Precision 7530 & Precision 7730 owner's thread

The memory controller is built into the CPU; therefore it determines things like the maximum memory per DIMM, maximum total memory, and ECC support. So I'm 99.99% sure it would work, I think Dell just doesn't offer their 32GB DIMMs on it like they do with the 7000 series because they don't think many buyers of the 5530 would be looking for such a config. Another thing to note is that both the 7530 and 7730 offer a 128GB option, yet all of the chips still officially only support 64GB max.

It also seems quite lazy on Dell's part that the 5530 can come with a Xeon, but they don't even offer an ECC memory option?

 

Are you using it as delivered or did you perform additional steps?

 

ECC memory does not work in the 5510 or 5520 with a Xeon installed. The system will not boot. It likely doesn't work with the 5530 either (AFAIK no one has tried it yet). I suspect that they didn't add traces to connect the extra ECC pins on the RAM to the CPU.

32GB DIMMs may well work fine... We won't know for sure until someone tries it.

 

Hello people.

First of all I want to give a huge thank you to each and every one of you for the many contributions that make this forum and especially this thread an incredibly valuable source of information and basically the place to go for all things Precision. Good stuff, people!

So, I am a short time lurker and after reading every post in this thread, I am about to buy the 7730.

Here is my planned setup:

- Intel Core i7-8850H
- 17,3 UltraSharp UHD IGZO without WWAN (sadface, I know there are ways, but still ...)
- 16GB, 2x8GB, DDR4-2666MHz SDRAM, 2 DIMMS, Non-ECC
- M.2-PCIe-NVMe-SSD-Drive (Class 40), 256 GB
- NVIDIA Quadro P3200, 6 GB GDDR5
- Intel WiFi Link 9260 2x2 802.11ac

- vPro MOD

- 3Yr Extended Battery Service
- Base Warranty
- 3Y Basic Onsite Service
- 5Yr ProSupport and Next Business Day On-Site Service
- 5Yr Data Protection - Keep Your Hard Drive
- 5Yr Accidental Damage Protection Commencing on Invoice Date (OS)

Here is my short story: Web developer, turning towards video editing, with very little previous experience, wants to be able to edit HD and 4k footage mostly from DJI Drones, DSLRs, Smartphones, and Actioncams with DaVinci Resolve and (maybe some Adobe AE & PP). Will be travelling a lot with the machine (international support is important). Planning to buy a Samsung 1TB EVO 960 and 32 GB of Crucial 2666 Mhz (CL 19 or whatever is in there) to complement the system. Price here in Germany for this is 4k (+Tax) for the system alone plus 750€ for the two extra parts. That is actually way over my head but whatever - Financing it.

Now I am wondering, am I forgetting something, should I put in a bigger SSD for the system, do I need a third SSD for some reason, should I go for another processor or graphics card?

I hope these questions are not too much all over the place and I hope someone with a little bit more experience than me will find it in his heart to warn me if I am going in a seriously bad direction with this.

Thank you so much in advance.

 

SSD really depends on how much space you need for your workload. If you are budget-conscious, remember that you can also install SATA-based M.2 SSDs (i.e. Samsung 860 EVO M.2), they are cheaper than the NVMe ones, not as fast but still much, much better performance than a traditional spinning HDD. I think that it would be fine for bulk video storage. With four M.2 slots in this system, an extra SSD is something you could totally add later if you find that you need one.

For the CPU, I think that the most important thing is that you get a six-core CPU (which you did), anything more than that is just an incremental improvement in speed. The GPU should be fine for video editing, I think that you should only need to consider a faster one if you are doing 3D work or gaming. (You can upgrade at least to P4200 or P5200 later if you are ambitious.) If you source a WWAN card and antennas then you can totally get that working, though it's probably less hassle just to use USB WWAN / dedicated hotspot / hotspot off of your phone.

 

I see that a lot too. I also sometimes get a BIOS-time error saying that only 130w is being delivered. Makes me wonder if both thunderbolt ports are delivering power.

 

Man, I am still struggling with Support on the TB18 dock USB/power issues. The only suggestions I have been given are to reinstall the drivers I've already reinstalled half a dozen times.

I now have two TB18dc's and a TB16 I used very successfully with an XPS 15.

Neither of the TB18dc's nor the TB16 work with my 7730 for USB. Neither of the TB18dc's consistently provide proper power to the laptop (see previous post).

Support keeps looking at the dock, but I can't help but think this is a hardware/driver issue with the 7730.

 

Got this message also several times. After pressing F3 once its gone. I never noticed any side effects.

Regarding USB issues:
Maybe we should list all USB devices connected to our docks ?:
Back:
- Mouse
- Keyboad
- USB-C adapter: Scanner
Front:
- Blueray writer or external HD

At the beginning I had also these USB issues. But they are gone since ~2 weeks. I did not update any driver/ firmware but previously my Wifi router was only 10cm away from dock. Now dock is placed ~120cm away from router, ~50cm away from monitor (possible HF emit?) and Laptop Wifi is off.

 

Speaking of 32GB RAM modules for 7530 and 7730 models. My understanding is those modules are made by samsung as I never heard of any other brand making sodimms 260pin 32gb single modules. Whoever chose the option with these modules are free to confirm if it's indeed samsung.
https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/dram/module/M471A4G43MB1-CTD/
Also, I was happy to find that samsung is about to release 32gb ECC single module with 2666MHz, which gives me hope that once out, dell might add 128GB ECC option on their configurator
https://www.samsung.com/semiconductor/dram/module/M474A4G43MB1-CTD/

I'd be happy to buy the modules separately but haven't found where to buy them.

 

All three of our TB18DC docks are experiencing the USB I/O stutter issue. It's got to be a driver/firmware problem. (Hopefully not a dock hardware "never-be-fixed" problem.) I haven't engaged Dell support yet. It seems that enough people have made them aware of the problem, hopefully the engineering team is working on an update.