Dell 17r N7720 SE - user review

how much extra does a True life screen cost (refurbished) on DELL outlet ??

 

No idea. There were a few top of the range 7720s some time ago going for about £750, if I remember correctly. The regular price was £1200, so nearly 40% off.

 

I see dell US changed their inspiron 17r se to have windows 8... I wanted windows 7. But it seems to have a different processor now. Is it better than the one that was with the windows 7 version of the laptop?

 

Slightly better ...

 

hardly no difference............though you get the non user friendly win8......i would call DELL and order with win 7 instead.

who in Hell want Metro ?????

 

Who the heck want 3D screen?

 

Me, I want both

Bought one of the 7720 SE 3D refurbished models off the outlet store a week ago. Cost £750 and came in perfect condition. No dead pixels or scratches.

Didn't come with 3D glasses but I picked up a compatible set from Maplins for £20. Work perfectly.

Came with Windows 7 but I took the offer of an upgrade for £14.99 to Windows 8 Pro and then the free Media Centre pack.

So far the machine is perfect for what I need.

 

do bluerays work you? i can´t even burn cds/dvds anymore. the generic driver from microsoft is utter crap and i can´t even installt that driver provided by dell, cus the id/name was changed for my drive -.-
really ed up situation

 

My Inspiron 7720 (17r se) which I recieved last week has the bios (A10) for the 17r installed in it. When I go the drivers and downloads page for my 7720 it says the latest bios for my system is is A08. Am I losing any functionality by running the bios for the regular 17r? I've been a Mac guy all my life being a designer and photographer and this is my first pc... any input appreciated.
Wade

 

I have a problem you guys might be able to help with.I reported a while back I was getting BSOD, well it was continuing to happen, so I decided to try and remove the caching on the msata drive and chose 'deactivate acceleration'. Now whenever i boot up I get the BSOD and it fails to boot windows. It gives me the option to try repairs but this does not help. I tried to restore and this did not work. I went into the BIOs and tried to change the rapid technology setting to ACHI and ATA and this did not help. Any other ideas? I have a backup restore on a usb stick, how do I invoke that as a last resort?

I dont want to lose data I have on my second drive, how do I restore and avoid losing data?

 

jimmy...............i would do a clean reinstall of Windows..........

if you just do a normal windows install on C: your D: will stay fine (no loose of data)...with other words you just formate C:

 

How do i reformat C? I cannot enter safe mode, cannot do anything, no options work at the moment.

I dont have a win CD set with me, only the backup USB performed by the system to a usb stick

OK I had to set my BIOS to ATA, boot from the USB stick, and then try and restore from the dell datasafe local backup. I saved what i could from the c drive, luckily I always saved files to my D drive. It is now in the process of formating c and setting it back to factory. Without setting to ATA it wass impossible to get passed the BSOD.

This may not resokve it long term as I think the issue is related to the crap software dell installs with the PC. I will have to do a clean install at some point but need original cds for that.

OK I restored it, the c was formatted and it has not fixed the problem, still getting BSOD on bootup. Im outta ideas, could be a phone call to Dell. Any ideas?

 

Yes. Call DELL and let them replace the motherboard. If you still get bsod after formate C: (proper install of windows) and all drivers are OK inside device manager (no yellow question marks) i would replace the mobo.

I replaced my mobo myself on an older inspiron. ( no warranty left) and it fixed the bsod

 

I tried running the restore function again and now i have lost everything on D, it confused this drive with c. Now i have a dead laptop and no data.

 

i dont know what you did ?

how could you loose all data on D: (i have 2 hard drives...so as you...and D: i never touch).

C: programs/apps, windows & installed games

D: movies, songs, documents, drivers......and so on.

here you have guys............latest Intel drivers (by Intel).........including...chip, audio, wireless....and so on...........

OBS, DELL drivers are not as new as this)

link: (just run Intel® Driver Update Utility ..and woops, you see which drivers to update...very good
http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/detect/

 

On my 7720, the Fn Sound buttons do not work while I'm on youtube while playing a video. I have to either pause the video or go to another page to change the sound levels. Anyone else have this issue? It's not horrible or anything, but can be quite annoying...

