this screen.

I've heard of some complaints on the keyboard, but since it's mostly docked, I never have to deal with them. It's a standard flat chiclet keyboard, it will not approach a ThinkPad's best keyboard, but then the ThinkPad's default software have a history of "surprises", whereas the Dell has a very minimalist installation with no surprises. The keyboard works fine when it's in my lap and I'm on the road.

I did experience one maintenance issue where it progressively started to bluescreen. Analyzing the crashdumps, all indicators pointed to the crashes relating to the graphics card, and after a few support calls, they sent someone over to replace the P4000. It took some work to work with multiple tech support reps going through hours of troubleshooting steps, but in the end it is back to running very reliably.

The battery life in the very best scenario is not going to top four hours. This laptop does not do well if it travels far from a plug, but if you are a true workstation power user, this is definitely something you can throw into the padded compartment of a backpack and take with you to place far away from your desk. I easily see this workstation lasting me another 3-4 years of strong use.