Precision 7680 & Precision 7780 Owner's Thread

[Sco]

For info, I returned the Macbook Pro as well as the 7780, the Mac just wasn't worth 4-5k. The battery life was no better than Windows under load, the glossy screen is horrible to use unless you sit with a wall behind you. As an IT professional, I don't see any value in Macs, they've become an accessory to iPhones and the target market is non-technical users and "content creators."

 

I can't fault the build quality on the Macbook but Dell need to stop cutting corners. I'm very close to ditching them completely. I have a house full of Dell equipment but that will change unless Dell recover. I'm typing this on an older Latitude 5520 that's built better than the M18/7780 combined. Very disappointed with Dell this year and I'm still on the market for a new laptop.

[Radmeister]

Hello everyone,

 

I just got a 7780 13960HX, RTX5000, 64gb CAMM module unit.

 

Temps on CPU are quite high which is to be expected on 12th or 13th gen intel, I’ve repasted the laptop with Corsair XTM70, temps obviously still high but clocks went up 200mhz in CB23 continuous. Just wondering what you guys are leveling out at, I’m at 2.9ghz, would PTM7950 be better? Also as a side note, I think when you re-paste you have to replace the thermal pads on the GPU memory at the very least, hitting 96c now. What do you guys think of Honeywell TGP8000? And do you have a list of all the thicknesses for all the different pads under the heatsink?

[woffe]

Hi, 

how many points do get in CB23? I use PTM9750 an got arround 26500-27200 points for a single run. (i7 13850hx, RTX 3500,7680)

At this point I did not hit the thermal limit. 

Before the repaste I got arround 24500-25200 and hit the thermal limit. 

In the 10 Min. test I got arround 21000 Points. I ended up at 2,9 GHz because PL1 is still low (72-77W) CPU stays at arround 77-80c 

[Radmeister]

On 12/24/2023 at 6:35 AM, woffe said:

Hi, 

how many points do get in CB23? I use PTM9750 an got arround 26500-27200 points for a single run. (i7 13850hx, RTX 3500,7680)

At this point I did not hit the thermal limit. 

Before the repaste I got arround 24500-25200 and hit the thermal limit. 

In the 10 Min. test I got arround 21000 Points. I ended up at 2,9 GHz because PL1 is still low (72-77W) CPU stays at arround 77-80c 

I get 26000 for a single run with 4 of the cores still bouncing off the thermal limit. I'll see what happens when i disable TVB3, but it does look like i should take this thing apart, measure all the pads, order some new ones along with some PTM7950.

[Radmeister]

On 12/24/2023 at 6:35 AM, woffe said:

Hi, 

how many points do get in CB23? I use PTM9750 an got arround 26500-27200 points for a single run. (i7 13850hx, RTX 3500,7680)

At this point I did not hit the thermal limit. 

Before the repaste I got arround 24500-25200 and hit the thermal limit. 

In the 10 Min. test I got arround 21000 Points. I ended up at 2,9 GHz because PL1 is still low (72-77W) CPU stays at arround 77-80c 

Sooo, this is what i find works the best if you are not too worried about noise. Set the system to cool in Dell Optimizer. Then in throttlestop disable speed step, and enable speed shift, then increase the power limits to max. Also, depending on what you want more juice going to you enable or disable Intel Thermal Velocity Boost in the BIOS, with it disabled depending on cooling available you can get up to 25extra watts to the gpu. The fans on Ultra Performance are wayyy too tame.

[Radmeister]

On 12/24/2023 at 6:35 AM, woffe said:

Hi, 

how many points do get in CB23? I use PTM9750 an got arround 26500-27200 points for a single run. (i7 13850hx, RTX 3500,7680)

At this point I did not hit the thermal limit. 

Before the repaste I got arround 24500-25200 and hit the thermal limit. 

In the 10 Min. test I got arround 21000 Points. I ended up at 2,9 GHz because PL1 is still low (72-77W) CPU stays at arround 77-80c 

Sooo, this is what i find works the best if you are not too worried about noise. Set the system to cool in Dell Optimizer. Then in throttlestop disable speed step, and enable speed shift, then increase the power limits to max. Also, depending on what you want more juice going to you enable or disable Intel Thermal Velocity Boost in the BIOS, with it disabled depending on cooling available you can get up to 25extra watts to the gpu. The fans on Ultra Performance are wayyy too tame.

