Dell 17r N7720 SE - user review

well.......i would instead replace the thermal paste............WAY WAY better choice.....

also....it give you a "real" result.........(cooling pad is just a temporary thing)
its not very hard.......its easier then you think..

you have a very good step by step here (even on Slovakia
http://www.dell.com/support/Manuals/sk/sk/sebsdt1/ServiceTag/7tp0ft1?s=BSD

 

edit.....erase this...double post

 

Nice review.

I own one but it doesnt have the Nvidia GPU, then again it is used for office work so yeah.

 

Thanks. Is that for the MSATA?

 

So mine has developed a hiss from the subwoofer (right hand side) on start up. Doing a search tells me this is a fault with their early batch of motherboards... anyone else had this issue? Apparently I'll have to get the motherboard replaced.

Also, sometimes when I move the screen it flashes white. Anyone had this? Could it be a loose connection somewhere?

 

yes...you must "build" right partition for the msata card to interact with your sleep mode function...otherwise Intel rapid tech driver wont work.

 

I've been using that one for a couple of months and love it, you can setup the fans to perfectly align with the hot components in your laptop (and cooling grate or w/e it's called), works really well. It's a lot more quiet than the previous one that I had (which broke) and does a better job at cooling. Using the laptop also remains comfortable. The only problem I have with it is that the USB adapter sits a bit loosely in my laptop but no no biggie really.

I also disagree with KSMB about the cooling pad, it's a great addition and definitely worth the money, especially if you play a game every now and then.

 

well....im not saying a cooling pad is crap......i said it not the best choice.............replacing the stock(cheap) thermal paste is a better choice (that what most hardcore gamers does around the world).

also remember the stock paste slowly dry and dry and dry........(and it also dry faster then high end paste)

............(so finally you have to replace the paste anyway IF you want great thermal conductive

 

Finally got that CoolerMaster u3 at home, Its really decent, quiet, unfortunatelly temps in games went down just a bit 5-7C max.

 

What kind of temperatures are you guys getting?

My CPU in idle is averaging around 60c more or less. Sometimes it dips into the 50's sometimes it goes into mid 60s. While gaming (only tried it for a short while) it went up into the 70s, sometimes 80s. I'm thinking of getting a laptop cooler, but not sure as to which one.

 

75-80C CPU and GPU while gaming 55-60 both iddle

 

this temp are normal....you dont need any cooling pad...thats for sure............(i play games about 1 hour in full 1080p with 2XAA and refresh rate at 120Hz, etc...and my GPU runs about 78C..........no problema

one of the best thing with good thermal paste is that the temps recover quicker and also stay cooler for a longer time then cheap paste.

 

I'm reeeeally nervous about re-doing the thermal paste. I gather it's quite straight forward if you have any experience taking PCs/Laptops apart, but by god it makes me nervous.

My GPU and CPU tend to run really cool, CPU idles just below 50. I played Empire Total War for a couple of hours and I don't think GPU reached around 65-70 and cpu about 55-65.

I haven't run exhaustive tests though so don't know how accurate that is.

 

the funn thing is that most people think laptop hardware/parts are EXTREMELY sensitive.............well, it isnt.

the motherboard is way more durable as you might think......the only "rule" i have is to "ground" myself one time before i lay my hands on the motherboard.........i just grab my radiator, thats it.

the places with HIGHEST static electric atmosphere is very dry areas ......for ex, Nevada desert (and so on).....its more then 50% chance to damage your motherboard with static electric in a extreme dry area.

 

Hey, guys. I've been reading this thread for a while now and I finally got my 7720 last night. I immediately installed a sandisk ssd and did a fresh install of windows 8. I installed all the drivers and got the NVidia 320.49 drivers and everything seemed to be working fine. My 3dMark11 scores are 2107, Graphics: 1890 Physics: 7368 Combined: 1745 I think these are within the expected levels but the problem I'm having is that my windows experience index is stuck at 5.9 and it says its because of my Desktop Graphics... I tried installing a new driver for the HD4000 but that didn't help. 5.9 seems rather low since I've been seeing everyone else with atleast a 7. Is there anything I can do abou this?

 

5.9 is LOW.............i get 7.2 on both graphics and gaming graphics

get rid of windows 8.................thats my tip :hi2:


ps...have you try "force" (with optimus) that only gt650M run the windows test ???
(i have the 120Hz gt650 chip....so i dont have this kind of issues..

 

I want to repaste, I just don't want to void the warranty just yet. I ordered that coolermaste u3 cooler for around $23 so I am going to see if that helps for the time being, later I imagine I will most definitely repaste. Well I suppose it will just be a paste, because I doubt they've done any "pasting" rather they probably have a little thermal "sheet" on there being as it's a mainstream consumer laptop.

I spent around 14 hours today trying to activate win 8.....the product key wouldn't show, I didn't know they embed them in the bios now...so I managed to discover it, than microsoft said it was "invalid." Talked with Best buy, microsoft, geek squad, dell, and guru aid and none of them could help at all. Microsoft blamed dell, dell blamed best buy and best buy blamed both of them.

