Precision 7530 & Precision 7730 owner's thread

I agree - I also had my 2 TB 9.5 mm Samsung hard drive for quite some time and thought, that the new 4 and 5 TB 2.5 inch ones were already laptop ready.
On the other hand, the SSDs - while definitely getting cheaper and cheaper - are still too expensive for my storage requirements.

 

Just received my 7530 and I'm very happy with it apart from one thing the display seems very poor / grainy. It is the FHD non-touch with 72% color gamut and according to HWinfo I can see the model is: AUO60ED but what I would like to know if there is a better FHD display for this model or if this is the best one?

 

Hi,

I'm searching for a new laptop to replace my old Precision (M3800).

I'm "heavy user", I use laptop as a primary PC, it will run up to 18hrs/day, it will travel with me (but no commuting so weight is no issue), it will be moved around a lot, I'll handle it as a tool, not too delicately.
I consider 7530 as I expect it to endure my (mis)use and I'm used to Dell and their service, using Dell business laptops and servers for last 15 years.

Usage:
- Software development (Windows as base OS with one or more Linux VMs).
- Office work (even my old one is good enough).
- Occasional gaming (not much and I'm ok with lower specs for gaming)

As I have to fit into certain budget, I'm trying to be creative - e.g. buying SSD and memory from 3rd party.
Can somebody knowledgeable comment on my selection, in case there are problems?

My selection:
- Intel Core i7-8850H assuming that i9-8950HK would not bring much real world benefit because of heating too much anyway.
- Radeon Pro WX 4150. I did not find much info about it, I hope it will be good enough for occasional gaming.
- 8GB from Dell to be replaced by myself by 32GB (any recommendation which brand/model?)
- 256GB SSD from Dell to be replaced by 1TB Samsung 970 Pro (good selection? I want what Dell calls Class 50)
Unfortunately it's not possible to configure laptop without HDD and picking SATA means that I would have to take 4-cell battery.
- FHD Touch Panel (I want touch but not really UHD)
- 97 WH express charge accu. I assume Long Life one is just slower charging. As it's company laptop buying new battery in 2 years is no issue.
- Linux will be replaced by my clean Windows install (we have plenty of licenses, no reason to pay for one more). I hope all Windows drivers will be available even if I take Linux from Dell.

Laptop will be used standalone a lot but sometimes also connected to two screens. My understanding is that it can be connected to two screens without docking station (miniPort and HDMI).

 

Samsung 970 Pro is best-in-class, that will be fine. (This machine can hold 3 M.2 drives so you can always add more later if you need more storage. Or if you need secondary storage and less speed is OK, look at SATA M.2 drives like the Samsung 860 EVO M.2, which are cheaper.)
Installing Windows on a system configured with Linux is no big deal. It works as you expect. You have to install drivers by yourself but they are all available from Windows Update or from Dell. Note that you won't get touchpad support until you install the "Intel Serial I/O" driver, that's an odd one.
Two screens without docking station is no problem. You can actually do four screens (use USB-C to DisplayPort or USB-C to HDMI adapter for two more).
Can't comment on the GPU. I always get NVIDIA. Quadro P2000 is roughly equal to GeForce 1050 Ti. P1000 doesn't really have a GeForce equivalent, it is below regular GeForce 1050 but a good bit above 1030. Often times AMD has better price/performance ratio than NVIDIA In these systems but I find driver support to be more lacking with them.
Memory, I always match Dell's speed and go with whatever has good reviews on i.e. Newegg. We upgraded our 7530's with Kingston memory and have had no issues.

 

Thnks!
So basically all fine.

Quadro P2000 would take me above the approved company budget and so I'd have to downgrade something else - probably SSD to 500GB version.
That's why I consider AMD one (as my gaming is rare and "basic", to relax a bit - my current old Quadro K1100M is nearly enough).
I'll see... disk space is easier to add in future than GPU.

 

At the time I ordered my 7530 Dell disallowed ordering the palm rest with fingerprint reader with Ubuntu, and that limitation seems to remain in place. As far as I know that's the only option disallowed when Ubuntu is selected.

I'm a retired software developer, and would be quite happy with my 7530 as my primary machine. These days I mostly run Lightroom and Photoshop, as well as the usual browsers, Office, etc. I configured my 7530 with an i7 8750H (6 core @ 2.20GHz/4.1GHz; no longer offered), Intel wireless card, the 3840x2160 IGZO display (I wanted the 100% Adobe RGB gamut), P1000, backlit keyboard, fingerprint reader, and then upgraded to 32GB RAM and a 2TB NVMe drive.

FWIW, I dual boot Ubuntu 18.04 LTS and Windows 10. Each OS lives in a dedicated partition, and they share a large data partition. I first reinstalled Windows, then installed Ubuntu. While 18.04 isn't supported by Dell on this model, I encountered no serious issues. Linux lacks a driver for the fingerprint reader, but that's minor and not an issue for me.

 

Following up on my last post I would love to replace the 7530 display from the grainy AUO B156HAN one that came with the system. Could anyone tell me if this display would work and also if it would be superior to the one I have now?

http://www.panelook.com/modeldetail.php?id=34862

Thanks in advance

 

That's the 144Hz BOE panel, isn't it? It's supposedly good. You can ask @Casowen. It hasn't been tried on the Precision 7530 yet, but it's one of the three panels I'd like to experiment with, besides the AUO B156HAN08, and the LG 144 Hz panel. I am also not as pleased with my LP156WF6 6-bit panel.

 

Anyone know if the Intel GPU can drive a 144 Hz display? If not, graphics switching may have to be switched off for the panel to work (at the maximum refresh rate).
I suspect that any modern eDP panel with the same connector and connector location as the one that you are swapping out will work... Only one way to find out, though, someone has to buckle up and try it!

 

The UHD 630 should support 1920×1080 pixels @ 144 Hz, given that it supports 4096 × 2304 @ 60Hz.