Howard N

The lack of a 16:10 ration on the 17" precision laptops has made the use of the main screen nearly unworkable for me. I deal with it, but reading even my Outlook emails when the system is tedious and a major time waster. I has to attach a second portable tablet to get around the issue. I am hoping that the next generation does support the 16:10 format - otherwise my last Precision laptop I got will have been the last one I will purchase.

I just to say that without 2400 lines on the screen the use of outlook or spreadsheet work is so severely constrained for me as to be painful. There just isn't enough vertical real estate in outlook to show any number of lines and the body of a message to even scan the email to know that you want to open it. As a result, the workflow shifts from scanning the index and seeing enough of the email detail in the preview window to decide what is going on - to having to click and close one line at a time to do work. For spreadsheet the difference of an additional 50% (1600 x 1.5=2400) of vertical information is also massively important. The difference changes the usefulness of the laptop tremendously.

The 2400 rows are very important for mundane things like reading emails or just reading PDFs and looking at websites and spreadsheets without excessive scrolling. It is a critical limitation.

The 17.3 inch display does not show enough vertical lines of resolution. The 16 inch display has 2400 lines and as a result, I find the 17.3" (which I have) to be inadequate. I have always used the highest capacity Precision 77x0 laptops for many years, and when docked with two external screens they work great. However whenever I have to go on the road I find the vertical resolution limitation extremely crippling. If the next generation will have the extra resolution of the 76x0 models I can stay with Dell, otherwise I will be forced to find some kind of alternative solution.

Thanks for the link to that vacuum cooler video. I was thinking of some kind of device that includes an A/C component so that chilled air would be drawn through the base of the laptop - not just ambient air. I haven't seen anything yet that offers that. I was thinking that a chilled air supply through the base allowing for pulling cold air through the laptop input ports might allow for substantially better cooling if such an option existed.

Here is a crazy concept if you want to boost the performance. Does anyone offer an external cooling device (much like a micro air conditioner), that can port directly into the input opening vents of the laptop? I think the inputs are under the laptop, so a baffled base might work conveniently. That the fan would be pulling in cold air into the laptop when the fans run, and maybe that would solve the problem at minimal cost?

Is it possible that due to the power constraints and heat limitations that a system will perform for normal computations better with a lower end GPU ordered in the configuration?

Aaron. Thank you. Sorry to hear that though. My work around has always been to include a separate 12" iPad running Duet and it is linked via a cable as a dual monitor when traveling. When at home I dock the workstation and have two monitors attached with the laptop cover closed. One laptop is in horizontal mode (8k Dell UP3218k) and a second in vertical position which is a (4k Dell U2720Q). The combination works well.

I just joined the forum to ask this question. I have previously owned about 6 different precision workstation generations, the most recent is a 7750 which I am presently using. I am looking at the 7770 and a 7670. I would always go with the most built-up model based upon my particular needs and I am stuck with a problem between the two models. On the one hand, the 7770 is the most powerful - which I need for computation limited tasks and for major data requirements that I also have. On the other hand the maximum vertical resolution is presently greater on the 7670 at 3840x2400 pixels as compared to a maximum on the 7770 of 3840 x 2160. The extra 10% vertical resolution limits the benefits of upgrading. Does anyone know if the higher resolution UHD+ is going to be offered as an option on the 7770 in the future?