Need A New Laptop

tcoffeep · 2009-03-19 14:16:38

I only have $600CDN to buy a new laptop ( my last one was a horrid machine I did very little research on... the cursed Dell Inspiron 5150 ), and I'm wondering if anyone here has any ideas on a good and affordable machine for that little bit of money. Right now, I've only been able to look at one machine, the Lenovo 3000 n500, and it looks okay. I can get it for $595CDN, s/h + taxes, and I've yet to read a bad review, but, I've been unable to find out how compatible it is with linux. That's actually my biggest concern.

If anyone can point me out to some cheap, linux-compatible laptops, I'd be exceedingly grateful. I contemplated system76, but they're a few hundred dollars above my pricerange.

bgc1954 · 2009-03-19 15:46:09

I personally don't think you can go wrong with Lenovo as I have been running an old T21 thinkpad for years--bought it used on ebay--and it's still going strong. If the new Lenovo's are anything at all like the old thinkpads--and from what I've read, they are--you can't go wrong. They're almost indestructible. There doesn't seem to be anything terribly exotic as far as the hardware specs go and there is a wiki on the Lenovo 3000 n100 that looks like mostly eveything works, except the webcam which seems to be a common thing for alot of laptops. Also the card reader may or may not work--another common problem. My $.02 worth anyway.

Inxsible · 2009-03-19 16:08:52

I would agree that lenovos are really good. especially the T-series thinkpads. I use that for work and are pretty sturdy. Have never used the n series or the newer ideapads. Trouble is the T series are really expensive for what they give you. Similar hardware from Dell or HP would be cheaper...but then again I bought a HP for my parents and within less than a year, it had issues with the wireless, the webcam and the screen and also the motherboard. I had bought the HP dv9000.

My advice -- keep away from HP. I have a 9 year old Dell LAtitude that is still going strong....I guess the small/medium business lines of all companies are better than the ones that they sell for Home/Home Office obviously because they want to retain the huge contracts that they get from the companies -- and also companies tend to buy additional warranty and support for the machines, which individual buyers don't do often.

stbill · 2009-03-20 22:00:52

My experience:

My last two computers were Thinkpads t42/t43 that I picked up for about $450-$500 US on Ebay. Like the others have already said, these things are great machines - sturdy, lightweight, and very strong. You could pick up a really cheap new computer from BestBuy or whatever for the same price, but it will be a complete POS, and will also include Vista which is worthless.

The biggest problem I've had with brand new laptops is that Linux has trouble with the latest drivers, especially on Laptops since the chipsets have a bunch of proprietary extensions. If you get a laptop that is 3 or 4 years old, it is likely that the problems have been fixed and the Kernel will be able to recognize all the mods appropriately.

I got a new Thinkpad a few months ago - it is pretty nice, though about twice your budget. Also, I have had big problems with the Nvidia driver and also the ACPI stuff that deals with hibernate/standby/closing the lid, etc.

OTOH, my used Thinkpad t42 works great, though is a bit slower than the new machine with Dual Core and extra ram! If I were to sell it, it would probably be listed at about $400 tops which is well within your price range!

Ranguvar · 2009-03-20 22:18:35

IBM/Lenovo for sure! Slim, nearly indestructible, lots of features (finger print scanning in the new ones, hard drive shock protection, BIOS security features, etc.) high quality parts -- basically everything that's not listed in spec sheets they have.

tcoffeep · 2009-03-21 04:48:14

So, me and my girlfriend sat down, and talked about it, and we're getting this :
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ … =T71-15405

and I'm thinking of getting 2gb ram upgrade, with a total of 3GB ram, but I'm not sure if it's compatible...

The original ram is 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2, and the ones I can afford, bringing it to 3gb is two 1GB PC-5400 DDR2.

Is there different RAM comparability, or would I be able to have both kinds of RAM in my box with no issue?

These, actually, in particular : http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ … 4108%20KIT

Last edited by tcoffeep (2009-03-21 04:51:52)

dr0p · 2009-03-21 05:04:52

tcoffeep wrote:

So, me and my girlfriend sat down, and talked about it, and we're getting this :
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ … =T71-15405
and I'm thinking of getting 2gb ram upgrade, with a total of 3GB ram, but I'm not sure if it's compatible...
The original ram is 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2, and the ones I can afford, bringing it to 3gb is two 1GB PC-5400 DDR2.
Is there different RAM comparability, or would I be able to have both kinds of RAM in my box with no issue?
These, actually, in particular : http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ … 4108%20KIT

You can do much better for $500, at least a Pentium Dual Core.

tcoffeep · 2009-03-21 05:45:31

Show me a link of a quality laptop and I'd probably buy it. It's either this or a Dell, and my experience with their Inspiron 5150 turned me off of Dell, not to mention my problems with their customer service on trying to get it fixed.

