2009/11/20 J. Roeleveld <jo...@antarean.org>: > On Sunday 15 November 2009 19:39:40 Mick wrote: >> I have been thinking of buying this laptop and was looking at the Gentoo >> Wiki which shows relatively good hardware compatibility, except for the >> radeon card which is now an older offering: >> >> http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Dell_Studio_XPS_16 >> >> The current spec on the UK Dell website shows 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 4670 (see >> below). >> ================================================================ >> PROCESSOR: Intel® Core™ i7 Processor 720QM (1.60Ghz, 6MB cache) >> LCD: Black Leather back cover : 15.6" (inch) Truelife 1080p Full HD WLED >> Edge to Edge Display >> MEMORY: 4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048] >> HARD DRIVE: 500GB (7,200rpm) Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive >> PRIMARY BATTERY: 9-cell 85Whr Lithium Ion battery >> OPTICAL DRIVE: Internal Blu-Ray ROM (Blu-Ray read, DVD and CD read & >> Write) >> Optical Drive >> GRAPHICS CARD: 1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 4670 graphics card >> WIRELESS CONNECTIVITY: Dell Wireless 1397 Mini Card (802.11 b/g) >> BLUETOOTH: Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module >> ================================================================ >> >> According to these links the RadeonHD driver is experimental: >> http://wiki.x.org/wiki/radeon >> http://wiki.x.org/wiki/radeonhd%3Aexperimental_3D >> >> Does anyone have experience with this driver, or better yet, this laptop? >> Shall I buy or shall I shy away from it? >> > > Most Dell-laptops actually work quite nicely with Linux, however, be aware > that DELL has issues with the harddrives they supply. > I've seen 6 different recent DELL-laptops with crashed harddrives in the past > 1.5 years. These laptops were handled carefully. > > Response from Dell was: "Sorry, we shipped a wrong batch...." > > I would suggest frequent backups of important files and/or the harddrive > swapped for a more reliable model.
Thanks guys - the hard drive story sounds scary! Was there a particular batch of a particular hard drive manufacturer that was suspect here? -- Regards, Mick
