[Discuss] Yet Another Laptop Recommendation Thread

[david at thekramers.net (David Kramer)]

On 09/30/2012 07:49 AM, Jerry Feldman wrote:
> On 09/29/2012 10:38 PM, David Kramer wrote:
>> Either the backlight or the inverter died in my 5-year-old Dell D820
>> laptop. Fixing it doesn't make financial sense, though I may throw it
>> on my rack and hook it up to my KVM for "something", as I've figured out
>> how to tell X to disable the internal monitor and use the external
>> monitor as the primary.
>>
>> I've decided I want to go with a desktop machine for my main computer,
>> so I can use a better keyboard and bigger monitor, but I still need
>> something portable, too. I'm looking for a laptop that doesn't have to
>> be a desk-melting screamer, but it also doesn't make sense to put money
>> in anything *too* wimpy. I plan on splitting the hard drive to
>> Windows/Kubuntu 12.04LTS, so I need a supported video card.
>>
>> Really the only reason I want to get a laptop NOW is that I don't want
>> Windows 8, otherwise I would put it off.  I find Windows 7 relatively
>> stable and inoffensive.
>>
>> Through work I can get significant discounts on Lenovo and HP laptops,
>> so I'm focusing on them.  I just priced out a ThinkPad T530, and
>> it was over $900 with the discount, and I picked the slowest i5
>> processor they have and 4GB RAM (though the better video card).  That
>> seems a bit much.  Maybe I should look at i3 processors.  Many of the
>> models had ~14" screens, and I want at least  15".
>>
>> Any comparisons of HP vs Lenovo, or specific models that have worked or
>> not worked with Linux would be great.
>>
> I have a Lenovo T420 for work. It is an Intel I5. Works find. I
> sometimes load Red Hat Enterprise in VirtualBox and have no performance
> issues.  However, a number of coworkers have the smaller laptops for
> portability, and they complain about the performance, so stick with at
> least an I5. I think I have 8GB. I have had a number of HP/Compaq
> laptops in the past and all were good and supported Linux. My ancient
> HP/Compaq NX6125 laptop that I bring to the installfest is still going
> strong after either 6 or 7 years. I reported a while back that Ubuntu
> 12.04LTS would not install on it, but Ubuntu 12.04.1 installed fine.

Yup.  I think they solved a lot of compatibility problems in 12.04.1.
But they came out with it pretty fast, so I'm OK with that.

> IMHO, netbooks are really portable, and I used to use it at work to
> reprogram the old Linksys routers. It is also great for trips, but
> useless for real computing.

Yes, I already have a Dell Mini10 that I'm VERY happy with.  I bring it
to meetings all the time.  And a hacked tablet for when even that's too
big.  But sometimes you need more.

> You might check prices at eCost. I bought my HP laptop while I was
> either at HP, and it was cheaper than I could get with an employee
> discount. I also can get an employee discount at IBM where they have a
> number of refurbs including Macs and iPads.

Definitely worth considering.

> My desktop computer is a Penguin with and AMD Opteron quad core that I
> bought in 2008. The only issue is that I replaced the power supply. The
> one really nice thing about this is its servicability. It comes with a
> lot of extra screws, and almost everything slides out. It has 4 hot swap
> eSATA slots. When I go on vacation, I pull all the drives and lock them
> up. 

The thing that started me down the path to moving to a desktop is that I
started doing some casual gaming with people at work once a month, and
managed to put together a pretty decent box.  But why do that then use
it just a few times a month?  Now I have a huge (22" vs 15.4") monitor,
a real keyboard that doesn't get hotter the longer I use it, plenty of
hard drive space. and the fan noise is somewhere else.

I need to buy better furniture for it, but so far I'm happy with the
decision.