[KLUG Members] laptop

[Bryan-TheBS-Smith]

crucop@chartermi.net wrote:
> I am interested in buying a laptop for which I want to install
> linux on. Does anyone know of any problems with putting linux
> on a laptop with a celeron or AMD processor?

[ Future follow-ups should probably be made only to hardware ]

Processor incompatibility is virtually nil.  The only issue I've
ever seen was due to sending the PIII disable serial number opcodes
on the newer Duron/Thunderbird AMD chips.

If you want 3-D, you want nVidia.  Select (*NOT*ALL*) models of the
Dell Inspiron 8000 series and Toshiba's 2805 and 3005 series
(others???) feature the nVidia GeForce2 Go Mobile (MX core, 64-bit
memory) chip.  You'll get about 1/2th the performance of a desktop's
nVidia GeForce2 MX400 (MX400 core, 128-bit memory), but it is still
faster than anything else I have found.  I personally own a Toshiba
2805-S402, the first model to sport the Go Mobile.  I bought it
shortly after the nVidia 1.0-1251 drivers came out which officially
supported the Go Mobile (and very well I might add -- including
driving an external monitor as a second head).

nVidia has also recently released a Go Mobile version of their
Quadra chip for professional users (i.e. engineering, modeling,
animation, etc...).  Several vendors are coming out with those, but
I'm sure they won't be cheap.  Whereas the "M" models of nVidia
products are about 1/2 the price of the standard, the "Quadra" is 2x
the price.

FYI, here's the Quake III Team Arena performance between a pair of
my desktop systems and my Toshiba 2805-S402:

Home System Configuration: 
  ViA KT133 (Abit KT7) 
  1.3GHz/200MHz FSB Athlon 
  (2) 256MB PC133 CL3 (Kingston) 
  nVidia GeForce2 MX[200], 5.5ns 128-bit SDRAM 
    (LeadTek WinFast GeForce2 MX DH Pro) 
  80GB, 5400rpm, 2MB (Maxtor DiamondMax 80) 

New Work System Configuration: 
  SiS 735 (ECS K7SA) 
  1.2GHz/266MHz FSB Athlon 
  (2) 256MB PC2100 CL2.5 (Crucial) 
  nVidia GeForce2 MX400, 4.0ns 128-bit SDRAM 
    (Gainsward CardExpert TwinView/VIVO Golden Sample) 
  40GB, 7200rpm, 2MB (IBM GXP60) 

Laptop Configuration: 
  Intel i815? (Toshiba 2805-S402) 
  850MHz/100MHz FSB P3 VRM8.4 ("Coppermine") 
  (2) 128MB PC100 CL2 (Toshiba-PNY) 
  nVidia GeForce2 Go Mobile, ?ns 64-bit (DDR?) SDRAM 
  20GB, 4200rpm, ?MB (Toshiba MK2016GAP) 

Quake 3 Team Arena Frames Per Second (FPS)
RedHat Linux 7.1, XFree86 4.0.3, nVidia 1.0-1251

                     Via/MX200  SiS/MX400  Int/GoMob 
                     =========  =========  ========= 

NOMINAL Core/Mem       175/166    200/166  ?175/166? 
MP_Demo1
Fastest @ 1024x768        85.3       85.6       44.8 
HighQual @ 1024x768       45.0       36.7       28.1 
MP_Demo2 
Fastest @ 1024x768        77.7       77.2       41.3 
HighQual @ 1024x768       38.8       36.9       18.8 

OCLOCK Core/Mem        200/200    250/250        N/A 
MP_Demo1 
Fastest @ 1024x768        98.6      116.9        n/a 
HighQual @ 1024x768       53.0       47.2        n/a 
MP_Demo2 
Fastest @ 1024x768        92.0      105.4        n/a 
HighQual @ 1024x768       46.3       49.7        n/a 

I also didn't do any extra "tweaking" in Quake III nor of the chip
(other than when I overclocked the desktop cards).  note that those
are AMDs versus a slower Pentium III.  Secondly, note those
benchmarks are at 1024x768 (and *NOT* 640x480).  Lastly, I didn't
overclock my GoMobile as I didn't want to fry a fixed chip on a $2K
notebook.  ;-PPP

-- TheBS

-- 
Bryan "TheBS" Smith   mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org    chat:thebs413
Engineer  AbsoluteValue Systems, Inc.  http://www.linux-wlan.org
President    SmithConcepts, Inc.    http://www.SmithConcepts.com