Laptop recommendations?

[StefanEßer]

On 2004-06-18 18:56 +0100, Colin Percival <colin.percival at wadham.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
>   Ok, I think it's time for the quarterly freebsd-mobile laptop
> recommendations thread again. :-)
>   I'm looking at buying a laptop in 1-2 weeks; my requirements
> include 3+ hours of battery life, a touchpad, reasonably good
> FreeBSD support, and a sane keyboard layout; a high resolution
> display would also be nice, but I'm not at all concerned about
> 3D graphics.
>   What recommendations can people offer?

My brother asked me a few days ago, and after some research I suggested
the Dell D505 and D600 to him. Both are very well supported by FreeBSD
(I've got a D800, a friend a D600, which were tested under -current).

The D600 is smaller (some 2cm in each of width, depth and height) and 
has a mobile Radeon 9000 (which you were not interested in, but besides
accelarated 3d it offers improved CPU performance, since the shared mem
VGA of the i855G further reduces the memory throughput, which is already
low because of the low FSB frequencies supported by mobile processors).

The Latitude D505 and D600 are the business models, which I expect to 
be more rigid than the Inspiron series. Both are based on Pentium-M CPUs
with 1.4 to 1.8GHz (the 1.7GHz Pentium-M in my D800 is faster than my
Athlon XP2500).

Further details (that's just a copy of what I suggested my brother, but
I guess it is not way off of your requirements).

D505 (fast CPU, DVD-RW, Fast Ethernet, Firewire, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth):

	* 1,7GHz Pentium-M, 2MB Cache (Dothan)
	* 512MB RAM (1*512MB, 1 free SO-DIMM slot)
	* 60GB hard disk
	* DVD-RW (in drive bay, can also hold 2nd battery)
	* 100baseTX Ethernet
	* 802.11b/g WLAN
	* IEEE 1394 FireWire
	* Bluetooth, IrDA
	* 1 PC-Card slot (Type I/II)
	* 1400x1050 LCD Display (15.0")
	* Intel 855G shared memory graphics
	* battery should last up to 6 hours (53Wh, 1h express charge)
	* 338 mm x 273 mm x 33,1 mm (W x D x H)
	* 2.3kg (but probably with lower weight battery that lasts 4h)
	* 1 year send-in warranty
	* WinXP Pro
	* ~1700 Euro (incl. delivery, w.o. VAT)

D600 (slower CPU, DVD+CD/RW-Combo, Gigabit-Ethernet, 802.11b/g, Bluetooth):

	* 1.4GHz Pentium-M, 1MB Cache (200 Euro cheaper than 1.7GHz)
	* 512MB RAM (2*256MB, no free memory slot)
	* 60GB hard disk
	* DVD+CD/RW (in drive bay, can also hold 2nd battery)
	* 1000baseTX Ethernet
	* 802.11b/g WLAN
	* Bluetooth, IrDA, Smartcard-Reader
	* 1 PC-Card slot (Type I/II)
	* 1400x1050 LCD Display (14.1")
	* mobile Radeon 9000 with 32MB RAM
	* battery should last some 4.5 hours (48Wh, 1h express charge)
	* 315 mm x 257 mm x 30.8 mm (W x D x H)
	* 2.17kg (but probably only with 32Wh battery)
	* 3 years international next day on-site service
	* WinXP Pro
	* ~1500 Euro (incl. delivery, w.o. VAT)
 

As I said before, this is just what I suggested to my brother, but it may
also happen to suit your needs ;-)

Except for the V.92 modem. all components are fully supported by FreeBSD 
(including Bluetooth and sound).

And, in fact, the D600 above is what I'd buy myself, if I had to choose
a new system today ...

Regards, STefan