Dell Precision 7670 & Dell Precision 7770 owner's thread

[pintie]

it realy nails it.

 

i repasted my 7670 now. did not change anything. same temperature same throtteling.

also the heatpipe has a lot of scratches... how ? why ?

 

i have to say this thing is bit of a dissapointment.

 

[Aaron44126]

Now, it's showing resizable BAR enabled in GPU-Z on Windows 10.  I didn't even reboot since I reported that it was showing disabled last night.  No idea what is going on with this thing.

[Aaron44126]

Manipulating the GPU clock speed

 

Observation: When gaming, I've been noticing some inconsistent performance.  The GPU doesn't seem to react to a change in load "immediately".  For example, playing a regular third-person game with a game controller where the right stick controls the camera...  Everything is working fine at 60+ FPS.  However, if I swing the right stick to snap the camera around quickly, that induces a motion blur effect which is more "expensive" for the GPU to process, and the game stutters for a few moments.  It recovers, so if I spin the camera in circles for a while everything is smooth, but the initial stutter is obnoxious.  (I've noticed this in two different games.)

 

Hypothesis: The GPU needs to ramp the speed up to consistently handle the more expensive motion blur effect, but it takes it a good several frames to "realize" this and make the adjustment, resulting in a choppy framerate for maybe half a second.

 

(This is just one example.  I've noticed other cases where the GPU seems to be lagging briefly when the demand increases suddenly.  In some situations — basically, emulators, or poorly-written games — it can lead to audio stuttering as well.)

 

So, I'm looking for a way to set the GPU clock to a fixed (high) speed and not let it adjust up and down dynamically based on the load, to see if that fixes this problem.  I don't necessarily care about the power efficiency implications in this case.

 

NVIDIA would have you do this with the nvidia-smi command line tool.  You can just do:

nvidia-smi -ac <memory clock>,<base clock>

...and those clocks will be locked in unless it needs to throttle due to heat/power.  Other interesting commands are:

nvidia-smi -q -d SUPPORTED_CLOCKS    (list out supported clock speeds)

nvidia-smi -rac     (reset clock speed to default/automatic)

 

But, this method only works with pro GPUs, so if you have the GeForce then you are out of luck.  (Sort of wish that I sprung for the A5500.)

 

So, I found this ten-year-old guide that uses NVIDIA Inspector.

https://www.overclock.net/threads/guide-nvidia-inspector-gtx670-680-disable-boost-fixed-clock-speed-undervolting.1267918/

(Click "Continue reading" to expand the top post, don't just skip it and scroll down to the thread.)

 

I've already tried using this command to force the dGPU to the P0 power state, and if I do that, the clock speed is locked — but at 420 MHz, way too slow.

nvidiaInspector.exe -forcepstate:0,0

 

The guide recommends using the P2 power state which lets you set the clock to a fixed value.  (P0 has you adjust the clock speed using an offset, not a fixed value.)  If I force P2, the clock speed is also locked at 420 MHz.  But, if I try to adjust it as the linked guide above suggests, it just bounces right back to 420 MHz.  This is the case with both the NVIDIA Inspector GUI and the command-line interface.  I can't figure out how to adjust the base clock speed while the GPU is in the P2 state.  (I am able to adjust the memory clock, just not the base clock.)

 

So, back to trying P0, which allows you to change the clock using an offset and not a discrete value.  The offset it allows you to pick from goes all of the way up to +1,000 MHz, though, so that's not terrible.

 

This command successfully locks the dGPU in the P0 power state and a fixed base clock speed of 1,417 MHz.

nvidiaInspector.exe -forcepstate:0,0 -setBaseClockOffset:0,0,1000

 

This command resets things back to normal.

nvidiaInspector.exe -forcepstate:0,16 -setBaseClockOffset:0,0,0

 

(Trying to set the offset higher than 1,000 doesn't work.  This limitation can vary by GPU and is imposed by the vBIOS.)

 

I'd like to go a little higher than 1,417 MHz.  (My 3DMark run had it staying over 1,500 MHz the whole time.)  But, not the worst situation.  1,417 MHz is higher than the "advertised" boost clock of 1,395 MHz.  And, if it solves my inconsistency/stuttering problem, then I might be willing to accept the trade-off.  For gaming, I care more about consistency than absolute top performance.

 

I'll play with it while gaming this evening.  More experimentation to come.