 

EDIT: NVM, performance is better in CB, but it also limits the GPU to 55W which as of right now i have no idea how to increase it's limit back to 145. Really wish they would just let us change the fan curve at least to be able to increase speed above their minimums for each profile.

[Radmeister]

So has anyone figured out how to undervolt these things. I can’t seem to get around the Undervolt protection. I got the overclocking unlocked and can increase clocks and voltages but can’t lower them. 

[Radmeister]

So I have tried everything to undervolt this thing and it is not possible. My best guess is that it’s got something to do with the intel management engine or the intel power management engine which are embedded in the bios.

 

I checked a couple other bioses, Scar 18 and GE78 Raider, bios 1.8.2 uses cpu microcode 115, same on Scar 18, Raider uses 113. Both of those laptops can undervolt either in the windows runtime(xtu/throttlestop) or in the bios. Since we don’t have direct access to the Intel Advanced Menu and from everything I read about Intel Undervolt Protection which states that it prevents any undervolting beyond bios settings only, so even with it on you should be able to undervolt in the bios, so I used grub and changed the correct addresses for P core and Ring to a 125mv offset and the prefix to (-) and nothing happens. So it is clear that Dell has gimped this thing intentionally way beyond standard intel limits. 
 

This limitation along with the lack of proper fan control is why I would never recommend this laptop or any dell to anyone. I mean they even bypass the intel fan commands which state to run the fans at 75% at 75c, in Ultra Performance profile it seems the fans run in “passive” mode and allow the cpu to down clock heavily before even coming on to 50%. I should have stayed with Lenovo and not listened to our IT guy. It’s  really a shame because the unit is beautiful, maintenance is super easy on it etc.

 

Maybe someone with more skills than me can grab the intel management engine and Power Management Engine modules from the Scar 18 and replace them in the dell bios and recompile, I have no clue on how to put the bios back together once it’s extracted.

[artemisDove]

Hello everyone, first time poster here!

 

After using my beloved Latitude e6540 for almost a decade now, it is time to retire it. It is basically falling apart after so many years.

 

My current research involves VERY heavy optimisation modelling. My models do not really care about the GPU. It's all about the CPU speed, having as much RAM as possible, and stable (enough) performance under long workloads. Good cooling is important, a vapour chamber and good thermals are preferred.

 

I have two candidates, and would like to hear your opinion before I choose one, if that is OK.

 

The first is the Precision 7680: i7-13850HX, RTX 3500 ADA, 64 GB. I managed to find a supplier who is selling it refurbished at a very low price (with good warranty), so it seems like a good system to do my preliminary model runs before sending them to our cluster, or as a backup plan if the job queue is too long. It also has the vapour chamber (I think?), which is a nice extra.

 

The second is a new HP ZBook Power G10: i7-13700H, RTX 3000, 64 GB. This one is new, and is offered by my institution. After upgrading the RAM to 64GB, the price is slightly less than the refurb. Most reviews seem quite happy with it, but it's not a top of the line workstation.

 

I've read everything I could find on both models, and I am a bit worried about all the issues mentioned in this thread. For what I've gathered, other "top" workstations (ZBook Fury, P16) also have thermal problems in this generation. Some people in this thread have said that the 7780 is the better of the two Dells when it comes to thermals, but I cannot afford a new one. The choice is mostly either sacrificing portability or power, but I am wondering if I will get disappointing results or lots of other issues with the 7680.

 

I should also mention that I plan on running Linux on the system I get (mostly due to personal preferences). I do not know how that factors in when configuring the power profile of the Dell...

 

Basically:

- Should I go for the Dell if the cost is only slightly more (~400€) over the HP?

- Would I run into trouble if I try to get the most out of the system when not using Windows?

 

I welcome any other suggestions. Thank you for your time!

[win32asmguy]

10 hours ago, Radmeister said:

So I have tried everything to undervolt this thing and it is not possible. My best guess is that it’s got something to do with the intel management engine or the intel power management engine which are embedded in the bios.

