ideal laptop recommendations?

[Jesse D. Guardiani]

Kevin Oberman wrote:

>> From: "Jesse D. Guardiani" <jesse at wingnet.net>
>> Date: Mon, 05 May 2003 17:43:27 -0400
>> Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile at freebsd.org

<snip>

Hi Kevin, thanks for the reply. See comments below:

> "Great looking" is at the bottom of my list. I prefer  that they
> work. :-)

Did I say Great Looking? I don't care how it looks either.

> 
> 1. CPU speed is only of limited import. If the disks are slow or the
> memory inadequate, a fast CPU is not significant for most things. My 1.8
> GHz laptop can buildworld in under 30 minutes for STABLE and about 35
> minutes for CURRENT.

I want a fast disk too. But I also want at least a 2Ghz processor.
I do just fine with a 600Mhz at home, but I want to raise the bar.


> 
> 2. I think any modern laptop can handle 512 MB. After market memory from
> a good source (i.e. Crucial) can save $$$.

Sure.

> 
> 3. GeForce4?? Can't fathom this. ATI is the current darling of the gamer
> crowd.

I don't really care that much. GeForce I know is supported which is
why I mentioned it. Just as long as OpenGL works I'm happy.


> 
> 4. Pretty standard, but slight differences between devices can cause a
> bit of pain. FreeBSD STABLE and CURRENT both can talk to my flash stick
> as well as many others. Minor hacks can get ALMOST all to work fine.

Really? What driver? 4.8 or 5.0? Anything I should look for in particular
so that I can guarantee they work?


> 
> 5. Most are now going 10 GigE as standard.

No. I don't think so. 10/100 is plenty fine for me. I don't send files
that large and I live in Tennessee where everything is still 10/100.


> 
> 6. Ain't no such thing today. APM is pretty limited, but I can live with
> it. ACPI requires current and is still fairly buggy (as are many
> BIOSes).

Dang. Should I start looking at Linux?


> 
> 7. Ahh, a heavy-weight. Look at resolution. You can get 1600x1200 at 15
> inches from a few vendors. These will always look better than
> 1400x1050. (Cost more, too!)

I don't particularly care about res. I think 1600x1200 is too much
for a 15" screen. 1400x1050 is more than enough.


> 
> 8. Duh!
> 
> 9. See 8. Look for Prism 2.5 or Prism 3 or for Cisco cards. Built-in is
> nice, but some systems using mini-PCI cards have really a bad
> antenna. Some are excellent. See reviews. Dell and IBM tend to have
> highly rated antennas.

OK.


> 
> Avoid Broadcom and TI based units. No FreeBSD support is near at this
> time.

OK.

> 
> 10. Good luck! I think all of the keys on my ThinkPad T30 work, but I
> have not mapped all of them to anything useful.
> 
> One possible is an IBM ThinkPad A31p. 2 GHz, 15", 1600x1200, does almost
> everything you ask, but has broken ACPI and ATI Mobility FireGL
> graphics. APM works VERY well, so ACPI is not too important. You do need
> the DOS based ps2 utility to set it up, though. (Ugh.) IBM supplies the
> floppy images for this. Not really pretty, but rugged and reliable.
> Heavy. Over well 7 pounds or 3 kilos. Awesome display!

IBMs seem a bit overpriced and underfeatured to me. Still, if that is
the best suggestion I get, then I might give it a try.



> 
> Good luck!
> 
> R. Kevin Oberman, Network Engineer
> Energy Sciences Network (ESnet)
> Ernest O. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab)
> E-mail: oberman at es.net			Phone: +1 510 486-8634
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-- 
Jesse Guardiani, Systems Administrator
WingNET Internet Services,
P.O. Box 2605 // Cleveland, TN 37320-2605
423-559-LINK (v)  423-559-5145 (f)
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