Dell Precision M3800 Owner's Review

Razer has just released its new Razer Blade and its a beauty! Given all the problems that Dell is having with this machine and that I have been having and the quality of the build of Razer I think I might have to go with the new Razer Blade!

Any thoughts?

 

anything sounds good on paper pal! No one ever got their hands on the new Razer yet so it's hard to tell

 

My M3800 has been great. Almost no issues. Note: I went to Win8.1 because I was having a few driver related issues in Win 7 and figured 8.1 would take care of them. It almost did except for the touch screen not waking correctly. That was corrected via a driver/bios update of the touch screen. With those changes (and the addition of a start button program) I'm very happy with this system and happy to recommend it. A coworker just got the same system this week. He was having a number of driver related issues and has since updated to Win8.1 as well. I will be interested to see if he has any issues.

BTW, based on his and my experience I suspect that the Win7 drivers were simply not well tested for this system. I don't think the XPS 15 was offered with Win 7 so the Win 7 drivers would only be for the M3800 computers, presumably a smaller market vs the XPS15.

 

This sucks to hear, as I would really like to stay on Windows 7 and NOT have to upgrade to Windows 8/8.1. I am growing more weary about getting this system every day, but as I said earlier, I just don't see a viable alternative out there. Dell sounds like they really dropped the ball on this workstation, especially where Windows 8 is concerned.

 

What issues did you see? My system should be in next week, so I'm curious what to look for. It's Windows 7, of course, and if I can't get reliable driver support, the system goes back. Windows 8.x is not an option, ever.

 

Agree 100% with you there sir. I do NOT want anything to do with Windows 8. At all.

I am really interested to hear your impressions when you get the system.

 

Just got my M3800 (finally) after about 4 months wait.
I got the QHD+, 16GB RAM, 91Wh battery, 256 mSATA SSD.
¨
Impressions so far:
Build quality is ace, no creaking, very solidly built.
It weighs more than expected (2.0 kg). When I picked it up I expected it to be lighter, mostly due to the fact that it is so thin. It's still way lighter than my M4500.
Touch is actually useful! I never thought I'd be excited about touch on a professional workstation, but i have to admit i like it.
Win 8.1 is not as bad as rumor has it. Scaling (for the apps that support it works seamlessly to my U2713H. Unfortunately there are quite a few apps that don't like HiDPI, so I have to run with the laptop monitor closed a lot. Also I have a small niggle with the new PSU. Or rather with the fact that the M3800 doesn't recognize my 3 (!!) old-style 130W PSUs with the adaptor for "slim" Power jacks. This is quite annoying, but we have plenty of use for more High-power PSUs in our meeting-rooms, so I'll donate mine and get new ones from IT. Still, quite annoyed that they don't work, as this means I might have to bring my own PSU for long meetings...
Apropos power; I have no capacitor whine (coil whine) on mine. There are no dead pixels on the otherwise stunning QHD+ display.

I got the Dell USB 3.0 Monitor Stand Dock (MKS14) and it works above all expectations! The single USB 3.0 cable carries DP-data, allowing up 2 high-def (2560x1440) monitors as well as a Gigabit Ethernet, 4 USB, a USB sound card and a card reader through a single cable! Combined with the 4 USB I have in the monitor that means a total of 8 USB-ports for all my accessories and then some. It's even got a 90W PSU built in!! Unfortunately the M3800 requires 130W minimum, so it's no use for me.. Still,it's quite neat AND it gives me gigabit Ethernet (which the dongle doesn't).

So to the pros/cons
PRO:

• Robust
• Great build quality (and feel)
• Great display (QHD+ is just beautiful!)
• Slim and neat (WAY more portable than an M4500)
• Decent battery life (ca 6-7h)
• Quiet (silent most of the time)
• Keyboard feel
• Touchpad
• Soundcard (no annoying hiss in active headphones (like QC15), good quality output)
• Speakers! (surprisingly good)
• NO PgUp/PgDn next to up-arrow key!

CON:

• Keyboard font (for real, this looks like a toy)
• Screen hinge doesn't allow full flat mode
• Glossy screens are annoying outdoors!
• Keyboard lacks "Pause/Break" and dedicated PgUP/PgDN/Home/End-keys

I use a Logitech Illuminated Keyboard and the MX Performance mouse, so most of the issues relating to keyboard is not that annoying in everyday use.
Since I moved into Product Management, I no longer use CAD/CAM on a daily basis, but from what I have seen so far, CREO 2.0 (previously Pro/Engineer) scales beautifully on HiDPI. Also the Quadro K1100 is blowing my old FX1800M out of the water... Can't wait to look at some video editing SW / similarly demanding applications.

My main apps:
Creo Parametric 2.0 - OK
MS Office 2010 - OK (surprisingly)
Google Chrome - OK
Opera 20 - Not OK
Microsoft Dynamics AX (RDP) - Disaster! (but hackable, thank god)
Spotify - OK
Adobe CS5 - hahaha, absolutely not OK

Well, that's my impressions after a short week with this machine (got it Tuesday). Unfortunately the machine arrived with only 256GB mSATA, but I'll see how far it will work and then get the Samsung 1TB once prices are a little more palatable.. Then I'll do a Linux Mint install as well, I believe.

Hope it's been useful to some of you.

 

Perhaps it doesn't belong here, but why is Windows 8 not an option for some people? I think it's great, it works and it's fast. We're talking about Win 8.1 of course. The difference could be as similar as Vista opposed to Win 7. So, what's wrong with 8.1?

 

You're right, it doesn't belong here...
Plenty of topics on Win 8 / 8.1 around the webs...

http://winsupersite.com/windows-8/what-heck-happening-windows

http://social.technet.microsoft.com.../windows-8-81-is-a-disaster?forum=w8itproperf

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-1916584/windows-gaming.html

Also most professional users are wary of new OS'es and compatibility with the SW they use (CAD/CAM software uses special drivers that need to be approved both by the SW-houses and the manufacturers of HW).

 

How do you disable it? I've been Googling and haven't been able to find instructions on how to disable it..