- Nov 5, 2018
- 2,510
- 2,088
Such is love. My new GF now has my Beloved MacBook Air (you will have to pry my MacBook Pro from my cold dead hands!).
So in with the new. I just acquired a Dell Precision 7730 Workstation. Dell won't even call it a laptop. It's pretty sick. On paper anyway it should be able to earn the title of my most powerful system, who knew? Intel i7-8850H, 6 physical cores and 6 virtual cores, it supposed to be a VM monster, my new test bed? RAM maxes out at 128GB, that's not virtual, that's physical system addressable. There was a time when too much RAM would tie up CPU resources and the amount of RAM past a given point would actually slow system performance. Something tells me that's not going to be the case with a Precision 7730. Radeon Pro WX 7100 w/8GB GDDR5 in a laptop? It still has 2 years left on the warranty.
If you look at the pricetag of this system new you have to wonder why would you spend that kind of money. Unless you are in pretty good shape you would have problems calling this a portable. It needs a Dell PA-9E 240-Watt Laptop AC Power Adapter that weighs more than let's say an "Ultra Book" Intel portable. For me it winds up being a new free toy to play with, perk of my job. I honestly doubt this system was used more than a few times. It's one of those "Hey check out my system" trophy pieces. Kind of like a Shelby Cobra you keep in the garage and drive it a few miles on the weekend if the weather is good. I wouldn't have that problem though with that car. I would probably wind up in jail and that's why both my vehicles are V-6, 4WHD. I know my limitations. We all should.
Well maybe I am speaking too soon. I still have a living room full of digital electronics. Unfortunately all nice stuff. I have already gone though the miniaturization phase. GF has shown an interest in having a smart house which is fine by me. I just couldn't pass up those crazy good deals on Amazon and Google AI gear during the stay at home lockdown. Could you resist a current Echo Spot for $7? Those smart outlets were going for $5/ea, I couldn't not buy them. Then there was the Google Nest Hub on sale @ Target for $25. To think it all started last winter when a woman at work handed me a Gen 1 Echo, new in a box and ask me if I had any use for it. I still have that black monolith erected in my living room. It's a little slower and doesn't hear as well as the Gen 3 Echo Spots but Alexa sure sounds sexy from that big old speaker. Even my darn landlord contributed by tossing in a Honeywell AI climate control system.
EDIT: I just weighed this beastie in, just over 6.4 lbs, 3 kg. Hardly a laptop. This is and I quote, "Experience unrestrained innovation with the new thinner and lighter, premium-built Precision mobile workstations." I think I have one of the older versions of this line kicking around the shop. That older model is butt-ugly to start with and weighs as much as a boat anchor.. This one has one of those Dell faux-carbon fiber LCD screen cases. Not exactly sexy but easy on the eye. It's funny how much emphasis an average consumer puts on a laptop's "looks" vs. it's performance. My GF's old Dell is a shining example of that. Total POS but it looked nice on TV when the pretty faces on QVC presented it.
So in with the new. I just acquired a Dell Precision 7730 Workstation. Dell won't even call it a laptop. It's pretty sick. On paper anyway it should be able to earn the title of my most powerful system, who knew? Intel i7-8850H, 6 physical cores and 6 virtual cores, it supposed to be a VM monster, my new test bed? RAM maxes out at 128GB, that's not virtual, that's physical system addressable. There was a time when too much RAM would tie up CPU resources and the amount of RAM past a given point would actually slow system performance. Something tells me that's not going to be the case with a Precision 7730. Radeon Pro WX 7100 w/8GB GDDR5 in a laptop? It still has 2 years left on the warranty.
If you look at the pricetag of this system new you have to wonder why would you spend that kind of money. Unless you are in pretty good shape you would have problems calling this a portable. It needs a Dell PA-9E 240-Watt Laptop AC Power Adapter that weighs more than let's say an "Ultra Book" Intel portable. For me it winds up being a new free toy to play with, perk of my job. I honestly doubt this system was used more than a few times. It's one of those "Hey check out my system" trophy pieces. Kind of like a Shelby Cobra you keep in the garage and drive it a few miles on the weekend if the weather is good. I wouldn't have that problem though with that car. I would probably wind up in jail and that's why both my vehicles are V-6, 4WHD. I know my limitations. We all should.
Well maybe I am speaking too soon. I still have a living room full of digital electronics. Unfortunately all nice stuff. I have already gone though the miniaturization phase. GF has shown an interest in having a smart house which is fine by me. I just couldn't pass up those crazy good deals on Amazon and Google AI gear during the stay at home lockdown. Could you resist a current Echo Spot for $7? Those smart outlets were going for $5/ea, I couldn't not buy them. Then there was the Google Nest Hub on sale @ Target for $25. To think it all started last winter when a woman at work handed me a Gen 1 Echo, new in a box and ask me if I had any use for it. I still have that black monolith erected in my living room. It's a little slower and doesn't hear as well as the Gen 3 Echo Spots but Alexa sure sounds sexy from that big old speaker. Even my darn landlord contributed by tossing in a Honeywell AI climate control system.
EDIT: I just weighed this beastie in, just over 6.4 lbs, 3 kg. Hardly a laptop. This is and I quote, "Experience unrestrained innovation with the new thinner and lighter, premium-built Precision mobile workstations." I think I have one of the older versions of this line kicking around the shop. That older model is butt-ugly to start with and weighs as much as a boat anchor.. This one has one of those Dell faux-carbon fiber LCD screen cases. Not exactly sexy but easy on the eye. It's funny how much emphasis an average consumer puts on a laptop's "looks" vs. it's performance. My GF's old Dell is a shining example of that. Total POS but it looked nice on TV when the pretty faces on QVC presented it.
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