 

I checked a couple other bioses, Scar 18 and GE78 Raider, bios 1.8.2 uses cpu microcode 115, same on Scar 18, Raider uses 113. Both of those laptops can undervolt either in the windows runtime(xtu/throttlestop) or in the bios. Since we don’t have direct access to the Intel Advanced Menu and from everything I read about Intel Undervolt Protection which states that it prevents any undervolting beyond bios settings only, so even with it on you should be able to undervolt in the bios, so I used grub and changed the correct addresses for P core and Ring to a 125mv offset and the prefix to (-) and nothing happens. So it is clear that Dell has gimped this thing intentionally way beyond standard intel limits. 
 

This limitation along with the lack of proper fan control is why I would never recommend this laptop or any dell to anyone. I mean they even bypass the intel fan commands which state to run the fans at 75% at 75c, in Ultra Performance profile it seems the fans run in “passive” mode and allow the cpu to down clock heavily before even coming on to 50%. I should have stayed with Lenovo and not listened to our IT guy. It’s  really a shame because the unit is beautiful, maintenance is super easy on it etc.

 

Maybe someone with more skills than me can grab the intel management engine and Power Management Engine modules from the Scar 18 and replace them in the dell bios and recompile, I have no clue on how to put the bios back together once it’s extracted.

You might be able to enable undervolting if you install xmp ram and enable an xmp profile, in addition to the bios changes to activate overclocking.

[PHVM_BR]

15 minutes ago, win32asmguy said:

You might be able to enable undervolting if you install xmp ram and enable an xmp profile, in addition to the bios changes to activate overclocking.

What is the connection between XMP memory and undervolt?

[win32asmguy]

1 hour ago, PHVM_BR said:

What is the connection between XMP memory and undervolt?

I spent some time with coreboot trying to enable undervolting and found the flag preventing it was called SaOcSupport. That is normally used to allow XMP support, but for some reason needs to be enabled for undervolting too. I thought the microcode version mattered, tried five different microcodes for raptor lake HX without any difference. Oh, and you also have to disable IA CEP.

[PHVM_BR]

15 hours ago, win32asmguy said:

I spent some time with coreboot trying to enable undervolting and found the flag preventing it was called SaOcSupport. That is normally used to allow XMP support, but for some reason needs to be enabled for undervolting too. I thought the microcode version mattered, tried five different microcodes for raptor lake HX without any difference. Oh, and you also have to disable IA CEP.

Were you able to unlock the PL1 value in BIOS?
A 7680 with PTM 7950, undervolt, 115W PL1 and 2x32gb 5600MHz Ripjaws would be what I was looking for...

[Radmeister]

20 hours ago, artemisDove said:

Hello everyone, first time poster here!

 

After using my beloved Latitude e6540 for almost a decade now, it is time to retire it. It is basically falling apart after so many years.

 

My current research involves VERY heavy optimisation modelling. My models do not really care about the GPU. It's all about the CPU speed, having as much RAM as possible, and stable (enough) performance under long workloads. Good cooling is important, a vapour chamber and good thermals are preferred.

 

I have two candidates, and would like to hear your opinion before I choose one, if that is OK.

 

The first is the Precision 7680: i7-13850HX, RTX 3500 ADA, 64 GB. I managed to find a supplier who is selling it refurbished at a very low price (with good warranty), so it seems like a good system to do my preliminary model runs before sending them to our cluster, or as a backup plan if the job queue is too long. It also has the vapour chamber (I think?), which is a nice extra.

 

The second is a new HP ZBook Power G10: i7-13700H, RTX 3000, 64 GB. This one is new, and is offered by my institution. After upgrading the RAM to 64GB, the price is slightly less than the refurb. Most reviews seem quite happy with it, but it's not a top of the line workstation.

 

I've read everything I could find on both models, and I am a bit worried about all the issues mentioned in this thread. For what I've gathered, other "top" workstations (ZBook Fury, P16) also have thermal problems in this generation. Some people in this thread have said that the 7780 is the better of the two Dells when it comes to thermals, but I cannot afford a new one. The choice is mostly either sacrificing portability or power, but I am wondering if I will get disappointing results or lots of other issues with the 7680.

 

I should also mention that I plan on running Linux on the system I get (mostly due to personal preferences). I do not know how that factors in when configuring the power profile of the Dell...

