Looking for a laptop, need advice

[mu22le]

Hi,
I'm looking for a laptop with the following requirements:

1. What type of laptop are you looking for? (Desktop replacement, ultraportable etc)

A good compromise between portability, computing power and battery life. Consider this will be my only pc.
Btw I _need_ Linux on it.

2. What will be your uses for the laptop? (Net browsing, word processing, gaming, video editing etc)

I am graduating in particle physics so I do a lot of programming (I write the code but the actual analysis is done by data farms), reading and web browsing (multitasking a lot in the end). Data farms run linux that's why need it so bad.
I will also watch movies and play games sometimes, I will also generally tinker with it, just because I'm a geek.

3. What is your total budget?

between 1200 and 1600 euro (you can probably translate 1E = 1$ = 2/3 (0.666) taking into account Italian higher prices).

4. How portable does the laptop need to be? (how often will it be moved around, where it will be taken)

I will take it around daily from the library (wifi, few power outlets), lab (ethernet, power guaranteed) and home.
I also go back to my hometown once or twice a month (3 to 4 hours by train).

5. What type of screen do you want? (widescreen, glossy, size)
widescreen would be best
13'', ideally, but I am willing to consider 14'' too 12'' too
I'll work on it a lot so a glossy screen is a plus

6. How much battery life is required?

about 3 hours is required, more is better.

7. What type of processor/ram/hard drive/optical drives do you want?

I considered systems like:
Pentium-m between 1.7 and 2.0 GHz with 2Mb L2 cache
512 to 1024Mb of DDR2 RAM (no DDR)
80Gb of hard drive is good but 100 or 60 is ok
cd dvd burner (double layer)

8. If you want to play games, what type? (titles would be useful)

Sorry, I'm not sure...
I won't be playing Doom 3, but I'd try Metal Gear 3 if I could (but it's not a must), a MMORPG (World of Warcraft, Lineage 2), or a strategic (Warcraft 3, Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War). I will occasionally play with stuff requiring OpenGL (detector simulations and so on).

I'll not play regularly so I guess an entry level gpu like an ati x300 or a Ge force go 6400 would be ok. Anything better is welcome as long it does not hurts battery life or price too much.

9. Are there any specific things needed (e.g. ports)

In order:
Being able to run linux (I'll check at tuxmobil.org and linux-laptop.net before buying)
WiFi. Well, I have a spare mini-pci wifi card so wifi is not strictly required (but then a free mini pci slot is).
Bluetooth (to connect to gps, phone or pda) would be nice.
Infrared can be useful

10. Which things are you willing to compromise? (e.g. gaming laptops do not have long battery lives)

I can accept every kind of video card except intel IGP (my old laptop had little or no hw video acceleration and I really suffered from it).
I can probably compromise on everything else. If you show me a turion or a Pentium 4 M that mach my needs I'll consider it.

11. What laptops have you considered? (post links) Are there any brands you like/dislike?

Acer 5500 (http://www.acer.co.uk/acereuro/page4.do?dau22.oid=13709&UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=17&CountryISOCtxParam=UK&LanguageISOCtxParam=en&crc=1875536929) (about 1300E here in Italy)

pros:
- x700 is an awesome gpu
- It ships with the 8 cell battery -> about 3h of battery life

cons:
- heavy (2.7 Kg)
- big (compared to the Sony)
- its often described as a gaming laptop (an x700 is probably well over my needs)

Sony vaio s5m (http://vaio.sony-europe.com/view/ShowProduct.action?product=VGN-S5M&site=ite_en_GB&category=VN+S+Series) (aka s580 (http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_BrowseCatalog-Start;sid=yZFAiw0b0QJA3E7AtWFKgEIWW9XMxyuVPxo=?Cat egoryName=cpu_VAIONotebookComputers_SSeries&Dept=computers) in the USA ) (~1500E)

pros:
- very portable
- nice screen

cons:
- The Go 6400 is the bare minimum (32Mb of vRAM only)
- the Ge force 6400 gpu has bad linux support. I would have to choose between 3d acceleration and the ability to suspend my laptop (under linux).
- a lot of forums reported overheating issues (http://forums.sudhian.com/messageview.cfm?catid=18&threadid=87966&enterthread=y) (link) even if a bios update is reported solve them making it louder (http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=1215131&postcount=53) (wich is a big problem for me)

- no bluetooth

can you help me?
Bye,

Emme

[bernardfrancois]

Don't forget to check linux on laptops and tuxmobile (search for 'linux laptop' on google).

