Re: [linux-audio-user] To MacBook or not to MacBook, that's the question

From: Ken Restivo <ken@email-addr-hidden>
Date: Tue Mar 20 2007 - 09:29:44 EET

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On Mon, Mar 19, 2007 at 11:31:25AM +0100, Malte Steiner wrote:
> Arnold Krille wrote:
> >2007/3/19, Ken Restivo <ken@email-addr-hidden>:
> >>OK, <exasperated sigh>, I have to ask this:
> >>Are there any laptops out there WHICH DO NOT SUCK??!
> >
> >Yes, I have an ASUS A6000 which is rather great!
> I second Arnolds statement, I got also an Asus A6000 and at least I
> would say it sucks less. I got a single core Turion 64 with Nvidia
> graphics and I run 64Studio with the propritary Nvidia drivers on it
> which I need for my art. Works fine and got low latency out of the box
> but Linux should be started with ACPI set to off.
> PD is a bit of a pain in 64bit as Arnold said but so far I use the stock
> pd and compiled only the externals I missed and needed. Soon I will try
> to compile a whole pd from cvs, maybe its better. Some statements of
> some pd users about 64 bit are a bit strange indeed.
> I compiled csound 5 and it worked well after I learned how to start it
> with a good priority so it didnt get interrupted when running in
> realtime. Ardour works great and also video applications like Xjadeo and
> Cinelerra which certainly benifits from 64bit.
> There is some electrical bleeding on the audio output which is also on
> external cards like RME Hammerfall Multiface. Balanced cables or playing
> from battery helps.
>

Thanks!

I've been spending the last few hours researching this.... it's depressing how time-consuming this is.... I hate shopping...

Anyway, I found this:

http://www.thenerds.net/index.php?page=productpage&affid=2&pn=90NG6G161500000L18&srccode=cii_5784816&cpncode=09-28627918-2

That looks like a brand-new laptop for US$461, which is a damned good price for me, being impoverished and considering I can only do this by selling my Mac Mini, for which I could probably fetch maybe $400-$500.

Am I correct in assuming that this ASUS has no CPU, just a socket that'll accommodate a Yonah?

If so, life with my Mac Mini has indicated to me that a socket ("Socket M"?) that accomodates a Yonah can also accomodate a Merom-- i.e. a Core 2 Duo. Is this true for the ASUS too?

New Core 2 Duo CPUs-- just the CPU!-- in 2.33Ghz clock speed are around US$700, yikes! But still, a laptop with socketed CPU upgrade capability seems like just exactly the right thing for Linux Audio, provided Intel will continue develping new CPUs using this socket. i.e. when I start getting Xruns, I can just upgrade my CPU.

How easy is it to pry open an ASUS and "do stuff" to it? Compared to, say, VAIO's and ThinkPads-- both of which I've disassembled and reassembled many times--, and other models like Gateways and Micron's which I've also taken to bits.

So far from my limited experience, I'd have to say it's hard to beat the ThinkPads for servicability-- seems like they were designed for the user to take apart and put back together again. If ASUS's are similar, they seem to be much less expensive than ThinkPads, and so I'm very interested.

- -ken
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Received on Tue Mar 20 12:15:04 2007

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