 

Basically:

- Should I go for the Dell if the cost is only slightly more (~400€) over the HP?

- Would I run into trouble if I try to get the most out of the system when not using Windows?

 

I welcome any other suggestions. Thank you for your time!

 

I would honestly buy a gaming laptop. I have huge regrets with this POS. Just get the ASUS Scar 18 with a 4080 and 64gb ram and call it a day, all these workstation laptops are gimped by corporate structure and old habits of limiting the user in every single way possible. Forget about fancy stuff like undervolting etc...YOU CANNOT CHANGE FAN SPEED ON A 7,000 USD LAPTOP IN 2023!!!! 

 

The Scar can handle a lot more watts to the CPU and can be overclocked to maintain higher clocks indefinitely. This thing and the HP is probably the same, you have a beast of a CPU that can draw up to 200W when unleashed, but limit it to 85w after a minute, which if you are going for simulations that take a long time to run you may as well save the money and go for something like a 13600. So yeah, only advantage to these things is if you buy new you get their pro-care for 3 years with on-site repair after remote diagnosis, and they are easy to maintain/replace components. From my experience though, if it doesnt die in the first year, and you have a remote back up going who cares what happens year 2, it's already paid for itself. Also, these days what will you really change? Add another NVME? Easy on the Scar as well, add more ram? Easy on the scar as well. Who really cares about how easy the wifi module is to replace or the keyboard...By the time those die your laptop is off for donation.

[Aaron44126]

22 hours ago, artemisDove said:

Basically:

- Should I go for the Dell if the cost is only slightly more (~400€) over the HP?

- Would I run into trouble if I try to get the most out of the system when not using Windows?

 

I ran Linux on a Precision 7770 for some time and only had a few issues to note that were specific to the system.  First off, the fingerprint reader doesn't work consistently, and you also need to set it to "never power off" lest you get a buzzing sound coming from the system.  Next, there were issues with GPU performance being inconsistent which I attribute to the power management situation (CPU "stealing" power and causing the GPU to throttle down hard).  The GPU would normally perform fine but then have random drops to low performance that would last for 10ish seconds and occur a couple of times per hour when gaming, causing very noticeable FPS drops.

 

Can't speak to HP vs Dell as I have only ever used Dell.  I do like the business support ("ProSupport") that Dell offers, it is not hard to get the system physically serviced if you have a need to, wherever you are.  However, I don't think that I will be getting another Dell workstation anytime soon because of various issues (between Dell, Microsoft, and also I guess NVIDIA).  I don't necessarily think that HP would be any better from that regard, for me.

[Radmeister]

So after much, wayyy too much screwing around i think I have found the "best" possible performance settings for this piece of crap.

 

Nvidia Drivers need to be 529.11 or older, you will need Throttlestop, and you will also need a Fat32 formatted USB along with the SmoklessUmaf Beta. https://github.com/DavidS95/Smokeless_UMAF.

 

You will have to keep your dell optimizer power plan or from the bios to optimized, as cool even though it provides the best cooling, gimps out the GPU and unlike the cpu limits that we can bypass with throttlestop i have no idea how to for the gpu.

 

So as you know we cannot undervolt, so we must resort to the alternative that was offered by XMG/Shenker, which is using the AC loadline calibration values, for this we need the smoklessumaf beta to have a gui instead of using grub, if you want to use grub then i'm sure you already know how to do this step. Reboot, put in usb, hit F12 boot off usb. From there navigate the menus, if memory serves me right its under Power and Performance, CPU VRS Settings > Core/IA VR Settings > AC Loadline. I set it to 140

 

Next we will use throttlestop to get rid of the limits on tdp for the cpu because of the optimized profile. See attached.

 

Next - the reason why we need the nvidia driver 529.11 is because after this they removed changing the power limits using smi. So otherwise we would be stuck with 115w instead of 145w like is available on ultimate performance with no fans.

 

We will make a little batch file (txt file save as .bat) with the following;

 

nvidia-smi -pl 145

pause

 

Then we will create a task that runs 1 min after startup with highest privilidges that executes the .bat file to give us back our 30watts.

