Im getting myself a new Laptop... a few questions?

[cyfred]

This is a link to "rough" specs on the machine, there are a few extras that I have had added, boost to 256M RAM, and DVD/CDRW for example.
http://www.protac.com.au/product/NotePC/731/spec.htm

1) There is a DVD/CDRW combo drive in this laptop, do these work just the same as any old CD burner in a desktop? SCSI emulation etc.. or is there some form of aliasing between what is being used CD / DVD ???

2) Are the SiS 650 drivers listed here http://www.winischhofer.net/linuxsis630.shtml going to work with the gentoo-sources kernel or would I be better off using the vanilla sources?

3) What sort of little tweaks can I do to reduce the ammount of power used while the laptop is running? I know I can reduce the tty's and power down harddrives when not in use -- but what other things can be done?

[drakonite]

For most of your questions I can't help you...
As for saving more power...

Having the kernel send cpu idle singals should lower the power usage quite a bit when your system is idle...

[cyfred]

Thanks drakonite I didnt think about kernel power settings, but wouldve when installing. Im more interested in knowing what really does NOT need to be running / started etc ... to maximise battery life.

[drakonite]

Most of the software I've seen installed (by default at least ...) doesn't use much of the cpu at all.
I'd definatly reccomend staying away from webserver stuff like apache, and window managers that take a lot of resources *cough*kde*cough*
If it has a 3d accelerated gfx card then be warned that when you use 3d programs it will drain your battery pretty good

Other than saying don't install daemons that aren't default and you don't need, I dont' know much else to help you.

[-edbgon-]

It is impossible to have 3d acceleration for the sis650 in linux. You will be stuck like me with no 3d games
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Hi.