On 31/03/2013 00:20, Walter Dnes wrote: > On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 05:39:15PM +0000, Stroller wrote >> >> Decide whether or not you need a new PC and make a new post - >> UEFI/secureboot is irrelevant to poor YouTube performance. > > I may not have been as clear as I wanted to be. With the increase in > my download speed, the bottleneck to Youtube/etc performance is now my > PC. I *HAVE* decided to replace it. The only question is with what. > > As per the subject line, I'm asking if current Dells have any > showstoppers for Gentoo. If not, I'll probably go with a Dell. My > usage patterns may be different from yours, but Dells have lasted more > years for me than other brands or custom-built machines. >
I don't know what your budget is, but if you can afford a Precision, buy a Precision. I'll give you some numbers. We are 1600 staff in the company, more than half are entitled to laptops. Low level staff are "encouraged" to get HPs and mid-level Dell's. More senior staff can basically get any model they want up to a maximum price (which is very generous). Two models are popular: Precision M4700 - over 50 bought so far Whatever Apple thingie Apple sells today The procurement guy won't tell me failure numbers for Apple (he's embarrassed). For the Dells, zero maintenance callouts for failure. To break them, you have to drop them or hit them or stand on them to break them. This one of mine is an M4600, the previous model. It's 15 months old and has given me zero issues just like the 5 Dells before it in a row :-) Same for the wife's (she got one too) The few fellows that got the 17" M6700 range reckon it is actually too big and heavy, stick with the 15" models. Gentoo installs on this one just fine, I use it in BIOS mode, but UEFI works great. I switched back simply because I don't fully grok UEFI and BIOS is familiar ground. All the other Linux users report the same results, including those who bought the XPS range. Two tips though: Don't upsize a Precision to an optical slot drive, stick with the standard tray (dodgy discs stick inside and cause woes). Get the larger 9 cell battery, the 6 cell sucks on battery life -- Alan McKinnon alan.mckin...@gmail.com