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On Friday 20 November 2009 17:43:20 Paul Hartman wrote: |
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> On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 6:16 AM, Mick <michaelkintzios@×××××.com> wrote: |
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> > 2009/11/20 J. Roeleveld <joost@××××××××.org>: |
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> >> On Sunday 15 November 2009 19:39:40 Mick wrote: |
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> >>> I have been thinking of buying this laptop and was looking at the |
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> >>> Gentoo Wiki which shows relatively good hardware compatibility, except |
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> >>> for the radeon card which is now an older offering: |
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> >>> |
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> >>> http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Dell_Studio_XPS_16 |
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> >>> |
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> >>> The current spec on the UK Dell website shows 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 4670 |
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> >>> (see below). |
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> >>> |
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================================================================ |
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> >>> PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 720QM (1.60Ghz, 6MB cache) |
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> >>> LCD: Black Leather back cover : 15.6" (inch) Truelife 1080p Full HD |
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> >>> WLED Edge to Edge Display |
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> >>> MEMORY: 4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048] |
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> >>> HARD DRIVE: 500GB (7,200rpm) Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive |
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> >>> PRIMARY BATTERY: 9-cell 85Whr Lithium Ion battery |
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> >>> OPTICAL DRIVE: Internal Blu-Ray ROM (Blu-Ray read, DVD and CD |
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> >>> read & Write) Optical Drive |
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> >>> GRAPHICS CARD: 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 4670 graphics card |
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> >>> WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY: Dell Wireless 1397 Mini Card (802.11 b/g) |
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> >>> BLUETOOTH: Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module |
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> >>> |
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================================================================ |
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> >>> |
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> >>> According to these links the RadeonHD driver is experimental: |
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> >>> http://wiki.x.org/wiki/radeon |
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> >>> http://wiki.x.org/wiki/radeonhd%3Aexperimental_3D |
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> >>> |
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> >>> Does anyone have experience with this driver, or better yet, this |
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> >>> laptop? Shall I buy or shall I shy away from it? |
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> >> |
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> >> Most Dell-laptops actually work quite nicely with Linux, however, be |
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> >> aware that DELL has issues with the harddrives they supply. |
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> >> I've seen 6 different recent DELL-laptops with crashed harddrives in the |
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> >> past 1.5 years. These laptops were handled carefully. |
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> >> |
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> >> Response from Dell was: "Sorry, we shipped a wrong batch...." |
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> >> |
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> >> I would suggest frequent backups of important files and/or the harddrive |
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> >> swapped for a more reliable model. |
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> > |
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> > Thanks guys - the hard drive story sounds scary! Was there a |
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> > particular batch of a particular hard drive manufacturer that was |
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> > suspect here? |
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> |
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> I think you could mention any brand of hard drive and people would |
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> have horror stories about it. Hard drives are like airplanes; they |
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> tend to fail spectacularly. The good news is that if you had to choose |
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> one part of a laptop to go bad, the hard drive would probably be the |
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> easiest piece to replace (or maybe RAM). Certainly better than a trend |
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> of failing display panels! |
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|
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In this case they were Seagates, but as mentioned, all manufacturers make |
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mistakes. |
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The last Dell that had a crashed harddrive (after 3 months of use, 2 weeks |
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ago) had a Seagate - ST9160823ASG. |
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|
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> I've owned a couple Dell computers personally and overseen dozens of |
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> them at work and they are generally good value and perform without |
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> issues. Their business division's customer service (at least a few |
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> years ago) was pretty good, they would send someone to our office the |
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> next morning to fix the problem. |
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|
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These were for a business customer (A big one) and all Dell offered was |
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sending replacement drives to the seperate users' homes or their nearest |
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offices. |
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|
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> I would also check out the Asus G51J-A1 which is a similar set-up to |
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> the Dell. It seems to be a good package for the price too. |
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|
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Getting into the preferences of brands here, so I will refrain from |
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commenting. |
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One thing to still keep in mind, Asus does not really care about Linux users |
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either. Is there a decent laptop-brand that actually does? |
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|
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-- |
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Joost |