dv8320ca software raid Linux ?

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10076838&catid=20354#

Core duo 1.6
1G
160GB (2 x 80GB, 5400 rpm)
WXGA+ (1440 x something)

$1400 CDN

What's interesting here is the 2 x 80GB dual drive configuration.

I don't give one single ayota about windoze. I prefer to not even boot it once, and the moment I unpack it I'll insert Redhat Fedora Core 5, and boot *it*, and then install everything.

Will I see 2 drives? Will raid 0 through software MD raid work?
Will I see a close to double performance through 'hdparm /dev/md/' ?

 

It ought to work, though remember that your root partition can't be striped. You could put a, say, 20GB / partition on the first drive and your swap and /var partitions on the first 20GB of the second drive, striping the remaining space.

I strongly advise buying the dv9000z instead of the dv8000 series. That'll get you a 64-bit Turion X2 CPU and nVidia chipset and GPU, all of which ought to be very Linux friendly. I've been running 64-bit Fedora for years (no dv9000z though, yet). The dv8000z series would work too but it has a single core Turion and shared-memory ATI GPU. Cheap though. The dv9000z series should hit retail within the next few weeks (I hope).

 

The ATI drivers aren't that bad anymore (if you use the vendor ones).

As for Nvidia Chipset, I was rather disappointed with their NForce4 boards not supporting NCQ under Linux so I'd advise against assuming NVidia would have good support in of itself.

 

> It ought to work, though remember that your root partition can't be striped.

That's ok. As long as /usr, /home, and swap is raid0'able.

> I strongly advise buying the dv9000z instead of the dv8000 series.

The thing is though - WHERE to buy? I'm at the mercy of FutureShop, BestBuy (Canada), Dell online, Lenovo online. I don't know where else to buy.

The HP one is a variant of the dv8000 one, the dv8320ca, which gives you a core duo 1.6.

This other one you're mentioning, the one with the amd turion x2, I don't know. I can't seem to get a handle on this x2 chip. The benchmarks, including the one on notebookreview are off I think.
I'm just not buying the fact that the x2 'd be twice as slow as a core duo. It *has* to be somewhat similar - and that's not what the benchmarks are showing. I suspect that a lot of benchmarks right now incorrectly choose the number of threads they use, resulting in numbers that are way off.

> The dv9000z series should hit retail within the next few weeks (I hope).

At what price? Probably a lot more than $1400 CDN...

 

Ah, woe be the geeks on the wrong side of the Maple Curtain...

I'm not sure what kind of lag there is between HP notebooks showing up at USA retail and Canada. I would expect them to be more than $1400 CDN, but it depends on what configurations are offered. I'm not sure when they'll hit Best Buy here.

Benchmarks tend to be mixed, TX2 vs. Duo:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/08/22/amd_dual_core_laptops_have_arrived/page12.html
Tom's tends to be biased in favor of Intel, thus their conclusion, but the data shows AMD winning quite a few benchmark battles. A lot of it comes down to brand preference and how much you want AMD64 capability. Mobile is Intel's last stronghold so their marketing machine is going to defend it tooth and nail.

 

http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=0926INGFS10076838&catid=20354

 

Looks like HP has unsolvable keyboard and bad touchpad problem. After reading about HP's arrogant a-hole of a tech support, it is unlikely I will buy the HP.

 

Since I just bought one, I'm interested to learn what issue should I look for with regard to keyboard/touchpad? I know the touchpad is a big sluggish even set to full speed, other than that.. The laptop comes with a Go7600 instead of a 7400, and that's quite an added value

-nyt

Edit: I've ready most of 35 pages of the keyboard issue thread.. finger crossed, everything's fine.