List of Simple and Yes or No questions about the Precision T7910 Workstation

1) I bought a T7910 with only 1 Processor, can I add a second Processor later? 

No

2) Do all 7910 Models come with a dual-processor motherboard?

No

3) There are videos on Youtube showing a guy changing his 5.25" HDD ports into 2.5" SSD ports with cables, screws, metal plates, and these great little fans and such,  but there seems to be no way to find out where he got the cables, screws and little fans, Do these sort of options, cables, screws, plates and fans etc. come with the T7910?

No

4) If they do not come with the machine, can they be ordered after the fact? (where? See next question...)

No

5)  I went to the Dell Parts & Upgrades site then to the 'Accessories for your Dell Precision Workstations T7910' page,.  There was exactly ONE part available for the 7910, (some strange cheap little video card) see here: accessories.us.dell.com/.../Category.aspx;l=en&cs=19&s=dhs&category_id=2999&mfgpid=238987&Tab=Parts&stype=2
so.... 

Is that the ONLY Part or Upgrade one can buy for a Precision 7910 workstation?

Yes

(sub question: Where are the Replacement Power supplies and Memory chips and cables and fans and Procs and Drives and Raid Kits for the 7910?

No

6)  I bought 32GB DDR4-2133 for my 7910 (in a 4x8GB configuration), can I ADD more memory later keeping my existing chips and just adding 4 more 8GB chips to get to 64GB? (or do they all have to be matched chips installed at the same time like the old days...)

Yes

THANK YOU!

Thanks!  (I think...) 

Really?  I cannot order any parts or cables or pieces or upgrades of Any Kind (except memory) for my New Workstation Computer from Dell?  What if a cable frays? Or a part breaks, Or I want to add something? Yikes. What have I bought...

It's also Strange they would have Multiple Separate Motherboard Styles for the Same Model Computer...

In the Manual for the T7910 they show the double Memory Bays and Double Processor Bays,..  Why would they not mention that these are only optional configurations and not all 7910 have them?  It is very misleading. (It misled me to order the wrong thing! 

(Like a car ad, they show their best configuration in the manual and Ads too, but they are sure to mention what Optional Configurations are shown so its not false advertising - that makes people think they are getting stuff they are not!

http://s3.postimg.org/do6l75ftf/Untitled_1.jpg

Thank you!

For any given model there is more than 1 motherboard and over time more than one revision.

Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2623 v3

(4C, 3.0GHz, Turbo, HT, 10M, 105W)

Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2630 v3

(8C, 2.4GHz, Turbo, HT, 20M, 85W)

Dual Intel® Xeon® Processor E5-2670 v3

(12C, 2.3GHz, Turbo, HT, 30M, 120W)

With servers and precision models this also means that newer processors etc would have different part numbers.  Not only are there different motherboards there are different power supply options based on the amount of ram and number of processors installed.

It is not atypical for a board to be missing heatsinks and connectors for cooling fans etc for boards with only 1 processor.  They are not soldered onto the motherboard or the processor and memory Riser are on a separate daughter board.

Dell does not routinely list all the parts or part numbers for specific models like they used to.

It would be useful to have the spreadsheets with part numbers and options like they used to have available but these are not posted publicly anymore.

If you pay for Dell Certification you can get much of information but it would be on an NDA basis.

Pinouts and schematics and parts lists are not generally available at all.

Precision T7910 Tower Workstation - Intel Xeon E5-2630 v3 2.40 GHz

• Processor Type:Xeon
• Processor Speed:2.40 GHz
• Standard Memory:32 GB

Well that does make sense,..  Why send a power supply that could work with a Terabyte of Ram for someone who ordered 8GB, it would be overkill and cost more than they would like..

My only grief with Dell is (as you say) almost no real info is out there in terms of specifics, you almost have to buy Blind..

When I was ordering and had trouble with the many, many totally unexplained 'options',  a little window popped up saying 'Let us Help you Order chat here!'  and when I did click chat From My T7910 Order Page, all they would tell me is that to get their help I need to buy a 'HOME' level computer and not a 'Small to Medium Business Computer' they cannot help me or answer any questions.

( I told them this is for my home but they would answer nary a question to help me).

If I had but known,  I would have bought 2 lesser Procs. for the same money as the 2650 in order to get the Dual-Proc Main board I wanted and reasonably expected (every video, manual and image shows the Dual Proc main board with 16 memory slots, no-where (except your kind post back to me) does it say one may get something completely different than what is pictured every the machine is advertised).  (i.ie. dual Processor bays (empty no less, implying that's the board you start with and 16 Memory Slots)

Oh GOD Let me guess, because I choose 4x8 chips not 8x4gb chips, I am not getting 16 or even 8 memory slots but only 4 right?. 

Oh No,.

