Pre-sales opinions (hp G60 vs. Pangolin)

[ckgreenman]

Hello, I recently bought (out of necessity) an HP G60-231wm laptop but have run into a number of shortcomings. the laptop was fairly cheap ($647 at Walmart) so I was wondering whether it would be worth while returning the G60 and getting a Pangolin instead.

First off, here are the specs of the G60:

Microprocessor 2.10 GHz AMD Athlon X2 QL-64 Dual-Core Processor
Microprocessor Cache 1MB L2 Cache
Memory 3072MB
Memory Max 4096MB
Video Graphics NVIDIA GeForce 8200M
Video Memory Up to 1407MB
Hard Drive 320GB (5400RPM)
Multimedia Drive LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support
Display 15.6" Diagonal High Definition HP BrightView Display (1366x768)
Fax/Modem High speed 56k modem
Network Card Integrated 10/100 Ethernet LAN
Wireless Connectivity 802.11b/g WLAN (13)
Sound Altec Lansing
Keyboard 101-key compatible with full size keyboard with integrated numeric keypad
Pointing Device Touch Pad with On/Off button and dedicated vertical scroll Up/Down pad
External Ports 5-in-1 integrated Digital Media Reader for Secure Digital cards,
* MultiMedia cards, Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, or xD Picture cards
* 3 Universal Serial Bus (USB) 2.0
* 1 Headphone out
* 1 microphone-in
* 1 HDMI
* 1 VGA (15-pin)
* 1 RJ-11 (modem)
* 1 RJ -45 (LAN)

Dimensions 14.88" (L) x 9.9" (D) x 1.38" (min H)/1.61" (max H)
Weight 6.52 Ibs
Power

* 65W AC Adapter
* 6-Cell Lithium-Ion battery


Pros (over base model Pangolin):
* Cheaper
* Already own it
* Large Name Brand (I've never dealt with System76 before)
* Better display resolution
* 1GB more Ram

Cons:
* No Bluetooth
* Older "Value" class Video Card (NVidia 8200M)
* no external S/PDIF
* no eSATA port
* Comes installed with Vista (yuck but easily reformatted :) )
* Neither suspend nore hibernate work (sata controller unresonsive after recovery)


My question is Is it worth the extra $150 or so(after the screen upgrade) to return the HP and go for the Pangolin? I would prefer the integrated bluetooth and am quite annoyed with the broken suspend/hibernate. Also According to NVidia's site the G105m is in there "Mainstream" rated line (one step above) and is 2 generations newer. Will there be that much more performance? I know the 8xxx series cards tended to suffer from abnormally high temps. Is this an issue with the G105m? I was unable to find the FSB speed on the HP but the L2 cache is a wash. Are there any advantages of running Ubuntu on an Intel versus the AMD in the HP?

Any advice either way would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

[thomasaaron]

My question is Is it worth the extra $150 or so(after the screen upgrade) to return the HP and go for the Pangolin?

The Pangolin is going to work out of the box with Ubuntu. I have no idea whether or not the HP can be made to work, but if it can you have your work cut out for you. IMHO, it's worth the $150 for a better Ubuntu computer.

I would prefer the integrated bluetooth and am quite annoyed with the broken suspend/hibernate. Also According to NVidia's site the G105m is in there "Mainstream" rated line (one step above) and is 2 generations newer. Will there be that much more performance?

Yes, especially since we upgraded the Pangolin to having 512MB of cache. The older model only had 256MB.

I know the 8xxx series cards tended to suffer from abnormally high temps. Is this an issue with the G105m?

No.

I was unable to find the FSB speed on the HP but the L2 cache is a wash. Are there any advantages of running Ubuntu on an Intel versus the AMD in the HP?

There's a lot of debate about that, (which I don't really want to inject myself into). Each company tends to skew the metrics in their own direction. But the Intel CPUs are excellent products and have great track record with Ubuntu.

[ckgreenman]

The Pangolin is going to work out of the box with Ubuntu. I have no idea whether or not the HP can be made to work, but if it can you have your work cut out for you. IMHO, it's worth the $150 for a better Ubuntu computer.


Cool. although the only thing I found for sure that didn't work was the suspend/resume. I pretty much assumed this works on the Pangolin.


Yes, especially since we upgraded the Pangolin to having 512MB of cache. The older model only had 256MB.


I assume you mean Video ram not cache. Yes I noticed the bump. The HP has 512 as well.




No.


Do you have any opinions on the performance differences between the two adapters?



There's a lot of debate about that, (which I don't really want to inject myself into). Each company tends to skew the metrics in their own direction. But the Intel CPUs are excellent products and have great track record with Ubuntu.
[/quote

I don't blame you. The CPUs seem to be pretty evenly matched looking at the speed and L2 cache. I just wasn't sure if there were any known advantages in the Kernel of Intel over AMD or vice versa. I've run both (my old laptop is an Intel P4) and can't say I've noticed any difference but then I've never had the resources to stress test them side by side.