Lost in the world of new hardware

[[h2o]]

Hi!

I am currently looking to buy a new laptop, but I feel that my knowledge about hardware is quite low, so I could use some advice. For the record, yes, I have serached the fora ;)

I was considering buying a ASUS A6-laptop, since my gf has one, and it seems to be working smoothly. And people have successfully installed several Linux distributions on it, so I should get Ubuntu to work on it.

What bugs me the most is choosing the processor.
My choices are between a Turion64- or a Intel Mobile-processor. The P-M seems to be a bit faster, but also more expensive. And the AMD is 64-bit.
For some reason, 64-bit sounds nice, but what are the benefits apart from the "coolfactor"? :mrgreen:
And, amd64 in 64-bit mode seems to run poorly on Ubuntu, from what I read in the "AMD64 users"-forum.

Any help is appreciated.

[WretchedSpawn]

at this point in time, the benefits of a 64-bit processor are highly variable. the vast majority of the time there isn't any difference at all. 64-bit processors will however become increasingly useful in the future as more programs support them.

if 64-bit mode is a problem under ubuntu you can always just use 32-bit mode and, like i said, it probably won't make much of a difference if any.

personally i'd go with the amd.

[[h2o]]

if 64-bit mode is a problem under ubuntu you can always just use 32-bit mode and, like i said, it probably won't make much of a difference if any.Sorry for being a bit of anoob, but if I run Ubuntu in 32-bit mode, will I still be able to run some programs under 64-bit?


personally i'd go with the amd.
Any reason other than "64-bit is the future"?

[TrendyDark]

AMD64 runs great with Ubuntu, 32-bit :-/

The AMD64 Version of Ubuntu is. . . not there yet. When I had it installed, I had more problems than it was worth.

[mips]

The only place where I would use Intel is in a Laptop because of power consumption which leads to better battery life.

The AMD MT series processors are 25W vs the 35W of the ML series. So if you are going AMD make sure it has a MT series CPU.

64bit still has it's hassles in Linux, just search these forums.

http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q1/pentiumm-vs-turion64/index.x?pg=1

[[h2o]]

The only place where I would use Intel is in a Laptop because of power consumption which leads to better battery life.

The AMD MT series processors are 25W vs the 35W of the ML series. So if you are going AMD make sure it has a MT series CPU.
Yes, I notcied that. The specific model I am looking at carries a MT-30.
Btw, does anyone know of a benchmark with several Turion64 against several Pentium M. The only one I found (I admit that I didn't have time to do a good search) matched a few Turion against one P-M...

[TrendyDark]

How much are you willing to spend on your new laptop? (something that you should tell geeks, or we'll suggest spending $XXXXX and you'll probably cry)

[WretchedSpawn]

actually, now that i've taken time to read up on the issue instead of just going with which company i like best, it looks like as long as the price differences were talking about are pretty minimal (i.e. within $100), the pentium m is the better bet in terms of power consumption and might be a tiny bit better in terms of performance for some apps, assuming we're comparing comparable versions of the processors to begin with.

also check this article (http://techreport.com/reviews/2006q1/pentiumm-vs-turion64/index.x?pg=13)

personally, i'd still go with the 64-bit proc so i could help out with testing 64-bit distros, but that's only because my desktop isn't 64-bit.

[[h2o]]

How much are you willing to spend on your new laptop? (something that you should tell geeks, or we'll suggest spending $XXXXX and you'll probably cry)
I am willing to pay a maximum of about 1500$.

[[h2o]]

Just another n00bish question...
If I want to run Ubuntu on a Turion64 in 32-bit mode, do I download the i386-package or the amd64-package?
And, even though my OS is running 32-bit, can I still run some programs in 64-bit mode?

[mips]

']Just another n00bish question...
If I want to run Ubuntu on a Turion64 in 32-bit mode, do I download the i386-package or the amd64-package?

The i386 package.


']
And, even though my OS is running 32-bit, can I still run some programs in 64-bit mode?

No, the OS is 32-bit.