Aaron44126

Just following up again, I saw an article about it today and this photo shows a good look at the keyboard layout (if you zoom in). Doesn't really seem like a great "work" keyboard. Basically same complaints about this one that I have about 7X60/7X70 — No dedicated Home/End keys, no dedicated PgUp/PgDn keys. But, there's more... The numeric keypad layout is interesting, making the buttons slightly smaller to allow for full-size arrow keys, but it makes for a strange layout for other keys that are normally around the numpad. Fn key is in a strange place as well. Not sure why there's a second backslash key between the right Ctrl and Alt keys. Touchpad is not centered beneath the spacebar?

Reps will typically beat the web price if you place an order through them. If there was a deal available yesterday / last week / etc. that is not showing on the web anymore, you still might be able to get a similar price through a rep, especially if you can be specific with regards to what was available. (General frustration that I have with Dell as I mentioned before. You don't know what anything "really" costs.) I will also mention... this happened to a few people last year in the weeks following the 7X60 release. If you buy a system, and a cheaper deal for the same system comes along soon after (i.e. while you are waiting to receive it), you can go through customer service and have them credit you the difference. [Edit] Thanks for the note about the 7th confirmation from your rep. ...If the 7th launch is happening, we should have some indications late in the day on Monday the 6th (...support site with manuals and drivers goes live, system goes on sale in China / Asia markets first, etc.).

This is a good point too. I had to replace a display hinge on my M6700 after seven years of use. I just picked one up off of eBay for cheap. Dell also offers freely available service manuals with full instructions with pictures for replacing any major part. They're pretty unique in this regard.

Basically. I checked this out. GT77 appears to be a gaming-focused system. 7770 is a business-focused performance system (targeting computationally-heavy productivity / ISV apps) that happens to also be pretty good for gaming, just on account of the fact that it is a high-performance system. GT77 does have four NVMe slots which is cool (not very many current-gen laptops that I have seen offer this). I think if you look at other 17-inch Alder Lake HX offerings you will see pretty much all of them in the same vein as the GT77 (gaming focused). (No one seems to be making a 17-inch "workstation" other than Dell.) It is a fair bit larger, as you have mentioned. Systems like GT77 with the large rear heatsink fin stacks can push the power limits a bit higher. Basically falls down to what your priorities are. If you're looking for a gaming system then you should also look at HP Omen 17, Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 SE, Aorus 17X, etc. There are lots of options, and most of them will probably be cheaper than 7770, though honestly I haven't checked them out in great depth. If you're looking for a workstation (with full pro/business support) then you're pretty much stuck with Dell Precision, HP ZBook, and Lenovo P-series. Things missing on the pro/business side would be like, I doubt that MSI will be offering next-day on-site service for their system. I also don't know what their long-term support plan is like. (Example of what I mean here — Dell Precision 7710 is getting close to seven years old and still getting BIOS and driver updates from Dell.) A couple of other things that I noticed are: There is no mention of Optimus / hybrid graphics for the GT77. This is helpful for people who spend more time using the system on battery. I don't see anything about RAID support either. (You could still use a software RAID solution.) It might support these things but just not have them listed on the specifications page...

Windows 10 Enterprise is no different than Pro/Home in this regard. The difference is simply in licensing and which features are toggled on/off. The underlying platform is identical, and Enterprise has no special optimizations for performance tuning or stability. (Enterprise LTSC is a bit different. I have an article about it linked in my sig. Though, really any performance or stability improvements from it would just come from the fact that it comes with less cruft installed.) Regarding stuttering, I've spent a fair amount of time addressing stuttering and optimizing my system. Here are some things that I can recommend. If you have a higher-end mouse with a high poll rate (>250 Hz), trying turning the poll rate down, or switching to a basic mouse to see if that makes any difference. Normally, the polling rate can be adjusted in the mouse's control panel / software. Seems crazy, but my 1000 Hz mouse causes major stuttering in some games and turning it down to 125 Hz eliminates it. Windows seems to be pretty bad at handling a high poll rate and having certain background apps or game overlays running can exacerbate it. (Google for "high mouse poll rate stuttering" and you will see tons of people complaining about this.) Check the profile for your game in NVIDIA control panel (Manage 3D Settings -> Program Settings). Find the setting for "Power management mode" and set it to "Prefer maximum performance". I've actually seen cases where the NVIDIA GPU can cause stutters while switching power states; this setting should take care of that. Run LatencyMon while you are gaming. Look at the "Drivers" section afterwards. Anything reporting more than ≈2ms under "highest execution" should be checked out. I've used this to tease out issues relating to networking/Wi-Fi drivers, audio drivers, and disk controller drivers. (What action to take depends on what driver / .sys file you see consuming time.)

