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KShots Guru
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Joined: 09 Oct 2003 Posts: 595 Location: Florida
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Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2024 8:19 pm Post subject: Choosing a new laptop |
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Last november, I took a chance and bought an Alienware M18 R1 (AMD)... this has been a disaster that nobody has been able to resolve. The RX 7900M can't play games newer than 10 years old, the external screens flicker badly... and it works perfectly fine if I reboot it to windows. Evidently AMD decided that the RX 7900M isn't worth supporting under linux, as I STILL can't use this thing after 8 months (and probably never will be able to use it).
To that end, I'm looking to replace it... anyone have any experience with either the System76 Bonobo WS w/ the 4090 or the Framework 16 w/ the RX 7700S? I'm leaning towards them because I'm a bit weary of dealing with hardware that vendors refuse to support under linux. The disadvantage of the Bonobo that I see:
- nVidia graphics - I will (probably) never have Wayland support, which means I will never have per-screen scaling support. True, nVidia occasionally briefly supports Wayland... then breaks that support for months/years at a time. I don't want to play that game... There was a reason I was trying to leave nVidia
- Intel processor - The one part that worked great on the Alienware laptop was the AMD processor - fasting thing I've put my hands on. For compiling, it was easily 4-8 times more powerful than my prior 13th gen i9.
... while the disadvantages of the Framework laptop:
- No thunderbolt support - found this out the hard way with the Alienware laptop - AMD does not support Thunderbolt, as it's an Intel product. That means I can't plug multiple displays into the TB port, can't drive high-refresh-rate screens at a high resolution, etc.
- RX7700S - pretty weak nowadays... Trying to do some unreal engine development, that's kinda a weak point.
- Reportedly VERY noisy
To that end... is nVidia reliably supporting Wayland nowadays? Are there better alternatives out there? _________________ Life without passion is death in disguise |
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pjp Administrator
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Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 20328
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Posted: Mon Jul 15, 2024 8:34 pm Post subject: |
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As far as "high end" and "I use it professionally to get work done", I've not heard anything good about Alienware, Framework and some other brand I forget.
I have a 2016 era Lenovo T470 because the prior one was still mostly IBM. Based on the T470 and what I've read since, I don't think I'll choose another Lenovo. Which is a shame, because the TrackPoint / pointing stick is something I don't want to lose.
I may be forced to going back to a desktop and some used stop-gap when it I have to replace my laptop.
I don't envy anyone having to replace a laptop any time soon.. _________________ Quis separabit? Quo animo? |
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lars_the_bear Guru
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Joined: 05 Jun 2024 Posts: 327
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Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2024 7:17 am Post subject: |
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pjp wrote: |
I don't envy anyone having to replace a laptop any time soon.. |
Yeah. One of the reasons I'm interested in Gentoo is that I hope never to have to replace my 2012-2017 Lenovos. Nothing currently on the market inspires me very much.
I, too, would be interested in recommendations, but I suspect that everybody's needs are so different, that recommendations wouldn't really generalize. For example, I insist on at least two internal drive slots. Nobody else seems to care about this, so it isn't mentioned in reviews. I don't care about graphics performance, but it seems everybody else does. And so on. It's very difficult to make an informed choice these days.
BR, Lars. |
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pietinger Moderator
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Joined: 17 Oct 2006 Posts: 4802 Location: Bavaria
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Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2024 12:17 pm Post subject: Re: Choosing a new laptop |
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Yes, the requirements are different, but you can still say a few general things:
1. just never use NVIDIA for Linux
2. notebooks from well-known manufacturers such as HP and Dell can sometimes cause more problems (because they sometimes have very strange BIOSes that are only tailored to Windows) than “no-names” that are tailored by companies that specialize in Linux (such as "Tuxedo" in my country; there are certainly companies in other countries that specialize in Linux).
3. the very latest notebook can sometimes cause problems because not all drivers are updated even in the very latest kernel. sometimes you have to wait half a year ... or buy a notebook that has been on the market for a year.
4. if you don't need gaming, buy a processor with an integrated GPU (works best under Linux).
KShots wrote: | [...] For compiling, it was easily 4-8 times more powerful than my prior 13th gen i9. |
... hard to believe ... (I have also an i9-13900K) ... you will need XEONs or threadrippers to top this ... _________________ https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/User:Pietinger |
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lars_the_bear Guru
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Joined: 05 Jun 2024 Posts: 327
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Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2024 1:49 pm Post subject: Re: Choosing a new laptop |
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pietinger wrote: |
1. just never use NVIDIA for Linux
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It seems to me that all reasonably powerful, commercial-grade, contemporary laptops have NVIDIA graphics, even when they're sold as designed for Linux. For example:
https://system76.com/laptops-powerful
and:
https://www.entroware.com/store/zeus
It seems difficult to find a decent laptop without an NVIDIA GPU these days.
BR, Lars. |
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hedmo Veteran
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Joined: 29 Aug 2009 Posts: 1321 Location: sweden
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Posted: Wed Jul 17, 2024 6:47 am Post subject: |
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KShots
i have been using my AW area51m-r1 since its release . i say everything works grate but the changing the rgb on the keyboard. that i am doing from the bare metal installation of windows via qemu. i am using nouveau (gsp) nowadays with wayland . ATM steamvr and doom 2016 doeas not work . my game list is all from hexen to red dead redemption . as i dont use thunderbolt i cannot say much there .
regards hedmo |
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