Precision 7740/ 7540 specs / release date

My experience is that Dell usually delivers before the estimated delivery date (though maybe not by much). It should be noted that shortly after the launch of a new system (the period that we are in right now), Dell has heightened QA going on those systems, so ship times can be a bit longer than usual.

 

Got my Precision 7740 earlier last week (ordered July 10, came in August 7 where the original estimated delivery date was July 29). I can confirm the RTX3000 has 1920 CUDA cores.



If there are more questions about the 7740, I'll try to answer as best I can.

 

Feel free to snap some photos (especially if you have the aluminum lid) and open the 7540/7740 owner's thread .
Can you check the vBIOS version of your RTX 3000 (use GPU-Z)? Interested to see if there is a difference from the 7540 version which is 90.06.39.00.63. Though from your screenshot it looks like the clock speed is the same, which was not the case with last gen's Quadro P3200.

 

Oh, I have another question. Can you check the BIOS setup (F2 at boot), find the "Drives" section where you can toggle individual drives on and off, and post how many "SATA" drives/checkboxes you see listed there?
A company rep claimed that SATA M.2 drives are no longer supported on this system, but I suspect that they actually are supported if we see multiple SATA entries in this list.
(SATA M.2 drives are cheaper than NVMe M.2 drives so an interesting option for an upgrade if you are more about storage capacity over speed.)

 

On the 7740, there are two checkboxes for M.2 SATA, unfortunately they're not labeled on the bottom of the laptop. The M.2 slots on the 7740 have three labeled NVMe/Optane and one just NVMe. The one just labeled NVMe does work as a SATA port and I'd assume the one by the battery would work as well, but I haven't tested it.

Here's a GPU-Z screenshot of the RTX3000:

 

Ok that is a different vBIOS but only “off by one”, interesting.

For SATA I would also assume that the port by the battery works, since that is where an actual 2.5” SATA drive would be connected (with an adapter/caddy). So, perhaps two of the four ports work with SATA drives. My 7530 shows more than two SATA drive options to enable/disable in the BIOS so I think that the days where all of the M.2 ports are SATA-capable are gone.

 

Here's the BIOS page as requested:

Slots 3, 5 and 6 are under the back plate, Slot 4 is next to the battery. There is no slot 2 that I can see...

 

I would appreciate some purchasing decision help with a 7740. You will see from the nature of my questions that I’m no computer geek, and just stumbling along. I’m seeking to replace a faltering M6800 with Win7, i7-4940 and 24GB RAM. I’m a solo consulting mechanical design engineer; and primary heavy use is SolidWorks 3D CAD. Occassionally use Abaqus Finite Element Analysis solver and analyzed problem size is limited by RAM. Also use Photoshop for high-resolution photo stitching. Many CAD operations are single-threaded as is a limit of my basic Abaqus license. I will keep the M6800 as backup.

1. Screen: I prefer a matte screen; how is the 4K screen gloss? From the 51nb review it looks fine.

2. RAM: Dell-Mano states that 3200MHz RAM will be launched mid-August. I’m unsure how much RAM to get and what is better; more 128GB 2666 RAM at lower speed or less 64GB 3200 RAM. I am unable to find aftermarket 3200MHz RAM for sale in sticks larger than 16GB… limiting me to 64GB, which might be plenty (remember Abaqus FEA above).

3. Are there any 2TB “Class 50” PCIe NVMe SSD’s available? Would there be any noticeable user difference between something like Samsung 2TB Samsung 970 EVO Plus and 1TB 970 Pro?

4. Is there no optical drive? What about my software installation disks? Or ripping music CD’s?

5. With the 4K laptop screen, can I use the WD19DC dock into DisplayPort>DVI adaptor to old 1920x1200 puck-calibrated monitor that gets 94% aRGB gamut at 12-bit LUT (NEC LCD2690WUXi) – think photography printing. Or would I be better served to plunge for a new 4K NEC monitor now? I’m not even sure what I’d buy!

6. I’d like to do OS-drive encryption. Can I do that with Win10 Pro Bitlocker and keep the Dell-installed OS?

7. Why would I want a fingerprint reader?

8. *** Anyone have a recommended sales rep who will strike a price bargain? ***

Thanks soooo much! - Ralph

 

1. For what its worth, I have 4K display in the 7530 and it is totally matte, there is no issue with glare at all.
2. I somewhat doubt that there will be an option for 128GB 3200 in August; just up to 64GB at that speed. Sort of like how there is no 128GB ECC memory option either at this time. If you think that you will actually use more than 64GB of RAM then I would say go for 128GB at the lower speed; speed doesn't matter that much in practical use.
3. "EVO Pro" is not a thing, assuming you just mean 970 Pro? Anyway EVO Plus and Pro are actually really close in terms of speed but Pro has 2x higher write endurance. (You would have to be really rough with an EVO drive to hit the endurance/warranty limit, though, tens of GBs written every single day.)
4. Get a USB drive for the rare occasions you need to use an optical disc. That's just the way things are now...
5. You can connect low-res screens if you have a 4K monitor in the system. There could be issues with some apps with scaling between the two different monitors. For the best experience you should get a high-DPI external monitor so that you can run the two of them at the same scaling ratio.
6. Yes. I use BitLocker on my systems (both home and work) and it works fine. (You will probably need to turn the TPM stuff on in the BIOS setup first, I don't think it is all enabled by default.) Just keep a copy of your recovery key somewhere safe.
7. The fingerprint reader allows you to log in to Windows without typing your password...

 

The 4k screen on the 7740 I got with the aluminum lid is matte, not glossy at all. If you have experience with other Dell matte screens, this one is very similar.

You can throw as much RAM as you can afford at it and you should get some benefit especially if your applications support it. The speed difference for the RAM probably won't be as noticeable unless you're trying to squeeze out every bit of performance possible. So I would say, get as much as you can afford that the software can accommodate and not worry too much about the speed.

Like Aaron44126 said, between an EVO Plus and Pro you probably won't notice too much of a difference, but if seconds count, then by all means. If you get the SSDs yourself they will be cheaper than the Dell ones in most cases. And since the ports are easily accessible, I would go that route.

External USB Optical Drives are your friend. Or your can contact the software vendor to see if they have a digital locker or USB key option. There's no space for the optical drive in the 7740 body. There's no space for a 2.5 HDD if you get the larger battery either so...

sure, you can have different resolutions running on the laptop screen vs the docked monitors. Just if you're looking between the two (and the windows are crossed between the monitors), it might be a little awkward.

Bitlocker with the Dell installed Windows 10 Pro works fine. And if you do the updates through their Command software it reminds you to suspend before BIOS updating (well at least, it did for me this one time so far). Just turn on TPM in the BIOS before starting.

Personal preference if you do or not. Provides another way to authenticate/verify yourself.

Sorry... if you're part of higher ed, there are some deals through Dell Premier