I have $600, and that's the best laptop I found.

Joe_Arch · 2009-03-21 05:47:14

What do you need 3 gigs of ram for? Will this be a gaming laptop? Will you be doing any multimedia work? If not, it sounds like you'd be wasting your money. If you're just going to be surfing the net, playing music, and watching movies, 1 gig would be fine.

Inxsible · 2009-03-21 05:47:43

The new netbooks come cheaper - probably for around 300-500. But I am not sure of their build quality or anything. I have never used them.

Also, I am not sure if you are even considering netbooks.

tcoffeep · 2009-03-21 05:54:24

Pretty much meta-tasking. I am learning some programming ( C, Perl, Python ), I play a handful of games, mostly RPGs ( BG/BG2, NWN, Ps:T, WoW, handful of MUDs, and a few shooters ), watch movies, listen to music, surfing the net, and writing.

Maybe it's just because I'm currently using Vista with 1gb and just playing WoW is a hefty task at times, that I want 3gb.

On the topic of netbooks :

Generally, they're priced really low, but they only have a 40gb hard-drive ( a 160gb HD gets filled up pretty quickly, even, but it's acceptable ) and, as I've never seen one in person, I'm unsure as to how I'll handle their size.

bgc1954 · 2009-03-21 19:13:47

+1 what dr0p said. In past experience, I've found celeron cpu's rather slow so I'd upgrade the processor and forget the extra ram or just put in 2 gb worth. Linux is not such a memory hog like vista.

.:B:. · 2009-03-21 20:10:17

You can much more bang for buck if you went for a desktop instead of a laptop, especially for gaming. Even though the new Celerons are way better than the old ones, they're still not the kind of CPUs you want if you want to play games.

ArchArael · 2009-03-21 20:36:29

I have m1330 at the moment. Great machine.

Before I had a Lenovo n200. What I liked on that machine was the keyboard. Was a pleasure typing on. What I didn't liked was the fan and the laptop surface.
After some time the surface was all scratched. The paint went all away. And was not my fault actually. Just putting a book near the laptop in my bag backpack on time was enough.
I don't know how are the n500 models but definitely the n200 model was built using cheep materials.
The fan was REALLY annoying. It keep going for 5-7 seconds and then stopped for 3 seconds all time. The problem was not just my machine. A colleague of mine bought the same machine and had the same problem. I didn't found any way to control the fan and trust me was really annoying when I worked in evening. Never found a way to control it and Lenovo never released a bios patch for this problem.
If I don't consider these two problems Lenovo n200 was a solid machine and as I said before I loved the keyboard. But in the end I preferred to sold it and buy something else. So in the end I sold it and thanks to a convenient offer at university I bought Dell m1330 laptop.
The m1330 machine is my new love. Not such great keyboard but is lightweight, the fan works very well and the machine is not as hot as lenovo model, even with video encoding and conversion remains relatively cold. The fan works for time to time but not often and when it works is not disturbing.
Whatever machine you choose read people recension and check in forums about possible problems. The fan problem on n200 model was mentioned but I didn't cared enough about it.

Just my 2 cents.

Last edited by ArchArael (2009-03-22 09:08:01)

Ranguvar · 2009-03-21 23:26:51

WoW works fine in Wine if that's all you'll be using

tcoffeep · 2009-03-22 06:49:56

Well, I've been looking around, and, while it's not a laptop, would you guys say this desktop is adequate?

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/ … S445-10008

It's cheaper too.

Ranguvar · 2009-03-22 08:23:37

If it's a desktop, don't buy, period. Build it. It's easy (Seriously. Easier I'd say than learning Linux to a power user level, by a wide margin), takes only a couple hours, typically you save, you can customize more (plus use your old optical drives, etc.), and it's fun as hell.

www.newegg.com is the #1 parts resource. Even if they're a few bucks pricier than the competition (they usually aren't), they have speedy shipping, extremely good warranty and consumer support, wide selection, etc...
Google Products, www.tigerdirect.com, and http://www.shopsharksystems.com are also good.

