RB W wrote:
I'm looking for some insight and/or advice in choosing between a
couple laptop systems. These are just the key factors for figuring out
Linux compatibility and with respect to using virtualization such as
Xen, KVM, etc..
From what I have been able to track down the Intel system should
"outperform" the AMD system by a little bit. Both systems feature
hardware virtualization of their type. Both systems can be expanded to
4GB of RAM. I looked for faster 7200RPM HD for both (size is different
but speed is more important I think for the intended purposes).
There is a L2 cache difference and from what I understand that is a
large reason for the difference between the Intel and AMD in
performance. Here are the comparison systems:
1.)
Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 2.00GHz 2M L2 Cache, 800Mhz Dual Core
2.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 1 DIMM (4GB Max)
120GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 7200RPM
Intel Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 (965GM)
2.)
AMD Turion 64 X2 TL- 60 2.00GHz 1M L2 Cache (2x512)
2.0GB, DDR2-667 SDRAM, 1 DIMM (4GB Max)
80GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 7200RPM
ATI Radeon X1270
If I want to go cheap and trim @$200 from this setup I could do the
following. Would this be a huge step down from the above two systems?
This CPU still has the Pacifica virtualization but slower HD and less
Max RAM.
3.)
AMD Turion 64 X2 TL-58 1.9GHz 1M L2 Cache (2x512)
2GB DDR2 (Not expandable)
160GB 5400RPM
ATI Radeon X1270
I did read about some delays in Linux drivers for the ATI video but
things will work under Linux with the proprietary fglrx driver. The
Intel X3100 video chip is a part of the 965GM apparently so it should
work if the rest of the Intel parts are included and it appears so.
Performance is going to be an issue if you intend to do much with
virtualization. Don't skimp on the hard drive, so that leaves out option
3. Depending on what virtual machines you will be running, the ability
to expand RAM to 4GB will be a plus. I run a single virtual machine at a
time with 1GB RAM in my host system and it performs adequately by giving
the M$ Windows virtual machine 512MB RAM. Linux virtual machines do fine
on 256MB RAM.
The video can also be a performance killer. The Intel solution uses
shared memory, which means memory access has to be divided up between
the graphics and the CPU which leads to contention. You don't specify if
the AMD solution with the Radeon X1270 has dedicated memory or not. If
you have dedicated memory for the video, you are going to get better
performance because you won't have memory contention.
If you need maximum Linux compatibility now and want only open source
software, I'd go with the Intel solution. If you don't mind using one of
the latest Linux distributions and the proprietary ATI driver, the AMD
solution sounds good. AMD, who now owns ATI, has released the specs for
their chips and full open source drivers should be available in a few
months. See
<http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=r500_glxgears&num=1>
for good news about this.
There are other things in the laptop that might give you problems.
Wireless is one of the big ones. There have also been problems with ACPI
and getting the laptop to hibernate, if you want that capability.
The only real way to tell which machine would be best for you would be
to try them out in real life. Any way you can rent one for a week or two
to try it out? Barring that, have you found any reviews where Linux is
specifically mentioned as having been installed and tested?
Gus
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