 

I followed your first tip and just installed windows 7 instead. Thanks I've gone up to a 7.1. You said something that I find interesting though, when you said I should try "forcing" windows to use the gt650m. How would I do that exactly?

 

perfect.............as you see windows 8 is not 100% working........... (and it will never be in my eyes, because of Metro)

i dont have "Optimus" as you, however i can manual change the GPU as you see on the image through Physx

try go inside Nvidia control center and you probably see Optimus and there change the GPUs..................

 

I've been playing around with overclocking using Nvidia inspector, and then using afterburner to monitor the results... According to Afterburner my clock is maxing at 745, so for whatever reason, the overclock isn't taking.

Now, I'm new to this so maybe I'm doing something wrong. In Nvidia inspectior I have Performance level 0, 1, and 2, which correspond to pstate to 8, 5, and 0 respectively. What one of those should I be applying the overclock to? I've been doing it for 0 (performance level 2). Is that correct?

I've bumped the clock speed up by +135. The mem I've pushed up by +200. Then I click 'Apply clocks and voltage'.

I then run a benchmakr, play a game etc... and in afterburner it still only shows the clock hitting 745 max. Is that right? I'm utterly baffled.

Temps hit a max of 65.

 

double post

 

when i OCed my first motherboard/gpu i had bios a03 and driver 307.07.....i got best result that way............then i run 3dmark (or check my fps in games) to "see" right performance with MSI afterburner........

so......restart the PC..... OC the core +70Mhz and the memory +100Mhz with msi afterburner............then run 3dmark11 and see your scores and temp

i reach up to 2800-3000 in 3dmark 11 with high OC...........BUT you really need good thermal paste to be safe...or a cooling pad.

 

You really want to rely on a MICROSOFT arbitary measurement of performance the WEI?

 

I tried it & it seems OK, not sure what it adds though?

 

Yeah, but on the MSI graph thing, I should see the clock go above 745 right? Even when I OC using MSI it still never goes above 745.

 

yes....but like i said what bios do you have ???

 

Sounds like you're experiencing the well known OC bug (it's been described to death, but to save you from reading through this thread, when you disconnect the adapter and let the laptop run on battery, it disables any GPU overclocking beyond 745MHz, even if you then re-connect the PSU, reboot, etc. you're still stuck on 745MHz. The fix is to shut down, pull out the battery, put battery back in, reconnect PSU, boot up. Voila, you can now OC to 835MHz. I believe you can also trigger this bug by running both the CPU and GPU too hot, hence why a lot of people run their CPU on 99% in Windows power settings, this disables the CPU turbo and should prevent the OC lock from occuring). Give it a shot and report back if you're still having issues.

 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Why spend time figuring out how to max the WEI score? Or better yet, reinstalling the OS just to see if you get a better score? Waste of time, IMO. My guess what happened is, under Windows 8, the performance test is being run against the integrated Intel gpu, while under Win7 it picked the NVIDIA, hence the difference in scores...it's got no impact on performance in applications any way, so why bother?

 

Oh, also wanted to mention, I've been running the latest nVidia drivers, 320.49 WHQL, for two weeks now, and it's rock stable for me on Win7 64bit. Currently playing through Deus Ex:HR and the latest Mortal Kombat, full eye-candy at 1080p, and absolutely no hick-ups, smooth as butter. Give them a shot if you're still on older drivers.

 

why i asking about bios is because (A12 for example) have more issues to stay with set OC clock against A03 or A10.....havnt tried OC with A15...cant say there.

 

A14

I thought about that but I never ever ever run it on battery, it's always plugged in. I'll try pulling out the battery and trying again. Is that the only fix? That's proper mental.

Also, I've already applied those power settings to stop the boost thing (although my minimum and maximum are both set to 100% rather than 99 - does that make a difference?).

 

Anybody else think that the build quality of this laptop is horrible? I am definitely enjoying this laptop, and I really got it because I managed to buy it for $390 usd, and its retail value was some $900. However the quality is atrocious. It is my first laptop, and I've always been a desktop individual (building them) but still. The keyboard is a thin plastic that pushes in very easily, the optical drive DVD is flimsy as can be. The flex is absurd, somewhat understandable as it's 17" I suppose, but I think this amount of flex is a bit much.

So all in all for $390 alright, I'm ok with it....but anybody who would have payed $700 and up for this I really don't comprehend.

 

Yeah it's a bit plasticy for my tastes. You'd be horrified by how much these cost in the UK.

 

you dont need to take the battery off...(completely unnecessary)......just turn the PC OFF....unplug/replug the cable.....DONE !

i could OC without doing this....but like i said...that what with bios A03.

ps...about the quality.....yes and no

but keep in mind.......
which laptop (right now in the world) give you a gt650m gddr5, i7, msata function. 2 HDD. 130W adapter. true life 120Hz screen, bluray drive.....and 1 year "next day support".......for £1000

same cpu and gpu but with 1 HDD (no msata) and with the standard matte screen cost right now: £750.......thats freaking cheap

 

The battery trick worked! I had previously switched it off and turned the power off so removing the battery bizarrely seems key.

