Random Musings of a ComputerAbuser

A couple of weeks ago I ordered a new Dell Inspiron 17r Special Edition (7720) laptop.  My old Dell Precision M4400 is just getting too old for current games, so I figured it was time for something new.  This would be my 3rd new Dell in 10 years after my Inspiron 8200, then Precision M4400.

I received it last week.

I was originally concerned that a 17″ laptop would be too big, but it’s not bad at all.  I appreciate having the extra hard drive bay plus optional mSATA.

For around $1000, the 7720 seems like a bargain.  Unfortunately, the designers did not design a cooling system that can appropriately handle the heat put out by the included NVidia Geforce GT 650m GPU.

Don’t get me wrong, running at the stock 745 MHz, the cooling system is sufficient.  Unfortunately,  once Geforce Boost kicks in the GPU temp quickly climbs to the MAX allowable 91 degrees C and throttles back down to 745 MHz.

Maybe I’m expecting too much if I was expecting the cooling system to handle the Boost speed of 835 MHz for long periods of time.  I’m amazed that the extra 90 Mhz makes that much of a difference in the temperature.

I was actually hoping to overclock the GPU up to 660m levels, but that doesn’t really seem like an option now.

I have 3 more weeks to decide if I’m going to keep it or not.  I guess we’ll see.

ComputerAbuser

Update: I sent it back.