Precision 7530 & Precision 7730 owner's thread

I am grouping the 7530 and 7730 threads into one because the systems are very similar. (I suggested this in the pre-release thread and there were no objections ...)

Pre-release thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/precision-7730-5530-7530-coffee-lake-pre-release.809278/

Dell driver page:
http://ftp.dell.com/published/Pages/precision-15-7530-laptop.html
http://ftp.dell.com/published/Pages/precision-17-7730-laptop.html

Differences between 7530 (15") & 7730 (17"):
* 7530 has three M.2/NVMe slots and 7730 has four
* Different bottom panel design, 7730 is easier to get inside
* 7730 GPU selection includes faster GPUs
** Even the P3200 in the 7730 is faster than the P3200 in the 7530
** 7530 P3200 can be made faster by applying the 7730 P3200 vBIOS (thanks @Mazed for the dump and @Ionising_Radiation for being the guinea pig)
* 7730 has an extra standard USB port on the back
Otherwise, they're pretty much the same. Same order/configuration options, same port layout, same keyboard and touchpad, same internal hardware, same system BIOS even.

Parts for drive installation

Spoiler

The systems come with heatsinks needed to install additional M.2 drives in the unused extra slots

Installing a 2.5" drive in a system that didn't originally ship with one requires a 4-cell battery and these parts:
1. 2.5" mounting bracket DP/N 0F07VM
2. Interposer mounting bracket DP/N 09DYY7
3. Interposer, DP/N 0CK36K
(Thanks @cp42)

My Precision 7530 arrived yesterday and spent a while making its way through the company inventory process, and I got to use it today.

7530 photos:

Spoiler

I'm just including some pictures that are different from ones we've already seen online.

Screen/bezel


Internal layout

Guess they didn't have someone who speaks good English review the text on the battery.

7510 (left) vs 7530 (right)
The 7530 is slimmer... But not by much.





Power supply comparison... This time 7510 is on the right. Appreciably smaller.

7530 UHD display cable (possibly useful for anyone considering a screen upgrade)

Spoiler

Once someone gets a 7730, post some photos and I will link to them right here.

Other user impressions:
7530 - @Div033 (click)
7730 - @jctierney (click)

Outstanding dock issues
I am working with Dell on two prevalent issues relating to the TB18DC dock.
* System sometimes fails to draw power from the TB18DC dock. To workaround, disable USB PowerShare in the BIOS, or connect a separate AC adapter to the system. Fixed in BIOS 1.7.0
* Stuttering behavior (or stuck keys) experienced when using a keyboard or mouse attached via the dock. To workaround, disable C states in the BIOS. Fixed in BIOS 1.5.2 / dock firmware 1.0.7

My system impressions:

Build appearance is rather similar to the Precision 7510, my prior system. Build quality seems solid, in line with prior Precision systems.

The bottom is different. The Precision 7530 doesn't have a battery cover latch (the 7730 does, though). You have to loosen seven screws to remove the bottom cover. Once the cover is off, there is easy access to the battery, two RAM slots, three M.2 slots, and PCIe card slots for the Wi-Fi and WWAN cards.

I ordered the system with 2x16GB of RAM. The modules were installed under the keyboard, making future upgrades easier. The memory modules that I received are Hyundai Electronics HMA82GS6CJR8N-VK. They are DDR4-2666, CL 19, timings 19-19-19-43. I am planning to upgrade to 64GB in the fall, I will purchase two more modules with identical timings.

I ordered the system with a class 40 512GB SSD. The drive that I received was a Toshiba KXG50ZNV512G.

I added a second M.2 drive. Everything that you need to install extra M.2 drives is included (screws and heatsinks). The screws are really tight... Make sure that you have a perfectly-sized screwdriver or it could be easy to strip them. The extra heatsinks have a cover over the thermal pad that you have to peel off. The drive that I installed was a Samsung 860 EVO 2TB M.2, a SATA drive (I just need extra space and I'd rather it be cheap than fast). The system recognized it with no issues.

Can't comment on noise yet. We have some big fans and dehumidifiers running in the office because of a water incident on Monday which drown out any noise that could be coming from this system.

Drivers installed without much hassle. Windows actually pulled in most of the drivers automatically, and the versions were the same or newer than the ones posted on Dell's site in almost all cases. I manually installed the Touchpad driver, ControlVault/fingerprint reader driver, and free fall sensor driver.

The touchpad is from ALPS, but it is a Windows Precision touchpad. The ALPS touchpad control panel is not there anymore, everything is handled through the Windows "Settings" app.

I also updated the BIOS and Thunderbolt firmware right away. The system shipped with BIOS 1.0.5, but 1.1.7 is already available.

The 4K screen in the system itself seems to have really good color and brightness, and I'm not seeing any sort of "screen door" effect. But the viewing angle is not as good as I would hope. It seems to dim a bit if you are not looking at it straight-on.

I'm using the TB18DC Thunderbolt dock. I'm familiar with the TB16 dock and this seems pretty much exactly the same in terms of user experience. No issues with anything dropping the hour or so that I've been using it. Compared to the ePort dock, there is a delay of a few seconds after the system boots before the USB devices work. (That also includes the Ethernet and sound devices in the dock, they are USB devices internally.)

I can drive 2x 4K 60Hz displays off of the dock DisplayPorts. I tried to add a third display, 1080p, via the HDMI port. I previously tried this on the TB16 dock and it did not work. No luck here, either. The system recognizes it and it "appears" to be working but no image actually appears on whichever display was connected last. So, I have two displays hooked up to the dock and the third one hooked directly to the system. With the laptop open, there are four displays total (3x 4K and 1x 1080p), no issues, everything is super fluid. This is with the NVIDIA Quadro P1000 GPU, Optimus disabled.

[Edit]
The 4K display that came in my system is a Sharp LQ156D1.

[Edit]
A note for those doing fresh Windows installs or other installs using a non-Dell image (i.e. workplace image installs). The Serial I/O driver must be installed before the touchpad will function. A few people (including myself) have been confused about this.

 

Did you install the K1000 yourself? I thought only Pascal GPUs were offered when configuring on the Dell website.

My 7530 should be here before 8pm today. Thanks for starting this thread!

 

Err, I meant to say P1000, updated
Also, just added a few photos to the top post.

 

Thank you

Thank you so much for talking about trackpad. Another question. How is the speaker. Do they actually have a lit of bass?. My precious m4800 has really bad speaker haha . I don't understand why Dell won't use a IPS panel which have better view angul.

 

Also do you mind adding a front view pic shows the screen . Really want to see how the bazel looks like. Thanks you so much !!

 

I'll comment on the speakers in a few days when they shut off the fans around here (but I would just expect passable sound, nothing amazing). This isn't something that I normally think about (if I want to listen to something, I use headphones/earbuds). I will say that they put them on the front/bottom of the system again, I preferred the M6600-6800 generation placement of right above the keyboard/below the screen.

The panel *is* IPS. There doesn't seem to be any color shifting depending on the viewing angle like a TN panel would have. Just a variation in apparent brightness.

 

I added a photo to the top post.

 

I just listened to some music with the 7530 right next to the 7510 and noticed a substantial difference. There's more clarity and bass; they're quite loud too! A very welcome upgrade to the series.

 

Haha thanks for the great news. I am trying to pick amount Dell hp and Lenovo and seems Dell did a good job deliver the most balanced workstation

 

Thank you man . Really helpful.