New Dell Latitude for linux

[Tim Watts]

[uk.d-i-y because there are just as many people there who might have an opinion on this]

What would you choose:

Dell E6440, i5-5310M with Radeon HD8690M graphics but only 802.11a/b/g/n WIFI

or

Dell E7740, i5-4310U with Intel HD 4400 Haswell graphics with

802.11a/b/g/n/ac WIFI

And does anyone know if the 256GB SSD MiniCard disk option is any good?[1]

Any random thoughts? :)

BTW - Lenovo have stopped offering a "build your own" custom buy and the T series trackpads have gone down the pan according to reviews. So no more Lenovo.

Why Dell? Well I can get a decent academic discount as Dell supply my uni. And I quite like SWMBOs E6420 - at least it's form factor.

====

Basically, my old Lenovo T410i is giving up slowly. My "absolutes" are:

1 - 8-16GB RAM 2 - Medium CPU (i7 seems not much better than i5) 3 - Graphics that x.org can manage 3D for (eg GoogleEarth) plus VMware player needs to manage 3D support for guests.

4 - 500GB "spinning rust" HDD PLUS

256GB (ish) SDD for OS+home+VMWare-disks

5 - 802.11ac (I am going "ac" at home)

6 - 14-15 inch and vert res of 900 min. No smaller screen size and no bigger as it makes me unpopular on the train!

Works with linux HDMI second screen

====

The only official Dell way to get the HDD options is an internal SSD MiniCard and a media bay mounted 500GB HDD

Personally I'd prefer to get a 500GB internal spinning HDD and buy a generic mediabay adaptor (NewModus prob - cannot find a Dell part) and stick a SanDisk Extreme II in as I know and trust these.

No 802.11ac is annoying but not a disaster as I *could* use a USB dongle....

[The Natural Philosopher]

I got a 'free' PC from my supplier because it was scrap (onbaord networking didn't work) . Its a thunderingly good machine running linux (Mint 17). With a separate ethernet card (also scrap) added to it..

Even gotta win XP license on it

[ray carter]

My preference would be the Intel graphics machine. The Intel graphics is very well supported.

[dennis]

Someone stole the magnetics?

[Tim Watts]

Really - I'm glad to hear that.

My Lenovo with Intel graphics caused me a few problems because Linux could not support 3D acceleration on it.

[Robert Heller]

And if it has Intel WiFi, that would also be a plus. Intel WiFi cards/chips are also very well supported.

>

[Adrian C]

+1

Both actually have Intel graphics, the E6440 here is a hybrid graphics model featuring both Intel HD 4600 & AMD HD8690M.

The HD8690M is supported by an AMD driver, but AMD doesn't show support further than Ubuntu 14.04 AFAICS but that may change.

So someone here is having fun ...

"Angry At wits end with Dell Inspiron/AMD Radeon HD 8670M"

Currently these users end up running the Intel graphics.

[chris]

I can't find this one. Do you mean E7440?

I really wouldn't go with a Dell. Or at least make sure you get a support package. Some at work have them and they do break down...

Having said that, why not try the Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu pre-installed:

It's a very high quality screen and nice and light without compromising on performance.

I'd go with as much as you can get.

I'd go with Intel, Radeon are often hard to configure. I still can't get accelerated 3D to work on my desktop.

How are you going to get two disks in the above laptops?

Not a problem.

HDDs are getting rarer in laptops now. I wouldn't go back to HDDs - the performance improvement you get with SSDs is a big bonus.

[Tim Watts]

Thanks! Rather a turnaround... Radeon used to have very good support...

Pity there are no Nvidia options.

[Tim Watts]

Yes, sorry. Spazzy typing...

Luckily the 5 years next day on site costs very little on an academic purchase...

Every laptop I've ever owned had some sort of problem in 5 years. HP - the hinges broke. Lenovo fan is dying and the touchpad covering fell off.

It does tick a lot of the boxes. Unfortunately it seems to have no touchpad buttons (not real ones anyway).

Sorry - I could not list every detail, but I use the TP heavily and like

2 or 3 real buttons. In act I always disable "soft click" as it always misfires when I use TPs.

But I am impressed by the screen specs.

How do you find the TP?

+anotherone for Intel...

Mediabay adaptor - like I did with the Lenovo. I never use the DVD so that gets pulled out.

+1

It's still cost - I need 750GB but 500GB can be slow - hence the dual disk approach.

Thanks for the ideas!

[Robert Riches]

However, be a little cautious with very new hardware, because it is possible your favorite distribution might not have released a version of kernel and Xorg that support the latest hardware.

For example, I just put a Haswell i5-4690 in an Asus H97M-Plus motherboard and tried to run Tinycore 5.x on it. After a little searching, I found an X server in the Tinycore TCZs that works with both monitors (as long as I don't map the low-res monitor exactly on top of the VLC video window). However, the 3.8.13 kernel won't drive the on-board audio or on-board NIC. (Yes, the audio and NIC are related to the board rather than the CPU.)

HTH

[tony sayer]

Well we do have one and it did develop a hard drive fault but they sent someone around to us!, we didn't have to send it off anywhere they came and replaced it on site here:)...

[Tim Watts]

Dell's service is ace if you pay.

I would take the next day on site option as it's not a lot extra.

My work gear as 4 hour on site - I can get an email in the morning about a failed SAN disk and have it in my hands by 2pm, and have the old one boxed and ready for their courier to collect by 5pm.

An engineer is optional - I fit myself as it woul dbe as much effort to go top the datacentre to escort their man in as it is to fit the disk myself.

That's *not* cheap though...

[chris]

Good.

Sorry, I don't have one. A colleague does and I've not heard him complain about the touchpad.

Personally, I always use an external mouse for day-to-day usage. When I do use a touchpad I hate physical buttons and get really frustrated when I borrow someone else's laptop which has buttons.

Is that still possible with current laptops? More and more manufacturers are moving to the ultrabook model where nothing is user upgradeable (not even RAM!).

[chris]

Integrated Intel graphics have come on leaps-and-bounds in the last few years. No longer are they the puny bare minimum one used have to tolerate.

[Tim Watts]

I have to use it on the train (no space for amouse) - but I do use an external KB and mouse when at home.

The Latitude E6xxx models *do* have a mediabay (even Dell have HDDs in bay adaptors, just don't sell the adaptor empty, but you can get clones from people like NewModus).

I believe with the E6xxx series, everything is very accessible from underneath:

[Tim Watts]

:) I am encouraged - I shall drop the "No Intel Graphics" from my list... Which means the E6440 meets the criteria IIRC - off to check.

[tony sayer]

This was under warranty...

[Davey]

It was a few years ago, and it was a PC owned by my US employer, but when my Dell Dimension started to shut down on its own while I was in Buenos Aires, within the three year US onsite warranty period, Dell engaged a local Sperry repair service to meet me at my hotel and replace the mother board, all while sitting at a lobby bar table. I was impressed with the service.

[Tim Watts]

OK - bit of research:

E7xxx do not have media bays.

However, if you don't have the WWAN (3G/4G mobile data) option, apparantly it is possible to mount an mSATA minicard flash in the same slot.

In fact according to various forum postings, this is the default if you but a minicard SSD - even to the point where Dell save £2.57 or something by NOT supplying the SATA connector to the main bay!

the online configurator will not let me choos 2 disks though so I've put it to our sales rep.

Failing that, I might buy with either a 500GB SATA and fit my own 240GB minicard or buy with the cheapest SATA HDD and throw it away in favour of a 480/500GB SSD that might be sufficient...