''What have I done, What am I doing, What will I do!''  Homer Simpson 2001

Perhaps if I can explain this to the Tech Dept when I have my Support Code Sticker (or whatever it called..) they will let me RMA the machine to have it configured the way I wanted.   (I wish they could just send the parts and I can install them, I usually build my own machines anyways, this is my first pre-built and it is almost physically painful being out of the loop and not knowing what I am getting until it is probably too late..

 if this is an option,  perhaps they will send a replacement Energy Star Power supply and I can send the one it came with back.

(do any of these ideas sound remotely possible to an experienced Dell pro and aficionado like yourself? Are they accommodating with new 'small to medium business' customers?) (god O hate those 'categories/ they put people in, I bought this for my HOME I did not appreciate being told Ic an not get online chat help while ordering because its not a 'home computer'. I was like, well then WHY did the 'Lets us help you' chat window pop up while I was ON the T7910 Order page entering my Configuration?  Seems like they kind of messed me up there actually.   I was told that if I choose a wrong option or make a mistake I can call after paying and fix it,  then I called and emailed and chatted for days and days unable to get ahold of anyone who could help me (or who knew anything about the T7910 frankly).   Certainly no one who could help me change my mistake option and the one I was unable to pick) I was told it would be no problem and to go ahead and pay.     The one person we finally got ahold of said they would fix everything and upgrade me to next day air shipping.  a couple days later the machine went out via Fed-Ex Ground!! (I don't care about any shipping upgrades but it shows the inconsistency of my first ever experience with DELL.)  FRANKLY I was Happy the machine was going to take until 2015 to ship, it seemed like that would give me the time I needed to fix the CHECKBOXES that gave me trouble during the confusing and nerve-wrecking automated order process!  My shipping changed so drastically from 30-days to 3 and BOOM I was out of options.!

hey, Thank you for the Help!

Robert.

I still hold out hope that DELL is a good company that generally wants to do right by their customers.  They couldn't have gotten so big if they were as bad as they have seemed these last few days dealing at the non-tech sales level. .   Perhaps when my machine gets here (Tomorrow!)  and I am able to I call the real Tech dept. with a 'Service Code' for he first time, they will be able to answer my questions and how to fix my machine the way I actually wanted it (I wanted a 2 proc. machine)   I just don't want to have to completely return and have to start over , ordering was such a BREAR with that crazy belligerent online ordering system telling me what I can and can't have.

Real Tech Support is apparently unavailable until one has that Support Code, so I can gladly say I still have high hopes that the Tech Support Dept. will prove to b the Star of Dell - able to fix large problems in a Single bound! 

I really want to believe in  Dell! ,  I don't mind how they build their machines or even the proprietary parts I'm tired of building my own machines and wondering if they are tuned properly, of if  got the best or even right type HDD for my HDD Controller on the MB - or got the fastest best memory for the MB.. ETC.   as long as they are able to supply replacement parts for things that wear out and allow me to upgrade parts, I will be a happy customer.

So I reserve final judgement on Dell.   Frankly, If I can get my machine fixed (changed) so its the way I wanted (DUAL Proc Board (with 2 procs..)   I will likely become a Dell'ster for life,   There's a lot of Reasons I choose DELL after all, and I looked at a LOT of companies from HP to BOXX to MICRODESK, ETC.  

The 7910 is an amazing machine and a great price for how much power you can get, there's no denying that.  I see lesser machines out there from other companies for a LOT more money.  I was surprised to be able to get 32GB of DDR4-2133 for such an affordable price. 

They also have the only machine on the planet that has specific optimizations for the Hollywood Level Animation Software I work in, (AUTODESK 3ds Max).  There are a LOT of good things about DELL and the 7910 series.  Its an piece of ART, a gorgeous engineered masterpiece of efficiency and silence.   

I just wish I could have found out a whole lot more before I ordered (and AS I was ordering!) and that I would have been told 'what choice means what' in terms of hardware and future limitations.  

The pictures of the MainBoard in the manual of the T7910 DO NOT represent what the inside of all 7910's look like - so it should have a disclaimer that says so.  'DUAL-Processor Option Shown, Not all 7910 Models come with Dual-Processor Capability.  (like when you see a Car Ad, they show the machine at it's best configuration too, but they are nice enough to tell you what alternate options are being shown so it's not false advertising!

Hey!  I sure appreciate the help. Those are some solid suggestions about running burn-in tests before letting go of old-for-new replaced parts.   I would actually consider doing the certification classes - That's one way to get some solid answers about the proprietary tech!!  (I bet they get weekly tech updates ooohhh!  aaahhh!)

I just bought my T7910. The short list of specs on mine:

- E5-2623

- 2 x 4GB (2 x 16GB should be coming in this week)

- 310 videocard (already been upgraded to a 960)

- 500GB HDD (already added a 500GB Samsung 850 EVO and a leftover 2TB)

- purchased the quad 2.5" drive bay that goes into the 5.25" optical drive bay to allow me to put in 4 x 2.5" drives besides the standard 4 x 3.5" drives

I bought this system after very detailed research. Not all information and/or parts are straight up available on Dell's site (e.g. the quad drive bay I made sure to be part of the purchase, but knew it would ship separately).