Earlier in the thread I mentioned this turbo boost trick: I have since written up directions on a number of options to enable/disable turbo boost on the fly. Something you can look into if fan noise is an issue and there are times that you would be willing to sacrifice performance for quiet. I have found that it does make an impact on my Precision 7560 so I keep turbo boost off unless I need the extra CPU power. (Also note the different thermal profiles that you can select from the BIOS or from the Dell Power Manager app.)

Does seem like a good deal; I just spec'ed out a similar Precision 5770 and it ended up at a bit over $4,000. (XPS 17 and Precision 57X0 are basically the same, other than the GPU options — they have the same chassis, same cooling system, same display, same battery, same BIOS even.) Plus there is the fact that you can order the XPS and have it in less than two weeks. When Precision 7X70 launches, I'd bet Dell will be showing an ≈8 week estimated turnaround, but a lot of people will start receiving theirs "early" at 5-6 weeks. XPS / Precision 5XXX is a no-go for me... no numeric keypad, only two NVMe slots, etc.. I intend for this to be a very long-lived system so I am less concerned about the cost. (My M6700 has lasted me for just about ten years.) Everything is a tradeoff. Got to decide what is worth it for you.

This information came from a Chinese rep (they seem to be a bit more loose about what they give out). It is not confirmed, plans can change up until the last minute. The launch will be global when it happens.

Working ETA for ordering 7X70 right now is June 7.

Hello and welcome. Always glad to see Precision users stop by here 😄 Do stop by the Precision 7X60 thread with any questions (or make your own dedicated thread if you see the need). There are a few active users who know the ins and outs of the system, and we are also interested in delving into quirks or things like that to help out future visitors. (You might also find the old NBR thread interesting. Seems like things are most active when the system is new and people are just figuring it out.)

There are extra steps needed. You have to wipe the drive and enable hardware encryption with a Samsung tool, do a fresh Windows install, and set up group policy to allow hardware encryption for BitLocker. (Windows defaults to software encryption unless you override with group policy, because not all drives support hardware encryption without easy bypasses.) There is no BIOS setting needed other than TPM enabled. Group policy – https://admx.help/?Category=Windows_10_2016&Policy=Microsoft.Policies.VolumeEncryption::FDVEDrive_Name Set up Samsung drive – https://helgeklein.com/blog/how-to-enable-bitlocker-hardware-encryption-with-ssd/ Fresh Windows install is required after enabling hardware encryption on the drive. If you want to use an existing install, you need to do a new install and then replace the C partition only with your old install. – https://social.technet.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/05c0e0a2-79b1-4eff-837d-376ff97da0ce/hardware-encryption-is-not-enableable-after-a-system-image-backup-is-restored?forum=win10itprosecurity (last few posts)

Precision 7670 spec sheet has been updated; i7-12800HX and i9-12900HX removed, just like with the Precision 7770.

First, there are other features that these support besides ECC. See the list here. Because the CPU is soldered, Dell has to produce basically a different motherboard model for each CPU that they want to offer. It makes sense to limit the choices where they can. If 12900HX and 12950HX cost the same (within a few tens of dollars, maybe) then why not just cut out 12900 and offer only 12950? It will save them supply chain and inventory complexity. ECC will be offered, just not right at launch. If you order the system with a CAMM module then you cannot switch to SODIMM later (...unless you manage to find the SODIMM interposer/adapter somewhere to purchase).

