Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
AMD

Two New AMD Mobile Chips Launched 170

Posted by simoniker from the portable-md dept.
to_kallon writes "Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has unleashed two new mobile microprocessors today. One processor belongs to the company's 64-bit Mobile Athlon64 line while the other one comes from the 32-bit Athlon XP-M product line. According to CNET News: 'Like other Athlon 64 chips, and Intel's Prescott, the new Athlon 64 3400+ will block many security threats automatically in conjunction with Windows XP Service Pack 2. The delayed SP2 is slated to come out in August. The Athlon 64 3400+ will also run a 64-bit version of Windows, due now at the end of the year.It runs at 2.2GHz and comes with 1MB of cache. Gamer-PC maker Alienware will insert the chip in a notebook later in the month. Meanwhile, the Athlon XP-M 2200+ comes from the company's older line of chips. It runs at 1.6GHz and is built around an older processor core and comes with a 512KB cache. Averatec, a small computer manufacturer, has put the chip into a notebook that can convert into a tablet PC, marking the first time AMD's chips have been used in a tablet'."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Two New AMD Mobile Chips Launched More

Two New AMD Mobile Chips Launched

Comments Filter:

  • Old Joke (Score:4, Funny)

    by Apocalypse111 ( 597674 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @03:37PM (#9740404) Journal
    AMD has also recently released a new multiprocessor motherboard configuration for its low-end processors. Machines based on this technology will specialize in playing 80's MP3's.

    They're calling it the Duron-Duron.
    • I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still
      Da du ron ron ron, da du ron ron
      Somebody told me that his name was Bill
      Da du ron ron ron, da du ron ron
      Yeah, my heart stood still, yeah, his name was Bill
      And when he walked me home, da du ron ron ron, da du ron ron

      And don't forget Celine Duron

    • Re:Old Joke (Score:3, Funny)

      by dj245 ( 732906 )
      Soon they will release a new processecor to help compete in the low-end adult computing market. They call it the Sempr0n.

  • "unleashed two new mobile microprocessors" (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    What a vivid image! I can imagine to "mobile" chips, both in leashes, one pulling, the other restlessly stalking back and forth on silvery leg-pins until... Bam! the leashes are cut, and they bound off into the distance...

  • Cooling (Score:5, Insightful)

    by growlydog ( 589804 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @03:42PM (#9740447) Homepage
    With all these new advances in processor and video-card technology, when are we going to see some advances towards cheaper, and quieter cooling solutions? These devices keep getting hotter and hotter!
    In order to keep my gaming computer cool I have something like 7 or 8 fans in there, and the box sounds like a jet-engine taking off... I've looked into water-cooling but virtually every water-cooling setup costs upwards of $200. Is it really *that* expensive for the equipment? What other alternatives are out there?
    And with a notebook... isn't heat going to soon be a real serious issue with laptops?

    • Re:Cooling (Score:1, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I just bought one of those mini fridges. I drilled a hole in the top, popped in a grommet to help keep air in, and ran the cords through. I don't pay for power so I don't care...
      • I know this is a joke, but seriously I'm pretty sure most computers would product more heat that a fridge could pump out, and as its insulated your really screwed.
        • So put some alcohol [totl.net] in it. Just remember NOT to run the thing at 10x it's rated FSB while drunk on the coolant, as those poor souls found out the hard way ;-)
          • BTW, I don't think the motherboard they show in the parts list is the motherboard they used - it's a "very old" Super 7 ATX board with AGP, but they used a 486SX-25.

            As you can see in the third page, they're not using that mobo - the one they're REALLY using has a green PCB, whereas the one in the parts list had a brown PCB.

            Anyway, a 1000% overclock... It was indirectly alcohol-cooled.

    • Re:Cooling (Score:3, Informative)

      by irokitt ( 663593 )
      BTX may take care of that on the desktop end, but only if Intel can convince case and motherboard manufacturers to pick it up and run with it-so far none of them are happy with the idea. AMD has not espressed any interest in BTX, but I wonder if they would pick it up anytime in the future. AMD Athlon 64 chips run much cooler now that they have a heat spreader on the chip.

      As for laptops, I guess we may have to start looking at liquid nitrogen;)
      • Well, the AMD 64 chips also have a smaller die size and use less voltage than the older chips. That .13 micron process really does help in more ways than one.

