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Aaron44126

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Everything posted by Aaron44126

  1. Aaron44126
    Realized the comparison of web price and rep price I gave above was off. The rep price I gave included sales tax but the web price did not. So, the discount is even greater. I saved around $1,400 (almost the price of the CAMM module!), close to 20%. Part of that was warranty savings. The rep matched a deal that I asked about which was active in June but not July, which gets you 5 years ProSupport (Plus) for the cost of 4. So, ask about that if you’re interested in extending the base warranty.
  2. Aaron44126
    Hopefully, CAMM becomes a standard and we get more manufacturers, places to order from, and competition. Right now, it's going to be inflated for sure 😕
  3. Aaron44126
    Just put my order in. Got the same price as before. (Well, up just a little because I did decide to go with 512GB SSD. I'll end up moving it to a different system.) Estimated ship August 2, estimated receipt August 5. (I hope they are early and not late. I am traveling starting August 7. I'd like to bring it with me, rather than have to wait for it if it arrives while I am gone. 😛 ) Also. I'm still using the Precision M6700 as my personal system, which I got at launch in 2012, and this Precision 7770 is replacing. August 9 would mark the ten-year anniversary since I received the M6700. Fun timing 🙂 Back to waiting. (Now to refresh the order details page an unreasonable amount of times every day to see when it advances to "in production".)
  4. Aaron44126
    That is the only one.
  5. Aaron44126
    Thanks for the quick reply. I'm still a little confused on the situation with the 256GB drive. Let me ask this — since it is a 2230 drive not not 2280 like the others, does it still ship with a M.2 extender and full-size 2280 heatsink covering it so that you could replace it with a 2280 drive later if you like? (I believe this is how last year's Precision 7X60 systems worked.)
  6. Aaron44126
    Regarding the online configurator... Europe seems to be blocking i9 orders, if you select the i9 CPU it will say that all of the available OS choices are incompatible. Assuming this will be fixed soon ...? (Doesn't seem to be a problem on the U.S. site.) If you order a system with the base 256GB SSD (M.2 2230) as the first drive, and try to add an additional SSD, it will complain that the 256GB SSD is not compatible with additional SSDs. Some questions follow: Why is this? Is there a practical/physical limitation? If a user orders the system with the base 256GB SSD, will the heatsinks & screws be included to install additional drives? Will it be possible to replace the 256GB SSD (2230) with a larger drive (2280)? Also if you try to fill out four drives in the Precision 7770, it will require you to upgrade the battery. Does the base battery occupy one of the M.2/NVMe slots? Also, can you share PL1/PL2 power limits for the CPU? Thanks!
  7. Aaron44126
    120Hz panel is only for the Precision 7770. My experience is that the reps can knock hundreds of dollars off of a high-end configuration. One month ago, I got a quote from a rep for i9/3080Ti/128GB RAM/etc. and 5-year ProSupport Plus and it came out to about $6,050. When I quote out the same spec on the U.S. web site right now, it is coming out to about $7,060. A little bit fudged since you can't select 3080Ti on the web site (I have selected A4500 in its place, price should be similar). So, yes, that's a >10% discount. I feel like they have wider latitude to lower the price on warranty upgrades than they might on actual hardware components. (Sort of speculating based on experience. Nothing hard to go on there.) So yes, for the best price, get in touch with a rep. Call the small business sales line, or you can just use the online chat if it is available in your market. When you get a quote, check it carefully to make sure that everything that you asked for is accounted for. I almost always have to get them to change something. I don't have a final price on a system to order today just yet. My quote from last month is expired. I'm waiting for a call back from my rep.
  8. Aaron44126
    Just noticed the U.S. site is showing July 27 estimated delivery for 7770.
  9. Aaron44126
    U.S. configurator pages are live. Going to call up a rep and try to order in about an hour, as soon as I am done with some work meetings... The U.S. configurator seems to show the proper price difference for each CPU choice and also allows you to select the i9 CPU. 128GB CAMM costs "only" $1,700.
