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

Hate too much on the 7720 keyboard without independent Home and End keys, I tried my luck with 7730 keyboard. Simple answer is YES it will work. However that requires minor modification on the keyboard and keyboard cover. The cables fit perfectly, all keys, mouse, backlit are working.

Home and End keys in 7730 keyboard replace PrtScr and Insert keys in 7720.


Cables are 100% identical between the two.


This is one of the differences that require minor modification to cut off some parts or else the keyboard will not fit. Top is 7730, bottom 7720.


After cutting useless parts. It is ugly but doesn't matter, the keyboard cover will hide it.


Last part, 7720 keyboard cover will not fit on 7730 keyboard because of the funny extra pieces at Enter and \ keys.


There are 3 possible solutions on this:-
1) Swap the Enter and \ keys from 7720 to 7730. This is dangerous because the key parts can be easily damaged.
2) Buy 7730 keyboard cover
3) Cut off the 7720 keyboard cover part that blocks the key


Final words, it certainly works!

 

[UPDATE on 7730 keyboard]

Numpad LED is not working !!

 

Are you referring to the num lock LED?

 

Ah yes correct. The LED on the key itself is not responding when pressed.

 

Thanks @iieeann for experimenting with 7730 keyboard. really great info!

I was considering trying that and also 7730 lattice frame because I accidentally broke off one of my function keys. I think I'm going to order a direct replacment instead of 7730 keyboard. One of the main things I wanted, other than dedicated home/end, was to have a NumLock LED. But since that doesn't work.

By the way, I'm using sharpkey to reassign my media back/next buttons as home/end. Has worked well for the past couple years I've been using it.



I'm not sure a numlock led would've helped in my case. I use vmware workstation everyday and even a dedicated LED indicator it might not always show true state. Happens sometimes with my capslock too. For example, one of my virtual machine can have different state for numlock than each of my other VMs and also could be different from host. I've tried on screen display software showing caps/numlock state but they never worked well for me and randomly show various different states. I make it my practice to leave my numlock key enabled at bootup in bios settings and I leave it enabled in each of my VMs. But all it takes is for me to accidentally press numlock once and then the state of numlock is unknown until I try using it.

Good luck with new keyboard. thanks for being guinea pig.

 

I use VMware Workstation as well and the num lock thing really bugs me. You're right about the num lock LED maybe not being useful, I've run into plenty of cases when the numlock state is "wrong" (keyboard LED says one thing but actual behavior shows another) always stemming from the num lock state being different between the host and guest OS. There is no problem if I leave it on in everything, all of the time, but when setting up a new guest OS it always bites me until I remember to go turn it on in the guest.

 

Has anyone installed 64GB 2666MHz ram in 7720? asking on behalf of a friend.

 

2666 MHz memory is limited to 32 GB according to Dell:

I have the 7520 and it has been EXTREMELY picky with the memory modules it accepts at 2666 MHz. After two failed upgrades with generic and Dell 2666 MHz SODIMMS, I contacted Dell and they said that the only modules that will work are the same ones as already installed. You cannot mix and match different modules.

In my case: I have 8GB DDR4 2666 modules (Kingston XF875V / Dell part Nr F875V) and I had to buy the same modules from eBay to upgrade from 16 GB to 32 GB.

 

If anyone cares: I ran a battery of Futuremark benchmarks on my new Skylake 7520 with Windows 7. It has been modified with an Intel M.2 SATA SSD, so storage performance is less than that of an m.2 NVME SSD. I also run disk encryption which also lowers storage performance by a bit.

Specs are below.

3DMark
3DMark FireStrike: 3791
3DMark FireStrike Extreme: 1876
3DMark FireStrike Ultra: 951
3DMark SkyDiver: 13101
3DMark CloudGate: 17645
3DMark IceStorm: 125845

3DMark 11: P5747
3DMark Vantage: P19483
3DMark06: 27797
3DMark05: 37665
3DMark03: 70427

PCMark
PCMark 10: 3495
PCMark 10 Express: 3822
PCMark 10 Extended: 3466

PCMark 8 Home 3.0 Accelerated 3.0: 4614
PCMark 8 Work 2.0 Accelerated: 4933
PCMark 8 Creative 3.0 Accelerated 3.0: 4406

PCMark 7: 5782

 

Thanks a lot for the info.