Think I FINALLY decided on a laptop

Wally Balljacker · Post by **Wally Balljacker** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 7:46 pm

I was seriously considering getting a new MacBook Pro, but after finding this Acer Aspire on CompUSA, I think I'm gonna take a ride to the store tommorow and see if it's in stock. 1,500 bucks.

Intel Core Duo Processor T2300, 1.66GHz
2GB RAM
120GB SATA Hard Drive
15 inch screen
8X DVD+/-RW Drive
ATi Mobility RADEON X1400

http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/as5670.htm
http://www.compusa.com/products/product ... i#moreinfo

Post by **Patrick** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:02 pm

Now that's out of the way what distro are you going to run?

Wally Balljacker · Post by **Wally Balljacker** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:07 pm

Patrick wrote:Now that's out of the way what distro are you going to run?

Thinking maybe Gentoo, Arch, or Debian. I've already got Debian on my desktop, so I'm leaning towards either Gentoo or Arch. How well do you think Arch would run on the new Intel Core Duo?

CptnObvious999 · Post by **CptnObvious999** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:08 pm

Im jealous

My desktop doesn't even have 2GB of RAM (only 1.25GB) and I don't have a laptop yet. Seems like a pretty good deal though.

Post by **Patrick** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:10 pm

Wally Balljacker wrote:How well do you think Arch would run on the new Intel Core Duo?

I think it would smoke based on the specs you listed. Gentoo takes forever to compile IMHO especially if you like upgrading fairly often.

Wally Balljacker · Post by **Wally Balljacker** » Thu Jan 26, 2006 8:12 pm

CptnObvious999 wrote:Im jealous My desktop doesn't even have 2GB of RAM (only 1.25GB) and I don't have a laptop yet. Seems like a pretty good deal though.

If CompUSA actually has it in stock with that configuration I'm definitely getting it! Seems like a steal. 2GB of freakin' RAM, and my desktop only has 512mb. A ThinkPad with those specs would be way over $2,000.

Patrick wrote:
Wally Balljacker wrote:How well do you think Arch would run on the new Intel Core Duo?
I think it would smoke based on the specs you listed. Gentoo takes forever to compile IMHO especially if you like upgrading fairly often.

Will Arch take advantage of both cores?

Post by **Patrick** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 7:14 am

Wally Balljacker wrote:Will Arch take advantage of both cores?

Good question. I guess that depends if the latest kernel supports it. Don't the new Intel Macs use a similiar processor? Is this a fairly new chipset. If so I wouldn't think the kernel is fully utilizing it yet.

Gomer_X · Post by **Gomer_X** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 9:38 am

CptnObvious999 wrote:Im jealous My desktop doesn't even have 2GB of RAM (only 1.25GB) and I don't have a laptop yet. Seems like a pretty good deal though.

My laptop has a 500 Mhz Celeron and 192 megs of RAM, and it works just fine. I do web development and other things on it.

Tsuroerusu · Post by **Tsuroerusu** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 9:40 am

Patrick wrote:
Wally Balljacker wrote:Will Arch take advantage of both cores?
Good question. I guess that depends if the latest kernel supports it. Don't the new Intel Macs use a similiar processor? Is this a fairly new chipset. If so I wouldn't think the kernel is fully utilizing it yet.

Actually, if you can recompile the Arch kernel and tell it you've got two CPUs in there through the SMP implementation, it will use both cores, also, you need to instruct GCC in doing more threads at the same time if you're going to use Gentoo.

snarkout · Post by **snarkout** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 10:09 am

The vanilla arch kernel supports SMP.

Tsuroerusu · Post by **Tsuroerusu** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 10:19 am

Snarkout wrote:The vanilla arch kernel supports SMP.

Yeah that's what I was gonna say, if the Arch kernel aren't set up to look for more than one CPU, just go to kernel.org and get the vanilla kernel, set it to use two CPUs and do the compile and it should fly smoothly

Wally Balljacker · Post by **Wally Balljacker** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 10:29 am

Tsuroerusu wrote:Yeah that's what I was gonna say, if the Arch kernel aren't set up to look for more than one CPU, just go to kernel.org and get the vanilla kernel, set it to use two CPUs and do the compile and it should fly smoothly

So basically all I have to do is use a i686 SMP kernel, and that will work?

Tsuroerusu · Post by **Tsuroerusu** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 11:51 am

Wally Balljacker wrote:So basically all I have to do is use a i686 SMP kernel, and that will work?

Yep, very simple stuff!

And oh by the way, did I mention SUSE is good for laptops?

Wally Balljacker · Post by **Wally Balljacker** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 12:12 pm

Tsuroerusu wrote:And oh by the way, did I mention SUSE is good for laptops?

I don't believe so.

Tsuroerusu · Post by **Tsuroerusu** » Fri Jan 27, 2006 2:54 pm

Wally Balljacker wrote:
Tsuroerusu wrote:And oh by the way, did I mention SUSE is good for laptops?
I don't believe so.

Well, then I'll do it

By the way, that MacBook won't run Linux just yet, because we don't have an x86 bootloader for the EFI firmware thing that it uses. If you decide to get a standard Centrino laptop, check out SUSE 10.0 (10.1 should be out in the middle of March), very good for laptops, it includes the firmware for the Intel wireless card and sets it up automatically and good stuff like that....