Dell Precision 7710 for work

[itsamacthing]

I honestly wouldn't even know where to begin. I "switched" 16 years ago, and have always accepted the compromises/benefits associated with being on our side of the fence.

Today, here I am with a lot of photo data and want to have all that data inside my notebook. I need at least 2TB of SSD space. Right now, it's in my 27 inch iMac and the thunderbolt SSD external case. My objective is to move all my photos into a notebook so I can manipulate them on the sofa, bed, etc.

I am sure the next MBP will be a technological marvel, small, little to no ports, light, maybe no keyboard because it's ugly.

So as a backup plan, I am thinking about getting a Dell Precision 7710, it's a 17 inch 4K Laptop, Xeon processor, 32GB of ECC memory. Revolutionary features like user accessible and replaceable battery, m.2 bay, and Sata bay. So I can actually use the 1TB SSD I am currently using with my iMac.

It will certainly run Adobe Lightroom/Photoshop like a champ.

I used to HATE windows 16 years ago, frankly it's fine now and just as stable as OSX.

But, I won't leave the Apple ecosystem and so even if I got this route it will only be for work and then migrate my photos back to the Mac for storage, sync, and sharing.

If the new MBP does indeed come with 2TB option, then that will solve my issues.

The 7710 is a beast of a machine tho, a real professional mobile workstation, nothing Apple has is even close to this, very tempting and would be great to be able to change my drives and battery as I wish. The specs on that machine would be great for many many years to come..

Aside from the "windows is this that and the other" "Dell is blah blah blah" My entire life is surrounded by Apple, but I have to keep an open mind becauce things change..life changes..needs change.. and I think Apple has changed..Their pro offerings are not really pro, they are equal to consumer offerings across the market..Some comments would be welcome

 

[snaky69]

I use Windows at work with the work supplied laptop and OS X at home, both systems are good for their own purposes. So it really doesn't come down to OS to neither you or me.

Windows laptop's battery life has gotten quite good in the last few years, but with such beastly specs, it'd need a pretty beefy battery to keep up for any reasonable amount of time. Have you looked into that?

Out of curiosity, is there a particular reason you need to lug 2TB of data with you at all times? If you're going to go around lugging a huge and probably quite heavy 17" laptop, what's preventing you from going with a smaller MBP and a nice external SSD or even HD?

Heck if all manipulating is to be done at home, you could also look into a NAS, which in itself is also a great backup solution.

 

[itsamacthing]

I use Windows at work with the work supplied laptop and OS X at home, both systems are good for their own purposes. So it really doesn't come down to OS to neither you or me.

Windows laptop's battery life has gotten quite good in the last few years, but with such beastly specs, it'd need a pretty beefy battery to keep up for any reasonable amount of time. Have you looked into that?

Out of curiosity, is there a particular reason you need to lug 2TB of data with you at all times? If you're going to go around lugging a huge and probably quite heavy 17" laptop, what's preventing you from going with a smaller MBP and a nice external SSD or even HD?

Heck if all manipulating is to be done at home, you could also look into a NAS, which in itself is also a great backup solution.

Hi, and thank you for your response. This megalith will not travel outside a 2500SF home.. Sofa, Bed, desk.. So actually loving the idea of 17 inch screen again (miss my 17 inch G4)

Storage, have a 15 years of digital images and currently have the NAS and external SSD. I want to streamline and have everything on DAS.

All great suggeestions, have the same now.. Except Time Capsule for backups

This is the month.. If Apple does not release something, I am making my decision. They are moving way too slow

 

[Fancuku]

I bought a Precision 7510, the 15" version of the new 7000 series. It has the Quadro M2000M. The 7710 is probably even better because it has the M4000M with a M5000M option. Those cards are pretty stout.
You can also have up to 64GB RAM on these which is pretty damn nice. Plus Thunderbolt 3.

 

[itsamacthing]

Yeah, 64GB if I go with non ECC, 32GB with ECC. The 15 inch version is very nice, has a small bezel.

 

[NonSoft]

Their pro offerings are not really pro, they are equal to consumer offerings across the market

From a hardware perspective I mostly agree. It will be interesting to what becomes of the MBP now that they once again have multiple consumer grade laptops in the rMB and MBA. They should really step up the MBP in terms of specs to distinguish the lines.

I can't agree on the software though. It could be my company's implementation of Windows, but it still tends to be painful and not something that I would go near on my own terms. That, and a big chunk of the software that I'm dependent on is OSX only.

Good luck with your decision though, I'm sure a lot of people are in the same boat this month.

 

[Fancuku]

Yeah, 64GB if I go with non ECC, 32GB with ECC. The 15 inch version is very nice, has a small bezel.

There are no DDR4 16GB ECC sticks in the market yet?

 

[itsamacthing]

From a hardware perspective I mostly agree. It will be interesting to what becomes of the MBP now that they once again have multiple consumer grade laptops in the rMB and MBA. They should really step up the MBP in terms of specs to distinguish the lines.

I can't agree on the software though. It could be my company's implementation of Windows, but it still tends to be painful and not something that I would go near on my own terms. That, and a big chunk of the software that I'm dependent on is OSX only.

Good luck with your decision though, I'm sure a lot of people are in the same boat this month.

It will be interesting to see what Apple comes out with, I agree. The rMBP has more cores, few other details, but thats about it for the most part. A lot more is possible to differentiate it from the Air/MB. 64GB, Xeon, 2TB of storage is all possible, but not in a thin package with a dedicated GPU. The Xeon and dGPU would require serious . I personally think we are going to see a very beautiful rMBP but with high end consumer grade specs.

Just sitting down to my late 2012 iMac (maxed out) which hardware wise is mostly right there with anything sold today (except the screen of course). I am so comfortable with my work flow on the Mac, but in all honesty I should be using a PC because I keep a PC next to me for MS Office (have many plug ins for Excel that do not work on the Mac), Quickbooks (use QB Enterprise with a large group of people, not possible on the mac), and Network Management (Hyper-V, Exchange, Lync, Etc). Prefer everything else on the Mac. It's like the PC is a tool for specific things and then right back to the Mac for everything else. I really do wish, the Mac could do 100%..but in reality is cannot and that has nothing to do with Apple in a lot of cases (example: Quickbooks)

It might be your companies implementation, they might have gotten a little crazy with group policy. I find no limitations with the PC/Mac.

A lot of professionals are in this situation.. time will tell.
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There are no DDR4 16GB ECC sticks in the market yet?

It might be, just looking at the BTO options on Dell.com