  10. Aaron44126
    Not sure what is up with this, but if you leave the cheap base 256GB SSD in the configurator and then try to add an additional SSD, it will complain that the 256GB option is not compatible with additional drives. (Seems to happen with both systems.) I do not expect that there will be an issue adding drives if you order the system with the 256GB SSD, but this is making me a little bit apprehensive; I'm thinking about ordering a 512GB drive instead just to ward off any potential trouble. 256GB is 2230, but the other drives are 2280, maybe that has something to do with it. Precision 7760 with 256GB/2230 shipped with an "extender" and a regular 2280-size heatsink covering it, but this is not yet confirmed to be the case with 7X70. I'm going to see if I can get some official clarification on this (...but I'm not going to hold up my order while waiting). ...I'll be able to repurpose the a 512GB drive more easily than a 256GB anyway. Also, I noticed that Precision 7770 requires you to upgrade the battery if you fill out the system with four drives. (I wonder why that is...)
  11. Aaron44126
    There's always a tradeoff (size vs. performance)... Keep in mind that the actual % performance difference will be less than the % power difference. (Efficiency decreases as power use goes up.)
  12. Aaron44126
    @operator (and anyone else who has put in an order) What estimated delivery date are you getting?
  13. Aaron44126
    The U.S. pages for ordering/configuring these systems "exist" (detected for me by Feedly about two hours ago) but are currently broken/blank. https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/workstations-isv-certified/precision-7670-workstation/spd/precision-16-7670-laptop https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/workstations-isv-certified/precision-7770-workstation/spd/precision-17-7770-laptop Service manuals are live on the support site (no login required). https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/precision-16-7670-laptop/precision_7670_sm/working-inside-your-computer?guid=guid-dd3ae169-a824-4f1d-832e-585b176f6faf&lang=en-us https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/precision-17-7770-laptop/precision_7770_sm/working-inside-your-computer?guid=guid-dd3ae169-a824-4f1d-832e-585b176f6faf&lang=en-us Noticed that China is not showing the systems live either (again, I'd expect them to get it first...). Precision 7770 on the UK site has the same issue where you cannot select an i9 CPU. The cooling design is similar but "larger" in the 7770. @Dell-Mano_G previously gave these total limits for CPU/GPU power use combined. If top performance is your concern, you should look at 7770. All are concurrent CPU/GPU: 7670 thin: 109W, 7670 performance: 136W, 7770: 162W +1. It's annoying, but go through a sales rep, you'll have the most flexibility with regards to selecting a configuration, and a better price than what is shown on the web site. In many territories they have an online chat that you can use. You can certainly try ordering from a neighboring region site but I suspect that you'll be blocked when it comes time to enter your shipping address. (You could also try using the online sales rep chat function from a neighboring region, if yours does not have one, and see what they say.)
  14. Aaron44126
    It’s 5am in the US (Eastern time), I would expect launch by 11am, hopefully earlier but sometimes it goes that late.
  15. Aaron44126
    First and foremost, it sounds like you need to upgrade the GPU. Fortunately, Precision M6800 is pretty friendly for this. The easiest upgrade is Quadro M5000M or GeForce 980M. They are readily available on eBay and could offer around double performance compared to K5100M (and they are still getting driver updates from NVIDIA). Gotchas: You have to cut off a bit of the NVIDIA GPU heatsink due to different VRM placement on the Maxwell GPU cards, compared to Kepler. You have to perform a modification to the NVIDIA driver INF file in order to get it to install. (This is true with pretty much any "unsupported" NVIDIA laptop GPU upgrade.) This means doing something to get Windows to accept the driver with a digital signature that doesn't match (there are a few options to address this). Quadro P4000 or P5000 will take you a bit further but they have the added wrinkle of a vBIOS flash being required and Optimus also being required at all times (unless you have an eDP display panel). Also when I tried a P5000 in my M6700, I did get it working with the vBIOS flash, but I ended up with an unstable system (random BSOD once every few days) so I ended up getting rid of it and going back to M5000M.
