Precision 7530 & Precision 7730 owner's thread

Strange how different the results abour keyboard stutter are: I had the USB Dock keyboard issue with all versions of the ASMedia driver. The prior one (1.16.51.1 A08) gave me some BSODs so I reverted to 1.16.50.1 A07.

Now on 1.16.54.1 A10 I had no more blue screens.

I solved the keyboard problems by disabling C states in BIOS.

You should be able to reinstall an older version of AS media over the current one to get it replaced.
If you did not install any ASMedia driver before you can use Windows Device Manager to uninstall the driver. You should find it under "Universal Serial Bus controllers" as ASMedia USB 3.0 eXtensible Host Controller". Could be that a standard Microsoft driver kicks in or Windows Update delivers you some ASMedia driver.

 

Too bad. I had this only one or two times so far.

Maybe this is connected to other parts in the laptop?

I e.g. do not have a dGPU, just the Intel GPU.

 

@SvenC the keyboard problems I just described were with the keyboard direct to the laptop...

 

Uhh, directly attached. That is super annoying. Never had that.

At least while hunting down the Docks USB keyboard problem I tried the keyboard directly attached to the laptop and that worked. Did not retest that after updating the ASMedia drivers.

 

That's strange, the ASMedia driver only applies to the USB controller in the dock so it "shouldn't" be causing a problem with a direct-attached keyboard.

So either you somehow managed to apply this driver to the Intel USB controller in the system... (Not sure if that is even possible...) Or the driver is wreaking total havoc :-\

 

Well, reverting it fixed the issue...

Sigh...

 

Hi everyone,
first post here, but I've been following this thread from the very first day. Thank you all for your interesting feedbacks.

I work freelance in energy consulting. Currently having a desktop workstation and a laptop, and I'm tired of synchronizing them whenever I need to go to my customers'.
I need a workstation with powerful multicore CPU, a decent GPU and a good amount of RAM.
I'm a daily Linux user.
I looked at XPS 15 for portability, but in the end Precision 7530 better fits my needs and is more future-proof. I don't mind looking for aftermarket components when it comes to storage and RAM.

I called Dell today for an offer. Long story short: painful talk with a salesperson who barely knew these products.

Before ordering I thought I'd post here to share a few thoughts/questions/hesitations (quite a long post, sorry):

- CPU: i9-8950hk or Xeon E-2186M
Xeon: a bit cheaper than i9 here. Supports ECC RAM, which I don't think I need.
i9 is unlocked, but I don't feel like overclocking a laptop that's already have a hot CPU. However, to prevent throttling is it possible to lower CPU voltage like it is with XPS 15? in BIOS?
It seems like 128 GB RAM option is only available for i9 (I'm still surprised a 128 GB option is offered when available CPU officially support up to 64 Gb of RAM).*edit* Eventually 128 GB RAM option is proposed with Xeon in configurator.
So I suppose I'd go i9 here, but advices are welcomed.

- GPU: Quadro P2000 (best compromise imho)
Quadro P3200 seems overkill for my needs (+big battery required) so I'd go for P2000 because it's not very much more expensive than P1000. I suppose Quadro P2000 supports 4k@60 Hz on an external monitor? through HDMI as well (HDMI 2.0)?

- RAM: 32 or 64 GB?
I'm looking forward to getting 32 GB RAM or so.
I haven't been able to find any 32 GB sticks in the aftermarket in my country. So first I thought I'd go with 1x 32 GB stick from Dell, allowing for future upgrades all the way to 128 GB RAM when these sticks become cheaper.
But being DDR RAM maybe it would be better to get 2 sticks straight from the beginning. And as I understand Dell should primarily put RAM sticks in slots below the keyboard, which are a bit difficult to reach.
So 64 GB (2x 32 GB sticks) could prove useful and ease later upgrades, let alone the price (~1000 euros).
Any thoughts?

- Storage: aftermarket SSD + HDD
Dell offers no RAID with Linux. I guess it's only software RAID with Windows? Or is there a hardware RAID controller?
Dell SSD are quite pricey, and I don't really mind their warranties (broken storages survive with frequent backups, not warranties).
Here I'm thinking of going with the cheapest HDD available, then move it over a LAN storage (I don't have any other NVME drive), and:
- get a fast aftermarket NVME SSD for OS and work files. I'd like it to support self-encryption to avoid significant performance hit. Any suggestion would be appreciated (128 GB capacity could be enough).
- get a 2 TB HDD aftermarket, cheap solution for archives and backups. Self-encryption is preferred, but I could live with software encryption here. Any suggestion appreciated as well.

- Screen: FHD with webcam and mic + external monitor
I don't see the point in having a 15-inch UHD panel, except for wide color gamut (according to Dell specs). In the end I'd rather preserve battery life.
Not related, but if any of you know about a good 4k 40-inch external monitor, please let me know.

- Battery: 4-cell
Mainly because of HDD storage. I'm expecting about 4 to 5 hours of light office work or perhaps watching video (no heavy work) away from a plug. Is it realistic with 64 Wh, using Intel graphics?
Also any interest in getting extended warranty here? Computer should be plugged 90% of time, and I think I read in this thread that min and max battery charge levels may be configured in BIOS to preserve battery life (hopefully in Linux as well but I don't really count on that).

