Precision 7510 Owner's Thread

Yes, that is annoying. A lot can be done with software keymappings and physically swapping keys though.

 

Hi Dell users,

After a long wait, I receive last friday my request for a 7510.
I request with the following specific requirements:

i7-6820HQ
Nvidia® Quadro® M1000M w/2GB GDDR5
8GB, DDR4-2133MHz SDRAM, Non-ECC 256GB 2.5´´ High Performance SATA Solid State Drive
15.6" UltraSharp™ FHD IPS, with camera and microphone
Intel® Dual-Band Wireless-AC 8260 Wi-Fi with Bluetooth 4.1 Wireless Card

The workstation will aim to use the following programs:

Autodesk
SkecthUp
Designbuilder
EnergyPlus
OpenStudio
Office (with macros and VB in excel).

After reading a lot post in this thread, I installed and run the benchmark (download from a previous message that I found here), which give the following results in this link:

http://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/891199

Best regards

 

I received my new 7510 some days ago.
Config : W7 pro, Xeon 1535, 16 Gb RAM, Nvidia M1000M, Intel SSD 360 Go, 91 Wh batt, Full HD non-IPS, BIOS 1.3.10
(I had a very good offer for the Xeon, not the +376 € without taxes from 6300HQ on Dell's website...)
I did not experience hardware issues at all.
I installed Ubuntu Gnome 16.04 along W7.

Hardware :

The grids behind the computer's fans seem to do some noise when I hit the pc. Nothing really annoying.
Someone talked about the T440s keyboard. I own a T440s and I think Lenovo's one is clearly better.
The 7510 does not seem as bulky as the photos show, maybe caused by the aluminium ring visual impact.
Heavy laptop...

W7 :

A lot of updates errors, some errors at first launches, not a very good user feeling. It seems to be needed to do a ton of updates, some of them can be installed only when some others are. Usual Windows PITA. Now W7 works as it usually does. No bloatware, as I can see.
My Nvidia graphics are detected (BIOS boot on auto or fastboot). Solidworks has succeeded to install, but only after the F_9 upgrade of W7, where F_9 is the ninth Fermat number. The Nvidia profile is done automatically.
The fans often start, often with low speed, globally very quiet.

Ubuntu Gnome 16.04 :

The installer crashed 2 times. It's a pre-beta... A good idea is to try to avoid any internet connection, if so.
Everything works out of the box (including touchpad and trackpoint) (the touchpad works better with Ubuntu than W7, IMHO...). The Intel's driver seems to cause some (few) flickering, not the Nvidia's one (proprietary drivers). WARNING : GDM is not working with Nvidia's driver (nouveau is ok), you'll have to use lightdm. I installed TLP to save power, as usual, default settings.
Power usage is surprisingly good. Powertop shows at the moment 6.44 W (only Chrome and powertop running, mid backlight, wifi on). I'll try with minimal power usage (wifi off, low backlight, no app running). In browser common usage, Gnome shows 49% battery for 5h59 autonomy, so roughly 12h for 100% in browsing scenario (Intel gr.). At the moment I can't hear any fan running.
The HDMI port works with or without M1000M usage, that was a decisive step for me to buy a 7510, since I have to use it for PDF presentations and need to have some time to spend without AC.
NB : W7 does not use secure boot, so do Ubuntu if you don't want to change BIOS settings everytime OS change.

Edit : Ubuntu minimal power usage (wifi off, lowest backlight, etc.) is roughly 4.6W (I get 2.9 on my T440s with i7 4600u).

Edit 2 : my screen (45% FHD) is IPS, that's a surprise since I believed it wasn't (we were watching a movie without bad angles and I noticed some bleeding in the bottom, so that's not a BIG surprise now)
The 91Wh battery is Samsung
Intel 360 Go : 2500 Pro series
2x8 Go memory : Hynix
It seems (I'm not sure, but... sure enough) that my Capslock LED was not working until I made tonight changes in the BIOS (not related as far I can remember). Now it's ok (I get a non-backlit KB).

 

New BIOS 1.4.8 today.
http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...510-workstation&languageCode=en&categoryId=BI

Since upgrade, I do not get flickering (Intel graphics) with Ubuntu. Don't know if it's just software stuff or real Bios fix.

Edit : that was just one Gnome session without flickering. It still happens... (There is no flickering at all in W7.)

Edit 2 : flickering does not happen at all when watching a movie via Chrome. Not even one time. Only one bug (in Ubuntu) : the wifi/printScreen key behaves oddly since when other keys are in Fn blue mode, this one still do printScreen...

 

Got my 7510, really pleased with it. Particularly battery life.

Got one problem hope you guys can help - - how to switch to Nvidia graphics on the desktop. ..

Reason:
I have an oldish 30" Dell monitor, which does 2560x1600. Looks terrible at any other res. Only input it has is dual DVI. Single DVI only supports up to 1280.

Didn't want to buy any "active" converters from HDMI to DVI (cost).

So I bought this mini display port to DVI cable.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00HJZCCZ0?ref_=pe_385721_124735811_TE_dp_1

which supports 2560, apparently.

However, I can't get the output from the 7510 to do more thanm 1280.

I suspect its because the Intel internal graphics is being used and it can't do 2560?
Or is the mini DP output hardwared to it somehow?

Appreciate any pointers. Otherwise I can't use this otherwise awesome monitor

Thanks.

 

Internal graphics should be able to do up to 4K. (It drives a 4K internal screen without issue...)
You can't pick which GPU drives a specific output port. To get the NVIDIA GPU to drive this display directly, you'll have to disable graphics switching in the BIOS.

Are you sure you got the dual-link adapter? If you check the Amazon page, there are three choices for this item (where you select the color), but only one of them is marked dual-link. You must use dual-link DVI to get this high a resolution.

 

When you disable switchable graphics in the bios, does that then use the NVIDIA or the Intel GPU?

 

Nvidia

 

Argh, thanks so much Aaron, you're right - was mislead by the Amazon page, and its labelling of "active" -clearly got the wrong one.

 

I just received my laptop today. I have applied the latest bios and it is still flickering in Win10. Would be great to know what is going wrong.