  16. Aaron44126
    What I meant here is, all of the display options say WWAN next to them, which would presumably mean that they can accommodate WWAN antennas. (Even though they are not actually offering any WWAN cards…)
  17. Aaron44126
    They just show up in CrystalDiskInfo for me on Windows 10, just like the SATA drives. Maybe since Windows 7 needs a third-party NVMe driver, CrystalDiskInfo can't find them...?
  18. Aaron44126
    Hmm, I did not put in a zip code. I didn't see an option for it (that whole part of the right block was just blank). I was looking at the UK region. On the U.S. site, it typically shows you an estimated date as soon as you start configuring a system. That's a little bit later than I expected but still not bad. And Dell does usually beat their estimate. (But, when I put my order in on June 6, exactly one month ago, which ended up being cancelled, it showed an estimated ship date of July 5 and estimated receipt July 11.)
  19. Aaron44126
    Another interesting piece to the story that I forgot about. When Precision 7670/7770 was announced in April, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti was listed as one of the available GPUs. A number of tech news outlets made note of this when writing about the announcement. A few weeks later, Dell updated the spec sheet and removed mention of the GeForce GPU. (See page 7 of both PDFs.) It looks like these systems are going on sale tomorrow. Dell is still gearing up to sell the systems with the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti GPU as an option. It's listed in the support material and on the driver download pages. Users have been getting quotes with it included, but it's not listed on the web site where you can self-configure a system; you have to go through a sales rep to get it. This is also the same as it was with last year's Precision 7560 / 7760 (with GeForce RTX 3080). You had to go through a sales rep to get a GeForce in those systems as well. The difference is, in last year's systems, the GeForce GPU option launched a bit late and was never publicly mentioned and you had to know to ask for it. This time around, the GeForce GPU publicly disclosed in the initial announcement and then they attempted to remove that disclosure. I'm not sure what's up with the GeForce being a "secret" option in the Precision laptops. I'm wondering if it actually pressure or a requirement from NVIDIA that "workstations" only be offered with "pro-RTX" (previously "Quadro") GPUs, and Dell actually "got in trouble" so-to-speak for advertising the GeForce RTX 3080 Ti option and had to go and clean up those references as best they could. (All speculation on my part.) Still, there is some form of blessing from NVIDIA to include the GeForce GPU in these systems; NVIDIA has to provide the vBIOS and include the GPU+system ID in their drivers, after all...
  20. Aaron44126
    Sent an email to the rep I've been dealing with the most... got an out of office reply back, gone until July 10, of course... Despite the 55W TDP listed on the configuration page, the CPUs are not limited to 55W. That's just the base TDP. They can boost way higher than that. The HX CPUs top out at 157W (see chart in the very first post of this thread), but the OEM sets the actual power limit for each system. Dell has not yet published what the actual CPU power limits are for these systems, but they have stated combined CPU/GPU power limits. The power limit will depend more on which system(/chassis) you order more than which CPU model you order. Precision 7770 will get the best performance. "More cores" is still preferable even with the same power limit. With a good multi-threaded load spread out over more cores, each core will be operating at a lower power level, which is more efficient and will lead to more total work done in a given time period. However, I imagine the actual performance difference between i7-12850HX and i9-12950HX (both 8P+8E) will be pretty negligible in these systems. I'll also mention on the GPU front, because of the "low" power limit for these high-end GPU chips, RTX A4500 will probably perform almost the same as RTX A5500 and 3080Ti. A4500 will easily max out the GPU power limit. The bigger GPUs will benefit somewhat from being able to spread the load among more CUDA cores (slightly more efficient) but I'd be surprised if performance gain from one of the top GPUs over A4500 is more than 5%. Previously, there would be at least the VRAM boost to make upgrading to the top GPU maybe worth it, but since they all have 16GB now, I think it's going to be a tough sell to get a RTX A5500 at the price they're asking for. (Heck. A3000 12GB might be competitive with the top GPUs as well, if you don't need that extra 4GB VRAM. Especially in the 7670 where the power limit is even more constrained.)
