Precision 7670 & 7770 pre-release discussion (Alder Lake)

[operator]

20 minutes ago, 1610ftw said:

I just checked the configurator for Dell Germany ....

 Right now I would have to pay 1970,11 Euro for an upgrade to 128GB CAMM memory alone!

 

 

 

As previously said - don't put any trust in the Configurator prices.

[-batab-]

Overall I feel that the whole market is very inflated right now, not really a specific CAMM issues. CAMM might make thing worse but as I was saying earlier I can decently upgrade my 5years old Clevo that costed ~2000k€ only if spending twice or three times as much.

 

And I'm talking about considering every manufacturer. Spending the same amount I spent 5 years ago almost gets me a downgrade.

 

Dell is not really doing such a bad job in terms of prices but CAMM certainly doesn't help but as with any technology, early adopters will have to pay a price.

[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.

[FabeFromBOD]

1 hour ago, Aaron44126 said:

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".)

 

Good news for you, I think it's a good choice although the price is indeed prohibitive.

 

I think current world situation has not improved things. I think I did well to ask for my quote a month ago, the price was locked. and 3800€ for a configuration like mine is not a bad price.

[Aaron44126]

3 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

Just noticed the U.S. site is showing July 27 estimated delivery for 7770.

1 hour ago, Aaron44126 said:

Estimated ship August 2, estimated receipt August 5.

1 hour ago, operator said:

Strange that even your ship date is earlier... Thought they would be built in the same little chinese backyard garage. 🙂

 

U.S. site is now showing August 15 for Precision 7770 ETA.  Wonder if they're still making adjustments, or if changes to inventory & anticipated production workflow causes the target to change as orders come in...

[serpro69]

1 hour ago, Aaron44126 said:

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.

 

That's a nice discount. And I think you got a pretty decent price overall for the top configuration. I wish I could buy from US at a similar price... :D 
I'm still waiting to hear back from my rep, but I'm now preparing to wait much more before buying this laptop. The price I'm getting on the website for a similar config to yours is north of 8k EUR. For some reason I'm not overly optimistic that my rep will knock off the price for it to get close to 6k (which is more or less what I was aiming for initially).

[Augusto]

Could someone please help me to choose the RAM? I would like to choose the option that gives me the best performance, but I don't know which is better if a:
64 GB DDR5 CAMM module, 1X64 GB, no ECC, 4800 MHz
128 GB DDR5 CAMM module, 1X128 GB, non-ECC, 3600 MHz
If the 128 GB module were at 4800 MHz I would have no doubts, but having a frequency 25% lower than the 64 GB module I am not sure.

[serpro69]

My rep tells me that Ti 3080 does not work with Linux. Has anyone actually tried that? Is this accurate information and should I consider A4500 instead?

 

@Dell-Mano_G, maybe you could answer this?

 

---

 

Also, the different warranty options always confused me. How is "ProSupport" different from "Basic OnSite" ? 

They're offering me 5y basic onsite support instead of 3y pro. Is this better or worse?

 

[operator]

28 minutes ago, Augusto said:

If the 128 GB module were at 4800 MHz I would have no doubts, but having a frequency 25% lower than the 64 GB module I am not sure.

In my opinion this is negligible. Also in the past I could see no huge real world benefit in RAM that has a slightly higher clock rate. But always depends on what your expections are and what you are doing with your system.

 

17 minutes ago, serpro69 said:

How is "ProSupport" different from "Basic OnSite" ? 

They're offering me 5y basic onsite support instead of 3y pro. Is this better or worse?

 

 

Well basic support will get you to the finish line at the end. The question is how long it will take. As of my knowledge the basic support is no support "next business day" and you can only contact during the normal office hours. So depending on how fast you wanna get a technician to your location to fix your device, you may choose. Also basic support has different "hotlines" so you may call with a support agent in a different country.

I have no experience with basic support, as I only had ProSupport in the past.

Also a Dell Sales Rep normally can give good discount on ProSupport so at least for my Quote I didn't bother.

