New Laptop questions

[ref]

On Thu, 2009-06-18 at 15:58 -0400, Jarod Wilson wrote:

> On Jun 18, 2009, at 3:33 PM, ref wrote:
> 
> > Hi folks,
> >
> > So my trusty workhorse of 3 years is wheezing and stumbling and  
> > yearning
> > for pasture. As laptops go the HP dv8000t was the best I've ever had,
> > and I've had a few (Starting with a side handled Amstrad in hte late
> > 80's! ). It survived a coast-to-coast-to-coast Amtrak summer, and  
> > about
> > a hundred thousand air-miles. My only complaint has been the short
> > battery life, but then it is a desktop replacement, not an airbook.
> >
> > So on to the new. After  looking around I think I will go with an HP
> > again, this time an HDX18t, and got a really good price on a quad core
> > (my new brother in law happens to work at HP!). Before I buy it, I
> > wanted to check and see if anyone has heard good/bad things about the
> > below listed CPU/graphics card components, with regard to running  
> > Linux,
> > specifically Ubuntu and CentOS. I did goole for a bit, but couldnt  
> > even
> > find mention of a linux driver for the NVidia card on their own
> > website ...
> 
> That falls under GeForce 100M Series (Notebooks), and in the advanced  
> driver search, you can specifically choose "GeForce GT 130M". However,  
> it seems the binary driver does not yet support it -- not even w/a  
> beta driver. I imagine support can't be all that far out though. Not  
> sure if you could limp along with nv, nouveau or vesa 'til then...


Now that is what I was looking for (though not the news I wanted to
hear!). Its is a shame as I am a huge CompizFusion/Cedega\Blizzard fan,
so if the drivers are not there then the card is useless to me. I also
like to watch movies while flying back and forth from coast to coast
(every six weeks or so) so no driver = wrong choice of video card. I
will go look deeper into the forums to see when there will be a driver
available, maybe I can afford to wait a little ... heh, yeah... the gods
are already laughing at me ...  ;)



> 
> > CPU :  Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad Processor Q9000 (2.00Ghz)
> > Memory : 6GB DDR3
> > Graphics : 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 130M
> > Hard drive : 640GB 7200RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (320GB x 2
> > Display : 18.4" diagonal High Definition BrightView (1920x1080p)
> 
> Aside from the graphics card, everything else should work just fine.
> 
> > It also states that the Wireless card is a " Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N
> > Mini-card with Bluetooth" but I cannot get any other info on it,  
> > such as
> > model/drivers etc ....
> 
> I believe that would be the Intel iwl5150 or similar. Its supported by  
> the iwlagn driver (as are all the other iwl5xxx devices I'm aware of  
> -- I have a perfectly functional iwl5350 myself).


That is good news ....

thanks Jarod


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