 

Just dropping this here in case any of you guys also want to try messing with the GPU clock.  Let me know if you find a way to force it higher than 1,417 MHz.  🙂  Using P2 would be ideal.  Maybe there is some trick required to set the speed in P2 on newer GPUs that I am not finding.

 

Note — NVIDIA Inspector is a very useful tool, but it hasn't been updated in forever.  The NVIDIA Inspector command-line interface is broken on Windows 10 because it tries to use the wrong version of .NET Framework.  To fix it, just remove the "nvidiaInspector.exe.config" file.  The program still works fine without this file, it will revert to a "default" version of .NET Framework.

[ATAN]

1 hour ago, pintie said:

it realy nails it.

 

i repasted my 7670 now. did not change anything. same temperature same throtteling.

also the heatpipe has a lot of scratches... how ? why ?

 

i have to say this thing is bit of a dissapointment.

 

Ive been looking at my cooler and noticed scratches aswell. I have been considering sanding/polishing my heatsink baseplate with 1000-3000grit just to even it out and maybe get marginally better heat spread between the cores but its not like the cores are evenly covered by the heat pipes to begin with.

 

I have an egpu 4.0 dock coming in soon(tm) and some small heatsinks that might help dissapate/soak a few extra watss of heat. I also have a tec laptop stand coming that was too expensive but machined, i plan to use it as a base platform to cool the laptop with a 25-75w tec. It depends on what it does stock. I am not going to change the heatpads at this point but i do have some well regarded snack oil type thermal pastr coming that supoosedly a few manufacturers have returned to.

 

I also am considering making a pcb to allow a egpu off of the dgpu port for laptops that came with a dgpu(would require me to send this laptop back for the correct firmware) giving a port on the bottom (forgot the connector name/model#) for pcie 4.0 x8.

it depends on what this stand in pcb is doing.

 

 

[1610ftw]

9 hours ago, keks2k said:

I just stumbled across this one:

 

 

Perfectly nails it!

 

He could've dived into the improper cooling a bit more, not only the high voltages (the llc observation?) and the underrated power brick, as he pointed out to have even repasted one of his units, though.

But that's just nitpicking I guess..

 

 

It is interesting that apparently nobody from Dell told him how to get more performance out of multiple 7770 - he should have turned to this thread instead 😄

 

He has a point about the power brick being somehow underpowered for a 12900HX / 3080 Ti combo but he did not follow through with measurements of how much power the 7770 really draws from the outlet.

 

I recently tested a GT77 and in Time Spy it drew up to 260W and that was with the 12800HX and the 3070 Ti. I would not feel comfortable pulling that much with a 240W power supply and the 3080 Ti can be even more power hungry and supposedly may even be the 175W version which would mean the 240W power brick makes even less sense.

 

So maybe one of the reasons that people are getting inconsistent and low scores with their systems is that the power bricks is a bottleneck in some situations? I would at least check actual power draw and if that gets close to the limit imposed by the brick I would check out one of those big old 330W power bricks that Dell seemingly is not even selling any more in the US store:

https://www.dell.com/en-ca/shop/dell-power-adapter-330-watt-74mm-with-6-feet-power-cord/apd/332-1432/pc-accessories

 

 

[alittleteapot]

11 hours ago, keks2k said:

Perfectly nails it!

 

I think this video is really great.  Using highly scientific methods, I actually logged into my 7760 and jammed the Windows button repeatedly, and was not able to get the CPU to rise above 55 C, with HWINO64 running.  Voltage maxed out at 1.2 V during this operation, but normally is .746 V, but zero throttling, everything is exactly as you'd expect from a base, non-repasted 7760.  The Dell Engineering team had successive generations of small, iterative architectural updates and were able to hone the thermal design to a sharp, sharp edge with the 7760.  I think no one questions that this previous generation of laptops will last for half a decade at least.
 

But for the Alder Lake architecture, it looks like the Dell Engineering Team tried to swing for the fences and fumbled the ball.  If we head on over to https://nanoreview.net/en/laptop-compare/hp-zbook-power-g9-vs-hp-zbook-fury-16-g9?m=-and-c.5 and look at the Cinebench R23 scores for the I9-12950HX on a 16" laptop it shows... 26072?  (I wish I had further confirmation of this score, but apparently this laptop started appearing in the wild only recently...) Of course, that laptop has half the available NVME drive bays as the 7770, and is completely chonky, but in this instance, there's no question that HP pulled a real win on this.  Oh... I think they use real vapor chambers, too.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

