Arch and older laptops

SternGerlachExperiment · 2010-10-15 17:32:08

I've been looking for a reasonably priced lightweight laptop with an anti-glare / matte screen, but the problem is almost all of the available ones are beyond my budget. I just need a thin, light laptop with a very good keyboard and a matte screen (11.6 -14.1 inches). I don't need that Core i3/i5/i7 stuff. So I've been thinking about bying some older secondhand hardware.

However, I don't know where to draw the line performance-wise. That is I don't know what kind of specs should I at least look for. I'll be only doing some word processing (OpenOffice / LibreOffice) and www-browsing (Firefox), occasional youtube peeking perhaps, but I need them to work smoothly. I don't wan't jerky browsing or freezing applications. And I need Arch, of course.

So I'd appreciate it if anyone could point me in the right direction, especially regarding the type of the processor I should get. Could I get along with something like an Intel Pentium M, or is a dual core processor a necessity? I guess Firefox isn't very lightweight anymore, but I need the browser to be full featured so I guess them lightweight browsers are out of the question.

I've been reading that older IBM Thinkpads used to have good keyboards, so I was thinking about something like Thinkpad T42/T43. Or some older HP Probook. Any ideas?

pseb · 2010-10-15 17:40:08

Thinkpad T41/42/43... should be fine. I have an even older Thinkpad 600E running arch linux...no problems with it. It's more than 10 years old and still running, only thing I had do replace was the bios battery. so thinkpads are always a good option IMHO. (though the 600e is really a bit weak for firefox or the like)

hokasch · 2010-10-15 17:45:48

Before you decide on one with an intel integrated video cards, make sure the current KMS-only drivers work with the model/laptop in question, or you will be stuck with a very outdated X stack (I have an old dell c400, and can't use the video drivers since they switched to mandatory KMS).

stqn · 2010-10-15 20:20:22

My Asus A6G (1.6 GHz Pentium-M, 64MB Radeon 9700 mobility, 1GB RAM) is doing fine with Firefox. I don't have any significant problem in my everyday web browsing, anyway, and scrolling is smooth. (It might be different if you intend to browse badly developed Flash/javascript-heavy web sites.)

Watching Flash videos in fullscreen is out of the question though, as well as any Flash video > 480p (and there's probably frameskip going on starting from 360p.) But "normal" 720p x264 videos are fine as long as the bitrate isn't ridiculously high, and Xvid is always fine.

Edit: by "ridiculously high", I mean something like more than 3000 kbps (given that 1000kbps is already excellent quality.)

Last edited by stqn (2010-10-15 21:50:03)

Gusar · 2010-10-15 21:06:05

Pentium M is fine, except possibly for 720p youtube video. But you can download such videos and play them without problems in a dedicated media player (mplayer/xine/vlc/...). As for the graphic card, if it's intel, make sure it's at least 965. Under no circumstances should it be an 8xx, those are a pain in the butt.

72linus · 2010-10-15 21:37:49

I have ARCH with Fluxbox on my old Toshiba Portege 7000CT, runs great for 266mhz w/ 160mb ram
http://multidistro.proboards.com/index. … &thread=38

SternGerlachExperiment · 2010-10-16 09:01:19

Ok, thanks everybody. You were very helpful.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-10-15 17:32:08

Arch and older laptops

#2 2010-10-15 17:40:08

Re: Arch and older laptops

#3 2010-10-15 17:45:48

Re: Arch and older laptops

#4 2010-10-15 20:20:22

Re: Arch and older laptops

#5 2010-10-15 21:06:05

Re: Arch and older laptops

#6 2010-10-15 21:37:49

Re: Arch and older laptops

#7 2010-10-16 09:01:19

Re: Arch and older laptops

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