        AMD still has a bad reputation for the original Athlon series that tended to space-heat rooms. Great for winter since you can turn off the heater. However, the 64bit chips are a big step in the right direction.

        Now if you could only do something about your new, hot, power-hungry Nvidia FX6800.

    • Heat and AMD (Score:5, Interesting)

      by charnov ( 183495 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @03:55PM (#9740590) Homepage Journal
      The Hammer based chips run cooler than their older AthlonXP brothers. They also add cool-n-quiet for power management. My Athlon 64 laptop (with a DTR chip) rarely gets very warm and the lower power portable Athlon 64 chips are extremely cool (nearly in the G3 - G4 power range which is really impressive for an x86 chip). The P4 based laptops, however, can literally burn you. If you go the Intel route, the Centrino platform is excellent and one of the best chips ever by Intel.

      • Re:Heat and AMD (Score:3, Interesting)

        by mog007 ( 677810 )
        I'm sure that heatspreader helps a lot in that reguard. I'm suprised AMD didn't start adding them in the barton core XP line.

    • Re:Cooling (Score:4, Informative)

      by the unbeliever ( 201915 ) <chris+slashdot@a ... m ['k.c' in gap]> on Monday July 19, 2004 @03:55PM (#9740599) Homepage
      get larger fans that move more air at lower rpm.

      reduce cable clutter with rounded cables and zip ties/wire mesh.
    • These devices keep getting hotter and hotter!

      The Athlon 64 runs a lot cooler than the Athlon XP processor. I'm running a Athlon 64 2800+ overclocked to 3200+ and the chip sits at 38 Celsius (100 Fahrenheit) with the stock heat sync. My current computer is cooler than I've had in years and it's quiet!

    • Re:Cooling (Score:5, Insightful)

      by StateOfTheUnion ( 762194 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @04:15PM (#9740818) Homepage
      Do you find that 7-8 fans are really necessary?

      I will admit that I don't run the latest and greatest machine (AMD Barton core 2200 and a midrange graphics card), but I slowly started shutting down all those extra case fans and slowed down my CPU fan. I'm now running the cpu fan, the power supply fan, GPU fan, and a motherboard fan that sits on either the southbridge or the northbridge (don't remember). I run this system in an unairconditioned house near the Mediteranean (read:hot and humid) and I've never experienced overheating issues.

      Not to say that there aren't systems/users out there that need better cooling than what I have, but I've found that sticking with the basics seems to work pretty well . . . I know a lot of people that drill big holes in their cases, mount gargantu-fans in the case, buy gazillion dollar heat transfer compund, etc. . . but most of the people that I know that do this stuff do it before doing any system characterization.

      The fact that its hard to find a handheld device with a remote temperature probe (thermocouple) at a normal computer shop is indicative to me that most of the folks that go overboard on the cooling have not characterized their system before going out and buying the "superduper cooling kit." Does it really make sense to install XXX number of fans in a case before doing any serious temperature monitoring and characterization to identify whether they really need to go to these sorts of extreme measures. (I know, I know, there's usually a couple of thermocouples on the MB . . . but do the third and fourth case fan really have a significant effect on the MB thermocouples, or would it make more sense to also measure temperatures near other heat sensitive components in nooks and crannies of the case that one would expect to have poor ventilation (e.g. a graphics board installed next to another PCI board) . . .for that a probe would be useful to determine which fans where have the most significant effect)

      And for that matter what about characterizing the temperature profile after installing the "supercooling solution" to determine whether it made a significant difference.

      And for that matter, how much of a difference is really significant anyway?

      I almost think that people like to brag about how much cooling their case has whether the system needs it or not "I have 6 cooling fans" . . . "Oh, yeah well I have 7" . . . "oh yeah, well I have a liquid circulating cooling kit on my overclocked system that cost me more than just buying a faster processor would have." . . . do you see the logic here? I don't.

      I don't claim to understand it, but I guess its just cool to be cool . . .

      • I have seen two dual processor capable systems operate with only two fans. I kid you not.

        One is a Compaq Evo W6000, capable of up to two 2.8GHz Xeon chips. There is one fan in the power supply, another on the exhaust side of a fan duct that joins like a "Y". The fan duct also has gaps around the chipset heatsink, so it too gets forced air.