28 minutes ago, alittleteapot said:

was not able to get the CPU to rise above 55 C

my 7670 out of the box was and still idling at 86c doing nothing!
even after repasting if the unit is left on "balanced" or "Maximum performance" 
bios power plan it will overheat at idle with LM TIM!

from that point on the board will drastically ring cpu down to combat heat buildup even for just popping up start menu,

 

 

[1610ftw]

34 minutes ago, alittleteapot said:

 

I think this video is really great.  Using highly scientific methods, I actually logged into my 7760 and jammed the Windows button repeatedly, and was not able to get the CPU to rise above 55 C, with HWINO64 running.  Voltage maxed out at 1.2 V during this operation, but normally is .746 V, but zero throttling, everything is exactly as you'd expect from a base, non-repasted 7760.  The Dell Engineering team had successive generations of small, iterative architectural updates and were able to hone the thermal design to a sharp, sharp edge with the 7760.  I think no one questions that this previous generation of laptops will last for half a decade at least.
 

But for the Alder Lake architecture, it looks like the Dell Engineering Team tried to swing for the fences and fumbled the ball.  If we head on over to https://nanoreview.net/en/laptop-compare/hp-zbook-power-g9-vs-hp-zbook-fury-16-g9?m=-and-c.5 and look at the Cinebench R23 scores for the I9-12950HX on a 16" laptop it shows... 26072?  (I wish I had further confirmation of this score, but apparently this laptop started appearing in the wild only recently...) Of course, that laptop has half the available NVME drive bays as the 7770, and is completely chonky, but in this instance, there's no question that HP pulled a real win on this.  Oh... I think they use real vapor chambers, too.

 

I have the 7760 as my current daily driver and it is a mature design as you say - the culmination of a number of refinements over the years, the 7770 looks like more of a miss at the moment but I guess we shall see what improvements they can bring.

 

That being said let me clear a few things up about the Zbook Fury 16 G9: 

 

• It has 4 SSD slots and 4 standard memory slots - very nice and in that regard preferable to the 7770 and 7760 imo.
• It is extremely well laid out with superior vapor chamber cooling compared to what Dell has in this generation
• It is not chonky and looks about as refined as the 7760, except for the very silly looking big Z on the lid
• it also has very nice surfaces that do age very well I assume including the palm rest
• the bottom can be opened and closed without touching any screws

 

and unfortunately:

 

• It is only available in 16"
• it had very bad software and software quirks when I tested it and it is a very locked down system but even with that crappy software I consistently managed to get over 20K Cinebench R23 and 21.5K tops with the 12800HX and the fans were not even spinning up properly and thereby sabotaging higher results

 

If HP would put its mind to building a proper big workstation they could go all the way but from being in contact with them I can only assume that their asinine software will continue to stand in the way for people who do not want to work around it. Just the way their fans are working is a deal breaker for me.

 

As for the CB23 score 26K is what can be achieved with a 12900/12950HX in a properly laid out system with some undervolting and tweaking, Here  is the GT77 I checked out with some heavy undervolting, it "only" had the 12800HX:

 

 

As you can see it also gets very hot but this was in unopened and sealed stock condition without any repasting, just some bios and Intel XTU adjustments so it may have a bit of potential left for either more stability with the same score or a higher score when the only goal is to somehow finish the run.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[alittleteapot]

21 minutes ago, 1610ftw said:

• It has 4 SSD slots and 4 standard memory slots - very nice and in that regard preferable to the 7770 and 7760 imo.
• It is extremely well laid out with superior vapor chamber cooling compared to what Dell has in this generation
• It is not chonky and looks about as refined as the 7760, except for the very silly looking big Z on the lid

Thank you for the correction!

[MyPC8MyBrain]

on the topic of equivalent workstation solutions out there Razer Blade Pro 17 also has 4 ssd slots, 4 ram slots, and vapor chamber design in a sleek premium milled aluminum chassis (not a fan of the 3 green snakes on the back of the lid but that's negligible), tested 2 cpu generations back with excellent performance for its class (the 15 inch model too),

 

i was able to get in touch with the member who reported 157W TDP on his 7670,
unfortunately it turned out to be a user error, he was looking at the wrong item value,

 

this the response I received from Dell engineer regarding VRAM and TDP limitations,

 

both units have been scheduled to be picked up going back to Dell on Friday,

Hopefully they will come out with a better product design and implementation going forward,
reluctantly I will not be perusing the 7X70 platform,

[1610ftw]

34 minutes ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

on the topic of equivalent workstation solutions out there Razer Blade Pro 17 also has 4 ssd slots, 4 ram slots, and vapor chamber design in a sleek premium milled aluminum chassis (not a fan of the 3 green snakes on the back of the lid but that's negligible), tested 2 cpu generations back with excellent performance for its class (the 15 inch model too),

 

Is there a new model?

