Suggestions on notebook

[mark at buttery.org (Mark J. Dulcey)]

James Kramer wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I need to purchase a laptop replacement in the near future. Initially, I 
> was considering a used IBM thinkpad T42 but for the same price I could 
> get a new nicely equipped HP Pavilion dv5000 with the Turion 64 Mobile 
> Processor. I would like to install dual-boot Debian )B? WinXP. I like the 
> fact that the HP is 64 bit so that I can migrate in the future. I like 
> the fact that both HP and IBM supports Linux. I also like the fact that 
> AMD has made a commitment to Linux and LinuxBIOS. I am willing to wait a 
> year or so for all the components of the new HP to be configured 
> properly for Linux. I am leaning in favor of the HP.  Are there any big 
> disadvantages that won't be worked out by tweaks to the software or 
> configuration?  Also, It has the option a selecting either an ATI Radeon 
> XPRESS 200M or NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400. I was thinking about selecting 
> the ATI.  I would welcome any suggestions about choosing the new HP with 
> the AMD Turion 64 Mobile for it primary use as a Debian workstation.

I have a Compaq V2000Z with the Turion 64. It works well with Linux for 
the most part, but the wireless networking requires the use of 
ndiswrapper; so far as I know, there is no native Linux driver for it. 
The wired networking, USB, and memory card reader work straight out of 
the box with Ubuntu. I haven't yet tried the FireWire interface. Getting 
acceptable performance from the video requires installation of the 
proprietary ATI driver.

This machine uses the Radeon XPress 200M, which is integrated on the 
motherboard, and very slow for 3D gaming under either Linux or Windows 
(mine is set up to dual-boot), but fine for everything else. So far as I 
can tell, the dv5000z (the one with the Turion 64) is only available 
with the ATI graphics; the NVidia graphics chip is used in the 
Intel-based variant. However, there is an option for dedicated graphics 
memory (my machine only offers shared memory), which should improve 
graphics performance (and also compute performance when running 
graphics-heavy applications); it's only $25 extra, and includes the 
memory card reader and FireWire port as a bonus, so I'd recommend 
springing for it. It probably still won't match the graphics performance 
of the NVidia graphics chip that is an option with the dv5000t (the 
Intel-based version), though.

By the way, the Compaq V5000z is pretty much the same machine as the HP 
dv5000z, with different cosmetics and a different menu of options 
available. The HP version may also have a nicer keyboard; the Compaq is 
a bit less expensive.

The Turion 64 is a good performer, and runs 64-bit software quite well. 
On the other hand, it can't quite match the battery life of Intel 
Centrino systems, and the new Core Duo should significantly outperform 
it running 32-bit software. (But no 64-bit support at all; for that, you 
have to wait for Intel's next generation of notebook chips, and by then, 
  there should be a dual-core Turion 64 as well.)