Looking for new latop...

[anubis]

Hi all,

I've been very satisfied with my R3240 over the past year and a half but it's time to move up again. I'm wondering if anyone could recommend a relatively Linux-friendly laptop, preferably AMD64-based and with an Nvidia graphics chipset.

Thanks in advance for any advice...!

-Mike

[Julian Hall]

Post by anubis
Thanks in advance for any advice...!
-Mike

Hi Mike,

http://www.linux-laptop.net/

is your best bet for impartial advice and reviews :)

Kind regards,

Julian

[Jonathan Berry]

Post by anubis
Hi all,
I've been very satisfied with my R3240 over the past year and a half but it's time to move up again. I'm wondering if anyone could recommend a relatively Linux-friendly laptop, preferably AMD64-based and with an Nvidia graphics chipset.
Thanks in advance for any advice...!

HP just came out with two new lines, the Pavilion dv2000z and the
Presario v3000z. Both have an AMD Turion 64 x2 processor (at 1.6 GHz)
and an nVidia graphics card (Go 6150). Not incredible specs, but not
too shabby either. The processor speed (or lack thereof) is probably
the most disappointing part. But it can do dual-channel DDR2 SDRAM
and is a dual-core chip, so those are two pluses. I don't know about
Linux-friendliness, but I would expect it to be similar to the R3000z
in that regard.

Jonathan

[Julian Hall]

Post by Jonathan Berry
The processor speed (or lack thereof) is probably
the most disappointing part. But it can do dual-channel DDR2 SDRAM
and is a dual-core chip, so those are two pluses.

Dual core is effectively 3.2 isn't it, so that's not too shabby at all :)

Kind regards,

Julian

[Jonathan Berry]

Post by Julian Hall

Post by Jonathan Berry
The processor speed (or lack thereof) is probably
the most disappointing part. But it can do dual-channel DDR2 SDRAM
and is a dual-core chip, so those are two pluses.

Dual core is effectively 3.2 isn't it, so that's not too shabby at all :)

Well, not quite. If everything could be perfectly divided so as to be
run in parallel, then yes, you could effectively get 2x speed.
Unfortunately, there are many tasks that cannot be done in parallel.
For the tasks that could be parallelized, most software is not written
to run in parallel (this will almost certainly change as we go to more
and more cores, but it is far from an easy thing to do). So, for
running any one task, you may get some speedup from the dual core
versus a single core of the same specs, but it will usually be less
than 2x.

Now, for multi-tasking (running multple programs at once) it is great
and you can get 2x speedups there as two tasks can run in true
parallel, each on its own core.

The thing that gets me is that AMD is supposed to be coming out with a
1.8 and 2.0 GHz version as well (I think). Maybe they are just not
available yet, but if they are, it would be nice to have those as
options.

Jonathan

[Bernie Hoefer]

anubis wrote:
===

Post by anubis
I've been very satisfied with my R3240 over the past year and a half
but it's time to move up again. I'm wondering if anyone could
recommend a relatively Linux-friendly laptop, preferably AMD64-based
and with an Nvidia graphics chipset.

===
After my R3000Z broke in February, I started searching for a new
laptop. Not wanting to buy another HP/Compaq laptop,[1] I looked at
other brands. I, too, wanted a laptop with AMD-64 & NVIDIA chips/chip
sets in it.
Sadly, HP is the only company I found making laptops with that
combination. Dell had some expensive XPS model ones, but I'd be paying
a premium. I finally settled on an Acer that had ATI graphics. (When I
was looking, NVIDIA was *extremely* difficult to find. ATI or Intel
graphics were the abundant offerings.)

[1] I bought my R3000Z laptop in July 2004. Between then and February
2006, the screen had developed a bad column of pixels (fixed under
warranty) a 12-cell battery that wouldn't hold its charge (this
happened 3 months out of warranty; HP wouldn't replace it even
though it exhibited some of the signs in their battery recall; I
had to buy a new one), the DVD-writer drive stopped spinning discs
and the motherboard got fried by static electricity (that one
*was* my fault).
I was in the process of purchasing a new DVD-writer drive from HP
when the motherboard got fried. The new drive arrived the day after
the motherboard got fried. Between the hassle of returning the
unused drive and their refusal to replace an obviously defective
battery, I decided I didn't want to deal with HP anymore.
Anybody want a dead HP R3000Z laptop? Out of curiosity, I checked
with HP and they said a new motherboard would be $700. Maybe someone
can use mine for spare parts?

- --
Bernie Hoefer
PGP e-mail is welcome! Get my 1024 bit signature key from:
<http://pgpkeys.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x446A6F93>.
"The more I know, the more I realize how much I do not understand."