I only see the one with the 12900H on their site with I believe 2 slots each for SSD and memory.

The 12900H is limited to 64GB so 2 slots are enough anyway.

 

One of the reasons the 7770 is so interesting is that Dell is the only classic workstation manufacturer with a 17" workstation in this generation.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

14 minutes ago, 1610ftw said:

Is there a new model?

I'm sure they are working on the next iteration as we speak,
it wont be any time soon prob mid to end of next year,

 

14 minutes ago, 1610ftw said:

Dell is the only classic workstation manufacturer with a 17" workstation in this generation

Lenovo, MSI, Asus, and Razer all have workstations in the same class i believe,
they are just not A-La-Cart and or business class oriented the way Dell is,
they are less popular or known in the wild but they are out there,

[Aaron44126]

14 minutes ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

Lenovo, MSI, and Razer all have workstations in the same class i believe

 

Lenovo has only put out 16" for this generation.

Razer's is only Alder Lake H (as @1610ftw mentioned).  No 128GB, no 4× NVMe – these require Alder Lake HX.  (No numeric keypad!)  The only other manufacturer offering a sort-of real 17" workstation is MSI, and I haven't heard great things about their business-level support.  There's also how long support goes on for.  Dell is still releasing BIOS and driver updates for Precision 7X10 (7 years old!).

 

HP is a runner up since they have somehow managed to cram 4× NVMe into their 16" ZBook.  (Any info on how the GPU performs in that system?  HP is sort of known for gimping that too.)

 

We can whine and complain about the Precision 7770, but as far as proper 17" workstations go, there isn't really any competition.  😕

Can't even pretend to use a 17" gaming system as a workstation since most of those are also just using Alder Lake H and are thus limited in the RAM and storage department.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

no other manufacturer has the support Dell offers and why we flock to their offering,
Razer 17 did have 4x m.2 slots the best of my recollection (i could be wrong),

MSI has a lower finish and material quality but offer unparalleled performance in their cheap chassis,

 

i don't think we are whining and complaining per say, just looking for value for our buck,

any basic computer hardware now days can do just about any task, the question is how it is performed,
 

imagine you bought a new car and on the next day driving to work it over heated, how would you feel about your new car if every new customer reported the same issues? given that a 20 year old car can drive to work without breaking down just like an old pc can do allot just slower, if i paid 500$ for a 20 year old car and it breaks down ill deal with it, buying a brand new spanking car that has issues just  idling is not an adventure i want to invest time and effort in, 

[Aaron44126]

6 minutes ago, MyPC8MyBrain said:

Razer 17 did have 4 ssd to the best of my recollection (i could be wrong)

 

The current Alder Lake model has two NVMe slots only.  (I looked it up just a bit ago, and it makes sense as this is a limitation of Alder Lake H has a much more limited PCIe setup than Alder Lake HX.)  I don't know about older models, it wouldn't surprise me if they have previously offered four slots.  Heck, I used to be somewhat interested in the Alienware 17" line when they also offered four NVMe slots, but that is also gone now.

 

Intel can sort of be thanked for this reduction in PCIe capability.  Alder Lake H has a much more limited setup than Tiger Lake H did.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

just the other day before i heard from Dell back i heard from the private user who pm'd me about his vbios,
in preparation i deployed a new installation first using support assist from dell to deploy win11 pro,

during the setup and after before i tweaked anything i was reminded why i got the replacement in the first place, i was idling at 86-90c doing nothing just like the video after a fresh install from Dell itself, i didn't like that predicament and went for a new manual install of my enterprise win11 version, it too overheated but after tinkering i brought it down to 56-60c at idle, there's no heat buffer left to get this station to work properly imho, im just disappointed by Dell efforts to pack eye candy that doesn't really work properly just packaged well and backed by undefeatable support backend,

 

[Easa]

1 hour ago, 1610ftw said:

That being said let me clear a few things up about the Zbook Fury 16 G9

 

Would you mind adding your observations / more info on Fury 16 G9 to its general thread here on NTBTalk, so we can concentrate info? I would also like to know if you tested out the actual GPU power draw.

[1610ftw]

53 minutes ago, Aaron44126 said:

 

Lenovo has only put out 16" for this generation.

