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

[Frosty]

20 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

M.2 drives come in different sizes.  2280 is the longest that you would typically see.  (That refers to 22×80mm.)  All of the slots in Precision 7X70 can accommodate 2280 drives.

 

You can install the shorter drives in a 2280 slot with a simple adapter like this.  It's just a spacer that makes the drive longer.

https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B084VLMQWC

 

Even with the Precision 7770, if you order the smallest size drive (256GB?), they ship it to you as 2242 with adapter in the system.

 

Drives like Samsung 980 Pro with heatsink won't fit because you can't close the case down over the heatsink, it makes the drive too "tall".

 

Thanks for that info -- very useful.

Yesterday I went to my local computer retailer for a 4 TB Samsung and wanted out with a 4 TB WD Black SN850X because they largest Samsung drives they have in stock are 2 TB.

Any thoughts on WD drives?  Last time I looked into drives, Samsung seemed like the way to go.  After several years of reliable usage, I haven't regretted the decision.

[Aaron44126]

12 minutes ago, Frosty said:

Yesterday I went to my local computer retailer for a 4 TB Samsung and wanted out with a 4 TB WD Black SN850X because they largest Samsung drives they have in stock are 2 TB.

Any thoughts on WD drives?

 

I also have a strong preference for Samsung, but I wish that they would be more aggressive with releasing high capacity drives NVMe drives (like they have been in the past for SATA drives).  The highest that they offer for any consumer M.2 NVMe model right now is 2TB, so it's not really the case that your shop was just "out of stock" for 4TB Samsung drives...  There just aren't any.  They will have 4TB Samsung 990 Pro "next year".  I selected Sabrent for my 8TB drives.  (All good, so far.)

 

I don't have any experience with Western Digital SSDs, but SN850X appears to be very well reviewed, I think it should be a fine drive to use.

[Frosty]

Quote

SN850X appears to be very well reviewed, I think it should be a fine drive to use.

 

Thanks.  I'm giving it a try.

[Frosty]

Has anyone opened up their 7770 to install a hard drive yet?

I've using the diagram at https://www.dell.com/support/manuals/en-us/precision-17-7770-laptop/precision_7770_sm/removing-the-base-cover?guid=guid-31c69df5-e215-4140-97c5-2022472e4b32&lang=en-us to remove the six screws that appear to hold the base cover in place, but it doesn't appear to slide off like the diagram implies.

Ideas?

 

EDIT:  Solved.  I just had to pry it open.  I was being too ginger with it.

Edited September 27, 2022 by Frosty
Updated

[Aaron44126]

I had trouble opening mine the first time, and I had to use a pry tool and work my way around to undo the snaps.  Subsequent openings have been much easier, I can just pull it off by hand, starting from the SmartCard slot opening.

[SilverAzide]

On 9/26/2022 at 9:08 AM, Frosty said:

Have you had any issues with the WD22TB4?  I'm looking for a TB4 port also, so that's likely what I'll end up with.  I'm not in a hurry so I'll set up a monitor on that page to see when/if it goes on sale.

 

Nope, no problems so far.  The one and only annoyance, and this is really really minor (for now) is that there is a tiny fan inside the dock.  And it runs All. The. Time.  I'm wondering just how long it will be before it craps out.  You have to put your ear right next to it to hear it (at least until it starts to fail), but the faint hum is there....

[John Ratsey]

6 hours ago, Frosty said:

Any thoughts on WD drives?  Last time I looked into drives, Samsung seemed like the way to go.  After several years of reliable usage, I haven't regretted the decision.

I recently bought a 2TB WD SN850 at a very reasonable price and it's provided no cause for concern although I'm not treating it to workstation workloads. It's a fast drive under normal usage but might slow down if hit by multi-gigabyte writes which overload the fast cache.

 

If you have more than one SSD in a system then it's worth considering if they can be separated between data storage (reading but little writing after the initial setup) and working drives with a heavy write workload for which it's worthwhile paying a premium.

[Frosty]

23 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

I had trouble opening mine the first time, and I had to use a pry tool and work my way around to undo the snaps.  Subsequent openings have been much easier, I can just pull it off by hand, starting from the SmartCard slot opening.

 

That seemed to be the case with mine also.  I had to work on a corner enough to get some separation and then use more force than I felt comfortable with.  I imagine that's a one-time case of "factory snug".

 

19 hours ago, SilverAzide said:

Nope, no problems so far.  The one and only annoyance, and this is really really minor (for now) is that there is a tiny fan inside the dock.  And it runs All. The. Time.  I'm wondering just how long it will be before it craps out.  You have to put your ear right next to it to hear it (at least until it starts to fail), but the faint hum is there....

 

Good -- except for all this talk of potential failure.  😁

 

17 hours ago, John Ratsey said:

I recently bought a 2TB WD SN850 at a very reasonable price and it's provided no cause for concern although I'm not treating it to workstation workloads. It's a fast drive under normal usage but might slow down if hit by multi-gigabyte writes which overload the fast cache.

 

If you have more than one SSD in a system then it's worth considering if they can be separated between data storage (reading but little writing after the initial setup) and working drives with a heavy write workload for which it's worthwhile paying a premium.

