new Dell Precision 5510 (Twin of XPS15)

I you check both chipset on intel website, you will see HM170. does not support v-pro or VT-d, maybe the dell support guy knows better than intel on the specification of their products ,computer that support vPro have a vPro-enabled processor, a vPro-enabled chipset, and a vPro-enabled bios, hardware do matter

 

vPro is software and silicon. Also it has nothing to do with memory but all to do with remote computer management and diagnostics, great for companies with IT staff that they can't send out to every computer location. If you buy your machine for personal use you or Dell are likely doing the diagnostics.

 

What kind of speed difference are we looking at using the 950 Pro verses the 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe that Dell ships? Was in a bit of a rush when ordering, realizing now I should maybe be changing my order.

Also, community-preferred RAM options if I’m going to 32GB?

Thanks.

 

The Samsung 950 Pro SSD is significantly faster than the PM951. But both of them are significantly faster than the fast SSDs from just a few years ago. So really it's a matter of fast and super-fast

I would order the smallest available M.2 drive, sell it on eBay and buy a 512GB 950 from Amazon.

BTW, if you're looking for the best value and needs ton of space...you're really probably wanting to look at the XPS 15 that Best Buy sells with the 1TB SSD drive. And save several hundred dollars vs. Precision 5510.

On RAM...I always go with Crucial. Never had bad a problem with Crucial memory, and it's usually really well priced.

 

mobiletechreview said the 1TB SSD on the xps15 is quite fast. I have one on my 5510 and would concur

 

Razer Core - Thunderbolt 3 egpu

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-blade-stealth#ultrabook-desktop

The first Thunderbolt 3 dock I've seen announced that supports a desktop GPU. It's being marketed as a partner to their new ultrabook, but hopefully it will work as a thunderbolt 3 external graphics solution for all TB3 laptops, like the Precision 5510.

The case design is interesting but I worry about noise and cooling - it's vented front, top and side, and doesn't seem to have any fans, relying on the fans of the graphics card. There may be a fan on the PSU (500W - 350W max for GPU and then some left over to power the laptop!).

It would be nice to see a dock supporting more than one card. SLI/Crossfire may be impossible in a dock, but it would still be good to have multiple GPUs for rendering, and/or access to other PCIe devices like NICs, RAID cards, SSDs...

Maybe someone should come up with a mATX/ATX motherboard that can be switched into "dock" mode.

 

I did have a look at the Razer Blade before the Precision 5510 was announced. Their main problem imo is the product availability. I had to ask my brother in Australia to bring it home, as they don't sell it just anywhere. But yes, I also noticed their new TB3 dock - nice combo.

 

Hmm, now this is fascinating. If indeed this dock can work with any Ultrabook and not just the Razers, that could be a game changer...

P.S.: This article says it does. Some Caveats regarding performance, however. Plus, it says the only power supply for the dock is the TB port, which I'm not sure can work with just any laptop. If you try to power a graphics card drawing 200W from a laptop that's designed with a max power supply of 150W total, you're going to run into problems. I'm also not sure how this would work with laptops that have integrated+discrete graphics card configurations.

 

Thunderbolt-attached desktop GPUs have been a long time coming. There have been some successful attempts to do this with Thunderbolt 2, but it was not sanctioned by Intel so they never made it past prototype really. There were also issues with hot-swapping (if the GPU is not attached when you boot the system or if it becomes disconnected, things break).

External GPUs are an officially supported use case with Thunderbolt 3 so we should start seeing more products like this show up. Apparently Optimus works as well so you can use an external NVIDIA GPU to drive apps on the laptop display — if your laptop does not already have a discrete GPU.

Nice to see an actual product launching (soon anyway).

 

Yeah, but what if you already have a discrete GPU built-in?