 

I find that limiting the P-core all core boost to 3.7 is ideal, and the e-cores to 3.0, i will maybe be able to get p core higher once i do the PTM7950 but for now this is what i got, also want to note all the results are on a modified ghetto fabulous ice coorel x7 running at full speed. (actually pretty quiet)

 

PS: In my messing around i seem to have broken the warm restarts, it always hangs on the first round, or it could just be how it is on this dell, last one did the same with no messing around so who knows.

[artemisDove]

2 hours ago, Radmeister said:

 

I would honestly buy a gaming laptop. I have huge regrets with this POS. Just get the ASUS Scar 18 with a 4080 and 64gb ram and call it a day, all these workstation laptops are gimped by corporate structure and old habits of limiting the user in every single way possible. Forget about fancy stuff like undervolting etc...YOU CANNOT CHANGE FAN SPEED ON A 7,000 USD LAPTOP IN 2023!!!! 

 

The Scar can handle a lot more watts to the CPU and can be overclocked to maintain higher clocks indefinitely. This thing and the HP is probably the same, you have a beast of a CPU that can draw up to 200W when unleashed, but limit it to 85w after a minute, which if you are going for simulations that take a long time to run you may as well save the money and go for something like a 13600. So yeah, only advantage to these things is if you buy new you get their pro-care for 3 years with on-site repair after remote diagnosis, and they are easy to maintain/replace components. From my experience though, if it doesnt die in the first year, and you have a remote back up going who cares what happens year 2, it's already paid for itself. Also, these days what will you really change? Add another NVME? Easy on the Scar as well, add more ram? Easy on the scar as well. Who really cares about how easy the wifi module is to replace or the keyboard...By the time those die your laptop is off for donation.

 

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

Unfortunately a gaming laptop is not really an option for my use case. Part of the reason why I buy "professional" laptops is their long life. My good ol' latitude is 10 years old, has not battery and looks dingy, but it's still around. Meanwhile some people I know have gone through 3 consumer grade laptops that start falling apart at the second year. Plus, gaming laptops sound like airplane turbines, and I do not want my colleague's to kill me.

 

Sadly the 12, 13 and now the 14 generation of Intels seem to be... disappointing a lot of people to say the least. Meaning the laptops also doing the same. I want to have the best possible thing even if these generations are sort of bad. I still need to get my work done.

 

Basically, it all comes down to finding the least "bad" of the Zbooks, Precisions and P1X's... and getting lucky to find a decent refurb that I can pay with academic money. Or... just going for the HP, even if it's not a miracle machine.

 

2 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

I ran Linux on a Precision 7770 for some time and only had a few issues to note that were specific to the system.  First off, the fingerprint reader doesn't work consistently, and you also need to set it to "never power off" lest you get a buzzing sound coming from the system.  Next, there were issues with GPU performance being inconsistent which I attribute to the power management situation (CPU "stealing" power and causing the GPU to throttle down hard).  The GPU would normally perform fine but then have random drops to low performance that would last for 10ish seconds and occur a couple of times per hour when gaming, causing very noticeable FPS drops.

 

Can't speak to HP vs Dell as I have only ever used Dell.  I do like the business support ("ProSupport") that Dell offers, it is not hard to get the system physically serviced if you have a need to, wherever you are.  However, I don't think that I will be getting another Dell workstation anytime soon because of various issues (between Dell, Microsoft, and also I guess NVIDIA).  I don't necessarily think that HP would be any better from that regard, for me.

 

Thanks for the input! Did those GPU "glitches" occur only on Linux? Or did they happen with Windows too?

 

I guess in my case I won't have the benefit of the ProSupport since I will get a refurb sample (unless Dell supports those too). If these systems have so many issues, the HP might be the better choice since I do get 4 years of support.

 

Really sad to see how most of these workstations have such poor reception.

[win32asmguy]

1 hour ago, artemisDove said:

Basically, it all comes down to finding the least "bad" of the Zbooks, Precisions and P1X's... and getting lucky to find a decent refurb that I can pay with academic money. Or... just going for the HP, even if it's not a miracle machine.

 

All of them are pretty locked down with the precision being the most flexible and also having the GeForce GPU option. Lately I am using a system76 clevo x370. It has good build quality and not a gamer look to it. The special thing is having an open source bios and EC, so it's very flexible to tune along with full fan control.

