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Aaron44126

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Everything posted by Aaron44126

  1. Aaron44126
    Hmm. Dell's fiscal quarter actually ends at the end of July. (Their announcement said that they'd have these systems out during FY2Q, and they have a whole month to go to hit that.) They've been reasonably upfront about the challenges getting validation systems out on time in light of the China COVID from some weeks back. (...As upfront as you could expect Dell to be, anyway.) Even if they are sitting on the parts inventory to start building (which I believe that they are), they can't actually start selling the systems until they pass ISV validation/certification — something that is not required for the gaming Alder Lake HX systems that are starting to drop.
  2. Aaron44126
    I went to chat with a Japanese rep (...because Japan is the "earliest" time zone I could think of, it's already June 21 business hours over there). I got this update on Precision 7770 availability. 大変お待たせいたしました。Precision 7770は本日発売予定でしたが、大変申し訳ございませんが延期となり、6/24に発売開始となります。 Sorry to keep you waiting. Precision 7770 was scheduled to be released today, but we are very sorry but it has been postponed and will be released on June 24th. Friday release? Interesting. (Not a sure thing that it will release on exactly the same day in every market.)
  3. Aaron44126
    I agree. S3 is nice because the system doesn't consume much power (...could last on battery for multiple days...) and yet it wakes in a few seconds with everything still running where it left off. This modern/S0 kind of sits at a "what's the point?" level to me.
  4. Aaron44126
    So, it is "modern standby" and not S3 sleep like prior systems have. Do the fans operate while it is "asleep"? Does it look like the system is still doing things in the background (i.e. generating Windows event log entries)? I have not messed with "modern standby" myself, I always use hibernate in the odd case that I need to drive somewhere with the laptop. But I have heard a lot of complaints about "modern standby" and wishes that S3 sleep would also be supported...
  5. Aaron44126
    One of my reps just wrote me back and says that the Precision 7770 launch is still set for tomorrow, June 21. (I have not asked anyone about 7670.) Hmmmmmm. "I'll believe it when I see it" is what I want to say at this point, but tentative "good news" I suppose. @operator You are looking at Precision 7670, right? (I saw your post earlier about trying to configure it with WWAN+OLED.) We may well be looking at the systems launching on two different days.
  6. Aaron44126
    Looking at the Precision 7670 service manual, which seems to be available to browse again. Let's compare 7670 and 7770 GPU cards! Clearly they are different, but it looks like there is potential that you could install a 7670 GPU card in a 7770. The screw positions and DGFF connector positions appear to be the same. The heatsink attachment points are not the same, though... so there would have to be a version of the 7770 heatsink that accepts the smaller GPU card. Also. It looks like the reason that you lose an NVMe slot in the Precision 7670 "thin chassis" is because the battery actually takes up the space of one of the NVMe slots on the bottom. (The NVMe connector is still present on the board, you just can't fit a drive there.)
  7. Aaron44126
    Sent a message to two different reps that I have been working with (one U.S. and one not), haven't heard anything back yet. Dell just posted an NVIDIA driver update, version 512.36, for Precision 7X10-7X60 — every model that features an NVIDIA GPU which is still supported (Maxwell and up). Looking at the nvdm.inf file in the driver package, the Precision 7X70 GPUs (A5500, 3080Ti, etc.) are also supported by this driver. They released version 512.18 on May 18, 33 days ago, which also supports the 7X70 GPUs. Not sure if this "means anything" necessarily but a one-month turnaround for an NVIDIA driver update from Dell is unusual. (Drivers from NVIDIA's website still do not support the 7X70 GPUs.) Dell seems to be fond of Tuesday/Thursday product launches so the 23rd is likely the only likely chance for an "earlier" 7770 launch. I'm going to be traveling for a bit in August so I'll have to have packages held, I didn't think the Precision 7770 was in danger of arriving during that timeframe but now we are getting there. 😛 (Doesn't matter to be anyone else, but I'll just be bummed if the laptop delivery is pushed out even more because of my own travel timing.) If the system does launch on/by June 28, then I think receipt around the end of July would be possible.
  8. Aaron44126
    First I've heard of this but it does not surprise me at all. I'll touch base with a couple of reps and see what they say. But, if the launch is happening tomorrow, we'd probably be seeing signs within the next few hours, like the actual support page going live.
