XPS 15 or Precision M3800

Hello everyone,

I am stuck in choosing between the Dell XPS 15 or the Precision M3800. I understand that the Precision is marketed towards business professionals and is optimized for rendering and design applications, however, I am stuck in between this and the XPS 15's difference.

The key difference between the two is their video card. From what I've read, the Precision's Quadro card is better for rendering and graphic design applications while the XPS's GeForce is better for gaming.

I am stuck in between these two! I do some design and also do some gaming. I occasionally render videos on Sony Vegas and play many 3D games like TERA, for example.

They look the same, and it's honestly a matter of their video card that will make my decision. Since I do both designing and gaming -- which one should I choose?
The Precision is more expensive for some reason and is not as available a the XPS 15 which has practically the same specifications except that graphics card, again.

Also a side note, does anyone know if the hard drive bay on these devices is 2.5"? Does it matter if I go with an HDD configuration or an SSD configuration? Because I plan on getting an aftermarket SSD and swapping it out for the HDD, if that's possible. Would I have to purchase the SSD model to be able to swap an aftermarket SSD, or does it not matter which model I get?

If someone can help provide me some clarification, I'd gladly appreciate it.

 

If you buy a model having a 512 GB SSD, then you get a larger battery. That seems to apply to both Precision and XPS.

 

Hard drive is 2.5 inches, so standard ssd will work.
Get the XPS, there is no sense spending more for a precision, considering quadro graphics are worse at gaming.
The main benefit to a precision is the better CAD scores, and the warranty. The warranty is much easier to deal with, different call centers, but it does not justify the price difference.

 

Well, look at it like this:

Something like a Quadro would be excellent for rendering tasks and the like, and alright for gaming. Somewhat expensive for gaming, but it'll get the job done.

Something like a GeForce would be excellent for gaming, and absolute garbage for any sort of rendering tasks and the like. Anything that uses the GPU at all would suffer. Something that is CPU-only (and completely CPU-only) should be alright, though.

 

Just note that if you get the model with the bigger battery, you have to use the mini PCIe ssd's.. Honestly, I have the smaller battery/SSHD config of the M3800 and the battery life isn't too bad for browsing with medium/low brightness. I think I got around 4-4.5hrs earlier today. And trust me, at least on the 1080p touchscreen, the screen is bright. So bright that I've never use it at full brightness. I'm just not used to having a display with that nit I suppose.

 

I dont know this for sure, but can someon verify this:
The XPS15 dimensions:
height x width x depth (in mm): 18 x 372 x 254
Review Dell XPS 15 (9530, Late 2013) Notebook - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

M3800 dimensions:
height x width x depth (in mm): 20 x 372 x 254
Review Dell Precision M3800 Workstation - NotebookCheck.net Reviews

So the M3800 should be 2mm thicker? Is this true?
If you go to case temp section you see a drastic difference in temperature between the 2 models,
is this only due to the lowerclocked gpu or also added thickness? Seems like extremely big differences (44C vs 64C max)

Would go for the thicker one any day of 2mm can make such a difference in temps

 

I'm in the same boat here , i have a super price on a xps 15 but on notebookcheck , noise and heat are clearly way better on the precision , mainly due to the quadro that is not as powerfull as the 750 ....

Any input on that ?

 

I just got a xps 15 512gb SSD bigger battery.

It is built well and after rendering 1080p video content the heat dissipation is good.

My 11" i7 lenovo helix gets much hotter.

I can't compare to the precision.... Really they are the same model with a different GPU


The carbon fiber is slick!

 

Get the XPS L521X (one gen older XPS). Having 2 HDD bays and 1 mSata is pretty nice. :]

 

Power = heat, and heat leads to (fan) noise. You said it yourself (bold added by me for emphasis).

 

It looks like one review is including the rubber feet, the other is not. The chassis and internal configuration are going to be identical between the XPS15 and M3800. And yeah, as you said, the lower clocked GPU is going to help out with lower temps/heat.