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Old 3rd October 2009
harold harold is offline
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Default Time for a New Laptop

The HP that I'm now using has never been what I would call Unix-friendly. Unix-tolerant might be more descriptive. I'll try Lenovo this time. I've heard good things about them. So many models to choose from; such a low signal-to-noise ratio in the descriptions. The two things that do stand out are...

Video -- Intel or nVidia
Wireless -- Intel or Broadcom

I'm leaning towards nVidia simply because it seems to have dedicated video RAM, whereas Intel video seems to depend on main RAM, Does anyone have any words of wisdom regarding these choices?

Lenovo broadly categorizes their laptops into Value Line, Ideapad and Thinkpad. I see nothing which suggests to me that a Value Line model won't get the job done. Is anyone aware of a compelling reason to move further up the price range?

No, I am not a gamer, but I do use my laptop to watch movies.
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Old 3rd October 2009
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vermaden vermaden is offline
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If you get Lenovo ThinkPad or Dell Latitude, you may be sure that it will be good choice without ACPI issues and so, but I do not have and experience with FreeBSD on IdeaPad series.

I for sure would not get IdeaPad series because of glossy screen and non ThinkPad/Latitude keyboard layout.

Have you thought about getting a used one?
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Old 4th October 2009
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Quote:
I for sure would not get IdeaPad series because of glossy screen and non ThinkPad/Latitude keyboard layout.
+1 on that.
At work I use many different kind of laptops (I fix them), and the simple things such as a decent keyboard and decent screen are pretty important and often overlooked.
If you are planning on really using your laptop a lot for serious work, then these are two of the most important things IMO.

There are a few other advantages to a more expensive Thinkpad or Lattitude

Longer & better warranty and better customer support.
Better BIOS with more options, can be useful for turning off unneeded deviced to save power (Often not possible on cheaper laptops).

Sturdier design (Not all plastic)

Quote:
Video -- Intel or nVidia
I believe the newer Thinkpad T400/T500 series only come with either Intel or an ATI card.
If you really need dedicated graphics, then get that, it does come at the cost of lower battery life though.
Intel onboard cards are pretty fast nowadays, on my Thinkpad example UT runs pretty good with the Intel GMA965M.
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Old 4th October 2009
DrJ DrJ is offline
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Originally Posted by Carpetsmoker View Post
I believe the newer Thinkpad T400/T500 series only come with either Intel or an ATI card.
They come with the Intel 4500, or switchable Intel and ATI. I don't know how BSD handles the switching.

Mine arrives tomorrow (an older x61 tablet), but I will not run BSD as the host OS.
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Old 5th October 2009
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I don't know how BSD handles the switching.
It doesn't. You will need to reboot your laptop and then you can set it in the BIOS ...
The switching is only supported on Vista, even XP and Linux don't support it.
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