  9. Aaron44126
    It's not just laptops. For example, I know that Quadro T1000 and T2000 MXM cards were showing up in mini form factor PCs from some brand that no one has ever heard of — someone grabbed one of those and successfully upgraded a Precision M4800. They could also land in servers and just be used for GPU processing (used to find NVIDIA Tesla MXM cards from those types of systems). But yeah, I have no idea what products these A4500's will show up in, I can't imagine PNY will have that many sales. But it's a pro GPU and not a GeForce, so they'd be aiming for organizations with deeper pockets. It seems that the only way to source MXM cards for upgrades is to rely on someone else's leftovers (it was mostly that way even before MXM died off).
  10. Aaron44126
    PNY has never sold MXM cards directly to individuals as far as I know. (That would be a pretty small market...) Their target market is companies that want to use the cards in their products. I'm sure there's some cost to getting a production line set up which is why they have a minimum requirement on how many you can buy at once.
  11. Aaron44126
    If all you want to do is change the thermal profile (optimized/cool/quiet/performance), you can use Dell Fan Management (see sig).
  12. Aaron44126
    One thing I like about using Google Maps for navigation is its use of traffic data to select the appropriate route based on current conditions. Does Maps.me/OSM have any/decent traffic integration?
  13. Aaron44126
    I have also noticed that dusty fans definitely impact cooling performance. it's probably worse if the fans are running constantly. (...People who run light office workloads a lot of the time probably have the fans off more than they are on.) I have set myself an alert to clean the fans out every four months. I'm also using Storage Spaces on my M6700. It works but it has its oddities for sure, especially if you use it with ReFS and/or multiple volumes. (It seems very hard to convince it to free up space in the pool from the volumes sometimes, if you have deleted files or moved stuff from one volume to another.) On my inbound 7770 I am planning to ditch Storage Spaces and just try using the Intel Rapid Storage RAID, with all of the drives (aside from the OS drive) in a giant RAID 0 array.
  14. Aaron44126
    If you ordered a Precision 7670, the order will be canceled and you will have to re-order. (My own order was canceled about four days after I placed it.) There have been multiple (private/directed-to-individual) communications from Dell about this. The systems are not ready to order yet and any orders going through are an error on Dell's part. The current tentative ready-to-order date is June 21. At least you'll be able to get GeForce now if you want it 🙂. It's a "semi-secret" configuration option for some reason. No SATA support in this system at all. Even SATA M.2 drives will not work. I guess this is not fully confirmed until someone actually tries it, but I would be very surprised to find SATA support, and there will definitely not be an option to install a 2.5" SATA drive. Dell has been consistently moving these systems away from SATA. The last system that supported 2.5" SATA was Precision 7X40 (2019) and it required selecting a smaller battery. Precision 7X50 (2020) supports M.2 SATA in some slots (for M.2 SSDs) but did not have a 2.5" drive bay option to mount a HDD; Precision 7X60 (2021) does not support SATA at all. Thanks. I understand that this is a pretty robust tool but I have never used it. I need to take the time to figure it out at some point... ... Also I realized that I didn't check to see how different-looking the DGFF GPU cards are between the 7670 and 7770 while the service manual pages were available. (I focused solely on the 7770.) They could potentially be interchangeable (but I doubt it). We'll have to wait a few more days to find out.
  15. Aaron44126
    Here it is. All of the NBRCHIVE attachments are present, they were just renamed "index.html" as part of the archive process (on my list to fix up... eventually). Using "Save as" and naming them appropriately will get you the file. Anyway, thank you for digging these up. These vBIOS images are valuable for anyone looking to upgrade Precision M6700 or M6800 with a Pascal GPU. HP.RTX3000.zip * Added @TheQuentincc's post to the "Precision key posts" page under GPU upgrades.
