Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Dell XPS16 for Christmas?

[J. Roeleveld]

On Sunday 15 November 2009 19:39:40 Mick wrote:
> I have been thinking of buying this laptop and was looking at the Gentoo
>  Wiki which shows relatively good hardware compatibility, except for the
>  radeon card which is now an older offering:
>
> http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Dell_Studio_XPS_16
>
> The current spec on the UK Dell website shows 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 4670 (see
> below).
> ================================================================
> PROCESSOR:	Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 720QM (1.60Ghz, 6MB cache)
> LCD:	Black Leather back cover : 15.6" (inch) Truelife 1080p Full HD WLED
>  Edge to Edge Display
> MEMORY:	4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
> HARD DRIVE:	500GB (7,200rpm) Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive
> PRIMARY BATTERY:	9-cell 85Whr Lithium Ion battery
> OPTICAL DRIVE:	Internal Blu-Ray ROM (Blu-Ray read, DVD and CD read & Write)
> Optical Drive
> GRAPHICS CARD:	1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 4670 graphics card
> WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY:	Dell Wireless 1397 Mini Card (802.11 b/g)
> BLUETOOTH:	Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module
> ================================================================
>
> According to these links the RadeonHD driver is experimental:
> http://wiki.x.org/wiki/radeon
> http://wiki.x.org/wiki/radeonhd%3Aexperimental_3D
>
> Does anyone have experience with this driver, or better yet, this laptop?
> Shall I buy or shall I shy away from it?
>

Most Dell-laptops actually work quite nicely with Linux, however, be aware 
that DELL has issues with the harddrives they supply.
I've seen 6 different recent DELL-laptops with crashed harddrives in the past 
1.5 years. These laptops were handled carefully.

Response from Dell was: "Sorry, we shipped a wrong batch...."

I would suggest frequent backups of important files and/or the harddrive 
swapped for a more reliable model.

--
Joost