 

Once I've finishing installing all my software on the 7770 , I'll move over several of my existing drives so that I'll have four in the 7770.  Good idea about having a high-performance drive for heavy write usage.  Thank you.

[Light]

Anyone have a sense on when during October the samsung 990 pro drives will actually be available to buy?

[FabeFromBOD]

On 9/29/2022 at 3:14 AM, Light said:

Anyone have a sense on when during October the samsung 990 pro drives will actually be available to buy?

 

Available actually in few European countries.

[Light]

25 minutes ago, FabeFromBOD said:

 

Available actually in few European countries.

Available to purchase today in a few European countries??

[TwistedAndy]

Samsung 990 Pro was available a few weeks ago on amazon.de on preorder. Estimated shipping date was October 11 or 12. I think, we'll see the first reviews in mid-October.

[FabeFromBOD]

11 hours ago, Light said:

Available to purchase today in a few European countries??

 

Pre-order in Switzerland and Germany

[Light]

Thanks! Trying to decide whether to wait for the 990s or setup with 980s. Was curious if the floodgates on orders would open on a specific date, or if Samsung hasn't started shipping them to retailers yet. Much appreciated the details. Tempted to setup with 980s but then of course the 990s will come out the very next day :P 

[operator]

....finally my reordered 7670 went to "in production" exactly 4 weeks after order confirmation. Curious to find out, which Heatsink they built in there. There should be a chance that they used the "Sunon" version.... 

[Aaron44126]

5 hours ago, operator said:

....finally my reordered 7670 went to "in production" exactly 4 weeks after order confirmation. Curious to find out, which Heatsink they built in there. There should be a chance that they used the "Sunon" version.... 

 

I don't think that it can be assumed that the particulars between the Sunon/Delta versions that we are seeing with Precision 7770 will also apply to Precision 7670.

[operator]

15 hours ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

I don't think that it can be assumed that the particulars between the Sunon/Delta versions that we are seeing with Precision 7770 will also apply to Precision 7670.

 

Thought it must be, as @pintie reported 100°C after 2 secs....

[Aaron44126]

4 hours ago, operator said:

Thought it must be, as @pintie reported 100°C after 2 secs....

That may be the case, but it doesn’t immediately follow that the same brand of heatsink/fan is in use or causing the same issue. Need more data!

[pintie]

and i think the 7770 and 7670 don't have the same cooler. i think mine in the 7670 is a bit smaler ?

 

i'm not used to a notebook and temp rising up from 35° to 100°C in 2 seconds or less.

(ok my normal Workstation has an oversized watercooling system... )

[Aaron44126]

16 minutes ago, pintie said:

and i think the 7770 and 7670 don't have the same cooler. i think mine in the 7670 is a bit smaler ?

 

Yes, the heatsink is a different (smaller) part in the 7670.  And also it is pretty normal for the CPU temperature to ramp up very quickly up if you push it up to (nearly) 5 GHz.  The fans in this system are pretty slow to react to a change in the CPU load, it might take them almost a minute to crank up to full speed.

[alaskajoel]

The notebookcheck review of the 7670 reports the OLED display uses PWM for anything less than 100% brightness and at a frequency as low as 59.5hz. Why did I think PWM wasn't being used for display brightness on the 7670 and 7770? That is a complete deal breaker for me. 

 

https://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Precision-7670-workstation-review-Core-i7-12850HX-and-CAMM-RAM-debut.659067.0.html

 

Edit: did I misinterpret what was meant here: https://notebooktalk.net/topic/23-precision-7670-7770-pre-release-discussion-alder-lake/?do=findComment&comment=13598&_rid=244

[Aaron44126]

4 minutes ago, alaskajoel said:

Edit: did I misinterpret what was meant here: https://notebooktalk.net/topic/23-precision-7670-7770-pre-release-discussion-alder-lake/?do=findComment&comment=13598&_rid=244

 

He says DC dimming for panel backlight output, and I was wondering if that maybe doesn't apply to the OLED panel (since it doesn't really have a backlight).

[Kataphract]

That is pretty brutal review.. Gaming laptops (particularly one as massive as the MSI GE67) have quite often better cooling, but to be able to score as much as 40perc. faster in throttle loop of CB23 is well.. something. 

[win32asmguy]

1 hour ago, Kataphract said:

That is pretty brutal review.. Gaming laptops (particularly one as massive as the MSI GE67) have quite often better cooling, but to be able to score as much as 40perc. faster in throttle loop of CB23 is well.. something. 

 

Yeah, the Precision is probably not the best choice if you need closest to desktop CPU performance. I am also testing a MSI CreatorPro X17 with a 12900HX and it can score up to 25,500 in CBR23 with max fans enabled.

[Kataphract]

Hoho.. that is solid result. That is the absolutely outlandish looking one with cooling extended past display right? Is that kinda the pro version of the GE67?
That kind of performance puts it into different light.. those are crazy differences. Really makes me think whether it's something I will consider. Even ugly things can become loved after certain time.

I wonder how their Z17 would fare.