[iieeann]

7 hours ago, Radmeister said:

 

I would honestly buy a gaming laptop. I have huge regrets with this POS. Just get the ASUS Scar 18 with a 4080 and 64gb ram and call it a day, all these workstation laptops are gimped by corporate structure and old habits of limiting the user in every single way possible. Forget about fancy stuff like undervolting etc...YOU CANNOT CHANGE FAN EED ON A 7,000 USD LAPTOP IN 2023!!!!

 

If u want performance then u should not have chosen business laptop.  It has too many security features that make the laptop to boot slower than tortoise. It has the best hardwares with performance being locked, something like having a Ferrari engine but only can use up to 4th gear.  Security and stability is the utmost concern in this laptop, it cannot afford to crash.  Any attempt to challenge the stability is not going to be entertained.

 

I chose this laptop simply because it is more presentable in business environment.  Gaming laptop has bad habit of alien look and not suitable for business meeting or presentation.  If there is such a gaming laptop with classic look i will definitely go for it.  Clevo used to have more classic look gaming laptop, but no more nowadays.

 

Business laptop will make people think that i am doing works, the focus look on my face will make my colleagues think I am serious on business subject; although all the while i am using it only to play games or open nonsense websites.  It is a good camouflage for me.

[Aaron44126]

12 hours ago, artemisDove said:

Thanks for the input! Did those GPU "glitches" occur only on Linux? Or did they happen with Windows too?

 

I actually did have this issue on both Windows and Linux.  It manifested itself slightly differently, but in both cases I could observe the GPU becoming throttled when the system decided to give the CPU extra power.  I remember being able to see a "cycling" behavior to it just by looking at the graphs in Task Manager — GPU utilization up and CPU utilization down for a bit, and then vice versa, like they were competing with each other even though actual load that I was running was not changing.  (I much prefer the behavior of my older M6700 where the GPU was just automatically given power priority, and the CPU would be throttled a little if the GPU needed to run full tilt.)  I spent more time digging into it on Linux and was never able to fully fix it before I stopped using the system.

 

I guess this is what happens when you try to cram desktop chips into a laptop, and don't give it enough power (despite the chips being power-limited compared to the desktop configuration, 240W is not enough).

[Radmeister]

13 hours ago, artemisDove said:

 

Thanks for the suggestion!

 

Unfortunately a gaming laptop is not really an option for my use case. Part of the reason why I buy "professional" laptops is their long life. My good ol' latitude is 10 years old, has not battery and looks dingy, but it's still around. Meanwhile some people I know have gone through 3 consumer grade laptops that start falling apart at the second year. Plus, gaming laptops sound like airplane turbines, and I do not want my colleague's to kill me.

 

Sadly the 12, 13 and now the 14 generation of Intels seem to be... disappointing a lot of people to say the least. Meaning the laptops also doing the same. I want to have the best possible thing even if these generations are sort of bad. I still need to get my work done.

 

Basically, it all comes down to finding the least "bad" of the Zbooks, Precisions and P1X's... and getting lucky to find a decent refurb that I can pay with academic money. Or... just going for the HP, even if it's not a miracle machine.

 

 

Thanks for the input! Did those GPU "glitches" occur only on Linux? Or did they happen with Windows too?

 

I guess in my case I won't have the benefit of the ProSupport since I will get a refurb sample (unless Dell supports those too). If these systems have so many issues, the HP might be the better choice since I do get 4 years of support.

 

Really sad to see how most of these workstations have such poor reception.

If you have to go the business route, sadly the dell is probably the best bet. Very easy to work inside of, also you can get crazy “grey” market deals on eBay. Plus there are millions of parts available on eBay for them if something goes wrong. Mine was a canceled order with a 9900$ CAD MSRP, never used with original packaging and I paid 3,800$. Which is pretty damn amazing for the spec. I would call these guys, they sometimes have stuff not listed on their site or on eBay yet. They have an actual store in Quebec Canada.

 

https://www.cikrefurbished.com

 

Dell Precision 7780 - Intel i7 13850HX - 32Gb DDR5 - 512GB SSD - 17.3" FHD - RTX 2000 ADA 8GB - Windows 11 Pro - Warranty 1 Year 2,400$ CAD/1650euro 

It would most likely be a CAMM module for the ram so if you want more ram you’d have to buy a 64gb or 128gb module off eBay, or buy one of their other laptops, or maybe they can swap modules for you off of another one, takes 5min.

