| 1 |
2009/11/20 J. Roeleveld <joost@××××××××.org>: |
| 2 |
> On Sunday 15 November 2009 19:39:40 Mick wrote: |
| 3 |
>> I have been thinking of buying this laptop and was looking at the Gentoo |
| 4 |
>> Wiki which shows relatively good hardware compatibility, except for the |
| 5 |
>> radeon card which is now an older offering: |
| 6 |
>> |
| 7 |
>> http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Dell_Studio_XPS_16 |
| 8 |
>> |
| 9 |
>> The current spec on the UK Dell website shows 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 4670 (see |
| 10 |
>> below). |
| 11 |
>> ================================================================ |
| 12 |
>> PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 720QM (1.60Ghz, 6MB cache) |
| 13 |
>> LCD: Black Leather back cover : 15.6" (inch) Truelife 1080p Full HD WLED |
| 14 |
>> Edge to Edge Display |
| 15 |
>> MEMORY: 4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048] |
| 16 |
>> HARD DRIVE: 500GB (7,200rpm) Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive |
| 17 |
>> PRIMARY BATTERY: 9-cell 85Whr Lithium Ion battery |
| 18 |
>> OPTICAL DRIVE: Internal Blu-Ray ROM (Blu-Ray read, DVD and CD read & Write) |
| 19 |
>> Optical Drive |
| 20 |
>> GRAPHICS CARD: 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 4670 graphics card |
| 21 |
>> WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY: Dell Wireless 1397 Mini Card (802.11 b/g) |
| 22 |
>> BLUETOOTH: Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module |
| 23 |
>> ================================================================ |
| 24 |
>> |
| 25 |
>> According to these links the RadeonHD driver is experimental: |
| 26 |
>> http://wiki.x.org/wiki/radeon |
| 27 |
>> http://wiki.x.org/wiki/radeonhd%3Aexperimental_3D |
| 28 |
>> |
| 29 |
>> Does anyone have experience with this driver, or better yet, this laptop? |
| 30 |
>> Shall I buy or shall I shy away from it? |
| 31 |
>> |
| 32 |
> |
| 33 |
> Most Dell-laptops actually work quite nicely with Linux, however, be aware |
| 34 |
> that DELL has issues with the harddrives they supply. |
| 35 |
> I've seen 6 different recent DELL-laptops with crashed harddrives in the past |
| 36 |
> 1.5 years. These laptops were handled carefully. |
| 37 |
> |
| 38 |
> Response from Dell was: "Sorry, we shipped a wrong batch...." |
| 39 |
> |
| 40 |
> I would suggest frequent backups of important files and/or the harddrive |
| 41 |
> swapped for a more reliable model. |
| 42 |
|
| 43 |
Thanks guys - the hard drive story sounds scary! Was there a |
| 44 |
particular batch of a particular hard drive manufacturer that was |
| 45 |
suspect here? |
| 46 |
-- |
| 47 |
Regards, |
| 48 |
Mick |
Archives