Help me pick a CPU/Mobo

[gaf at blu.org (Jerry Feldman)]

On Sat, 24 Mar 2007 16:40:17 -0400
David Kramer <david at thekramers.net> wrote:

> David Kramer wrote:
> > I started discussing this at the last meeting.  I'm looking to migrate
> > most of the guts of my current server to my daughter's computer.
> > 
> > Right now I have a AMD Athlon XP 2400+ (with will be quite an upgrade
> > from my daughter's current Celeron 466 or so).  It's almost always 95%
> > idle or more.  But I just got MythTV up and running (next meeting,
> > anyone?).  I have hardware encoding so recording isn't a problem, but
> > when I need to transcode video with ffmpeg, it gets slammed.  And if I
> > try to do that while it's recording, the box sometimes locks up cold and
> > needs to be rebooted.
> 
> Heh. Time to move the goalposts.  Just like work.
> 
> We're now rethinking our computing needs, and have decided to give my
> current laptop (3 year old IBM Thinkpad T42) to my daughter, and for me
> to get a new laptop!!  Oh Joy!
> 
> So now I'm looking for a ~15" screen, "desktop replacement" laptop
> (power/keyboard/screen more important than portable).  It would still be
> cool to go dual core 64, though, since I'm still going to upgrade the
> server soon to the same, and that way I'll be able to run the same
> kernel/packages on both. Built in 802.11g is essential, bluetooth and
> serial port would be nice.  Battery life less critical, but >1.5 hours
> would be good.  It would also be nice to not get third degree burns on
> my lap.
> 
> I know there's resource out there to find out about Linux compatibility
> of laptops, Any personal recommendations from experience would be
> excellent, though,
> 
> Thanks again, and sorry for the change in direction.  Since I'll still
> be ugrading the server soon, it's not for nothing.
I've had very good luck with my laptops. Currently an HP NX6125 (This
is certified by both Red Hat and SuSE). The downside is that it is a
business laptop and does not have a really great graphics card. As you
know, my HP laptops have taken a lot of beating with both teaching, BLU
meetings and installfests. You remember the old laptop with the rubber
bands that had survived a few table falls. 
You probably would be safe with an HP or Lenovo. I believe that the HP
Intel versions have the IPW wireless. But the Broadcom in my laptop is
currently running the bcm43xx driver and not ndiswrapper. The only
thing you need to do is to use bcm43xx-fwcutter to grab the firmware. I
actually did that during the last meeting and switched from
ndiswrapper. 

-- 
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix user group
http://www.blu.org PGP key id:C5061EA9
PGP Key fingerprint:053C 73EC 3AC1 5C44 3E14 9245 FB00 3ED5 C506 1EA9