  16. Aaron44126
    I'll note that while CE and +/- are "aliased" keys, the actual calculator key is an actual distinct "application key" which can be remapped without messing up any other keys. (Kind of surprised if most Linux DEs don't already recognize it to bring up the calculator...) I am definitely not defending Dell's keyboard layout, but I have found it to be workable with some remapping and I suspect others will as well. (I'm writing this from a Precision 7560, which has the same troubled layout.) I'm going to write up a detailed post on this at some point with some options and illustrations, but basically what I have settled on is: Fn lock off (F1-F12 keys work without pressing Fn; Fn required for secondary functions like volume control) F11 → Home F12 → End This allows me to use the "Home" and "End" keys as labeled, but F11 and F12 become unavailable. Insert → F11 Calc → F12 ...Restoring access to F11 and F12 keys in sort of the same position. Home → Calc End → Insert This allows accessing Calc and Insert key functions with Fn+F11 and Fn+F12 ("just in case" I need them). Right alt → PgUp Right ctrl → PgDn I found that I never use the right alt and ctrl keys, and past (good) Precision keyboard layouts had the PgUp and PgDn keys right next to the arrow keys, so this was actually really easy to get used to. On Windows you can do remaps with SharpKeys or MS PowerToys. Each has some pros and cons. PowerToys is better if you are going to switch between the built-in keyboard and an external keyboard, as you can quickly switch the remappings on and off. (I would assume that there are remapping functions available on Linux too but I have no idea what they are.) ...Also, you have the option of just turning off "num lock" and then all of the problem keys are available right on the numpad. (I wonder if this is what Dell is assuming that people will do if they need these keys...)
  17. Aaron44126
    Dell does have a page with details on where the package repos are and stuff. (https://linux.dell.com/) I feel like I stumbled across another page that was more useful than this one, I'll see if I can dig it up... Not sure about this yet but Dell has been moving towards being able to remove the fans without having to remove the whole heatsink, so that's nice. But keyboard will be an issue for sure. Dell will be making CAMM modules available separately to use as upgrades (but as long as they are the only source, I can't imagine prices being "competitive").
  18. Aaron44126
    Man, this phone tree thing... Like yesterday, it's still disconnecting me if I try to get to small business sales. So, rather than "speaking" to the automatic phone bot thing, I tried waiting it out until it finally gave me numbers to choose from. Press 2 for business sales? OK. ...After pressing 2, it told me that the department that I am calling is closed and to call back on the next business day... I filled out the web form to request a sales callback. We'll see if that does anything. How hard is it to just talk to somebody 😛 [Edit] Managed to find a number to call that got me through on the phone to an actual U.S. small business rep, and it seems they they are not able to quote these at the moment either, but at least I have a contact point for when these actually go live then. (I'd be pretty frustrated if launch day came around and I was having issues even getting someone on the phone...) (I did also try reaching a rep from previous a engagement, ordered some XPS systems through him late last year, but he's not there anymore. Not really surprised, sales seems like it would have reasonably high turnover.) [Edit 2] I wonder if the small business sales arm can't do quotes but bigger ones (medium/large business) can. Not going to try to go up the chain any higher, though.
  19. Aaron44126
    Coolest thing I've seen today... https://www.theverge.com/2022/6/16/23170696/pc-hardware-orchestra-floppy-disk-drive-floppotron-3 http://silent.org.pl/home/2022/06/13/the-floppotron-3-0/
  20. Aaron44126
    You can order Precision 7670 with GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. It will require the performance chassis. This option will likely not be available from the web site. You'll have to go through a sales rep to get the GeForce card. (A rep told me that the GeForce option costs around $900 less than the RTX A5500.) Here is an article that describes the potential advantages of CAMM. If you want the system immediately, you'll have to get CAMM. Going for SODIMM will allow you more flexibility if you think that you might want to swap out the memory modules later, or if you'd like to possibly save money by ordering the system with a small amount of memory and then sourcing your 64GB from elsewhere. If you're planning to start with 64GB, it doesn't seem like lack of upgrade options will be a worry if you select CAMM (since the SODIMM configurations top out at 64GB anyway). If you order the system with CAMM, you will not be able to install SODIMM modules later unless you source the CAMM/SODIMM adapter/interposer card. It doesn't look like Dell will be selling this standalone so you'd have to rely on third-party markets like eBay and hope it shows up. ...It's possible that Dell's efforts to turn CAMM into a standard will be successful and then in the future third-party CAMM modules will be more readily available. One can hope that they make improvements to the keyboard layout, but I suspect we'll be waiting a while yet. 7X70 is getting a new chassis so next year's 7X80 will likely keep the same chassis and keyboard. I heard that support for the Precision 7000-series fingerprint reader is coming to Linux. I haven't tried it myself. (XPS/Precision 5000 has had support for a while now.) @Ionising_Radiation could be a guy to ask about Linux support (he uses it on the Precision 7560). My impression is that Dell has generally decent Linux support from the setup/driver side. No surprise that reps are not as comfortable with it. I suspect you'll find the same thing at Lenovo, but who knows. I think if you're going with Linux you have to be prepared to figure stuff out yourself to some degree. When you open the bottom panel you have easy access to RAM, SSDs, and the WWAN card slot. There's not much else that's super easy to get at. Replacing the keyboard requires removing the heatsink, inner frame, and motherboard to take it out from the bottom. (I was complaining about the other day on the previous page...) Dell seems to have revoked access to the service manuals. I'm getting an access denied error now.
