The Dell Precision M3800 is Still Sleek

Outwardly, the new Dell Precision M3800 G2 (second generation) looks identical to its predecessor, which means that it bears a striking resemblance to Apple’s 15-in. MacBook Pro. The Dell M3800 is sleek, weighing less than 6 lbs. including its external power supply and cables. Even the minimalist packaging resembles what we’ve come to expect from Apple.

Housed in a beautiful aluminum and carbon fiber chassis, the Dell Precision M3800 measures 14.56 x 10.0 x 0.71 in. and weighs 4.57 lbs. as tested. The 130 watt AC adapter adds 0.9 lbs., bringing the total weight to 5.65 lbs. That’s light compared to mobile workstations that often tip the scales at more than 11 lbs. But, in the past year the rest of the world has caught up. Nearly every system vendor now offers a thin, lightweight mobile system — including the HP ZBook 14, the BOXX GoBOXX G1980 and the MSI WS60, all of which DE has reviewed.

Minor CPU Update

The original Dell Precision M3800 came with an Intel Core i7-4702HQ, a Haswell quad-core CPU with a base speed of 2.20GHz and a maximum turbo speed of 3.2GHz. For the second generation M3800, Dell replaced that processor with a slightly faster Intel Core i7-4712HQ, which has a base speed of 2.30GHz while accelerating to a maximum turbo speed of 3.3HGz. It too is a Haswell processor, and includes the same 6MB SmartCache and a 37-watt thermal design power (TDP) rating to help extend battery life.

Although the CPU includes integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600, Dell also equips the Precision M3800 with an NVIDIA Quadro K1100M discrete graphics card with 2GB of GDDR5 dedicated memory. This powerful GPU (graphics processing unit), with 384 CUDA (compute unified device architecture) parallel processing cores, has a 128-bit interface and a bandwidth of 44.8GB per second. With a maximum power consumption of 45 watts, the K1100M helps the M3800 deliver very good graphics performance while conserving battery power.

Opening the lid reveals a 15.6-in. display and the same full-size 80-key backlit keyboard as the original Dell Precision M3800, which means that it is still lacking a separate numeric keypad. A gesture-enabled multi-touch touchpad with two buttons is centered below the keyboard and a round power button is located to the upper-left. The caps lock button includes a small LED that indicates when caps lock is enabled.

The wide view LED backlit display extends practically to the edges of the lid. Above it is the same noise-canceling microphone array, ambient-light sensor, HD video webcam, and camera-status light as the original M3800.

So, other than the CPU, what makes the second generation M3800 different from its predecessor? As was true for the original M3800, the base model M3800 G2 comes with a 1920x1080 display. But instead of the QHD+ 3200x1800 touchscreen panel in the original M3800, Dell equipped our new evaluation unit with a 4K 3840x2160 IGZO UHD (ultra high-definition) touchscreen panel (a $99 option). Both panels come with 10-point multi-touch and are covered with Corning Gorilla Glass.

More Options

Dell doesn’t skimp on memory, providing 8GB in the M3800 base configuration. Our unit came with 16GB of RAM, installed as two 8GB 1.6GHz SODIMMs (small outline dual in-line memory modules), an option that added $112 to the price.

Dell has responded to customer feedback regarding storage options. The base configuration still comes with a 500GB 7200 rpm hard drive, but now you can opt for solid-state drives (SSDs) ranging from 256GB ($59) up to a 1TB mSATA SSD ($999) as well as an Intel 360GB 2.5-in. Serial-ATA solid-state drive ($349). The second 2.5-in. hard drive bay can also be outfitted with a 1TB SSD, for a total of 2TB of solid-state storage (which would add nearly $2,000 to the $1,649 base price). While many customers may shy away from spending that much for internal storage, considering the performance advantage and additional power savings of an SSD drive, most will likely opt for some sort of solid-state drive.

Our system came with a 256GB SSD, adding $249 to the price. That’s a rather small drive for a workstation. We think most customers will go for at least a 512GB SSD – a $499 add-on.

Like the original, however, the M3800 G2 does not include an optical drive. While that is becoming less and less of an issue for many users, we had to first copy programs onto an external USB hard drive before we could install them on the M3800 G2. Dell sells an external USB DVD+/-RW drive for $60 and similar drives are available online for as little as $25.

In the new M3800, the mini DisplayPort doubles as a Thunderbolt 2.0 port. The new system also comes with a USB 3.0 Ethernet dongle, whereas the original came with a USB 2.0 version.

The Dell Precision M3800 system we received came with the six-cell 61 watt-hour 12.2 volt base system battery, which kept us running for 5 hours and 34 minutes before saving all data and shutting down. A 6-cell 81WHr battery is a $42 option.