Razer's is only Alder Lake H (as @1610ftw mentioned).  No 128GB, no 4× NVMe – these require Alder Lake HX.  (No numeric keypad!)  The only other manufacturer offering a sort-of real 17" workstation is MSI, and I haven't heard great things about their business-level support.  There's also how long support goes on for.  Dell is still releasing BIOS and driver updates for Precision 7X10 (7 years old!).

 

HP is a runner up since they have somehow managed to cram 4× NVMe into their 16" ZBook.  (Any info on how the GPU performs in that system?  HP is sort of known for gimping that too.)

 

We can whine and complain about the Precision 7770, but as far as proper 17" workstations go, there isn't really any competition.  😕

Can't even pretend to use a 17" gaming system as a workstation since most of those are also just using Alder Lake H and are thus limited in the RAM and storage department.

 

I think that Dell should work with some people from the outside and get some extensive advanced product testing done - the out of the box performance they have in this generation is insulting.

 

That being said you describe the sad 17" workstation situation in a nutshell.

 

MSI will be fine for people who get something new every two or three years but no 5 year warranty and after some time no parts / support any more. Also all BGA which is bad for out of warranty repairs and generally speaking a waste.

And it looks rather peculiar and for better or for worse will stick out in a meeting that's for sure.

[1610ftw]

51 minutes ago, Easa said:

 

Would you mind adding your observations / more info on Fury 16 G9 to its general thread here on NTBTalk, so we can concentrate info? I would also like to know if you tested out the actual GPU power draw.

 

Will answer over in the other thread.

[brunooo84]

is this possible to use intel XTU with the precision 7x70?

[iieeann]

7760/7770 are seriously under power because of 240W brick and miserable heat dissipation design .  GPU max 165W + CPU max 157W = 322W.  Precision CPU works at lowest 55W so there is no way the CPU can perform up to rated max Ghz.  Consumer is spending lots of money to buy laptop that only performs at 70% performance.  Throttling is definitely going to happen with only dual fans design.  330W + 4 fans with thicker and bigger case is the only way to get maximum performance.  17" Precision series used to be highest grade performance non-compromised workstation, but it is not the case now.  In fact no other workstation is able to do so nowadays (HP/Lenovo etc).  Precision now aims for "stability" only.

[Easa]

19 minutes ago, iieeann said:

7760/7770 are seriously under power because of 240W brick and miserable heat dissipation design .  GPU max 165W + CPU max 157W = 322W.  Precision CPU works at lowest 55W so there is no way the CPU can perform up to rated max Ghz.  Consumer is spending lots of money to buy laptop that only performs at 70% performance.  Throttling is definitely going to happen with only dual fans design.  330W + 4 fans with thicker and bigger case is the only way to get maximum performance.  17" Precision series used to be highest grade performance non-compromised workstation, but it is not the case now.  In fact no other workstation is able to do so nowadays (HP/Lenovo etc).  Precision now aims for "stability" only.

 

Yes, they used to be, in the times when maximum CPU power output was about 45 to 65W tops, along with 100W dGPU. You have to account basic thermodynamics in the equation. Laptop cooling has advanced exactly nowhere in the last two decades (apart from the high blade count fans). To cool down 165W GPU + 157W CPU and sustain those values, you would need a laptop heatsink with a total heat dissipation surface area similar to something like NH-U12A cooler from Noctua. Would you buy a 5-6 kilogram laptop with a thickness of 5+ centimeters? I know that they are users who would, but the market for such devices is irrelevant for major players like Dell, Lenovo or HP. 

 

Laptop manufacturers are only half the problem. Intel with their 157W "mobile" CPUs is the other half. There is no true DTR in the current world. Never was. 

 

My opinion is that if a laptop of sane dimensions like 7670 or Fury G9 can sustain even 200W of continuous power output without throttling, it is a success BUT there is no point in putting top end components inside, when they will perform exactly like the lesser parts due to power limitations. 

[Aaron44126]

Dell just posted the Precision 7X70 ISV certified NVIDIA graphics driver.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=N1R7C

The version number is 512.78, which is newer than the previously posted (non-certified) NVIDIA driver 512.36.

 

However, it is older than the version they are offering for Precision 7X10-7X60 systems, 513.63.

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/drivers/driversdetails?driverid=N45J8

 

[Edit]

The download page for the ISV driver does not list the GeForce 3080 Ti as supported, however, the GeForce is listed in the driver INF file so it "should" work just as well...