There was a Twitter leak on March 27 with some specs, including the first mention of CAMM memory modules. The same guy posted another tweet a bit later with a promo image showing what the CAMM module looks like. Media picked up on this later in April and there were quite a number of articles complaining about Dell hawking a proprietary memory standard and eschewing end user memory upgrades. (See last post of page 6 of this thread, leading into the following pages for discussion here.) Dell's April 26 Precision 7X70 announcement was timed with this PC World article which more properly explains CAMM along with information about Dell trying to get it in front of JEDEC to make it a proper standard. Regarding ECC memory, this will only be supported with SODIMM modules and the CAMM/SODIMM interposer (two modules max). These won't be available at launch; it will be CAMM only, with the SODIMM interposer + SODIMM configs available some weeks later. There is potential for 64GB ECC support if 32GB ECC DDR5 SODIMM modules are available. (Alphabet soup.) Do keep in mind that all DDR5 modules feature on-die ECC, which offers some protection against memory errors on the module (but not errors in transmission to/from the CPU). It's part of the spec now and should make them a bit more robust than DDR4 (non-ECC) modules. Here's a video about it.

They don't support it with a password from the BIOS (AFAIK), but you can use it from the OS (i.e. BitLocker) — hardware encryption available if you set up the configuration appropriately and the drive supports it. I don't see self-encrypting drive bundled with the system as an option with current XPS 15/17, but you can get it with Precision 5X70, or purchase your own drive.

Spec sheet for the Precision 7770 has been updated. CPU options are now: i5-12600HX i7-12850HX i9-12950HX As @AL123 mentioned before, only vPro options are present and the non-vPro 12800HX and 12900HX are cut. (Doesn't matter that much, price is pretty much the same.) The 7670 spec sheet still shows all five CPU options but it could still have an update pending...

XPS 17 has a pretty interesting thermal system with DOO fans and a vapor chamber. This document describes it (see page 2-3) — it's about the Precision 5750 but XPS 17 uses the exact same chassis / cooling setup as Precision 57X0. (This was for the 2020 / 10th gen model. 11th and 12th gen models don't seem to have changed the cooling system up much.) https://www.delltechnologies.com/asset/en-us/products/workstations/industry-market/precision-thermals-brief-042320.pdf XPS 15 has a more "traditional"-looking cooling system but it also looks like newer ones also have DOO fans to help keep the surface temperature down. Obviously XPS is on the thinner side and won't have thermal performance in line with a more beefy laptop. You can help reduce temps & fan noise somewhat by running without turbo boost enabled when you don't need it, and in the case of 12th gen, booting CPU-consuming background tasks to the E cores. (A tool like Process Lasso can set CPU core affinity for certain processes and have it stick between different launches of the process, or across reboots.)

