Hello and thank you for your helpful reply.

Am I correct the processor and RAM cost will be the same for both systems?  I'm not looking to use optane memory.  The cards should be the same, too, right?

To my knowledge the ram and supported cpus are the same for both units. With cards do you have something in particular in mind ?

Hi,

Cards would be:

1) Mass Storage:  Dell Ultra Dual or Quad SSD PCI.
 Presently using in T7910:  Dell Ultra Dual with a Samsung SSD 970 Pro 1TB
 For T7920: Dell Ultra Quad with Samsung SSD 2TB * 4 in RAID 0 (striping).  I would want to copy the above 1TB drive to the Ultra Quad so I could keep the OS.  (Programs to copy HDD to SSD should do the trick, as they keep the operating system.)

2) Video card:

 Present:  NVIDIA GTX 1080
 For T7920:  I'm thinking of NVIDIA RTX 3050, but might go higher.  Not yet sure.

3)  Intel WIFI and Bluetooth card.  I'm not sure of the number.  Might just move it over.

4) Sound card:

 Present:  Sound Blaster Recon3D PCI.
 For T7920:  Might just move the card over from the T7910.  I also might upgrade, but not sure.

Video Capture:  One card I've been thinking about adding is a video capture card,  Right now I'm using an external USB 2.0 device, which only support HD (1920x1080).  I'm open to your suggestions.

Finally:  On the T7910, I have a RAID 10 drive.  It uses 4 Dell 6TB SAS drives.  I also have a 5.25" BluRay Writer and a slimline DVD +/-RW drive.

For the T7920:  I like how it can support 8 drive plus has room for BluRay and DVD.
I'm not sure how many drives I would use.  Right now Western Digital is selling Gold and Red Plus 20TB drives for $400.  An 8 drive RAID would be great.  Backing it up might be a hassle, though.

I would need to have a BluRay Writer on the T7920.  I might be able to drop the DVD +/-RW drive.

Well, all those cards would work in both units ,and both units have no issues up to a single 3090

The discriminant is how many 3.5" hdd you want to have ( keeping in mind that if the system has 2 bays converted for nvme usage, only 2 of the front slots would be usable for mechanical hdds )

Thank you for your great reply.

I don't plan on using the NVME bay.  Instead I plan on using the Dell Ultra Quad (or dual) PCIe car.

Can I get 8 drives matching drives (3.5") in the T7920, BluRay writer, and DVD RW?

Thanks.

Definitely yes if

1) you buy a version that has not been converted to have 2x nvme in the front bays

2) you buy a version with the optional 4 bays on the back (or retrofit the kit that adds them. It's relatively simple aside the time to source it)

3) next to the 5.25" slot, there's a slim slot for another optical unit, thus letting you fit the 2 odd you have in your current

@mazzinia_​ Hello everyone,

For your information, I purchased a Dell Precision T7920 from Tech Supply Direct (Richardson, TX).  This is my second Dell Precision from them; my first was a Dell Precision T7910 (running Windows 10).

Note: I usually buy a reconditioned system around five years old and expect to use it for another five years (under warranty).   Examples are Dell Precision dual 390, 690, T7500, and T7910.

This time, given that Dell isn't selling more powerful systems than the T7920, I configured this T7920 to last me ten years.  My definition of a serious workstation system is a dual or more socket with at least 3TB maximum RAM and can use RAID 50 on eight or more SAS 12Gb/sec drives.

See below for my hope for the future.

The configuration is:

Frame:  Dell Precision T7920

Processors:  2X Intel Xeon Gold 6146 3.2Ghz (4.2Ghz Turbo) 12 Core Processors (24 Cores Total)

Memory:  768GB 24x 32GB DDR4-2666 PC4-21300R

Boot Drive: 8TB (RAID 0)

NVMe Adapter:  Dell Ultra-Speed Drive M.2 PCIe Quad Port
NVMe RAID:  Intel VROC Virtual RAID Key (RAID0)
NVMe Storage:  2x  Samsung 990 PRO 4TB Samsung V NAND TLC NAND PCIe Gen 4 x4 NVMe M.2 Internal SSD

Data Drive:  112TB (76.3TB formatted)

Dell Broadcom MegaRAID 9460-16i SAS/SATA/NVMe; Tri-Mode PCI-e RAID Controller 42PDX; LOC1 1; Includes CVPM05 Cachevault Supercap (battery)

Rear Flexbay: Dell Precision T7920 Workstation Rear 4x 3.5" Flexbay Kit 3/4

Storage Array:  Lenovo Toshiba 14TB 7.2K SAS 12Gb/s 3.5" HDD;  RAID 50

Multimedia

Graphics Card: Dell NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 24GB GDDR6X Gaming Graphics Card PCIe x16 4.0

Sound:  NVIDIA HDMI support to Samsung G8 4K monitor
Video Capture:  Elgato - Game Capture 8K60 Pro

Optical Drive: 5.25" Blu-Ray/DVD RW Optical Drive

Networking:

Ethernet 1Gb: 2x Onboard
WIFI and Bluetooth:  ASUS WiFi 6E + Bluetooth 5.2 PCI-E Expansion Card (PCE-AXE58BT)

Operating System:  Microsoft Windows 11 Professional - 64-Bit Pre-Installed w/Digital Activation

Warranty:  5 Year 24x7x4 (24/7 Support with 4 Hour On-Site)

My hope for the future:  Dell Precision Workstation with:

• Multiple sockets (at least two and hopefully four or more).
• Fast multi-core processors that access other processors
• 4TB RAM and higher for the maximum
• Five PCI sockets for each processor.  As an example, two processors equal ten (not seven) PCIe slots.
• This could be on the motherboard or using an external PCIe socket cabinet.
• Fastest PCIe slots available and (if possible) upgradable (e.g., chip or firmware upgradable) in place.
• The motherboard needs to equal Broadcom 9460-8i RAID support (e.g., 5, 6, 50, 60, etc., with 12Gb/sec and faster SAS drives).
• Support internal and external hard drives via a Broadcom or similar card.
• Support for high-end graphics cards that have not yet been released (seven years plus out).

Dell has done a decent job with processor and memory scalability, but we need I/O (graphics, data, etc.,) scalability, too.

@bertrammoshier​ Congrats for the purchase, seems a well specced system overall