ideal laptop recommendations?

Tue May 6 11:58:29 PDT 2003

On Tue, May 06, 2003 at 11:57:38AM -0400, Jesse D. Guardiani wrote:
> andrew morton wrote:
> 
> > Jesse D. Guardiani wrote:
> >>>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.
> > 
> > I'm going to put in a vote for IBM. They maybe a bit more expensive but
> > they build very solid hardware. I've got an A21e with 2+ years of very
> > rough usage (it goes everywhere with me) and it works like a champ. The
> > only problems are cosmetic (cracked the plastic on the case) and after
> > reading Jason Hunt's comments on the ease of getting parts I'm ready to
> > call up IBM and order a new case.
> 
> Here are the systems I am considering currently. The Dell comes with a
> wireless router and Bluetooth, but it doesn't have the VAIO's screen size,
> and the IBM is entirely too expensive and doesn't include a DVD burner:
> 
> ------------------------------------------
> Sony VAIO GRX700 series for $2339.99
> ------------------------------------------
> 16.1" UXGA screen (1600x1200)
> Pentium 4 M 1.8Ghz
> 512MB DDR SDRAM
> 40Gb HD
> DVD+RW/CD-RW
> 3 yr warranty
> ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 32Mb VRAM
> Free 802.11b Wireless LAN PC Card by mail
> 
> The only thing that concerns me about the VAIO is the 32Mb
> of RAM for a 1600x1200 screen... and the unknown of whether
> or not the Wireless LAN PC Card and DVD-RW would be supported.
> 
> 
> In comparison, I can get:
> 
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> Dell Inspiron 8500 series for $2552 before $200 mail in rebate
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> 15.4" SXGA+ screen (1680x1050)
> Pentium 4 M 2.0Ghz
> 512MB DDR SDRAM
> 40 Gb HD
> CD-R/DVD-RW (not sure if that is a CD-RW or not)
> 3 yr "limited" warranty (mail in)
> 64 Mb GeForce 4 4200
> Dell Truemobile 1300 WLAN 802.11 b/g (54 Mbps) miniPCI card
> Dell Truemobile 1184 Wireless Broadband Router
> Dell Truemobile 300 Bluetooth Internal Card
> Free Carrying Case (Nylon)
> 
> 
> Not sure whether or not the above wireless stuff would
> work under FreeBSD 5.0 or not. Does FreeBSD know how to
> burn DVDs?? If not, then I could save $200 more.

<devil's advocate>
-------------------------------------------
Apple 15" PowerBook w/Superdrive $2,799.00
-------------------------------------------
15.2" TFT screen (1280x854)
PowerPC G4 1.0 GHz  (Supposedly about as fast as your 2.0 GHz P4s)
1MB L3 Cache
512MB SDRAM
60GB Ultra ATA/66
SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
64MB DDR ATI Mobility Radeon 9000
Gig Ethernet
FireWire 400 
2 12Mbps USB ports
AirPort card built-in.
5 hour battery... (all the power management goodies work.)
5.4 pounds.
1 yr warranty, 3 yr is $349 extra.  (that sucks)
iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD.  (you won't get that level of operability 
with FreeBSD).

Ships with Unix under the hood. :-) I, personally, drool every time my
co-worker pulls his older 800MHz 15" out of the bag.

If you drop in at your local Apple Store, you might find a "refreshed"
unit for 10% off.  That would bring you down to $2,519.10.  Smalldog.com
has the factory "refreshed" units for $2,499.00.

I only see two downsides.  If you want to develop FreeBSD code,
VirtualPC is probably a bit slow for that.  But for just *nix
development it should work.  I hate trackpads.

Buildworld of 5.x took my co-worker 20 something hours inside VirtualPC.
I don't know that he turned off the powersave stuff before starting the
buildworld.

No personal experience with the G4 machines.  My parents like their
iBook.  The blue G3 400MHz iMac on my desk is faster than my 650MHz
Celeron Toshiba laptop.  Not a lot faster but, faster.  They both have
the same amount of RAM and VRAM.  Image scrolling of my 3.1MP digital
camera photos is about 15 times faster on the iMac.  The laptop has
an 8MB S3 Savage/IX-MV. iPhoto can read the images directly from the
camera. gPhoto2 on FreeBSD can't.

</devil's advocate>

> And finally, with expensive IBM I could get:
> 
> -------------------------------
> IBM A31p ThinkPad for $2,811.60
> -------------------------------
> 15.0" UXGA screen (1600x1200)
> Pentium 4 M 2Ghz (512kb L2 cache)
> 512Mb DDR SDRAM
> 40 Gb HD
> CD-RW/DVD-R
> Integrated Wi-Fi wireless and Bluetooth combo
> 3 yr onsite repair warranty
> 64 Mb ATI Mobility FireGL 7800 7.1-7.7
> 
> And I think Kevin Oberman already said that the ATI Mobility
> FireGL card isn't supported. This laptop is too much $$$ for
> me anyway. If I wanted to spend $3000 I would buy a Mac.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> > While I'm at it I'll bash Dell real quick. In my experience and based on
> > an unscientific survey of posts to the list I'd say Dell tends to be a
> > good deal but you'll probably end up with warranty issues.
> 
> I noticed that Dell's warranty isn't nearly as solid as IBM's. However,
> I'd rather have my hardware work and have to fight to get something
> fixed than pay through my teeth and have unsupported hardware.
> 
> Dell's support has been decent to me in the past.
> 
> 
> 
> > 
> > Anyway good luck,
> > andrew
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
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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)
> http://www.wingnet.net
> 
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-- 
Scott Lambert                    KC5MLE                       Unix SysAdmin
lambert at lambertfam.org      