Got 2669 on 3d mark 11, so a +500 result. Hit a temp high of 70, which ain't bad at all.

 

you dont need to remove the battery,.....................just turn the pc off...unplug/replug the cable....start pc.

does the exact same thing

 

Hey guys,

Just got Inspiron 17r Turbo (FHD) with Windows 8.

Can you guys please tell me how to Install Windows 7 on it. I already have a Windows 7 dvd Enterprise Edition.

Thanks

 

well.........it isnt that hard........everything is about if you have a 17R SE with Msata or not

windows install with Msata SSD:
download intel rapid storage driver from DELL.com..........extract the driver and put it on C: (just somewhere) or put it on a USB stick.....

then when you reboot with your windows CD.......you come to a point where you choose "select driver"....browse to the extract X64 driver and press OK.............then proceed with the windows installation..
...........if you not do this you will never get the windows installation fully working because your SATA operation is not set right.

windows install without Msata SSD:
reboot with windows CD.....proceed as normal

here how the intel rapid storage driver should look like after you extract it:

 

Wow, £1,000 that's just absurd. Like I said, I bought this laptop because I managed to (rather dubiously) grab it for just $390 USD. (Gods bless the states based soley upon the fact that technology is cheaper....I haven't been here in quite some time, nor am I from here so I know what you both mean.) But I would never pay £1000 for this.....I'd probably spend a bit more and go with a decent sager. I payed around £254 then....I suppose I just about stole it than.

 

Dude, you've been here since the start of this thread, you of all people should know that yes, removing the battery is the fix. I'm on the A03 bios as well and it's the same, so unless you alone have a special BIOS where this is mysteriously fixed.. but why do I even bother...

 

Yeah, that's quite a bargain you got there. I've paid £630 for mine, a year ago, and that was a decent deal at the time, compared to what was on the market at the time with similar specs.

 

i doubt he got a brand new for $390........refurbish i say........
second...i also doubt he has the 120Hz true life screen for $390....( as i said, without that screen...it only cost $700 something brand new)


realg.......
you dont have to remove the battery. (clear ?)............me and a lot of people have got clean/staying 835Mhz turbo boost on the GPU without remove the battery.............turn the pc off.....unplug/replug the cable...start the pc.......

cant be that hard to understand.....even for you.....(i can upload a video with a step by step guide and maybe it sink in :thumbsup

 

It never worked for me either without removing battery. I need to 1. shut down 2. remove power cord 3. remove battery 4. insert battery 5. insert power cord. 6. turn on laptop then i get 835 again.

 

I am currently using a laptop cooler as well. The cooler master u3, and I think it's dropped my average temps down maybe 5c or so. Not a huge difference, but something. Although I notice that my motherboard temp is around the same...it stays at around 60c while browsing etc...is this normal that the motherboard itself is hotter than the cpu?

 

M$oft changed the max values for WEI between W7 & W8 I believe, as PCs got more powerful & WEI scores were getting too high even on mid-range PCs (like my old XPS 15). I run WEI on first OS install, but that's it. I think my PC gets over 7 on all scores under W8 Pro? Obviously, there are better BenchMark & Performance tests out there that will give you meaningful results & allow you spot differences when you change the H/W, etc. WEI is just a quick/dirty method of roughly comparing PC specs for the masses - so give it all the consideration that deserves.

 

When installing W7 over W8 pre-installed, you may have to change the BIOS settings to boot in Legacy mode prior to doing a full install of the old OS, this will depend on what BIOS you get & how it was setup. There are some great (unofficial) step-by-step tutorials on the Dell & MS Support forms. I woul read-up/prepare carefully fist & keep a backup of your old system just in case...

 

BTW a quick (and maybe risky?) way how to fix the boost is to download the bios you're using and reinstall it. It takes a reboot but you don't need to remove the battery, just bear in mind that removing the power cable will break it again.

 

Are you sure they changed the values in Win8? I know they capped the values at 7.9 for Win7, so I was expecting them to just extend the range further, that way you could still sort of compare the old and new hardware... But I agree, there are better benchmarks if you want a more accurate result.

 

Yeah, that's a pretty risky way of doing it... every time you flash the bios, there is a short period where the risk is pretty high, if anything goes wrong (power outage, bad ram, bit flip somewhere due to cosmic rays...) you've pretty much bricked the laptop...sure, DELL would probably cover it under warranty, but still not worth the hassle IMO. Pulling the battery is a much safer option.

 

I just installed a new LCD screen in my laptop (LG LP173WF1(TL)(B3). It should be 1920x1080, but the resolution will not go above 1600x900. I know this swap has been done successfully before. Any ideas why I am stuck at the lower resolution? The new monitor does show up in device manager.