 

The 7680 is probably ok as well, can’t see the thermals being that different and is also available with a 4K Oled screen that is 120hz, the 7780 is 1080p only 60hz, but goes super bright 500nits so great if you want to work outside and have a generator with you. 

[Aaron44126]

47 minutes ago, Radmeister said:

The 7680 is probably ok as well, can’t see the thermals being that different and is also available with a 4K Oled screen that is 120hz, the 7780 is 1080p only 60hz, but goes super bright 500nits so great if you want to work outside and have a generator with you. 

 

All of the Precision 7680 displays are 60 Hz, including the OLED panel.

[artemisDove]

14 hours ago, win32asmguy said:

 

All of them are pretty locked down with the precision being the most flexible and also having the GeForce GPU option. Lately I am using a system76 clevo x370. It has good build quality and not a gamer look to it. The special thing is having an open source bios and EC, so it's very flexible to tune along with full fan control.

So after giving it more thought, I decided to start looking into the "gaming" pc stuff. If professional workstations seem to perform this poorly, perhaps just going the "gamer" route is justified.

 

And then that took me down the Linux-focused brands route. Tuxedo stood out to me, and the Stellaris 16 seems like a decent alternative to all this workstation mess.

 

I saw that you reviewed the Eluktronics MECH-17, and the Tuxedo seems to be a rebrand of the MECH-16...

https://www.eluktronics.com/MECH-16-GP

https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/TUXEDO-Stellaris-16-Gen5.tuxedo

 

If you happen to know about these machines, I would love to hear your opinion on them!

 

[win32asmguy]

2 hours ago, artemisDove said:

So after giving it more thought, I decided to start looking into the "gaming" pc stuff. If professional workstations seem to perform this poorly, perhaps just going the "gamer" route is justified.

 

And then that took me down the Linux-focused brands route. Tuxedo stood out to me, and the Stellaris 16 seems like a decent alternative to all this workstation mess.

 

I saw that you reviewed the Eluktronics MECH-17, and the Tuxedo seems to be a rebrand of the MECH-16...

https://www.eluktronics.com/MECH-16-GP

https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/TUXEDO-Stellaris-16-Gen5.tuxedo

 

If you happen to know about these machines, I would love to hear your opinion on them!

 

 

Yeah the Tongfang models are ok. I didn't like the keyboard layout or the fact that it only had one USBC, on the backside. They do run Linux ok. The fans can be tuned in windows or Linux. The water cooling seemed like a gimmick to me. They also have a bios option to disable the rgb light bar which is nice.

 

The framework 16 could be another good one if an AMD ecosystem fits your needs. They are paying very good attention to detail on this product release which is rare for a PC OEM. The warranty isn't very good on them so you would need to be willing to purchase replacements yourself but I could easily see it lasting 10 years.

[Sco]

On 12/31/2023 at 10:39 PM, win32asmguy said:

 

Yeah the Tongfang models are ok. I didn't like the keyboard layout or the fact that it only had one USBC, on the backside. They do run Linux ok. The fans can be tuned in windows or Linux. The water cooling seemed like a gimmick to me. They also have a bios option to disable the rgb light bar which is nice.

 

The framework 16 could be another good one if an AMD ecosystem fits your needs. They are paying very good attention to detail on this product release which is rare for a PC OEM. The warranty isn't very good on them so you would need to be willing to purchase replacements yourself but I could easily see it lasting 10 years.

 

I think Framework have potential but it's too early. Notice almost none of Linus's team use it, including himself. They mainly use Dell XPS, Macbooks and some LG Grams.

 

I still think Dell are the best of a bad bunch at the minute, there is no 1 brand doing everything right, they're all cutting corners.

 

After returning my 7780 and M3 Macbook Pro, I still haven't come close to finding something else. I'll probably not bother upgrading anymore and hope quality improves over time. 14th gen intel should be interesting for laptops.

 

Edit: By Linus, I'm referring to Linus Tech Tips, the tech YouTuber who has an investment in Framework.

Edited January 3 by Sco
Linus