 

all 3 buttons works fine here..............i use A03 bios and latest quickset driver.

 

SOA#1. Could it be that YT takes over multimedia keys control from Quickset? That happens in Media Player Classic HC in my case (can turn it off, though).

It looks like Dell fixed Mobility Centre button in the latest Quickset. Updating may fix the issue.

 

I just updated to the latest quickset software and that seems to have solved the problem.

 

Im just checking in but how has the gpu clocking issue been for people? I havent heard any complaints in a while now. Has that cpu at 99% thing fixed the gpu throttle for everyone?

 

It's been fine for me. Before firing up a game, I switch to a tweaked "gaming" power profile (higher screen brightness than usual, min and max cpu at 99%, active cooling policy, etc...) and have not experienced the bug since. But then again, no game I have has yet pushed the GPU beyond 80C, so I doubt the GPU clock would lock itself anyway.. For the record, have OC'd the GPU with MSI Afterburner to 885MHz (+50Mhz) and temps went up from ~73C to ~78C (and + 5-7 fps). So there is still room for more, if needed. I must say, a pretty decent gaming laptop this 7720.

 

What cooling pad do you recommend and what driver is the best for gaming performance=?

 

Can anyone get windows memory Diagnostics to work your dell Inspiron 7720 se
I am not able to get it to load into the program I only get a black screen.

 

Nice! Can't wait for X-mas

 

a friend to my bought the new 7720 (arrived 2 days ago)...he took the most expensive one (he got 2 x 5400rpm hard drives ?? (no 7200rpm hard drives and no bluray any more).

he complained a bit that the screen had a bit washed out colour saturation, (he have the FHD AG (matte) screen.

what screen id do you guys with the AG (matte) screen has ???? (he called Dell and asked them if there is any possibility to change the screen....DELL said there is just one AG FHD screen to 7720.

 

Hey guys, just an update on my 7720 BSOD crash.

My laptop crashed on Friday night, so I tried to recover the PC, and restore C: drive. It did not work the first time so tried to run it again using the standard recovery process. When I ran it the second time, the recovery software understood my second drive as the primary drive, and wiped it, so I lost all my data, luckily I had most of my data backed up.

I located Win 7 CD and tried several times to install a clean instance. This worked fine but the first time <i could not see my sedonary drive when I installed Intel RST. I had to install again and select the alternative drive and then I could see all drives. The drives would not appear in disk manager, windows explorer but could be seen in Intel RST interface, and it was showing drive risks.

My laptop now has all drives displaying OK, but whenever I set Intel RST in the Bios, I get BSOD. I now have to run the machine in AHCI and UEFI settings to be able to log into windows. Intel RST does not show accelerator option to allocate caching.

I am at the point where i am going to gie up on Intel RST because this was the cause of my BSODs throughout my crash event. I am considering just buyinfg a new mSATA, loading the operating system on that and forgetting about caching.

 

I've got LGD02DA, which appears to be the same as LG panel used in Alienware M17 R4, although with AG coating. Colours are vivid and crisp. I have heard that 7720 is also supplied with Chi Mei CMN1720 panel used in MSI GE70, Samsung 700Z7C and Asus G75VW (non-3D). The latter has better contrast, but slightly smaller colour gamut.

 

I have just checked the brightness/contrast again. The faulty 7720 I had to return to the factory had Chi Mei panel that measured 800:1 contrast ratio at full brightness. LG fares a bit worse at 600:1 at full brightness and only about 400:1 at minimum. Maximum brightness of both panels is pretty much the same, but Chi Mei offers deeper black level.

 

JIMMY.......................AS I SAID BEFORE. (if you have done a clean windows install and all drivers OK and still get BSOD....you should call DELL.


bladteth.....................Alienware m17X does not use matte screens !

 

i have the CMI one and i find it really nice.

 

Have you read through the dedicated thread on using the msata as a normal hard drive? There seems to be a pretty complicated process of enabling and disabling BIOS settings, taking out disks and putting them back, etc. to get everything up and running. Also, have you by any chance played around with the amount of RAM in your system? The number one cause for msata problems (and possibly the reason why Dell will not officially support 16gigs of RAM) seems to be changing the amount of RAM without disabling the msata caching first, and then reconfiguring it afterwards.

