Precision 7530 & Precision 7730 owner's thread

I found my old eVGA USB video card and hooked up a third external monitor through it. Everything is working fine. I have two landscape-oriented displays (one of them my 7730's) and two portrait-oriented monitors. Very handy.

 

Hi,

I managed to have my 7530 replaced. Together with another 7530 at work (all with 8850H), I think I have a good overview of potential issues with this device, esp. with regards to build quality:

• Keyboard quality is a lottery - it's all about how the bezel snaps into place. The oldest unit had issues with rattling during typing, which made the experience terrible. The newest one is perfect - only some small edge areas are slightly loose, which doesn't affect typing at all.
• You can spot top cover carbon fiber pattern artefacts when looking at it from a certain angle - the newest is the worse. But it does require specific lighting condition - side light source, which coincidentally is the case with my desk placement.
• Performance/cooling - in this case I can compare the oldest and the newest. And the latter is much worse. The difference in Cinebench 15 is around 100 points (approx. 1150 vs 1250). Also, it causes increased fan use and unfortunately the fans in the newer one produce uneven high pitch noise. Generally for me the high pitch noise with this model is very noticeable and distracting.
• TB18DC connection is very stable with the new one.
• Palmrest flexes just a little bit in the new one, but it's barely noticeable and simply differs from the perfect fit in the old one. It might be just a case of a loose screw.
• No serious light leakage in the new one, same panel though (LG, FHD).
• Serious coil whine in all units. Disabling C-states removes the problem.

In my case, if it wasn't for the loud fans and uneven high pitch sound, overall I'd be very happy with the (new) device.

Now, since for some time I will have access to both old and new device, to fix the performance/noise issue I decided to repaste (lower temps) and swap the heat sink assembly (to deal with uneven high pitch sound). I would like to make it an one-time precise operation to avoid another disassembly, so I have some questions regarding the procedure:

• Is Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut a good choice? I know it performs well, but any info on how long it lasts before the performance degrades? Any good alternatives (and why)?
• Are there any thermal pads I need to take care of during the procedure? Do I need to replace any of them, especially since I will be swapping heat sink assembly, so it will be fitted onto different board/chips?
• Is adding thermal pads to some other components recommended?
• While generally YT recommendations suggest pea method, thermal paste suppliers add various applicators, spatulas etc. Anyone had a chance to compare results?

Since @lysyjacek, @Ionising_Radiation, @brazzmonkey did go through the procedure, I'd appreciate your comments and tips to make it as painless as possible.

 

When preparing to repaste my M6700 I found a good video on this. Bottom line, people worry too much about this and as long as you don't do a dreadful job then it won't really make a difference. (He tries a variety of techniques and in the end they all average within 1 degrees of each other.)



My thoughts are, pea works well because it will be "squashed down" when you press the heatsink on and cover the whole thing pretty well with no chance for air gaps. If you try to spread it then you run a higher risk of creating an air gap when pressing the heatsink down. (Probably better to use a "line" rather than a "pea" for chips that are very rectangular like the CPU to make sure that it spreads across the whole thing.)

 

Sven,
Thanks for your suggestions. It finally started working after a few attempts at removing and re-installing drivers. I'm on the same driver version as you and things are working fine now! Thanks!
-Brian

 

Waiting for my 7730 to arrive at work. We have a UPS tracking code now but it only tells that the shipment is "in transit to UPS"... The same state since Sunday afternoon....

Any experience how long it take to reach Europe/Germany ?

 

Everyone recommends TG Kryonaut, but I personally find it rather runny for notebook use. It works wonders in desktops or DTRs (read: Clevo P870TM) which don't move around much, if at all; on notebooks that get banged around and tossed in backpacks, mmm, not that good. I used Coolermaster MasterGel Maker Nano (very long name); Gelid GC Extreme is also good. However, as @Aaron44126 mentioned, most of the best thermal pastes combined with a typical application (I used an 'X' for the GPU die, and a long 'worm' for the CPU die) will net noticeable improvements over stock, but will not really differ in terms of temperature amongst themselves. Use what is convenient for you.

Furthermore, outside temperatures will fluctuate more, and hence will affect your temperatures much more than any 1-2 °C improvement using different methods of pasting. For instance, I was in Melbourne last week, and experienced ambient temperatures of 10-15 °C, and my CPU never went above 80 °C, even under the most intense of software transcoding and gaming loads.

However, I returned to my home country on the Equator, with temperatures 20 °C above those in Melbourne, and I regularly see the CPU hitting 90-95 °C.

As for thermal pads, the brand and type generally recommended is the Fujipoly Ultra Extreme. The ones Dell uses are exceptionally thick, so you will have to get the 1.5 mm versions. I got the 0.5 mm and realised the gap was far too large and there would be no contact at all. As for padding other components, oddly enough in the Precision, Dell has cooled most of the components that reach any sort of high temperature including the CPU and GPU VRMs, so I would say just replace anything green that you see, with purple. I was planning to add pads to the PCH as well as a small copper heatsink with fins, but that's for another time, because I am almost certainly reopening this notebook to upgrade it to the Quadro RTX 3000.

 

Question: has anyone configured their 7530 notebooks with no discrete GPU? If so, may I please have the part number for the DGFF board that is connected in such machines? I'd like to get the GPU interposer board that comes with the iGPU-only configuration, because am planning to test power draw with both configurations.

 

I'm still having the usual, annoying issues with USB and the TB18DC dock with the latest updates installed.

Everything can be working well one day, but the next day USB ports and audio refuse to work through the dock until I do some nebulous dance for Michael Dell, plugging, unplugging, rebooting and god knows what else.

Why can't a bloody expensive product just work!?!? C'mon Dell.

 

New line of Precision notebooks has been announced! This includes 5540, 7540, 7740 models. Should go on sale early July.
Full press release here:
https://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/vn...ligent-performance-for-demanding-applications

 

You're just a teensy bit late There's been a discussion thread in this subforum for several months, now.