[Gllug] Laptop shopping

[James Laver]

On 15 Aug 2009, at 13:53, Richard Jones wrote:
>
> I have an X60s which dates from just after the acquisition by Lenovo
> (it was bought Feb 2007).  It was delivered with obviously faulty
> memory which couldn't manage more than a few minutes under memtest.
> This was replaced by Lenovo.  The battery died after 2 1/2 years.  I
> don't mean it wore out -- it just suddenly one day ceased working at
> all, so I suspect an internal connection broke.  It also shuts down
> hard if it overheats, but I suspect an ACPI / OS (software) problem.
>
> I make it sound like a catalogue of failures, but actually this laptop
> is solid as a rock, far less trouble than my Apple laptops have been.
>
> All three Apple laptops that I've acquired over the years (two from my
> previous job) are currently in small pieces on the floor of my office.

Okay, it's good to hear anecdotal reliability information.

I've explored the Lenovo website and the option I've put together  
through them is:

Core2Duo SL9400 (1.86Ghz, 6MB L2 cache, 1066Mhz FSB (not that I  
imagine it can use all of that))
4GB DDR3 RAM
Quite delicious 1440x900 LED Backlit display (on a 12.1" screen!)
250GB 5400rpm disk (I opted to remove the SSD disk in case it's one of  
the crap ones, reading TomsHardware seems to suggest they're highly  
variable. This took 220-odd quid off the price!)

Web price on it is £1,175.76 which is a little more than I was hoping  
to spend, but if the quality is quite that good, thoroughly worth it.  
They claim 14.1h battery life on the default configuration under  
typical usage. I don't believe that for a second, but I'm assuming it  
will be > 10h. It appears to be that they offer a 9-cell battery for  
this model whereas most of their laptops are 3-cell and some are 6-cell.

Some strangeness going on with windows discs. They offer vista  
business on the one-touch recover thing, with no disk. They offer for  
free an XP recovery disc though. What's that all about?

I'm not sure on linux support for the following items of hardware  
though, could anyone advise?
- Intel GMA 4500MHD. Last I checked, some models were and others were  
not supported.
- Intel Wifi Link 5300. I guess worst case scenario I can use  
NDISWrapper (or whatever it's called this week), though I'd rather  
have native support.
- Fingerprint scanner. Not at all necessary, but since it comes with  
it, nice to have.

Also, if I opt to purchase this, I'm tempted by their carry-in  
accidental damage cover. Anyone have any experiences? Or know where  
their centres are?

Cheers,
--James
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