        The other is a Compaq SP700, capable of up to two 550MHz Xeon CPUs. There is one 12cm fan on the intake of the power supply, and another 12cm fan that forces air inb

    • Re:Cooling (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Gldm ( 600518 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @04:17PM (#9740840)
      Perhaps you've missed AMD's introduction of the HE and EE series opterons, which have rated outputs of 55W and 30W respectively. It seems like low heat output is quickly becoming the new Mhz. When your transistor budget is so much more than what your logic requires, you can always throw another pipeline or even an entire extra cpu core on the die for more performance, but if it's too hot you're screwed.

      • Re:Cooling (Score:2, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Heat is becoming recognized as a big issue in server environments, too. You can stuff a rack full of 1U boxes for cheap, but if you have to buy a big HVAC plant to cool it all you just drove up your total cost of ownership.

        I'd love to see a bunch of low-power rackmount server boxes, down around laptop heat output.
        • Which is why we need Whitefield (multicore Dothan Xeon), or even a single-core Xeon M based on Dothan.

          Blade servers are already using the Pentium M to cut down on heat output and power consumption (remember, those Xeons have to get power to throw the heat).

          The Opteron HE/EE is probably the best choice if you need low power multiprocessing, and it's close between the Oppie and the P-M for low-power uniprocessing (the Pentium M only puts out 24.5W in it's highest power model, the 1.7GHz Banias, and the new
    • I just bought a desktop replacement AMD 64 3200+ Laptop. It's got top of the line hardware, and has never gotten warmer than say me rubbing my hands together for a little while. It's not the blazing hot like my old thinkpad (p4 2.0 ghz), and it's not loud like my old desktop an amd 2200. It's amazing this much power and so cool.

      Battery life may be suckier than a centrino, but this is a desktop replacement, or a portable desktop for me. It rocks.
    • The solution to cooling is to use less power in the first place. As technology increases were using less power to do the same amount-- however we're doing more with every processor so power consumption is going up. My personal feeling is that I'd be willing for my laptop to lag an entire 1 ghz or more behind the crowd so that it may utilize the latest technology for power benefits over performance.

      While perhaps not directly related there must be a strong correlation between energy used and heat dissipat

      • Re:Cooling (Score:3, Informative)

        by ncc74656 ( 45571 ) *

        On a side note I think it'd be really nifty if someone put the original pentium 1 design into the latest technology generation just to see how fast it could be clocked.

        There are enough architectural enhancements in later processors that even if you got a Pentium core into the 3-5 GHz range, even a Celeron would probably walk all over it. It'd be like cranking a 6502 up to 10 GHz...it could be neat for bragging purposes, but it wouldn't give you all of the performance boost you'd expect.

        • You might be wrong there, based on the fact that a Pentium M DOES walk all over a Celeron. The Pentium M is a revised P6 core, and the Pentium 3 (the previous P6 chip), while it can't come close to the P-M, would probably give a Celeron a run for it's money if it would ramp up to that clock speed (that would be one hell of a stretch, though - it appears to only be capable of 1.4GHz - if Intel would put it on 90nm, and we could liquid nitrogen cool it, though). Seeing as there wasn't much difference in the p
    • "...and the box sounds like a jet-engine taking off..."

      Have a look at Quiet PC [quietpc.com] - they have a huge range of components and fans specifically aimed at reducing noise. I have just invested in some case fans myself after (not?) hearing them in action in a friends recording studio.
    • OOH! It's already here! It's called PowerPC. IBM makes these CPU chips that are zippy, but also generate about half the heat of similar-performing x86 chips.

      The PowerPC 750GX is a -GREAT- CPU, it's got a modernized G3 core and 1MB full-speed on-die L2 cache. You can get one soon on an ATX board from PegasosPPC. They run at about 1GHz, but they are pretty quick. Heat dissipation stands at about 8 watts.

      The Motorola 7447a and 7457 are also good CPUs, but they've got memory-starvation issues because they use
    • Do you really need all those fans? I have a Athlon 3000+ on an nForce2 ultra, with a 2x HDD and 2x optical, 1gb ram, sound, video etc. My fan count is 3: CPU, PSU, Exhaust. No fan on the northbridge (just replace it with a heatsink), no fan on the GPU (slow card, of course not suitable for a gaming rig). Only need one exhaust fan due to being careful with wiring. Not only that, but not one of my fans is over 20dbA. The PSU is around 17, the others about 19 I think. The disks are much louder than the fans (I
      • Heh, my computer is MUCH noisier, and it's an old Pentium I system. A large 120mm exhaust fan, a crappy 80mm fan in the PSU, and a 40mm fan on the CPU. The 120 is probably the noisiest, but I don't think they're undervolted at all...