  21. Aaron44126
    Awesome. Maxwell-compatible heatsink is very hard to find these days. You can also use the ordinary NVIDIA GPU heatsink. There is one piece that will need to be cut off with a Dremel or similar tool. If you compare K5000M and M5000M... They are very similar, but you will notice that the VRMs at the top ("R22" silver square-shaped things) are in a different position on Maxwell cards. The ordinary NVIDIA GPU heatsink has a protruding bit that hits one of these, and that is what you need to cut off.
  22. Aaron44126
    Does yours have an option to order at the top, or are you supposed to call in when launch day comes?
  23. Aaron44126
    Well. Had some free up and decided to ring up the sales office since they are supposedly still open. No go there... The phone tree is broken right now. Auto phone thing: "Otherwise, what can I help you with?" Me: "Small business sales" Auto phone thing: "Ok, great! Purchase and pricing." (...hangs up) Tried a few different times, same result. Went to the chat reps again (Facebook this time) and the one I got there also said that they don't have the option to quote out right now. ...So it seems that either some reps have the option to quote out and some don't (pretty sure the chat reps are based out of India, not the U.S.), or they have recently taken quotes away too...? I'll try again tomorrow to reach an actual U.S.-based rep.
  24. Aaron44126
    Normally, Dell quotes are a PDF that have a "when you're ready, click here to place your order" link at the top, so you don't have to actually interact with the rep to get your order placed once you receive the quote. ...I'm actually not sure how pre-order quotes work just yet, since I haven't got one. My original 7770 quote from last week had such a link and I was able to place the order — but it wasn't a "pre-order quote", Dell had just somehow inadvertently opened up these systems for ordering. I'm assuming that a pre-order quote will have the link and just block you from ordering until the go-live, or, worst case I'll just have to get in touch with the rep on go-live day and say "let's go". (I'll let you know if I manage to get a quote tomorrow...) I guess it might work different in different markets as well. I'm in the U.S. market. ...Awesome machine... 😄 On memory: ECC will be a little bit slower but it will not be noticeable on most workloads. You'd have to be doing something quite memory intensive (scientific work?) or benchmarks to spot the difference. (Same generally goes for modest changes in memory frequency or CL.) ECC modules will be available in the 7X70 systems during the "summer" (best time frame that we have). I'd guess 6-8 weeks after launch. All DDR5 modules have on-die ECC which protects against errors in storage (but not errors in transmission) so they should be more robust than non-ECC DDR4 modules. (See this video.) Newer Precision systems do not have a hardware Wi-Fi/wireless on/off switch. You can use "airplane mode" within Windows 10/11 which will disable wireless connections. In Windows 10, to access "airplane mode" you can just click on notification center (speech bubble icon in the bottom/right of the taskbar) and then there should be a button for it. In Windows 11, it looks like it is in the popout that appears when you click on the Wi-Fi/volume/power buttons on the taskbar. Windows will automatically disconnect from Wi-Fi after a few minutes if there is an Ethernet connection to the same network.
  25. Aaron44126
    Got an update from my rep and it was almost copy/paste identical to the update given by @kors above, with the same 6/21 tentative order date... except he told me that he couldn't give a quote until 6/21, which contradicts what I have heard elsewhere. I might call the U.S. small business sales line tomorrow and see what they say. Basically two reasons to get a quote early for me. One is just that I'm raring to go and want to be at the front of the line, so easier if I just have to click "go" on launch day. 😛 The other is to hopefully lock in a price so that I can make the financial preparations (not exactly a trivial purchase, especially if going for a high-end config).
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