I've mentioned this in other topics, but I am writing up an article so that I have something to point back to. The audience for this would specifically be laptop users who are concerned about fan noise or surface temperatures in their system. Intel continues to push the turbo power limits higher and higher, which means more heat and noise when the CPU enters high turbo boost states. The CPU does adjust its speed dynamically based on load, but it is (IMO) a bit too eager to hop to high turbo boost speeds when the workload does not call for it. Web browsing / office workloads do not really need turbo boost speeds, and there may be times when you would be willing to sacrifice speed for quiet. You can save yourself some power/heat/noise by having the CPU run at the base clock speed. So, here are a few tricks that you can use to enable and disable turbo boost on the fly. I personally run my laptops with turbo boost disabled, using one of these methods, and I flip turbo boost on only if I need additional CPU power (maybe gaming, intense database work, or some other kind of number crunching). I have a few different methods for this, and I will lay them out sort of from least complex to most complex (...and, they build on each other to some degree). For most people, I think that the first method will work fine. Using the power slider (Windows 10) Use the balanced power profile. Under advanced power settings, set the maximum processor state to 99%. Side note: If you do not see these power options, then you most likely are running Windows 10 on a system that supports modern standby. This page has a PowerShell script that you can run as administrator to restore these options. You can just copy/paste it into a PowerShell window running elevated. Thanks to @heikkuri for pointing me to this. I'm also including the script here in case something happens to that page... Now, set the power slider that appears when you click the taskbar battery icon to the setting that is second from the right ("better performance"). Note that Windows remembers the power slider setting separately for if you are on AC power or battery power, so you might want to check both. With this setup, turbo boost is disabled. You can confirm by checking the Task Manager "performance" tab. The CPU speed should stay below the CPU's base frequency (probably mid-2 GHz range, depending on the CPU model), no matter what load you throw at it. If you need more CPU power, just move the power slider to the right. Turbo boost speeds will be enabled immediately. (The "Maximum processor state" setting is ignored while the "Best performance" profile is active.) ...You can set the maximum processor state value to something lower than 99% if you find that simply disabling turbo boost is not effective in achieving your desired power/heat/noise limit. Lower values will further reduce the maximum CPU speed. Moving the power slider to the right will also still remove any limits on the CPU speed. (This also works with Windows 11, but it is much less convenient... Microsoft removed the power slider and replaced it with a drop-down in Settings under Power Management, so you would have to go digging in there to switch between "Better performance" and "Best performance".) Alternatives to the power slider (for Windows 11?) You can use the method above, paired with this third-party app BatteryMode. This app runs as a tray application and allows access to the same settings that the Windows 10 slider gives... albeit they are presented as radio buttons and not a slider. Set "Balanced" to disable turbo boost and "Best performance" to enable it. (See the section above, the maximum processor state must also be set to 99%.) Here, I disabled the "classic" power profiles in BatteryMode settings for a simpler view. Also, I have produced a command line tool which can adjust the power slider value that works on both Windows 10 and Windows 11, if you would like to work on your own automation. This post on StackOverflow has answers that describe how to manipulate the slider value from C#/.NET, Python, or PowerShell. Switch between "Balanced" and "High Performance" power profiles We don't have to use the Windows 10 power slider. You could instead switch between the "Balanced" and "High Performance" Windows power profiles and use that to control the turbo boost state. Set the maximum processor state to 99% on the "Balanced" profile (as described above), but leave it at 100% on the "High Performance" profile. Now, turbo boost is disabled if you are in the "Balanced" profile but enabled if you are in the "High Performance" profile. You can switch between the two on the fly. To quickly switch between profiles, you could use BatteryMode (also described above), with "Classic power schemes" activated... or, just some terminal commands. Balanced profile: powercfg -s 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e High performance profile: powercfg -s 8c5e7fda-e8bf-4a96-9a85-a6e23a8c635c (Maybe put them in batch files and pin shortcuts to the Taskbar or Start Menu. I've used this paired with another command that switches the Dell thermal mode between "quiet" and "performance".) Quick update. Windows 11, version 22H2 does not allow you to use the "High performance" power profile at all. You'll have to clone the "Balanced" profile and make adjustments to the copy. You can do this with: powercfg /duplicatescheme 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e It will output in the console what the GUID for your new power scheme is. You can change the name with: powercfg /changename NEW-GUID-HERE "New Name Here" Use "Processor performance boost mode" instead of "Maximum processor state" The methods above rely on setting the "Maximum processor state" to 99% to disable turbo boost. There's a different option for this which is a little bit better, but it is hidden by default. The downside to 99% maximum processor state is it actually locks your CPU slightly below the base frequency. A full CPU load will have the CPU reporting 96-99% use in Task Manager and not 100% and it will always stay just shy of your CPU base frequency. The proper option to use is "Processor performance boost mode". To enable this setting, go to regedit and navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\PowerSettings\54533251-82be-4824-96c1-47b60b740d00\be337238-0d82-4146-a960-4f3749d470c7 Find or create the value "Attributes" (DWORD) and set the data to "2". Now, there is a new setting on advanced power settings: "Processor performance boost mode". Set it to "Disabled" on the Balanced profile and leave it at the default on the High Performance profile. (Set "Maximum processor state" back to 100% on the Balanced profile as well.) ...There are a number of other settings for this one and I do not know what they all do. Now, switching between the Balanced and High Performance profiles will disable or enable turbo boost as described in the previous section. However, using the power slider to dynamically enable or disable turbo boost does not work with this method. If you want to use the power slider then you must set "Maximum processor state" to 99%. I learned about this from this article which is talking about the same thing. Automatically switch power profiles when certain applications run Instead of having to "remember" to adjust the power slider or switch power profiles when you are running an application that needs more CPU power, you could have a tool do that for you. Process Lasso has the option to select a specific power profile when a certain process runs. Set it to use "Balanced" by default and "High performance" when you launch a game or something CPU-intensive. Somewhat unrelated but I figured that I would note: With an Intel 12th gen or later CPU (with separate P cores and E cores), there can also be a reduction in heat/noise by locking CPU-consuming background processes to the E cores only. You can also handle this in Process Lasso with process affinity rules.

