Re: Laptop Recommendations

[Saifi Khan <saifi.khan%fastpath.in@localhost>]

On Wed, 5 Sep 2012, Wladimir Sidorenko wrote:

> Dear all,
>
> I'm considering buying a laptop, on which I'd like to install NetBSD.
> I'm going to use it primarily as my home PC + for doing some
> occasional not very heavy programming tasks. The main thing I'm
> interested in is good support for ACPI, wlan and multimedia devices
> (like audio, webcam). As far as I could see from

Hi Wladimir:

i'd like to recommend Asus X53U series laptop having the 
configuration

AMD64 Brazon Dual core C-60
RADEON Graphics HD 6290
2 GB 1033 MHz Hynix DDR3 SDRAM
320 GB SATA HDD
Matushita DVD writer
Altec Lansing speakers
Atheros Wireless
Realtek Gigabit Ethernet Controller

This is a 15.6" laptop with comfortable full size keyboard and 
suitable for the kind of usage that you have in mind. I upgraded the 
RAM by adding in additional 2 GB 1333 MHz Transcend Jet DDR3 SDRAM.

I'm currenly running NetBSD-current on this laptop and compiled 
the software (pkgsrc-current) that i needed like dwm, dmenu, gimp, 
xpdf, qt-core, djview etc.

Here is the 'lspci' output

00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 14h Processor Root 
Complex
00:01.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI 
Wrestler [Radeon HD 6290]
00:01.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI Wrestler HDMI Audio 
[Radeon HD 6250/6310]
00:04.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 14h Processor Root Port
00:11.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 
SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 40)
00:12.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 
USB OHCI0 Controller
00:12.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 
USB EHCI Controller
00:13.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 
USB OHCI0 Controller
00:13.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 
USB EHCI Controller
00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 
42)
00:14.1 IDE interface: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 
IDE Controller (rev 40)
00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 Azalia (Intel 
HDA) (rev 40)
00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 LPC 
host controller (rev 40)
00:14.4 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SBx00 PCI to PCI 
Bridge (rev 40)
00:14.5 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 
USB OHCI2 Controller
00:15.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB700/SB800/SB900 PCI 
to PCI bridge (PCIE port 0)
00:15.1 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB700/SB800/SB900 PCI 
to PCI bridge (PCIE port 1)
00:16.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 
USB OHCI0 Controller
00:16.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] nee ATI SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0 
USB EHCI Controller
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor 
Function 0 (rev 43)
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor 
Function 1
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor 
Function 2
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor 
Function 3
00:18.4 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor 
Function 4
00:18.5 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor 
Function 6
00:18.6 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor 
Function 5
00:18.7 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 12h/14h Processor 
Function 7
03:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8111/8168B PCI 
Express Gigabit Ethernet controller (rev 06)
04:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. AR9285 Wireless Network 
Adapter (PCI-Express) (rev 01)

You can see the modular xorg log and photographs of the laptop here
http://is.gd/mEEZ44

i was absolutely thrilled when the wireless card was detected auto 
magically while the installation was in progress.

Compiling packages on the laptop was not a big issue, except qt-core 
4.8.2 which took approx 17.5 hrs. Thats just a one off data point.

What i found outstanding here is that the laptop did not become hot 
at all unlike some broadcom-chip-fixed-laptops !

Most folks will just do 'pkg_in' and they'll get going.

All the function keys perform their intende function and that 
includes, attaching the laptop to an external LCD projector. The 
battery lasts approx 4+ hrs. in a non-programming usage scenario.

Hope this helps.

thanks
Saifi.