On the other hand, why not just call Dell and have them fix it?

 

Screen ID is the same and according to my basic measurements, the panel's parameters are pretty much identical to NBC review of M17x R4. I suppose the only difference is the coating applied in final stage of production.

 

Its 2 seperate screens. Alienware m17x screen has higher colour gamut, so as viewing angles

 

Source, please?

 

It cannot be the same. After all KSMB payed 200 euro for the marvelous true life screen. Don't you ever try to imply that he payed that amount of money only for some shiny finish to his screen
IT has to be Light Years Better

/sarcasm off

 

For Wifi Surfing what is the battery life with viewable brightness ??

 

I'm getting around 3 - 3.5 hours real life use at 30% brightness (enough for daylight indoor work). At full blast I reckon the battery life would be reduced by about 0.5 hour tops.

 

So you get 3 - 3.5 hrs even with Wi - Fi on ? How long is it with a movie ?

 

sitting and watching the screen with 30% brightness.........WOW..... thats a real Saturday night.:hi2:

17" laptops has no longer battery lifetime........but, Dell Inspiron 17R with its 9-cell has 7:15 hours..........thats one of the best 17" on the market actually

1+ Rep to DELL there

top 1 is:
Lenovo ThinkPad X220 (20:18 hours)...............12"

follow by:
Lenovo ThinkPad T420 (10:36 hours)...............14"

im very happy with 7720................
not many £1000-laptops you can play Hardcore games in 1080p with extremely nice flow and with a temp below 70C... (just some year ago you had to buy a desktop or a £2500 laptop for this games)

i did a little research........i found NON laptop in this price range who have all this candy (msata3, high end card gt650, 2 x 7200rpm, real QUAD Core i7, 8GB 1600MHz, awesome TN screen with great response time..................and so on

ps...after i updated my wifi and chip (from Intel website) i have better reception and everything......just a tip !

 

So Why the hell didn't Dell make a 9 cell battery for 17r SE ?
-1 to Dell on that

 

they will manufacture a 9-cell soon, (DELL make 9-cell to models who sells very good (such as 17R, sxps 16....and so on)................(it nearly just pure XPS & Precision models who have 9-cell from start)

they wait until they see a 9-cell battery "pay itself"....then they produce it.

 

NBC just tested NFS Most Wanted:

Need for Speed: Most Wanted Benchmarked - Notebookcheck.net Reviews

Looks like 650M will struggle at FHD and everything on high, but should be fine at slightly lower resolution or details.

 

Im guessing that benchmark is with the gpus stock speed so there is still a possibility of getting around the higher 20s to maybe lower 30s if you overclock enough without tripping the throttle from heat.

 

In FHD/high, no, I don't think so. Moderately overclocked 650M could overtake 660M and reach 570M performance. Even with extreme settings, it may be able to scratch 670M and that card managed "only" 25 fps. To be able to fully enjoy the game, you will need high end GPU.

 

Gt650 handle nfs fine. If a gpu run crysis 2 (with all high shader effects) it handle most games 2012. The thing is that nfs is not very good optimized. Thats it

 

So the GT650m handles NFS well..only it doesn't, because it's not well optimised...... OK..... thanks for sharing that thought

 

I still think there is a possibility of tweaking enough things to make this work in FHD. Usually, I find that settings like shadow quality (especially in a game like this, using tons of motion blur, bloom and other fx) can be turned down a bit without much visual impact. Same with AA, it's pretty GPU intensive, and is usually one of the first things on my list to go when I need a few more fps.... with a slight OC, you might just get to a usable fps rate.

 

Agreed. I found this website quite useful in tweaking game settings:

TweakGuides.com

 

Nfs mw is based on the frostbite 2 engine, the same engine used by bf3.

It's nothing to be ashamed of that 650m can't run it on max

 

Is it worth to order this laptop with the 3D screen? The 3D screen is glossy or also mate?

And if you hadn't to worry about the price, which one would you choose for multimedia and some gaming, this Inspiron or Alienware M17x R4? I see that this Inspiron has a nice mate screen and a subwoofer, whereas the Alienware screen is full of reflections and does not have a subwoofer. Which one has a better image and sound quality?