I put more stock in @yslalan‘s reps than mine. June 7 seems reasonable. I suspect May 10 was supposed to be their announce date (timed with Intel's Alder Lake HX announcement), but they were somewhat forced to move it up because of the CAMM leaks and negative press regarding that.

Picked this up. These games have been on my to-play list forever and I only have the first one on Steam. Hope to get around to it soon… There’s just too many games and not enough time.

Nothing official. I've been told by reps multiple times that we should be seeing something before the end of next week. I'm not putting full stock in that, but we're at the point where the launch could come literally any day. (Well, I don't think a Friday launch is likely so really the next possible launch date would be Tuesday 5/31, with Monday being a U.S. holiday.) Keep an eye on this thread. I have multiple triggers in place — Feedly automatically scanning for the support page to go live, for drivers to go up, and for either the U.S. or China sites to list the system on the order page. I'll post here as soon as I see anything...

Did anyone order a Precision 7X60 with the cheapest 256GB / 2230 drive option? I'm wondering how the 2230 drive fits in, and if it could be easily swapped out for a 2280 drive. I didn't realize that they were offering anything other than 2280 drives. Do they use an extender to bring it up to 2280 size, or do they actually have a smaller plastic caddy thing (& heatsink) that they use for this configuration? [Edit] Looking like they only put the 2230 drive into one of the secondary slots, so the primary slot "caddy" doesn't matter?

Pretty sure they only use 2280 drives in these systems (even if you order low capacity). That's definitely been the case for every 7000-series system that I have seen. [Edit] Nevermind, I see that they specifically say 2230 for the 256GB in the Precision 7760 now. They must use an extender or something to have it fill the 2280 drive slot. (No idea if they use the same heatsink between the two. I would suspect so but that shouldn't be taken as a confirmation.) There's a "problem" that the primary SSD slot also uses a plastic caddy thing to hold the drive in place. If they have a different size caddy for the 2230 drive then that would be a tricky part to replace to install a 2280 drive. You could still install a 2280 drive in a different slot without issue... Unless you plan to order with 256GB/2230 and then intend to fill all of the slots with 2280 drives. Anyway. I'll see if I can find a better answer on this. [Edit 2] It looks like they only ship 2230 in one of the secondary slots, and they include an extender and full-size heatsink.

For Precision 7000 series, heatsinks and screws are included with the system for all drive slots, whether you order the system with a drive populating that slot or not. Empty slots will have the heatsink and a little foam spacer beneath it that you can easily remove. Also there is some plastic film covering a thermal pad on the drive side of the heatsink that you need to remove when actually installing a drive. I don't think this is necessarily the case with 5000 series. (At least 57X0 supports two drives, so there could be one empty slot when you receive the system.) 5000 series shares the chassis/design with XPS so it probably wouldn't be that hard to find the part on eBay. (Or you could use a third-party heatsink, as long as it fits.)

I think the fact that they chose to build Win10 Enterprise LTSC 2021 on Windows 10 and not Windows 11 speaks to how "ready" they think that Windows 11 is (or isn't) for enterprise / long-term support. (Windows 11 actually released before Win10 LTSC 2021 did.) There will be a LTSC version that is not based on Windows 10 in approx. 2.5 years (late 2024). That would presumably be Windows 11, but who knows if we'll be talking about Windows 12 by then... I've had multiple systems last through 5+ in-place upgrades without issues. (Windows 7 -> Windows 8 -> Windows 8.1 -> different versions of Windows 10.) I think as long as you keep the system pretty clean then there shouldn't be any issue with this. It was a bigger problem in the "old days" when Windows was changing a lot more (i.e. Win9x->XP->Vista).