Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Dell XPS16 for Christmas?

["J. Roeleveld" <joost@antarean.org>]

On Friday 20 November 2009 17:43:20 Paul Hartman wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 6:16 AM, Mick <michaelkintzios@gmail.com> wrote:
> > 2009/11/20 J. Roeleveld <joost@antarean.org>:
> >> On Sunday 15 November 2009 19:39:40 Mick wrote:
> >>> I have been thinking of buying this laptop and was looking at the
> >>> Gentoo Wiki which shows relatively good hardware compatibility, except
> >>> for the radeon card which is now an older offering:
> >>>
> >>> http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Dell_Studio_XPS_16
> >>>
> >>> The current spec on the UK Dell website shows 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 4670
> >>> (see below).
> >>> 
================================================================
> >>> PROCESSOR:    Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 720QM (1.60Ghz, 6MB cache)
> >>> LCD:  Black Leather back cover : 15.6" (inch) Truelife 1080p Full HD
> >>> WLED Edge to Edge Display
> >>> MEMORY:       4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
> >>> HARD DRIVE:   500GB (7,200rpm) Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive
> >>> PRIMARY BATTERY:      9-cell 85Whr Lithium Ion battery
> >>> OPTICAL DRIVE:        Internal Blu-Ray ROM (Blu-Ray read, DVD and CD
> >>> read & Write) Optical Drive
> >>> GRAPHICS CARD:        1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 4670 graphics card
> >>> WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY:        Dell Wireless 1397 Mini Card (802.11 b/g)
> >>> BLUETOOTH:    Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module
> >>> 
================================================================
> >>>
> >>> According to these links the RadeonHD driver is experimental:
> >>> http://wiki.x.org/wiki/radeon
> >>> http://wiki.x.org/wiki/radeonhd%3Aexperimental_3D
> >>>
> >>> Does anyone have experience with this driver, or better yet, this
> >>> laptop? Shall I buy or shall I shy away from it?
> >>
> >> Most Dell-laptops actually work quite nicely with Linux, however, be
> >> aware that DELL has issues with the harddrives they supply.
> >> I've seen 6 different recent DELL-laptops with crashed harddrives in the
> >> past 1.5 years. These laptops were handled carefully.
> >>
> >> Response from Dell was: "Sorry, we shipped a wrong batch...."
> >>
> >> I would suggest frequent backups of important files and/or the harddrive
> >> swapped for a more reliable model.
> >
> > Thanks guys - the hard drive story sounds scary!  Was there a
> > particular batch of a particular hard drive manufacturer that was
> > suspect here?
> 
> I think you could mention any brand of hard drive and people would
> have horror stories about it. Hard drives are like airplanes; they
> tend to fail spectacularly. The good news is that if you had to choose
> one part of a laptop to go bad, the hard drive would probably be the
> easiest piece to replace (or maybe RAM). Certainly better than a trend
> of failing display panels!

In this case they were Seagates, but as mentioned, all manufacturers make 
mistakes.
The last Dell that had a crashed harddrive (after 3 months of use, 2 weeks 
ago) had a Seagate - ST9160823ASG.

> I've owned a couple Dell computers personally and overseen dozens of
> them at work and they are generally good value and perform without
> issues. Their business division's customer service (at least a few
> years ago) was pretty good, they would send someone to our office the
> next morning to fix the problem.

These were for a business customer (A big one) and all Dell offered was 
sending replacement drives to the seperate users' homes or their nearest 
offices.

> I would also check out the Asus G51J-A1 which is a similar set-up to
> the Dell. It seems to be a good package for the price too.

Getting into the preferences of brands here, so I will refrain from 
commenting.
One thing to still keep in mind, Asus does not really care about Linux users 
either. Is there a decent laptop-brand that actually does?

--
Joost