I’m going to be buying a new laptop without any installed OS on it, as it can only come with various versions of Windows 7. I’m going to be using it partially as a gaming machine, and will try to to install these via Linux using WINE etc., but may also make it dual boot if they don’t work that way.
I want to make sure that the hardware I’m ordering will be compatible with Linux, so if anyone could help me out, it’d be greatly appreciated.
Specs are:
Intel® Core™i7 Mobile Processor i7-840QM (1.86GHz) 8MB Cache
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 4GB)
1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 5650 PCI Express - DirectX® 11
500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BEKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
OK, first let me say this is NOT definitive information, but from a web search it would seem that you may have problems with the graphics card for games (at the moment).
some people are having problems with the 5650 even though the forum thread is marked [Solved].
It appears to be the “blank screen” mode switching problem again, with Ubuntu 10.04/Mint 9, so may be Ubuntu/Mint specific.
Now this doesn’t mean it won’t work in Linux… it will… it just means that you may have problems with the fglrx drivers for full 3D support… so the HD 5650 will work, but performance may be hit until ATI sort the drivers.
There also doesn’t seem to be 1000’s of people complaining, and I’ve seem some responses that say “they worked for me”, so it may also be a problem with other hardware (screen?)… seems like most people who are having problems are using HP laptops, those with Dell laptops report no problem.
Other than that can you get any more info on the wireless card/chip?.. these can sometimes cause problems but are nearly always sortable.