- Docking station?
Mainly for cable management and keep desktop tidy. I've read about several issues with TB18, and I might as well go with TB16. Any experiences with the latter? Or should I wait for known issues to be solved?
I've got a whole bunch of USB devices (printers, sound card, input devices...), so I'll need an additional USB hub anyway.

- External blu-ray reader/burner:
No such thing available in Dell store. Any recommendations?

-Final thoughts wrt support and Linux:
Any experiences with Linux on Precision series? With newest Ubuntu 18.04?
There seems to be a lot of firmware (TB18...) and BIOS updates. Is it mandatory to have windows in order to apply theses updates?
Salesperson told me Prosupport Plus provides support even when software and hardware haven't been installed by Dell. It seems far too good to be true...

Thanks in advance for reading this post and sharing your thoughts and knowledge!

 

@brazzmonkey, to answer some of your questions:

Undervolting - Another user has demonstrated undervolting which resulted in the CPU running at max turbo speed without throttling for an extended period of time. You can't undervolt in the BIOS. You'll have to use a third-party tool.
P2000 and 4K/60Hz: This should work fine, I'm running 3x 4K 60 Hz monitors on the P1000 without any trouble. (Two external plus the laptop display itself, graphics switching is turned off, though the Intel GPU can also handle this.)
RAM - If you can stomach the price of 2x32GB from Dell, that will leave you in the best position for future upgrades; At the moment I am not aware of 32GB modules available aftermarket anywhere but they should show up eventually
RAID - There is a hardware RAID controller, you can enable it in the BIOS and set up arrays with another pre-boot tool (available from the F12 boot screen I think); I see no reason why it wouldn't work with Linux, the RAID controller is from Intel which typically supports Linux well with drivers built into the kernel, can't say that I've tried it with Linux though

Dock - There are two main issues
1. Dock doesn't always deliver power to the system so you have to also plug in the AC adapter in addition to the dock cable. This won't matter with the TB16 because it can only deliver 130W to the system, you'll have to plug in the AC adapter no matter what to avoid throttling.
2. USB stuttering with keyboard/mouse attached to the dock. Actually I haven't heard anyone complaining about this under Linux (but there are much fewer of those users...). I haven't read of anyone who has tried the TB16 with this system, but I highly suspect that it will have the same problem, since it has the same USB controller inside. This issue can be resolved by disabling C states for the CPU in the BIOS, and hopefully we will get a better fix sooner or later...

External blu-ray burner: I have a USB Pioneer drive BDR-XD05S which works well. There is a newer model that looks the same but is black, that can read 4K/UHD discs.

BIOS updates from Linux - To install these, you will need to download the .exe file onto a flash drive (FAT32 formatted would be best I suppose), reboot the system, and press F12 to access the boot selection menu. In there is an option there to update the BIOS from a file stored on a flash drive. This is for the system BIOS, I don't know if it will work with updates for the dock firmware... Maybe it will, the flash procedure when executed from Windows seems to be very similar to a system BIOS flash.

The thing with warranty service and aftermarket hardware is, Dell will still support your system if you have aftermarket hardware installed. They have the option of requiring that you restore it to its original state so keep your original hardware around. They typically don't do this but they will if the tech thinks that there is a chance that your aftermarket hardware is causing the problem. Naturally they won't pay to fix problems with aftermarket hardware. They'll also do their best to support you if you do your own OS install (but I wouldn't be surprised if some techs aren't as familiar with Linux as they are with Windows).

Last thought - Do take a hard look at SATA-based M.2 drives for your 2 TB archive/backup drive. I got a 2 TB Samsung 860 EVO M.2 for around $450. Yeah, it costs a bit more than a hard drive, but it's way cheaper than an NVMe drive (and what Dell wants to charge you for a 2TB SSD) I think it might be worth it in order to have the larger battery installed.

 

Thanks Aaron.

OK. There seems to be such a utility for Linux, hope this works.

Indeed, I just noticed you actually mentioned it when starting this thread, I didn't remember, sorry.

OK, good to know. From my experience it used to be transparent in Linux: just set the RAID array, install OS and you're done. I will wait for SSD to become cheaper, though, plus I'm not sure RAID with SSDs actually provide any real-life benefits.

Both issues go against the very purpose of this TB18 dock: a single and quick connection... which is a shame considering the price.
And eventually there's not point in getting TB16 if it has the same issues. Prices are similar enough (there's a 240W version of TB16 - even more powerful than TB18, but I suppose it won't be able to deliver enough power to the laptop?).

Is it USB-powered?

OK, so this is OS-independent, then. Good.
I'm more concerned about TB18 firmware update, will try to look deeper into that.
*edit* TB18 firmware update needs a Windows or DOS environment...

Ok, so I guess this is what the salesperson meant.

Thanks for your hint. Would it be faster than a spinning drive for backups?

 

Should be quite a bit. 2.5" HDD might be around 100-120 mb/s. SATA SSDs around 500 mb/s and NVMe > 2000 mb/s. So even SATA SSDs can give you 4 to 5 times throughput compared to HDDs