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Dell Precision 7540 laptop

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Mark Mayer
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Google has been hounding me for the last week or so with an offer of a Dell Precision 7540 laptop. The price is attractive at just over $1100 in the base configuration. It is customizable and I'd be at about $1400 with a 512Gb SSD and 16Gb of RAM. It happens that I'm in the market, although the need is not urgent.?ÿ

I've had a few Dell Precision laptops in the past and the experience has been generally good. I'd like to know if any of you have had recent experience with this particular model.?ÿ

 
Posted : January 17, 2021 12:46 pm
flyin-solo
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i don't have that particular one, but an inspiron 17 7000, which is practically the same spec in terms of processing, RAM, and memory.?ÿ my only complaint is the daily "invite" from dell to update it somehow or other.?ÿ probably could figure out how to turn that off, but i don't care that much.

oh- i'm having problems importing shapefiles right now, but i doubt it has anything to do with the computer- more likely a carlson or windows issue.

 
Posted : January 17, 2021 2:00 pm
Mitch
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That sounds good. Don't know anything about the brand, but yesterday I bought a Maingear brand 17.3" laptpop i7, 32 ram, 10 pro, Geoforce RTX 2060, 1TB NVMe SSD. It was $1199. I'll need to wait a while before I can say how it works.

 
Posted : January 17, 2021 2:29 pm
rover83
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I have a company-issued 7530 with the i7-8850 processor (six cores). Video card is NVIDIA Quadro P2000.

Runs C3D, TBC, Infinity, etc. without any issues. All at once if I really want to. I don't work with massive point clouds, but occasionally smaller ones and never had any problems.

It does have 32G of RAM, though.

 
Posted : January 17, 2021 2:47 pm
stlsurveyor
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I have?ÿ Dell Precision 7730. 17". It works great and can handle all CAD and Scanning office programs.?ÿ

But...it is huge weighs about the same as a 12 pack of Bud and will not fit in any backpack or messenger bag. Battery sucks, but you can probably get an extended life, but will increase weight. If you plan to use a dock in the "office" go with 15" or even 13" models.?ÿ

N10,000, E7,000, Z100.00 PLS - MO, KS, CO, MN, KY

 
Posted : January 18, 2021 8:13 am

brad-ott
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@stlsurveyor however, those very few times like those two months in 2019 I spent nearly every day in hospital watching MIL slowly fade, I was glad to have the 17ƒ? screen as well as the Dell backpack I bought with my laptop, in which it fits very snugly (read barely).

?ÿ

EDIT: ?ÿDell Inspiron 15 5559 bought in March of 2016 for about $3,600 with bells, whistles. ?ÿOverall I am pleased, though as mentioned by others there are some likely Windows based gremlins.

 
Posted : January 18, 2021 8:26 am
christ-lambrecht
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I'm on a Dell Precision 7710 and agree with the above

+ keep your specific DELL drivers up to date - I had some problems with the powerboard when switching monitors.

It's great you can connect 2 external monitors without docking station (1 HDMI + 1 Displayport)?ÿ

 
Posted : January 18, 2021 10:21 am
ncsudirtman
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@stlsurveyor

So I cheaped out & went with a 15" Acer Predator Helios 300 gaming laptop that essentially had the exact same components as a Dell Precision that I had been watching (I only spent about 60% on the Acer but the Dell had a NVIDIA Quadro card whereas my Acer has just a NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660). I ended up spending a couple hundred bucks more on a decent wireless mouse, another 2TB of various SSD storage (filled all the bays) & doubled the RAM to 32GB. This laptop has so far performed just as well as two different Lenovo workstations that I had previously that were dedicated to CAD & another Dell Precision 5810 workstation that I had. I liked all three workstations but I wanted portability this time for data dumps & field emails/GPS model tweaks.

?ÿ

My only regret in this laptop is the screen size & brightness but I wonder if I'd regret the larger screen too when carrying it? side note - the 15" size fits well on my superduty's fold down center console & I can still squeeze the wireless mouse next to it. I think I'm going to buy some 0.25" kydex sheets & fabricate something as sort of a fold out field desk for that console to give me some more real estate to work with for the laptop & writing things down too

?ÿ

But to be completely honest I do believe I think for the money the Dell workstation has the likelihood to outlast this one in terms to just being a quality, well-built, durable product. Not that this one has given me any issues yet but it doe not feel as "solid" as other lenovo & dell laptops I've looked at (those weren't gaming laptops though either...). Fingers crossed that I'm wrong on that cuz otherwise I'll be figuring out how to transfer all my programs, files & everything haha ?????ÿ

 
Posted : January 18, 2021 1:18 pm
brad-ott
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Also remember the backlit keyboard.

 
Posted : January 18, 2021 1:36 pm
dmyhill
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I have a Dell Precision 3551 with i7-10750H, 24 Gigs Ram, Quadro P620

?ÿ

Works fine for CAD, but big and heavy...

?ÿ

Funny thing is, it replaced a Dell Vostro 15 with an i5 and some sort of video card I forget...and I liked that laptop a lot. Much sleeker, much more portable, and in practice just as fast. I am not really sure what I get with the i7 over the i5 for basic CAD work.

 
Posted : January 18, 2021 1:51 pm

tomd
 tomd
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I am using Dell Precision 7730. It is lovely except the battery life. By the reviews i am reading, battery life is much better in 7540.

?ÿ

 
Posted : June 1, 2022 2:04 am
RobertUSA
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People mostly arenƒ??t using laptops off being plugged in, so manufacturers arenƒ??t trying to make them power efficient, but powerful instead. A work laptop if going to be plugged for all office workers. If you need to unplug for 30 or 60 minutes thry will be fine.?ÿ

 
Posted : June 6, 2022 5:28 pm