Performance Largely Unchanged

What a difference a year makes: When we reviewed the original Dell Precision M3800, it out-performed many of the larger, more expensive mobile workstations we had reviewed less than a year before. While the new M3800 matched or exceeded its predecessor on the SPEC Viewperf and SOLIDWORKS benchmarks, it actually took a few seconds longer than the older system to complete our AutoCAD rendering test.

We also ran the SPECwpc workstation performance benchmark. While the slightly faster CPU enabled the M3800 G2 to beat the original M3800 on most aspects of this test, it lagged behind most of the newer systems, performing just slightly better than the HP ZBook 14 we recently reviewed.

Mobile Value

Throughout our tests, the M3800 G2 ran cool, but not quite as silent as the original. Last year, we wondered whether the M3800 even had a fan. This year, under the extreme compute loads imposed by several of our benchmarks, the M3800 G2 fan was audible, although still quiet compared to many other systems.

Our system came with Windows 8.1 Professional 64-bit. Windows 7 and Ubuntu Linux 14 are also available. Dell backs the system with a one-year ProSupport plan plus one year of next business day limited on-site service after remote diagnosis.

At its base price of $1,649, the Dell Precision M3800 G2 is an excellent system. As configured, our unit priced out at $2,109. Even when we configured a new system to match the one we reviewed last year, the new Dell Precision M3800 G2 would cost $2,401, still $486 less than last year. The Dell Precision M3800 G2 remains an excellent choice for any engineer on the go, offering light weight, style and performance at an affordable price.

More Info

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Mobile Workstations Compared

		Dell Precision M3800 G22.3GHz Intel Core i7-4712HQ quad-core CPU, NVIDIA Quadro K1100M, 16GB RAM	HP ZBook 14 G22.6GHz Intel Core i7-5600U dual-core CPU, AMD FirePro M4150 and Intel HD Graphics 5500, 16GB RAM	BOXX GoBOXX G19802.8GHz Intel Core i7-4980HQ quad-core CPU, NVIDIA Quadro K1100M, 16GB RAM	Eurocom P5 Pro4GHz Intel Core i7-4790K quad-core CPU, NVIDIA Quadro K510, 32GB RAM	MSI WS602.5GHz Intel Core i7-4710HQ quad-core CPU, NVIDIA Quadro K2100M, 16GB RAM	Dell Precision M38002.2GHz Intel Core i7-4702HQ quad-core CPU, NVIDIA Quadro K1100M, 16GB RAM
Price as tested		$2,109	$2,115	$3,365	$4,489	$2,600	$2,887
Date tested		5/25/15	2/20/15	2/4/15	2/4/15	1/17/15	3/13/14
Operating System		Windows 8.1	Windows 8.1	Windows 8.1	Windows 7	Windows 7	Windows 7
SPECviewperf 12	higher
catia-04		15.16	15.09	21.26	64.64	21.26	14.74
creo-01		15.36	16.57	20.28	48.70	19.98	13.37
energy-01		0.34	0.06	0.32	2.61	0.32	0.28
maya-04		13.85	9.09	18.20	48.84	17.90	12.79
medical-01		4.30	2.70	5.71	23.93	5.71	3.72
showcase-01		8.55	7.58	10.35	27.86	10.63	8.50
snx-02		15.30	20.06	22.10	58.41	22.05	14.74
sw-03		25.41	29.21	34.53	97.38	32.32	19.43
SPECviewperf 11	higher
catia-03		32.18	32.53	47.85	80.24	45.66	33.56
ensight-04		17.38	17.51	24.55	86.39	24.09	17.50
lightwave-01		60.00	65.87	77.62	94.51	64.37	58.84
maya-03		62.83	61.30	81.14	178.55	77.78	61.83
proe-05		13.92	9.70	21.57	22.67	18.26	15.37
sw-02		39.91	43.45	52.31	81.17	47.80	39.48
tcvis-02		28.59	13.38	37.24	70.60	36.95	28.69
snx-01		23.77	23.55	31.76	89.35	31.85	23.76
SPECapc SolidWorks 2013	higher
Graphics Composite		2.51	2.98	5.59	9.00	3.08	2.41
RealView Graphics Composite		2.54	3.26	5.86	10.61	3.23	2.71
Shadows Composite		2.48	3.20	5.92	10.65	3.23	2.34
Ambient Occlusion Composite		2.36	4.63	7.21	21.36	3.51	2.20
Shaded Mode Composite		2.42	2.90	5.36	8.88	2.96	2.31
Shaded with Edges Mode Composite		2.61	3.07	5.82	9.12	3.21	2.51
RealView Disabled Composite		2.41	2.08	4.61	4.66	2.55	2.40
CPU Composite		2.20	2.65	3.88	4.25	3.06	2.41
Autodesk Render	lower
Time	seconds	79.38	124.28	55.39	56.88	63.60	71.42
Battery Test (H:MM)	higher	5:34	7:28	2:15	2:10	3:13	6:12

Numbers in blue indicate best recorded results. Numbers in red indicate worst recorded results.