[mstlyevil]

Have you considered something like this Gateway with a Athlon 64 mobile 4000 processor? If you want a desktop replacement, this is what I would suggest because you will get the power of a desktop processor in your notebook.

Laptop (http://www.gateway.com/home/products/ret/ret_mx7525.shtml)

It is in US dollars but it should still fit in your price range in Euros.

[mu22le]

Amd 64 and p4 do not offer a battery life long enough for my needs...

I restricted my search to a pentium m or a turion but I could not find a suitable turion machine, do you have any advice?

[MarcDM]

If you have yet to get a Laptop, I'm gonna recommend the Averatec 4155-EH1 (http://www.averatec.com/notebooks/4200series.htm)

I'm actually typing this message on one, running Breezy via a Wifi connection.

The only thing special I had to do to make it work was bootup with :

linux vga=771 at installation point so the install screen can fit on the widescreen.

But so far I have no complaints. And the keyboard is REALLY nice.

[imagine]

Since I only use HP notebooks, I can't say anything specific about your two considerations, however what I did not like about a Acer notebook of a friend was the fact that he had to send it to Acer when there was a failure (ie there was no pick-up from home service) and it took about one month until it came back. He also didn't get a replacement during there was only a two years warranty.

[fuscia]

Amd 64 and p4 do not offer a battery life long enough for my needs...

I restricted my search to a pentium m or a turion but I could not find a suitable turion machine, do you have any advice?

doesn't compaq have a turion with a glossy screen?

[malacandra]

Not sure if they do international order, but check out www.emperorlinux.com

They sell custom made linux laptops with your choice of distribution and all kinds of different sizes, etc. I have their Rhino (Dell Latitude 810) and I love it.

Mark

[mstlyevil]

Amd 64 and p4 do not offer a battery life long enough for my needs...

I restricted my search to a pentium m or a turion but I could not find a suitable turion machine, do you have any advice?

In that case stick with a pentium M. Intel does power saving notebook processors much better than AMD. The pentium M is one of the best processors on the market and if I wanted a long life notebook it would be my choice.

[kleeman]

I have a laptop matching your specs that I have been very happy with. It is running breezy perfectly:

http://www.linuxcertified.com/linux-laptop-lc2210d.html

Note the cheap price tag. It has a very cool glossy screen and is very light. I have the 2Gig Pentium M with 2M L2 cache. Very snappy.

[jshein]

Using an Acer Travelmate 4400. AMD Turion64. x700 ATI. Using Breexy 32.

I had to update the pci.ids file in order to use the card reader, and cardbus.
I also had to use the i686 kernel. k7 kernel has powernowd issues. i386 kernel hangs.

Other than that it works fine. I get about 3 hours running time. Suspend to disk, suspend to ram, CPU frequency scaling all work.

[macewan]

http://www.emperorlinux.com/mfgr/sharp/meteor/

thanks to kleeman for the linkage :)

I've been seriously considering an ibook or powerbook though.

[Minyaliel]

I'm also in the situation of having a laptop as my only computer... I use Kubuntu Breezy on a 62 gigs HP machine (can't remember which model, sorry, but it's quite recent as I bought it this summer), which _did_ have WinXP installed until I killed it lolz. (WinXP, not the computer). I am very satisfied with mine, it is easily portable, has a decent battery life, was cheap and well, does what it's told ;) Since I installed Ubuntu on it, it hasn't crashed once. So if you want a laptop that's not too heavy and stuff, I'd recommend trying a hp laptop, actually. I've compared mine to my mother's Acer, and I still like HP better. Might be personal preferences, though.

[Zach1188]

You may want to consider an Inspiron 9300 from Dell. I have an Inspiron 9300 and I am extremely pleased with it. It is a little on the large size (17" screen). I know you are after a smaller screen, but it is pretty thin and very light.

If you buy a good battery for it, it can last up to 3 1/2 hours (If you dim the screen). The screen is very glossy, and can easily be read even at extreme angles.

RAM (Memory):
512, 1024, or 2048 MB.

Hard Drive:
60, 80, or 100 gb.

Graphics Card:
ATI Radeon (64, 128, or 256 MB)

Screen Resolution:
800x600 - 1920x1200

Processor:
Check Dell, you can get some very fast ones.

Screen:
17"

Quality:
It is not made of metal, it is made of plastic. However, the plastic seems of very high quality.

My rating, 1-10:
8.5 to 9. Not 'perfect', but close.


And again, if a small computer is required, you can get a smaller computer, but this one is pretty thin/light.