        Of course, my Quantum Bigfoot CY probably dwarfs any of the fans in noise - ditto on the seek noise of my Seagate 8.4GB (however, I've NEVER had a problem with a Seagate - I've seen Deathstars, Western Digitals (anyone got a derogatory name for WD?), and a Maxtor (it was Sudden

  • Uggghhh... (Score:5, Funny)

    by k4_pacific ( 736911 ) <k4_pacific@yaho o . com> on Monday July 19, 2004 @03:44PM (#9740460) Homepage Journal
    "marking the first time AMD's chips have been used in a tablet"

    Prior to this, they were either injected or used in suppository form.

  • it would be nice to see (Score:3, Interesting)

    by asv108 ( 141455 ) <.moc.ssovi. .ta. .vsa.> on Monday July 19, 2004 @03:49PM (#9740515) Homepage Journal
    IBM putting one of these 64 bit chips in a highend thinkpad. While I really like the Athlon64 processor, I would not even consider buying anything but a thinkpad for a PC laptop.
    • Would you settle for an emachine:

      http://www.emachines.com/products/products.html?pr od=eMachines_M6811 [emachines.com]

      Emachines has it listed as 2.0 GHz, but several people on forums called Emachines and AMD and confirmed this is the 2.2 GHz 3400+.

      Supposedly as well Best Buy already has them, and J&R Electronics as well with a $100 rebate.
      • I have one of the eMachines amd64 laptops, and overall it is quite nice. The only thing is that the ACPI is somewhat strange, so whenever I shut or open the lid, I get screens full of "unknown acpi event" messages.
    • IBM does not have much an incentive to put an Athlon 64 on a Thinkpad then, if you won't even consider buying another brand that does use that CPU.

      The first of IBM, Sony, Fujitsu or Toshiba .. perhaps even Dell, but that seems a very remote possibility - to ship with Mobile Athlon 64 will probably get my business. Bought a Centrino-based Acer laptop for my sister and she was not too impressed by it, so I think I'll skip Acer for now.
  • as long as it doesn't affect linux I guess I don't care much about the security fixes although it's nice to see these tweaks being made.

    Just wondering, IF linux was more used than windows, would AMD and Intel make those fixes of MS's windows xp even though it's less popular than another O/S?
    • It's not a Windows specific fix. It's NX support (so that data marked as such won't be executed) and Linux can benefit from it as well.

    • Re:fixes for windows BUT (Score:3, Interesting)

      by DaHat ( 247651 )
      You make it sound as if AMD one day went to Microsoft and said "Hey, we've got this really cool feature we are adding to our chips, it'll make your operating system much more secure."

      NX is not a 'security fix' it is an added feature, a feature not unlike MMX or SSE. An ability that sits on the chip waiting to be used and is generally only used if it is called (ie software support).

      This is nothing new! It amazes me that you think it's so radical to hardware and software supporting the same feature.

      BTW: NX
  • Not meant as a troll:

    Kudos go out to hardware engineers for stepping up and cleaning up the dangerous wake of bad programming practices. I'm not familiar with exactly how these security features would work, but I assume they will be automatic and thus will help clean up problems in older software which carry little hope for patches.
    It does bring questions to mind thought.Will software developers get lazy and no longer even attempt to adhere to good programming practices? Will it matter if they do or

    • Re:Kudos to Hardware Engineers (Score:5, Informative)

      by FooAtWFU ( 699187 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @04:00PM (#9740669) Homepage
      The trick is basically a permissions system for memory. If the memory isn't in a certain range, you can't (write to|execute) it. This keeps you from executing your data section, or writing over your code. This prevents buffer overflows from being exploted with the "arbitraty code injection" that you hear so much about.

      But it doesn't prevent the overflow, just the injection. This leaves your program free to (behave poorly|crash).

  • Explanation please! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by jasoncc ( 754385 )
    Someone please explain the statement about blocking security threats in conjunction with the operating system. My imagination is failing me. New instructions that do....what?

