[KLUG Members] Laptop Purchase Opinions Please

[Peter Bart]

On Sat, 2007-10-13 at 11:14 -0400, Tony Mattas wrote:
> 
> Some games actually perform better in linux than wine because there is
> a lot less overhead. Mainly only games that take advantage of OGL. I
> actually had better frame rates on WoW with all the effects turned up
> all the way on linux than windows.

Sims apparently does not yet run on Wine, sadly.

> > > I don't know where they are now, but ATI's Linux drivers used to be
> > > pretty bad.  Nvidia drivers are almost as good on Linux as they are on
> > > Windows, so I would go with an nvidia chip over an ATI.  I don't know
> > > much about the Intel graphics chips except that they're not very high
> > > performance.
> > >     
> > 
> > Good, I got that part right.
> > 
> >   
> ATI Has decided to make their video drivers open source as well now
> due to the AMD push behind them, there will probably be some good
> things coming on this front.

Good! It's interesting to see now when I get asked;when shopping for a
mouse, computer or something like that; what I run I no longer get a
blank stare and a "that should work I don't know". I'm starting to get a
knowing look and useful help!

> 
> > > Try to get details on how many memory DIMMs are being used to give you
> > > your total memory.  About a year ago, I got my wife a laptop and wrongly
> > > assumed that 1 Gig of memory meant a single 1 Gig stick.  It was 2 512
> > > Meg sticks, so after an upgrade it has 1.5 Gig rather than 2, and I have
> > > a spare 512 Meg stick that isn't being used
<snip>
> Remember that a lot of standard Linux kernels don't support more than
> 2GB unless you rebuild it, although not a big deal just a
> consideration to make. Also some support up to 4 by default, if you
> only have 2 I would rebuild it to support a maximum of two (better
> paging and such, I could get into the details but don't want to be
> confusing)

Thank you!! I did not know that. So far the systems I've looked at have
2 gig or less. Please don't confuse me ;-)

Best Regards,
-- 
Peter Bart <peter at petertheplumber.net>
http://petertheplumber.net