1) I bought a T7910 with only 1 Processor, can I add a second Processor later?  No -> Incorrect: you can add a 2nd processor later, but you'd need to get a genuine Dell heatsink for that 2nd processor, which currently means you'll have to buy that from Dell as I haven't found any resellers offering that heatsink separately yet. 2) Do all 7910 Models come with a dual-processor motherboard? No -> Yes, all motherboards in the T7910 support dual processors (you just need a 2nd heatsink, which doesn't come with the system if you buy it with a single processor) 3) There are videos on Youtube showing a guy changing his 5.25" HDD ports into 2.5" SSD ports with cables, screws, metal plates, and these great little fans and such,  but there seems to be no way to find out where he got the cables, screws and little fans, Do these sort of options, cables, screws, plates and fans etc. come with the T7910? No -> Correct, but you can buy them from Dell. The SKU to buy is 470-ABHF. This SKU is probably not findable on dell.com, so you'd have to go through spare parts or your salesrep. Dell's KB article here, shows some information, but at the time I'm writing this it doesn't have a (correct) SKU for the 7910 (it uses different cables than the 7600/7610 due to the 12Gbit/s SAS vs 6Gbit/s SAS). 4) If they do not come with the machine, can they be ordered after the fact? (where? See next question...) No -> Yes, see above 5)  I went to the Dell Parts & Upgrades site then to the 'Accessories for your Dell Precision Workstations T7910' page,.  There was exactly ONE part available for the 7910, (some strange cheap little video card) see here: accessories.us.dell.com/.../Category.aspx;l=en&cs=19&s=dhs&category_id=2999&mfgpid=238987&Tab=Parts&stype=2 so....  Is that the ONLY Part or Upgrade one can buy for a Precision 7910 workstation? Yes -> No, the website is just very limited in what it lists, even though Dell does seem to have added memory and drive upgrades at least, since your original post. (sub question: Where are the Replacement Power supplies and Memory chips and cables and fans and Procs and Drives and Raid Kits for the 7910? No -> You'll have to call Dell spare parts or your Dell salesrep. 6)  I bought 32GB DDR4-2133 for my 7910 (in a 4x8GB configuration), can I ADD more memory later keeping my existing chips and just adding 4 more 8GB chips to get to 64GB? (or do they all have to be matched chips installed at the same time like the old days...) Yes -> Correct; each processor has 4 memory channels. All usable memory channels have to be identically populated, unless the memory channel isn't being used (e.g. you don't have a 2nd processor to communicate with the 2nd set of 8 DIMMslots, or you don't need that much memory at this time). So, in your case, you would end up with 4 memory channels with 2 x 8GB DIMMs in each memory channel. For my system I should have 4GB + 16GB in 2 of my 4 memory channels for my CPU.

Yes, yes, I don't think so, you most likely have to order them later on. I am sure you will get what you need if you call them, if not buy what you need somewhere else, RAM, CPU, Hard drives, SSD's, graphic cards and so are not made by dell but by external suppliers like Inter, Nvida, Seagate and others, so just make sure to by the same parts as the original and you should be fine. Yes you can put inn more Ram, they should be matching though even though it sometimes works mixing different brands and sizes of RAM its not a good idea, you don't buy a Dell Workstation if you want second grade stuff.

Dev Mgr - you state that you'd added a Samsung 850 EVO yourself.  I'm curious, did you have issues with getting the SSD to fit in the trays provided with the T7910 and line up with the connector on the backplane?  (Or did you only put the SSD in after the quad 2.5" drive bay had arrived?)

Asking this because I recently acquired a T7910 and had intended to install a Samsung EVO in it upon its arrival... however, the drive bays are so non-standard that this is proving difficult if not impossible.  I didn't get the quad 2.5" drive bay, and so have tried to add my SSD to one of the existing trays... however, the 2.5" spacer in the provided trays don't allow the SSD to reach the connector in the backplane - there's about a 3/4" gap from the SSD to the connector.  Standard (separate power/SATA) cables don't work with this specialized connector either - it's a combined port with a molded plastic rim around both.  And because of the design of the bays / backplane, I can't just snake a cable in to the motherboard.

I've gone around and around with the sales staff at Dell over this, and not gotten a resolution yet.  If you (or anyone else) has any insight into this, I'd be very grateful.

I know how that is with Dell.   The 7910 works with any hard drive big or small.   There are 4 easy drive 'trays' included, they will fit normal and laptop sized drives. (For a small SSD it has a Spacer that lets it fit into a Tray, then you just Slide the tray into a slot in the front. ) There are 4 Slots for drives and a couple regular sata/power connectors inside too. All normal, just laid out neatly. No cables etc. Slide ams click in. Smooth and nice.. No limitations of any kind that I have found and Im used to building my own!   Buy a second proc up front if you can, will save over a $1000 on second one later!    good luck!