  • And intel's reply: (Score:5, Informative)

    by silverfuck ( 743326 ) <dan...farmer@@@gmail...com> on Monday July 19, 2004 @03:57PM (#9740633) Homepage
    Intel has 'unleashed' [theregister.co.uk] new low voltage and 'ultra low voltage' Centrinos and Celerons.

  • Prescott NX? Not yet! (Score:2, Informative)

    by vuvewux ( 792756 )
    Notably, Prescott chips with NX support aren't yet shipping.

  • Virus Protection (Score:3, Funny)

    by l8f57 ( 652468 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @04:04PM (#9740702)
    You can get Virus Protection without an AMD processor here. [redhat.com]

  • Speaking of Averatec... (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I just got to say how much I love their notebooks. Easily some of the best made on the market. I purchased one last year, based off the Athlon 1600+ Mobile chip. It ran pretty decently, but like most notebooks... the graphics chip was a little underpowered. They came out with a new version of their 12" notebooks (size and weight was another factor) that contained the 2000+ Mobile CPU and a mobile/integrated version of the S3G DeltaChrome chipset (Unichrome, if I remember correctly)... it may not be the grea
  • I'm looking for a low noise (quiet) AMD 64 Notebook. Do you know any? Thanks a lot for your reply!
    • Yeah, this one [acer.com]. Pity it uses an ATI video chip (which lacks the OUTSTANDING 64-bit Linux drivers nVidia has), but at least they used the best one (128MB Radeon 9700). And pity about the Broadcom wireless and wired network chips, but at least it's 802.11g and gigabit, respectively. Other than those two complaints, if you want to make TiBook owners drool, this is the notebook to get. (No, I don't have one. Having played 64-bit UT2004 on my desktop I'm holding out for a proper AMD64 nVidia notebook.)

  • Using mobile chips in a desktop (Score:5, Interesting)

    by kilonad ( 157396 ) * on Monday July 19, 2004 @04:11PM (#9740778)
    I'm getting ready to build a new PC and I've decided on the Athlon64 (it was such a difficult decision... not.). It looks like the mobile chips are basically identical to their desktop brethren except that they don't put out as much heat nor do they have integrated heat spreaders. I really like the fact that they put out less power, perform identically (I think), and only cost a few dollars more.

    Does anyone know if you can take a mobile A64 and just plop it in a desktop motherboard (for regular A64s) and have it just work? Or does the BIOS have to be aware of the fact that it's a mobile proc? Will the heatsinks designed for the desktop versions work with a mobile version? Does an A64 really require a 400W+ power supply as many sites suggest?
    • I meant to say the Desktop Replacement (DTR) version of the Athlon 64, not the true Mobile A64.

      • Re:Oops... (Score:3, Informative)

        by dago ( 25724 )
        For motherboard, check silentpcreview.com (esp. the forums).

        For the PSU, there you'll have also a impressive list of "what can run on a 300W PSU". FYI, my dual Athlon 2600 is between 100 and 170W (not overclocked). So far for the 500+W PSU myth.

        • Re:Oops... (Score:2, Insightful)

          by nelsonal ( 549144 )
          I think the reason for a 500W PS is that companies rate PS differently. One company's 500W supply might be able to peak at 500W, but only output 250-300 cleanly. I'd guess it's a lot like stereo amps where boom boxes list peak wattage (on a sunny day in ND with no wind) while a company like NAD rates its applifier's wattage based on how much power it can pump without exceeding a certain deviation from the input signal. So a 65W NAD amp might be considerably louder than a 300W Walmart special.
          • About a decade ago I learned that lesson. I bought a couple of Amps from Radio Shack because their peak wattage was so much higher than similarly priced amps from a car audio shop.

            After about two monthe of fuxoring around with them, having them overheat and shutdown I finally broke down and bought a Pyramid Gold amp for about $300. I am still using this amp today.

            Always buy with quality in mind. In the long run you'll save money because 1 good product will last longer than 4 cheap ones.

            LK
          • Yes, but this kind of argument comes only after. And in rare case does people mention that a (put-your-favorite-brand) 300-350W PSU is more than enough for a normal* PC.

            As I said, my dual AMD which consume max 170W from the wall !. I guess an athlon64 won't go over 120W ... if I have time, I'll check at work tomorrow and I'll tell you back.

