Re: [LAD] How well do thinkpad notebooks work for audio?

On Wed, 29 Jul 2009 09:52:48 +0200
Frank Barknecht <fbar@email-addr-hidden> wrote:

> Hallo,
> hollunder@email-addr-hidden hat gesagt: // hollunder@email-addr-hidden wrote:
>
> > It feels like my several year old PC will crap out soon for one
> > reason or another, so I need a replacement, better sooner than
> > later. This time it should be a laptop and I heard that formerly
> > IBM and now Lenovo thinkpads are of good build quality, even if
> > they only come with intel CPUs and cost an arm and a leg.
>
> The Thinkpads seem to have a pretty active net community doing sites
> like www.thinkwiki.org, which are very helpful. There's nothing bad
> about Intel CPUs, actually I consider them the best choice ATM for
> laptops, especially if you get a device with an Intel gfx chip
> inside, they have excellent FLOSS drivers. Personally I agree that
> Thinkpads are a bit overpriced, you can get equivalent laptops
> cheaper from manufacturers like Acer or MSI, which are the two
> companies I have first hand experience with: I have an MSI S260 which
> currently gets replaced by an Acer Timeline 3810T. Both are well
> supported by Linux. The new one requires bleeding edge software, i.e.
> Debian unstable in my case. On the ACER, no interrupts are shared
> when AHCI is enabled, but I guess, that's normal for AHCI:
>
> $ cat /proc/interrupts
> CPU0
> 0: 31601 IO-APIC-edge timer
> 1: 7186 IO-APIC-edge i8042
> 8: 99 IO-APIC-edge rtc0
> 9: 13850 IO-APIC-fasteoi acpi
> 12: 25164 IO-APIC-edge i8042
> 16: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb3, uhci_hcd:usb7
> 18: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb8
> 19: 24 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb6
> 21: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb4
> 22: 182 IO-APIC-fasteoi HDA Intel
> 23: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb2, uhci_hcd:usb5
> 26: 138998 PCI-MSI-edge i915
> 27: 8011 PCI-MSI-edge ahci
> 28: 61621 PCI-MSI-edge iwlagn
> NMI: 0 Non-maskable interrupts
> LOC: 15229 Local timer interrupts
> SPU: 0 Spurious interrupts
> RES: 0 Rescheduling interrupts
> CAL: 0 Function call interrupts
> TLB: 0 TLB shootdowns
> TRM: 0 Thermal event interrupts
> ERR: 0
> MIS: 0
>
> I didn't yet do any hardcore audio tests on that laptop, it's running
> an upstream large latency kernel. With laptops, I think, it's
> important to know your ways of using it. For example, the Acer is not
> the fastest device around (it's just a single Core CPU), but it's
> very light (1.65kg) and has an amazing battery life (up to 8h with
> dimmed display), so it's great to take on the road which is where I
> will be using it the most and where I can deal with a slower CPU, but
> not with a huge and heavy monster. The other extreme would be a
> netbook, but I prefer the 13" screen of the Acer - my eyes don't cope
> well with 10" screens, and Atoms just don't cut it in the long run
> for audio work. So to me, the Timeline is a good compromise, but your
> compromise will probably look different.
>
> Ciao

Thanks Frank,
I had a look at thinkwiki but couldn't find what I'm looking for.
I also thought about netbooks but they won't cut it in the long run and
I'll need a laptop eventually anyway.
Could you post a lspci of your new acer as well? It's not quite what I'm
looking for but it might be helpful anyway.

Thanks,
Philipp
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Received on Wed Jul 29 12:15:09 2009