[serpro69]

2 minutes ago, operator said:

Well basic support will get you to the finish line at the end. The question is how long it will take. As of my knowledge the basic support is no support "next business day". So depending on how fast you wanna get a technician to your location to fix your device, you may choose. Also basic support has different "hotlines" so you may call with a support agent in a different country.

I have no experience with basic support, as I only had ProSupport in the past.

Also a Dell Sales Rep normally can give good discount on ProSupport so at least for my Quote I didn't bother.

 

Thanks.

He said he "upgraded from 3y pro to 5y basic". But I'll ask to give me 5y pro instead I guess. 

[operator]

2 minutes ago, serpro69 said:

 

Thanks.

He said he "upgraded from 3y pro to 5y basic". But I'll ask to give me 5y pro instead I guess. 

 

Except for the increased time span...does not sound like an upgrade to me. But I think thats up to your expections on the reaction time of the support.

[Aaron44126]

2 hours ago, Augusto said:

Could someone please help me to choose the RAM?

 

This is actually a limitation of the Alder Lake platform.  If you have 128GB then it must slow down to 3600 MHz.  ...I went for the big memory capacity because I have use for it, but I would be very interested to see some benchmarks and see what speed difference it makes.  I would assume that the CL decreases when the memory is operating at a lower speed so it won't make a noticeable performance difference unless you are running something that is especially memory-intensive.

 

See:

(Courtesy of @Peksha earlier in this thread.)

 

1 hour ago, serpro69 said:

My rep tells me that Ti 3080 does not work with Linux. Has anyone actually tried that? Is this accurate information and should I consider A4500 instead?

 

Also, the different warranty options always confused me. How is "ProSupport" different from "Basic OnSite" ? 

They're offering me 5y basic onsite support instead of 3y pro. Is this better or worse?

 

That's crazy.  Dell might not be supporting GeForce+Linux but there is no reason why it wouldn't work.

 

ProSupport gets you directly to a local support person if you call in (rather than the India call center or something).  I like having it, they've never given me any hassle with regards to getting components replaced and on a couple of occasions I've had issues elevated to the engineering team pretty promptly.  I imagine basic onsite would be fine, you just might have to deal with another layer or two of people who don't know the system as well if you actually have an issue that needs a hardware replacement...  (One would hope that you never actually have to call them.)

 

Note that "ProSupport Plus" basically combines ProSupport and accidental damage protection (as I understand it).

[TheVlad]

22 hours ago, Dell-Mano_G said:

Hello all, I'm happy to answer some questions now that we are live.  FYI, Asia & China will be live tomorrow, 7/8.  

Hello there,

 

I see that there is no 3080Ti option in the Dell Germany configurator.

Any reason why would this be the case?

[1610ftw]

20 hours ago, -batab- said:

Overall I feel that the whole market is very inflated right now, not really a specific CAMM issues. CAMM might make thing worse but as I was saying earlier I can decently upgrade my 5years old Clevo that costed ~2000k€ only if spending twice or three times as much.

 

And I'm talking about considering every manufacturer. Spending the same amount I spent 5 years ago almost gets me a downgrade.

 

Dell is not really doing such a bad job in terms of prices but CAMM certainly doesn't help but as with any technology, early adopters will have to pay a price.

 

This is definitely a year where I would suggest to sit things out for people who need a 17.3" classic work station and 128 GB. Dell is the only choice and imo just too much because of that.

 

For people who do not need a swappable GPU the MSI CreatorPro X17 may be an alternative but it is limited to various combinations of the 3070 Ti and 3080 Ti with the 12800X and 12900X, no other CPU and GPU options. And the screen is 4k 120Hz only.

 

 

[Aaron44126]

5 minutes ago, TheVlad said:

Hello there,

 

I see that there is no 3080Ti option in the Dell Germany configurator.

Any reason why would this be the case?

You can’t get 3080Ti through the configurator.  You must go through a sales rep to get it.  (This is the case in all regions.)

[1610ftw]

20 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

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.

That sounds like very good savings for a product that has not even come to market and IF you want those 5 years ProSupport. Never mind that you are still dropping something like 5.5K on a laptop 😁

[1610ftw]

20 hours ago, operator said:

 

As previously said - don't put any trust in the Configurator prices.