            Note : there are some reasons to buy oversized PSU. But just saying that a 500W PSU is needed for an Athlon64 is pure BS.

            * = not overclocked, not intel P4, no top grap
            • Ok, a athlon64 3000+, a radeon 9200, 2 HDD, 1 DVD are consuming from the wall, 80W idle and 130W max (3d+cpu). With a cheap 300W PSU, not stability problems.

      • Re:Oops... (Score:4, Informative)

        by Illissius ( 694708 ) on Monday July 19, 2004 @04:43PM (#9741082)
        They are theoretically compatible, but it depends on whether the motherboard in question supports them. The Asus K8N-E Deluxe looks like it does a good job of that, though information is scarce as it's pretty new. As for heatsinks, they aren't inherently compatible, but the Thermalright SLK-948U is one that is.
        And a true mobile will work just as well as a DTR, and have even better thermals (in the case of the 35W mobile 2700+/2800+, magnitudes better).

    • The regular chip runs relatively cool, just as-is. I have one at home, and have never had any problems with it.

      Conversely, I have dual xeons at work. I have to run a fan under my desk to keep my feet from sweating.

    • Does an A64 really require a 400W+ power supply as many sites suggest?

      If you want a quiet and reliable system, it's a good idea to buy a power supply that is rated for more Watts than you actually need. Near the top of the possible power output, power supplies are less efficient and emit more heat. If they aren't working very hard, they run cooler, and they should have a long life and not require as much noisy cooling.

      I'm not certain how much of a difference the above really makes, but that's my rule o
    • I put a Mobile Athlon 64 3200+ (62W) in my ASUS K8V Deluxe motherboard, replacing a standard 3200+ desktop chip. It works exactly as you'd expect. Getting a heatsink to fit was tricky since the notebook chips are "lidless" (no aluminum lid protecting the core), but Zalman's CNPS7000A-AlCu (don't use the all-copper version, it's twice the weight) fit. Alpha's didn't. Just be real careful not to overtighten the screws. Supposedly the lidless CPUs can be cooled better but that lid was put there for a reas
  • - AMD is lauching the new AMD Athlon Greece 2004, because the real Athlete use Athlon!
    - Intel is lauching the new Pentium 4 Olympic Games Edition, with 20 new "Olympic Instructions" to make the Olympic Games coverage 50% faster!

  • AMD seems ready to compete (Score:4, Interesting)

    by foidulus ( 743482 ) * on Monday July 19, 2004 @04:50PM (#9741164)
    against Intel now in the laptop market as well. AMD has steadily been gaining against Intel is the desktop market, but I really think that the laptop market is the place to be(in terms of cash of course) Also nice that they are attacking at both ends, the performance end and the budget end.
    With the advent of wi-fi, I see a lot more people ditching desktops all together and using a laptop as their only machine. Why not? Laptops easily have enough power to check email, browse, use an office suit all at the same time. And you can take them anywhere. And with a low end laptop only a few hundred more than a lowend desktop, there really isn't the financial motivation to get a desktop anymore.
    Desktops aren't dying, but the real growth(at least in terms of the mature world economies) will probably be in laptops in the coming years.

    • Also nice that they are attacking at both ends, the performance end and the budget end.

      Computers are like cars in that you sell a lot more budget models, but people judge you based on your top of the line. Dodge was getting creamed in the sixties until they brought out a whole line of muscle cars that walked all over GM and Ford. Nissan had no sports cars and all but died. Turns out it's hard to spin a really sexy marketing campaign when your flagship's a minivan. The same is true of computer parts. T

  • The Averatec "3150H" that I'm posting from here has been a pretty nice little machine. Small and light, and (most importantly for me) every single component has Linux drivers available - including the software-driven modem (drivers developed by the modem company [smlink.com] themselves, no less).

    The downside is that their support blows. I reported an annoying BIOS problem (if the "Auto-dim" feature [which automatically dims the screen when you disconnect from AC and switch to battery] is turned on, the touchpad stops

  • Has anyone got a suggestion for a laptop with
    • AMD64 CPU at or above 3000+ AMD rating
      --- must have

    • nVidia graphics
      --- not ATI or anyone else

    • 17" TFT display
      --- not 15"
    It seems every laptop fails to meet one or more of my above criteria.

Slashdot Top Deals

The sooner all the animals are extinct, the sooner we'll find their money. - Ed Bluestone

Close