3nd3r · 2009-03-22 08:27:11

I bought this laptop from walmart for $600.00 last year. Everything on it works out of the box in linux except wifi (I use ndiswrapper for that) and the multimedia card doesent work for some reason in linux.
Here is the lspci

┌─[ender @ BluBox]
└─[~]> lspci
00:00.0 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP67 Memory Controller (rev a2)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP67 ISA Bridge (rev a2)
00:01.1 SMBus: nVidia Corporation MCP67 SMBus (rev a2)
00:01.2 RAM memory: nVidia Corporation MCP67 Memory Controller (rev a2)
00:01.3 Co-processor: nVidia Corporation MCP67 Co-processor (rev a2)
00:02.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP67 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a2)
00:02.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP67 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev a2)
00:04.0 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP67 OHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev a2)
00:04.1 USB Controller: nVidia Corporation MCP67 EHCI USB 2.0 Controller (rev a2)
00:06.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP67 IDE Controller (rev a1)
00:07.0 Audio device: nVidia Corporation MCP67 High Definition Audio (rev a1)
00:08.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP67 PCI Bridge (rev a2)
00:09.0 IDE interface: nVidia Corporation MCP67 AHCI Controller (rev a2)
00:0a.0 Ethernet controller: nVidia Corporation MCP67 Ethernet (rev a2)
00:0c.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP67 PCI Express Bridge (rev a2)
00:0d.0 PCI bridge: nVidia Corporation MCP67 PCI Express Bridge (rev a2)
00:12.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation GeForce 7000M (rev a2) (rev a2)
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
02:05.0 SD Host controller: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C822 SD/SDIO/MMC/MS/MSPro Host Adapter (rev 22)
02:05.1 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C843 MMC Host Controller (rev 12)
02:05.2 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd R5C592 Memory Stick Bus Host Adapter (rev 12)
02:05.3 System peripheral: Ricoh Co Ltd xD-Picture Card Controller (rev 12)
03:00.0 Network controller: Broadcom Corporation BCM4311 802.11b/g WLAN (rev 02)
┌─[ender @ BluBox]
└─[~]>

[edit] btw it is a compaq presario F759WM [/edit]

Last edited by 3nd3r (2009-03-22 08:27:48)

kgas · 2009-03-22 12:10:05

ArchAreal, Lenovo N 200 has this fan up and down problem with vista too.
IMO Acer/HP laptop are good and all hardware well supported in GNU/Linux OS. For Desktop built it yourself.

Last edited by kgas (2009-03-22 12:17:43)

pyther · 2009-03-22 14:22:10

No matter what you do, do not buy emachines! They use the crappiest hardware and there tech support is terrible!

pyther · 2009-03-22 14:47:50

You can build a pretty nice system for about $440 CAD

Case: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as … 6811129042
Dvd Burner: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as … 6827151173
320Gb Westeren Digital: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as … 6822136074
500 Antec Earth Watt: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as … 6817371007
Corsair 2x 1GB Ram: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as … 6820145034
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5400: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as … 6819103289
Asus Motherboard: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.as … 6813131330

The motherboard has an onboard Nvidia chipset

.:B:. · 2009-03-22 15:03:20

Ranguvar wrote:

If it's a desktop, don't buy, period. Build it. It's easy

It is easy - if you know what you're doing (or getting into). Building it yourself is the perfect solution if you know what you want, want to get the maximum bang for buck, and know how the linux compatibility is for the compontents you will be buying. If he does not know that, he needs a friend or family member that does and is willing to help out with that. Otherwise it's pretty tough .

Maybe you could suggest a setup for him Ranguvar, if he's willing to build it himself but doesn't know the ins and outs?

pyther · 2009-03-22 15:10:01

^^
Ehh didn't I do that? And it is easy putting the parts together. Just much harder picking the parts if you don't know what you are doing.

.:B:. · 2009-03-22 15:11:55

Sorry pyther you did indeed . Maybe throw in a dedicated graphics card? I don't know how much GPU power WoW needs...

I think an ATi 3850 would be a good budget choice? Or not?

Arch Linux

#1 2009-03-19 14:16:38

Need A New Laptop

#2 2009-03-19 15:46:09

Re: Need A New Laptop

#3 2009-03-19 16:08:52

Re: Need A New Laptop

#4 2009-03-20 22:00:52

Re: Need A New Laptop

#5 2009-03-20 22:18:35

Re: Need A New Laptop

#6 2009-03-21 04:48:14

Re: Need A New Laptop

#7 2009-03-21 05:04:52

Re: Need A New Laptop

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Re: Need A New Laptop

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Re: Need A New Laptop

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