The Asus U50F, UL50VT, or Dell Inspiron 1545 for Lucid Lynx 10.4?

Having bought a Toshiba (AMD processor) that wouldn't work with Lucid Lynx (10.4), I did some research and am down to three laptops.

The Asus U50F (the awesome i3 architecture and it sounds like there may be a lot of compatibility issues as the chipset isn't fully supported yet)

The Asus UL50VT (slower CPU but superior video subsystem and GPU) - a Linux wiki states the webcam shows pictures upside down (no biggie) and the nvidia driver sometimes crashes (and might be fixed by now).

The Dell Inspiron 1545 (poor GPU and middle-of-the-road T4400 CPU) and it is certified for Ubuntu 9.10.

I use my MacBook Pro (mid-2009 17" model) for photo editing and web design...

What I would use the Ubuntu laptop for, from most-to-least order:
* Low-end MySQL Server (and database creation)
* web browsing
* C# development
* Watching streaming video
* Unreal Tournament 2004
* GLTron and a handful of Linux 3D games

I am heavily leaning toward the UL50VT despite the slower processor (if Turbo33 can be used to up the CPU to 1.7GHz then the contest is over )

If Adobe ever opens up Photoshop and Flash to Ubuntu, then that would be added to the list, though that's doubtful.

Thanks much!

 

Yes, turbo 33 will boost the cpu clock speed to 1.73ghz from the original 1.3ghz for ul50vt.

 

Cool! I know the UL50VT performs surprisingly well with the SU7300, but the o/c (I'd read) really makes a difference.

Is that integrated into the CPU, a BIOS function, or a windows driver?

Thx much!

 

The overclock is a windows software function on top of a bios function. It switches the FSB to 1066mhz through a click of the button on the laptop or a click in software. You can also overclock it with a program called setfsb which fan bring the laptop close to 2.0ghz.

 

I was under the impression that using any of the Asus ULxxVt series with Linux locks you into the G 210M and does not allow you to use switchable graphics.

 

Thx for the info! While I wouldn't need it for Linux as much, the feature would come in handy -- I'll see what exists for Linux, hopefully SetFSB has a Linux version as well.

Cool. I bought the Asus ul50vt for the nVidia chipset in mind... I know with Windows the video card of choice can be set, but Linux is a different beastie to be sure...

 

I see that you've chosen the UL50VT. If you are specifically looking for good Linux support, the U50F, or 1545, might have provided less frustration around GPU driver support. It doesn't look like there's a good Linux solution to laptop switchable graphics yet, (or that manufacturers care about Linux support for switchable graphics architectures). You can see that in threads like this one, and this one, dealing with the Alienware M17x. Additionally, I recently switched to ATI enabled laptops, because nVidia seems to be moving in a less than positive direction with their Linux support;

NVIDIA Drops Their Open-Source Driver, Refers Users To VESA Driver

X Devs Drop NVIDIA Auto-Config Support

Furthermore as nVidia looks to increase switchable graphics functionality in laptops, with their Optimus technology, the news for Linux doesn't look too good. (I know that the specs don't state that the UL50VT has the Optimus architecture, it's just bad news to see nVidia doing this.)It started with this question, which was originally posted by ALLurGroceries, in this thread, here;

NVIDIA's Optimus: Will It Come To Linux?

and then apparently the answer;
Optimus support for Linux

and then apparently the reason;
Re: [Hybrid-graphics-linux] NVidia Optimus and Asus U30JC

Finally there's been plenty of desire to build a SetFSB tool for Linux, like this thread, but not much in the way of actual tools.

Good Luck..

 

Thanks much for all the info! Especially re: nVidia, which is a depressing development. nVidia + Linux = heaven for me a few years ago, before going to a Mac...

Which laptops do you use?

I still have the UL50VT unboxed, new. I might be turning it. Your post suggests I'd be far better off with the U50F. If not for the Dell, but I've read their Inspirons are not quite, um, inspirational when it comes to hardware support... even if they are fully Ubuntu-certified...

I'll look up BB's other model offerings before I go and make a refund or exchange. The last I read, Ubuntu 10.4 Beta was booting on i3 systems (9.10 would not boot - [ubuntu] new Asus Laptop won't run linux U50F intel i3 - Ubuntu Forums and [ubuntu] Ubuntu Video not working with Core i3-300m - Ubuntu Forums. For the latter link, "Lucid beta 1" was said to boot successfully.)

 

I'm using the Asus N81Vp, (ATI 4670), and G73Jh, (ATI 5870), and it's definitely a struggle to get the right ATI GPU driver configured for each. By contrast my last nVidia laptop was dead easy to configure the Linux GPU driver. However with both an open source, (radeon), and closed source, proprietary, (fglrx), driver program, I have faith that ATI will get their Linux driver act together. I also think that Intel has a good model Linux driver support program around their GPUs, so what it really boils down to is what you need.

If you need advanced GPU features under Linux today, your best bet is likely nVidia. If you need great Linux, open source support, and you don't mind a less powerful GPU, (although much better battery life), then Intel is a great choice. And if you want to take a chance that an advanced GPU architecture will get their Linux driver program together in the future, then ATI is a good choice.

I think that the latest Ubuntu, (along with most distros that feature a current 2.6.33+ kernel), will work best with the new i3/i5/i7 Intel architectures, so I wouldn't worry too much about getting Linux support for these new laptop chipsets. The bigger question is to what degree Linux support is available for any dual GPU designed laptop. I know that the Linux community can usually figure out a way to make things work. I guess we'll see how both the Linux community, as well as the laptop, and GPU, manufacturers respond to this.

I would hate for your to return a laptop that really fit your needs. I just wanted to let you know that there's been some frustration in this area of Linux support, already. You should probably choose something that solves the majority of your needs today, (even if it's the laptop you've already purchased), and then stay tuned for things coming in the future.

Good Luck..

 

Thanks again for your help!

The laptop I bought (HP G2-144DX) has a faulty sound system (headphones work, main speakers don't, in Ubuntu and Windows) so it'll be exchanged. Not for another HP... I know of the Asus G73Jh, which is too pricey, but I'll look at the N81Vp as well...

I also did return the Asus UL50VT as the Su7300 CPU would be too slow, despite the dedicated GPU. I won't be using Windows often enough to really make use of Photoshop. I weighed my priorities and needs, and a faster CPU means more to me than a dedicated GPU... so if I don't get the N81VP, I'll likely get a comparable i3 with the Intel GMA HD integrated video. Do I risk getting another HP G2-144DX, of course... Not a bad model for the price at all, if it wasn't for the speaker problem... well, their setup screens for Windows 7 were appallingly slow, but that's Windows for ya...