  21. Aaron44126
    Windows 11 is also unavailable with the i9... must be a mistake. [Edit] Linux as well. You can't buy an i9! Ah ha. I just tried it and it popped a little alert saying "support & service price has also changed", so I wonder if they also bump up the warranty cost when you select a better CPU? Misleading...
  22. Aaron44126
    I'm going to ask one of the reps that I've been dealing with and see what they say. Maybe I can get a quote today so that I can just order first thing tomorrow morning. ...But this is a good sign, I think; just yesterday they were saying "no date yet", so with a date this close I think they'd be ready to hit it.
  23. Aaron44126
    Observations, messing around with the Dell Precision 7670 configuration page (UK version). CPU upgrades are cheap, why not get 12950HX? I almost wonder if it's worth it to Dell to have to deal with three different CPU/motherboard options. [Edit] Actually looks like they also up the warranty price when you select a better CPU, so it is not as cheap as it looks. Based on previous pricing, GeForce RTX 3080 Ti should cost only slightly more than RTX A4500. The GeForce option does not show on the web form. You have to go through a sales rep to get it. Upgrade to 128GB RAM (from base 16GB RAM) costs around $2,000 USD (about the same in GBP with the VAT factored in). SSD prices are still quite high as well, you can get a (good!) SSD aftermarket for around half of what they are asking. ...Somehow, an "additional" 4TB SSD costs about two thirds of what it costs to put one in the primary slot. For displays, it looks like there are only WLAN options. I wonder if that means that all of these systems will have the plastic antenna enclosure at the top of the display enclosure (rather than being all aluminum as the pictures show). A previous poster noted that you can't select WLAN and OLED at the same time. They appear to be offering it here. (That said, you cannot actually select a WLAN card to add in, they are not offering it yet.) I wonder if some of these are mislabeled. There appears to be at least one case of duplication, same text but different price. With the Wi-Fi/Bluetooth card now soldered onto the motherboard, I wonder how the "no Bluetooth" option that you can select actually works. Do they have a different motherboard version that has the Bluetooth capability disabled? More likely it is just a firmware/BIOS toggle that they'll do for you. As expected, if you try to configure the system with three SSDs, it forces you to upgrade the GPU to at least RTX A3000. ...And if you select the A3000 GPU or better, it forces you to pick the 240W PSU and 93Whr battery. I wonder why they don't just automatically select the PSU for you like they do with the chassis. Seems like no reason to use 240W PSU with thin chassis if the CPU+GPU power limit is below 110W (as according to @Dell-Mano_G earlier). Nothing seems to explicitly tell you if you will be getting the "thin chassis" or "performance chassis". (FYI: If you get A2000 or lower GPU, you will get the thin chassis. Thin chassis only supports two SSDs. If you think you might want to have three SSDs installed later, you need to pick the appropriate GPU now.) ...They're not showing an estimated ship date.
  24. Aaron44126
    Awesome. It's normal for the rollout of new models to take a few hours, so just check back in a bit. I was expecting China to launch first (just because of time zones) but it doesn't look like they have it yet. It's a bit early over here in the U.S. but I'll be keeping an eye on it throughout the morning... [Edit] I noticed that the Precision 7770 UK URL shows an empty page but does not error out so I'd assume it will be launching soon as well. (Several Precision 5000 models behaved like this during the April 19 rollout.) https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/cty/pdp/spd/precision-17-7770-laptop
  25. Aaron44126

    Ghost File

    Aaron44126 replied to Redneck_Randy's topic in Asus

    Get outside of the OS. Boot Windows recovery media or Windows install media, access the command prompt, and try to delete it from there. It shouldn't give you any issue.
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