Even if I would get 15% off it would still be a lot of money spent where before I could just have used my existing memory.

In the long run I am sure that prices will go down if other manufacturers get on board but at least for this generation Dell is the only company offering it so it is what it is.

[Aaron44126]

There’s still going to be a SODIMM option, so you could bring your own modules and save a bit… just limited to two modules, so an issue if you need more than 64GB. 😕

[TheVlad]

Thanks!
Another question - if we opt for 3080Ti, is the HDMI 2.1 full 48Gbps?

[AL123]

6 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

This is actually a limitation of the Alder Lake platform.  If you have 128GB then it must slow down to 3600 MHz.  ...I went for the big memory capacity because I have use for it, but I would be very interested to see some benchmarks and see what speed difference it makes.  I would assume that the CL decreases when the memory is operating at a lower speed so it won't make a noticeable performance difference unless you are running something that is especially memory-intensive.

 

See:

(Courtesy of @Peksha earlier in this thread.)

 

 

That's crazy.  Dell might not be supporting GeForce+Linux but there is no reason why it wouldn't work.

 

ProSupport gets you directly to a local support person if you call in (rather than the India call center or something).  I like having it, they've never given me any hassle with regards to getting components replaced and on a couple of occasions I've had issues elevated to the engineering team pretty promptly.  I imagine basic onsite would be fine, you just might have to deal with another layer or two of people who don't know the system as well if you actually have an issue that needs a hardware replacement...  (One would hope that you never actually have to call them.)

 

Note that "ProSupport Plus" basically combines ProSupport and accidental damage protection (as I understand it).

Another vote for pro support we buy hundreds of these and well basic support cost more than the difference in wasted time so we switched to pro support maybe 8 years ago and always get great service. dell never seem to quibble even had items reaching the end of warranty replaced with the a laptop from the latest generation if they couldn’t get the parts to fix the old one! 

[operator]

6 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

There’s still going to be a SODIMM option, so you could bring your own modules and save a bit… just limited to two modules, so an issue if you need more than 64GB. 😕

If sb. isn't in a hurry, cost is an issue and 128GB is not needed, I'd wait.

Heard that SODIMM might be available end of Aug, beginning of Sept.

 

But since we already had so many delays, who knows if this schedule is on time. 🙂

 

[Aaron44126]

5 hours ago, TheVlad said:

Thanks!
Another question - if we opt for 3080Ti, is the HDMI 2.1 full 48Gbps?

I don’t know the answer to this.  But, Dell typically allows the external video ports to be connected directly to the dGPU even if hybrid graphics is turned on (setting in BIOS).  It should offer the standard HDMI output for Tiger Lake or NVIDIA Ampere depending on which GPU you set it to connect to.  (I don’t think the specific NVIDIA GPU would matter in this regard, output options for all Ampere GPUs on offer should be the same.)

 

After receiving the system I will check to confirm if all external outputs can be connected to either GPU.

[1610ftw]

19 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

There’s still going to be a SODIMM option, so you could bring your own modules and save a bit… just limited to two modules, so an issue if you need more than 64GB. 😕

Oh no, not back to 64 GB again, memory usage over here usually oscillates between 70 and 90 GB (currently 88) so that is no option.

 

Interesting that you mention the 3600 speed limit - that is really quite low compared to the 4800 max that is possible with 64 GB but it really only seems to be important if you are interested in the last one or two percent of speed in some benchmarks or gaming so I wouldn't lose any sleep about it.

Here is a video from der8auer about a DDR5 to DDR4  comparison and it also shows DDR5 speeds of 3600 and 4800 - very small differences:

 

[samatsu]

But, all options for Dell's new CAMM modules are DDR5, not DDR4, I found data specs for DDR5-3600 vs DDR5-4800.

Micron DDR5 Memory

[1610ftw]

16 minutes ago, samatsu said:

But, all options for Dell's new CAMM modules are DDR5, not DDR4, I found data specs for DDR5-3600 vs DDR5-4800.

Micron DDR5 Memory

I posted the video as it also shows (minimal) speed differences between DDR5 at 3600 and 4800.