[ATAN]

7 hours ago, Easa said:

 

Yes, they used to be, in the times when maximum CPU power output was about 45 to 65W tops, along with 100W dGPU. You have to account basic thermodynamics in the equation. Laptop cooling has advanced exactly nowhere in the last two decades (apart from the high blade count fans). To cool down 165W GPU + 157W CPU and sustain those values, you would need a laptop heatsink with a total heat dissipation surface area similar to something like NH-U12A cooler from Noctua. Would you buy a 5-6 kilogram laptop with a thickness of 5+ centimeters? I know that they are users who would, but the market for such devices is irrelevant for major players like Dell, Lenovo or HP. 

 

Laptop manufacturers are only half the problem. Intel with their 157W "mobile" CPUs is the other half. There is no true DTR in the current world. Never was. 

 

My opinion is that if a laptop of sane dimensions like 7670 or Fury G9 can sustain even 200W of continuous power output without throttling, it is a success BUT there is no point in putting top end components inside, when they will perform exactly like the lesser parts due to power limitations. 

While what you say is true, how come they specced this "high end" machine with cooling that can barely keep up 55-75w sustained cooling depending on where your located? I only have a 12950hx in my system so I truly woe for those of you set on keeping this with a dgpu. The only reason I'm considering it is because I might be able to stustain 85w after some reversable modding and I'm running an egpu setup.

[Aaron44126]

On 10/26/2022 at 8:50 AM, Aaron44126 said:

Manipulating the GPU clock speed

...

This command successfully locks the dGPU in the P0 power state and a fixed base clock speed of 1,417 MHz.

nvidiaInspector.exe -forcepstate:0,0 -setBaseClockOffset:0,0,1000

 

This turned out to be a bust.  Something goes wrong with the voltage when you use NVIDIA Inspector to force a certain clock speed.  Even just trying to run at 600 MHz, it was getting way too hot and throttling down.  Voltage controls through NVIDIA Inspector seem to be locked out on this GPU.  I leave it to automatic control, it can maintain 1700+ MHz without a temperature issue.  (I left a 3DMark Time Spy test running in a loop while testing this and GPU-Z consistently reported 100% GPU load.)

 

In the end, I solved my stuttering issues somewhat (in my current game anyway) by putting a FPS cap on the game rather than letting it run "unlimited" and letting VRR do its thing...  Maybe the GPU is just happier that way.

 

1 hour ago, ATAN said:

I only have a 12950hx in my system so I truly woe for those of you set on keeping this with a dgpu.

 

Aside from my trials above...  Cooling the dGPU is way easier than cooling the CPU, since its load is spread essentially throughout the entire die rather than just the hotspots where the cores are (and the GA103S die is rather large).  I have no trouble pushing it to 130W "full load", clock speed up in the 1700-1800 MHz range, with the temperature chilling in the low 80's ºC.  Not sure why it won't go up to 150W but that is not unexpected (Precision 7760 was similar, reporting 140W TDP and operating mostly with a 115W cap) so it's nothing that I'm going to lose sleep over.  Games work fine as well (albeit I've generally stepped down to 1440p instead of 4K, where DLSS is not in play).

 

——

I might be complaining here and there but the system is actually working fine for me and I am rather satisfied.  I didn't really get it for "absolute top performance" (though I certainly don't mind that and I am up for tinkering with it here and there to edge that up where I can).  I got it as a sort of daily driver "everything machine" with plans to use it for a long time, and the huge storage and RAM capacity is probably even more important to me than how fast it is.  Only one other 17" Alder Lake system out there that could be achieved in.  (It also does top Precision 7760 in benchmark scores... although some light tweaking might be needed to get there in some cases.)  It's also been rock-solid stable, which is also more important than speed.  And, at least for me, it is appropriately cool and quiet when it is not doing anything.

 

I just wish that Dell was a bit more careful with their components and QA.  Why does the Delta fan/heatsink thermal throttle out of the box when the Sunon one does not?  Couldn't they use some higher quality thermal compound & pads?  (Any one of us can spend $20 and have enough materials to "fix" at least five systems.)  Push through a fix for the IA AC/DC loadline configuration issue promptly after it was discovered?  I'm a little bit confused why they put such care into the design of their machines and then still end up with issues like this.

 

I do get that they were under a crunch, sort of, to get this thing on the market.  I'm not sure what was going on with the manufacturing delays throughout May and June, and if trying to be the first ones with Alder Lake HX systems out the door had any role in these issues that I mentioned.