Review Dell Precision M3800 Workstation

[asdfzxh]

wrg

[PPPPPPPPP]

I wish anyone would make a 4k laptop with sensible battery life (and a replaceable battery). Add a pound of weight or half an inch of thickness. Cut CPU or GPU a little bit (but not to netbook proportions). But make it a real business laptop I can use on a cross-Atlantic flight.

And give me back the trackpoint, while you're at it.

I don't get why every company is making the same laptop. Lenovo Y50. Toshiba. Etc. Target a different market. Don't divide the same tiny market 10 ways.

[Mooroo]

What is the maximum resolution of dual external monitors supported by this laptop? (Both running at 60hz)

[me]

I wish I hadn't bought.  4 main problems with this machine:

* ports
* dock
* chassis
* display


the port layout is tight.  bad enough a 15" business class machine doesn't have a native Ethernet port, but the layout of the usb ports so close to each other causes conflicts when using the usb-ethernet dongle (which gets amazingly hot, i've tried 2), my usb-4G modem, and a usb-to-serial adpter- pick 2 which you wnt to use since the latter 2 don't behave on the usb 3 right side ports (which again are too close to eachother). 

usb3 docks are not in the same league as a real docking station.  delays in graphics and periperals abound.  drivers/bios updates didn't help. i've had two 3800's as the first was a dud, both were awful on the usb-port replicator

the chassis is a joke, it's so flexible when you actually try to use it on your lap, the touchpad goes bonkers, either not working or having ghost clicks or jumping pointer syndrome.  even typing on a lap-desk when tilted can do this.  (and no this isn't my palms touchign the touchpad) this is just chassis flex. my first 3800 had a doa wifi card, dell support replaced/repaird it on site, 2nd visit to do the same they replaced the mainboard, then the touch pad was off and wouldn't click.  we ended up doing a full unit return withing 5 days. so the 2nd unit didn't have the wifi problem and killed touch bad, just the othe problems in this post.

display - too shiny. i regret thinking "maybe this won't be as bad as the last non-matte screen i had..."  nope.  bad idea. and it ghosts, alt+tab between screens leves a plasma-TV like ghost image for a bit of time.

oh, almost forgot - the chssis is so flexy it wakes the unit up from sleep in my briefcase, nearly had a melted system.  so i've had to go to hibernate instead of sleep where the flexing and space-bar 'tapping' of a closed laptop can wake it.  now one out of every few hibernates hangs.  the machine comes back on with usb/wifi/keyboard frozen, so a hard reboot is required.

oh and battery life is very 2010.

as an IT pro this thing is hurting productivity and it's out, back to a thinkpad for me (i had 3 before this one).  this is a good thin laptop for sitting at a desk, without a docking station and looking good, but not for much field work, too flimsy and not rugged enough for anything else.  4 cores and 8GB of ram and self installed SSD don't matter when you can't use it.

[john hamann]

It is very solid and stiff, stiffer than newer xps 9570 but with quiet old Haswell processor.  The CPU clocked down with heavy new game like WRC7, after 5 minutes, CPU 0.8 Ghz and cause the game unplayable.  Work around with Intel XTU, undervolt to -0.070 V and disable "Processor Integrated VR Effeciency mode".  With this tool, WRC7 will runs smoothly and the CPU clock at 1.6 Ghz  which is still acceptable.  The noise is low and temperature of CPU hoover about 80C, GPU 70 C.  Very good for 6 years old laptop with solid build quality.  Sound quality is really good, better than newer model because of carbon fibre case.

I have 10 of this laptop in my work.  All can be upgraded with Windows 10 directly from Microsoft website, just get the ISO and install. They are all very reliable until one of the colleague update the bios and failed.    Reliability is really good but Dell Bios update is problematic and many scrap M3800 and xps 9530 in the market sold as parts caused by Stupid Bios update.  It means good for used market when you can get parts for much cheaper.  So, if it runs windows 10 well, don't ever update your bios.  Newer bios after A09 are all just stupid Intel patch (Meltdown and Spectre)  that degrade performance and may kill your laptop.