We have just been "given" a Dell Precision T1700 workstation with Nvidia graphics, a wide format monitor, etc., that is configured to boot
MS Win 8 using a mirrored RAID configuration.  I have a SL 7 install DVD that is fine (passes startup testing, etc.) and has installed on other systems.
On this one, the install process starts (with some complaint from the stock noveau GPU driver), but simply hangs.  On a previous Dell thread, there
is some mention of waiting up to 8 minutes to boot

Re: Dell T310: 2.6.32-358.6.1.el6.x86_64 hangs on boot Mon, 29 Apr 2013 20:25:22 -0500
<[log in to unmask]>

 -- I have only waited two minutes or so.  The monitor screen simply goes black and there is no
indication of any activity from the hardware, making me guess that the install system is hung.

I have seen no indications of problems about this particular system with Linux -- it was available with RHEL 6.4 preinstalled (not the way it was delivered to us).
It also seems to work with OpenSUSE 13.2

https://en.opensuse.org/HCL:Dell_desktops --

Precision T1700 13.2 Icon-checked.png Icon-checked.png Icon-checked.png
 
End Open SUSE


and Ubuntu

http://www.ubuntu.com/certification/hardware/201302-12684/

Ubuntu on Dell Precision T1700

Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS 64-bit

Available from ubuntu.com

Download

Certification notes

There are no notes for this release.

BIOS
Dell: A06 (Legacy)

End Ubuntu

Thus, I expect it should work with SL 7 .  If necessary, I could install with OpenSUSE 13.2, partition the drive system (probably all XFS except for swap), and then install SL 7 over that (MS Windows thus having been removed), but I would prefer simply to start with SL.

Does anyone have any experience with this platform?  Any suggestions?  Are there BIOS (secure boot, whatever) configurations that must be used other
than what came with the MS Windows system?

Yasha Karant