advice on configuration of dell laptop

mockle · 2009-02-27 22:00:50

Hello,

I am in a fortunate position - my Phd supervisor has offered to buy me a laptop. Since it has to be sourced through the campus computer shop my selection is constrained - indeed it must be a Dell E6400. Thank God I don't have to pay for it...

I am very happy with Arch - on my desktop I currently run a minimal system with OpenBox as a standalone desktop environment. I was wondering if anybody here could give me advice on the configuration options I should select in order to get as arch-friendly a Dell as possible. Specifically, I want to ensure that my wireless card and graphics are going to work without any major problems.

For video I have the following options:

Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD With Express Card
Mobile Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD With PC-Card
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M With Express Card [add $72]
NVIDIA Quadro NVS 160M With PC-Card [add $72]

So - express card or pci card? Nvidia or intel? I prefer the cheaper option! I don't play games or do CGI.

For wireless I have the following options:

Dell Wireless™ 1397 802.11b/g Mini Card [Included in Price]
Dell Wireless™ 1510 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card [add $16]
Intel® WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card [add $22]
Intel® WiFi Link 5300 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card [add $44]

So - Dell or intel wireless? Are N cards supported? Again, I prefer the cheaper option.

If anybody can give advice on what configuration I should go for, or share experiences using arch on a Dell, I would be very grateful before committing any money!

Cheers!

Mockle

mockle · 2009-02-27 22:04:05

Sorry, I just noticed the sticky... Sorry for spamming the board...

Vintendo · 2009-02-27 23:21:14

I had the same choice as you a couple of months ago and I decided to go with all intel. Haven't had regrets, drivers are here and they work.

mockle · 2009-02-28 20:10:40

Thanks for the advice, I'll go with intel too!

blackhole · 2009-03-01 09:45:05

Always choose Intel wireless over Dell wireless. The Dell wireless actually is a Broadcom chip and I could only get it working via ndiswrapper and it's still not working properly with encrypted networks. I wish I'd chosen Intel...

This thread might be interesting for you as well: http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=65

Last edited by blackhole (2009-03-01 15:49:21)

hightower · 2009-03-01 15:08:15

mockle wrote:

So - express card or pci card? Nvidia or intel? I prefer the cheaper option! I don't play games or do CGI.

Actually they both are PCI cards, the option pc card/express card is about the expansion slot of your notebook.

I use the intel 5100 in my Dell E6400; thus far no problems with WPA2, unencrypted, and enterprise WPA (ist this the name?), used at my university.
draft-n not tested. Difference between 5100 and 5300 are the number of antennas, which is only important, if you want to have a very fast wireless connection.

The Intel graphics works out of the box, sometimes there are minor pictures disruptions (very rare with the newest driver).

Suspend and hibernate work out of the box (modification of the grub entry required, make sure your swap partition is big enough).

DisplayPort not tested. Bluetooth not tested. My DVD Burner doesn't work properly (Windows has this problem, too, so I think the problem is the burner/firmware itself - reported by other users, too).

The fan stands still most of the time, when surfing, writing etc.

64Bit works properly, but falshplugin has performance issues.

hightower

Last edited by hightower (2009-03-01 15:09:29)

mockle · 2009-03-01 21:47:21

Thanks everybody for all of this very useful information.

Dheart · 2009-03-02 06:10:12

blackhole wrote:

Always choose Intel wireless over Dell wireless. The Dell wireless actually is a Broadcom chip and I could only get it working via ndiswrapper...

Although I agree you should go with intel driver, recently there was a propietary driver released called broadcom-wl (can be found in AUR) which works for all broadcom cards and we're not stuck with ndiswrapper anymore.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-02-27 22:00:50

advice on configuration of dell laptop

#2 2009-02-27 22:04:05

Re: advice on configuration of dell laptop

#3 2009-02-27 23:21:14

Re: advice on configuration of dell laptop

#4 2009-02-28 20:10:40

Re: advice on configuration of dell laptop

#5 2009-03-01 09:45:05

Re: advice on configuration of dell laptop

#6 2009-03-01 15:08:15

Re: advice on configuration of dell laptop

#7 2009-03-01 21:47:21

Re: advice on configuration of dell laptop

#8 2009-03-02 06:10:12

Re: advice on configuration of dell laptop

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