New laptop hardware: Advise/recommendation needed

muebi · Guru Joined: 07 Nov 2008 Posts: 312

Hi,

I am about to buy a new laptop and wanted to know whether all the new components would be satisfactorily supported by the gentoo kernels. So, please let me know how easy/hard it was to get these components working under Gentoo linux (especially the processor and graphics card) and what your experience is regarding support, performance etc.

Model: Lenovo ThinkPad W510
Processor: Intel Core i7-920XM Processor Extreme Edition (8M Cache, 2.00 GHz)
Display Panel: 15.6" HD Anti-Glare Display with LED Backlight and WWAN Antenna
System Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M Graphics with 1GB DDR3 memory
Total memory: 16 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (4 DIMM)
Hard Drive: 500 GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Optical device: Multi Recorder Optical Drive (12.7mm)
Integrated WiFi wireless LAN adapters: Intel Centrino Advanced-N + WiMAX 6250
Integrated mobile broadband: Integrated Mobile Broadband (Gobi 2000 3G with GPS)
Finger Print Reader: UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader
Camera: Camera, 2.0 MP
System expansion slots: Express Card Slot & 5 in 1 Card Reader & Smart Card Slot
Bluetooth: Bluetooth w/ antenna

Many thanks!!!

Hypnos · Posted: Thu Nov 18, 2010 11:48 pm Post subject:

* The fingerprint reader on my X301, with USB id 08ff:2810, is not supported. Yours will probably be the 08ff:2810 as well.

* WiMAX on Linux is a work in progress. Your card will have a driver, but desktop-level software (e.g, wicd) don't support it yet. On Google you can find out how to get on a provider network like Clear.

* WWAN should work with some effort.

* I haven't used a non-Intel GPU in ages, so I don't know how your Quadro will fair.

Everything else looks solid.
_________________
Personal overlay | Simple backup scheme

muebi · Guru Joined: 07 Nov 2008 Posts: 312

I don't care about the finger print reader so much. So far I didn't even get it working on my current laptop.

I could change the Wireless card to Intel Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (3x3 AGN). Would that be better in terms of support?

Can anybody comment on the NVIDIA graphics card (NVIDIA Quadro FX 880M Graphics with 1GB DDR3 memory).
On thinkwiki it says there is an opensource driver "nouveau". Anybody knows how good that works?

Thanks.

Hypnos · Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2010 12:54 am Post subject:

The 6300 could be problematic.
_________________
Personal overlay | Simple backup scheme

Satoshi · Apprentice Joined: 06 Nov 2006 Posts: 180 Location: Brazil