Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Thanks for you input.
Thats too bad to hear. I was really hoping the M3800 could handle larger assemblys. I guess I will start looking at the M4800, or even a desktop alternative.

The project I'm working on right now have around 100 parts and it's growing by the day. So I don't know what it will end up on.

 

I guess I'm calling a large assembly a 500+ part CAD database, which I think the m3800 is ok opening, and editing a part within the asm/subasm. I'll try opening up a large 500+ component assembly tonight when I get home and see how that goes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Is the Windows-reported "100%" really 100%?

In Device Manager, select the wifi card.
Driver tab

Update Driver
Browse My Computer for Driver Software
Let me pick from a list of device drivers on my computer

The one labelled Microsoft is the 16.0.0.62 and came with Windows 8.1; it may not be there on Windows 7.

The others came from some combination of Dell and Windows update.

Which Xeon? The single-socket quad-core ones are rarely much different from a regular desktop i5/i7, while the 6-core and dual-socket models are obviously a great deal beefier.

The big difference between any desktop workstation and the various laptops are in the GPU; number of CUDA cores and power caps are hugely larger on newer desktop boards (1000+, 2880 in the case of the K6000) and only the 17" M6800 is going to be in that class.

 

As for me, we are running a relic here. Xeon W3540. @ 2.93 Ghz with 12 GB ram.. I am sure it's at max quad core. I'm hoping the m3800 will be light years faster.

I forgot to mention, my laptop I have had for the past 5 years is even more of a relic. Elitebook 8530W - Core 2 Duo, T9400 @ 2.53 Ghz. Only 4 GB Ram, most like 3 usable since it is 32 bit windows pro.

Either way I need the m3800 to be leaps and bounds faster than both, put together

 

Obviously yes, I tell you my test.

I used my XPS15 on battery to discharge it until 70% was reached, my BCC (Battery Charge Configuration) setting was to Primarily AC only, then I set on BIOS Custon mode as BCC value and I left default value so do not charge battery if it's higher than 50% and stop charging at 90%.
After reboot, my battery was at 70% just as before, but my XPS15 has started the charging.
First rule: do not charge battery if it's higher than 50% was broke .
The charging was stopped at 100% so even the second rule was broke.

 

I was in the exact same boat. Our workstation is an old Xeon W3530 with FirePro v4900 and my notebook a 7yr old Asus W3J, C2D T7200 @ 2.0 Ghz. M3800 is much, much faster than the desktop and much thinner/lighter/cooler than the laptop with better battery life and 5 times the pixels on the display.

 

Don't be fooled, just because the M3800 is thin, light, and has a "low-end" quad core Haswell doesn't mean it's slow at all.

Looking at the M4800 benchmarks it looks like it runs Solidworks about 20% faster with the higher end i7 4900MQ and K2100M graphics. But it's about 2 lbs heavier and twice as thick.

If performance is that much of an issue, a modern i7 desktop would be faster and about half the price.

 

Hi, I am contemplating buying an M3800 to use for surfacing (Rhino) and solid CAD, as well as some CFD work. I currently use a 2011 13" MBP for all this, and it does not really cope with the workload, with heavy throttling etc. Also it has no hardware OpenGL support.

The M3800 should be able to cope with all this, and in a very nice form factor, and provide an awesome boost in performance. I am planning to get it with the FHD screen, as the QHD+ version makes no sense to me, especially with the scaling issues likely to occur with CFD-softwares. I will run Win7 and Linux.

Now, would your general feeling be to buy or not to buy? The only issues noted here are WiFi, sleep recovery issues and coil whine. Would these issues be expected on a unit ordered today? Can I expect a 3-year life time from this unit?

There is a great 30% off campaign on this unit in Sweden right now, so I am very close to ordering one...

Best regards,
Adam

 

Thanks, that would be great.

The problem probably boils down to my expectations. Since I haven't worked on a mobile workstation before my frame of reference is probably unrealistic and I want this machine to handle more than it was designed to do.

 

Yeah I had the FirePro too but recently upgraded to a Quadro FX 4800 with 1.5GB i believe. My question is, will the m3800 be better than my desktop? I know it will grossly outperform my old 8530w elitebook. I need to ensure this laptop will keep me working smooth with SW/Photoview and Keyshot for at least 2 years, hopefully 3-4.