Dell 17r N7720 SE - user review

[KSMB]

The million dollar questiom is (still) how good does BF3 1080p, medium settings or MW3 1080p high settings running with this rig.

[c_man]

I do not have any of these. Witcher 2 and Max Payne 3 both play well. Maybe, just maybe I'll be able to find BF3. I'll see what I can do.

Till then, some more tests in the first post.

[Androyed]

I'm very interested in this laptop. It seems to have everything I want:
- GT 650M 2GB GDDR5 (not DDR3!)
- Option for i5-3210M. I do not care too much about quad core, but I'm not going to turn a laptop with the i7-3610QM down if it's cheap of course.
- 2x 2.5" SSD/HDD slot. Perfect. Chances are I will get a cheaper configuration with only 1 HDD, but then I could buy a SSD, move it to the first bay and reinstall Windows 7 on it.
- Full HD screen, nice colors
- 17,3 inch
- No super crazy temperatures/noise
- No really bad flaws
- Decent price!

The GT 650M, certainly the GDDR5 version, is a very capable GPU. The GTX 660M is barely 10% faster. In some games you won't see any difference. If you say the Witcher 2 and Max Payne 3 both play well, that is a good sign. It will probably run all games (maybe not on max settings, but who cares).

(Dumb) question: Is it possible to replace the RAM?
(Dumb) question #2: In the different configurations it says the following about the GPU
2 GB nVidia GeForce GT 650M 90W (for the cheaper i5 configurations)
2 GB nVidia GeForce GT 650M 230W (for the more expensive i7 configurations)
What does that mean? I guess it has something to do with dual/quad core?

[Niblet]

After some rather, erm, 'interesting', troubleshooting involving a re-flash of the bios, I've been experimenting with a little overclocking of the 7720.

I'm still testing, but it seems that you can indeed stably replicate the performance of a GTX660M (3DMark11 Overall P2533 and GPU P2306) by overclocking the GPU so it hits 920MHz after boost (830MHz before boost).

3DMark results scale closely with core clock speed.

Increasing memory speed seems to have little effect (about 0.4% performance increase for a 5% clock increase).

Temperature-wise, under burn-in conditions, you hit 85C after 10 minutes at 900MHz and 6.5 minutes at 920MHz (which gives you the 660M-like performance).

Tomorrow I'll see how things go above +85...

[Rassal]

(Dumb) question: Is it possible to replace the RAM?

Yes, you can, i read that you can install up to 16gb on it, in a with 2 SODIMM of 8GB each.

(Dumb) question #2: In the different configurations it says the following about the GPU
2 GB nVidia GeForce GT 650M 90W (for the cheaper i5 configurations)
2 GB nVidia GeForce GT 650M 230W (for the more expensive i7 configurations)
What does that mean? I guess it has something to do with dual/quad core?

I guess it refers to the power supply that you will get with your laptop, if you get the i5 the power supply will be a 90w, and with the i7 it would be a 230w.

I read somewhere that there is 3 type of power supply, 90w, 120w and 230w.

[doulik3]

hello, i just received my n7720 today as well and learning it..just wondering how does one access the 32gb msata hd?? i dont see it but on my dell order it says it was shipped with it

[KSMB]

Rassal. Thats not right, there is just 2 different chargers. 90w (pa-10) or 130w (pa-13). i7 rig uses pa-13 and i5 rig uses pa-10

Its the same on older xps vs inspiron (130w vs 90w)


@doulik3..... Either you install Everest (there you see all your hardware).

The32gb ssd(msata) is for the startup. Therefore should Windows lays on that HD (its most logic)

[c_man]

(Dumb) question: Is it possible to replace the RAM?
(Dumb) question #2: In the different configurations it says the following about the GPU
2 GB nVidia GeForce GT 650M 90W (for the cheaper i5 configurations)
2 GB nVidia GeForce GT 650M 230W (for the more expensive i7 configurations)
What does that mean? I guess it has something to do with dual/quad core?

I think I was the first to put 16GB on 7720. In my original post I wrote what mems I have. At the end of it you will find some mem test for them.

It is very easy to replace RAM. BUT it only has 2 slots for it so you need 8GB modules to reach 16. Dell does not support 16GB officially.

Could be the need for i7 juice.

After some rather, erm, 'interesting', troubleshooting involving a re-flash of the bios, I've been experimenting with a little overclocking of the 7720.

I'm still testing, but it seems that you can indeed stably replicate the performance of a GTX660M (3DMark11 Overall P2533 and GPU P2306) by overclocking the GPU so it hits 920MHz after boost (830MHz before boost).

3DMark results scale closely with core clock speed.

Increasing memory speed seems to have little effect (about 0.4% performance increase for a 5% clock increase).

Temperature-wise, under burn-in conditions, you hit 85C after 10 minutes at 900MHz and 6.5 minutes at 920MHz (which gives you the 660M-like performance).

Tomorrow I'll see how things go above +85...

Some details on this please. Programs used? At some point it should reduce values to keep temps down.

[KSMB]

Use for example 2 dvd cases under the back of the laptop. Its increase the air flow way better

And if you want to monitor your temps(again) Everest do that for you

A little tips for you OCing people. Be really carefully with OCing your mobile GPUs. I have been OCing all my Dell laptops and i have also fried 2 cards which result in quite expensive replacing. Its not just higher temps you get, you also get higher Current which after some months, mostly result in weaker circuitry on the chip.

[Niblet]

Use for example 2 dvd cases under the back of the laptop. Its increase the air flow way better

And if you want to monitor your temps(again) Everest do that for you

A little tips for you OCing people. Be really carefully with OCing your mobile GPUs. I have been OCing all my Dell laptops and i have also fried 2 cards which result in quite expensive replacing. Its not just higher temps you get, you also get higher Current which after some months, mostly result in weaker circuitry on the chip.

The MBP 650M comes already clocked at 900MHz, so I'm fairly sure that you can safely take the card up to that level or maybe a little bit higher. You're absolutely right that it's going to fry the thing at some speed / duration.

Using the Kombustor burn-in test the default 835 MHz clocking pretty much stabilises at 84-85C in the 7720. Coincidentally, 85C is also the temperature either the GPU or the burn-in program (I haven't verified which yet) begins to reduce the GPU load slightly. Of course, most applications don't stretch the GPU this much, but it does suggest there's not much point doing a massive overclock in this model as the internal fan can't handle much more.

In terms of programs, I've successfully used Nvidia Inspector and MSI Afterburner. They'll take you up to a maximum +135, which quite frankly is probably more than you want for anything other than vanity benchmark scores. Realistically, you can probably only expect to safely get a 10% performance increase.

I'm currently undecided whether to leave the card at the default 835 MHz or go for a 900-920 MHz overclock.