Hey there!

SO my Dell XPS M1730 died last weekend and I am left with no computer... Looking for a rather quick replacement, I have purchased a toshiba L755D-04V with possibility to return it within 2 weeks for full refund if Im not satisfied with it.

Basically, the machine will be used (except to replace my older laptop) to:

Play 1080p movies
Run picture/image, animation and video programs such as Inkscape, Gimp, Blender, Cinerella, Avidemux, etc
Run openoffice & libreoffice
Run math software such as GNU Octave & R (statistics)
COmpile my own packages (I install everything from source)
Play MP3 & browse the web.

The machine will run Slackware64.

No gaming at all (ok maybe Mahjong.. but I want something decently fast and responsive, especially when I have 10+ Firefox tabs or Im playing a 1080p movie & do something else at the same time...

This machine has the following hardware specs:

Processor Type AMD Sabine Quad-Core Mobile A8-3520M
Processor Cores 4
Processor Speed 1.6 GHz
Processor Cache 4 MB L2
Hard Drive Capacity 750 GB
Hard Drive Speed 5400 rpm
RAM Size 8 GB
RAM Type DDR3 SDRAM
RAM Speed 1333 MHz
RAM Slots 2 (0 Available)
Graphics Chipset AMD Radeon HD 6620G Discrete-Class
Video Memory Configuration AMD Radeon Dual Graphics
Dedicated Video Memory Size AMD Radeon HD 6470M; Dedicated 1GB DDR3


I "think" this laptop for a $650 price tag has decent hardware specs but so far I havent been satisfied with the 1080p playback. I installed the latest catalyst driver from ATI (12.2) with Driver version 8.95-120214a-134397C-ATI (2D driver version 8.95.3) but again, I am experiencing a CPU usage rather high with 2 cores averaging 70%.... The movie is also sluggish and there is noticeable desync between audio & video...

So at this point, I am really clueless and I wonder what to do:

Return it for refund and re-use the money to build a machine with newegg parts

Keep it and fix whatever has to be fixed to get good performance..

What are your thoughts? I must admit I have a slight preference for a laptop for mobility, but I am *not* ready to sacrifice my requirements (especially movie playback) for mobility. Has video playback got better with ATI in Linux? last time I built a computer it was my HTPC and I remember I first went for an ATI HD6500 (if I remember correctly) but later changed for a GeForce GT430 because playback was not satisfactory...

Thanks!!!!

a 1.6Gb cpu & yet has 8Gb RAM ??
strange - but still very usable H/W.

so - partition that 750GB hdd a little better than - as supplied
- put a more stable O/S as the 'main O/S'
- use Vbox or a multi_boot O/S - to run "that other O/S" - or more 'nix O/Ss.

Yeah a 1.6ghz CPU and 8gb ram... odd but ram is cheap these days ..

Thanks for replying, but im not sure to understand your comments.

I've already partitioned the hdd differently with slackware as the main os. Im not into dual boot stuff. I will run a virtual box windows 7 machine (came with the laptop so might as well keep it) but I dont see the relation with the issues I have explained on my first post., that is, poor video playback.

Im not going to reboot into winblows every time I want to watch a movie! Nonsense ..

The folks at toms hardware reported that 1080p playback was very good /flawless on the hardware this laptop comes with. Of course it's in windows. Does it mean that 1080p playback in Linux still doesn't work and is more or less a desperate cause??

Anybody with similar (or better identical ) hardware and flawlessly playing 1080 content in Linux? ??

Then there is this machine that I could very well just trade the toshiba laptop for.. Its a Lenovo V570 with these specs:

In a nutshell, its pretty much the same machine but the major differences being:

Dual core instead of quad core
i5-2450M instead of A8-3520M
CPU speed of 2.5GHz instead of 1.6GHz
GPU is Geforce GT525M instead of HD6470M
Gigabit LAN instead of 10/100

I have a hard time figuring out if a trade for the toshiba against the lenovo is a good move... The fact that it has a Geforce card is good, but the Dual core instead of Quad core makes me wonder if my experience will suffer from that... Higher clock rate but 2 cores less... Will I see a major difference?

The Geforce sure has CUDA which possibly can help, and most of all, it supports vdpau so 1080p playback *should* be very good.

Its really a GPU & CPU decision...

Anybody can provide feedback?
Thanks

A8-3520M is 1.6GHz, but runs 2.5GHz turbo.
i5-2450M is 2.5GHz, runs 3.1GHz turbo.

The i5-2450M would be faster in most situations.

AMD Radeon Dual Graphics isnt as slick with linux as it is with Win7. The i5-XXXXM + GT525M setup could be optimus. Optimus can sometimes be made to work under linux (with ironhide, bumblebee, etc.) but has no offical support under linux so you cant be sure if it will work until you try it.

There is XvBA, the AMD version of VDPAU. Its been messy, and has had parts come and go over the last few years. I have no idea how it is under Slackware64. Worth having a look to see what info you can find.

What will the optimus technology help with? It will help with battery life which i could care less (il use the laptop as a desktop replacement so it will be plugged in ) but performance wise, it won't help at all ..

Reading about it in come to realize that its a technology that would allow switching between the integrated gpu and the dedicated gpu.. problem is, its not very well supported at all in Linux (nvidia even stating they have no plans to support Linux) and numerous reports indicating the technology doesn't work half of the time defaulting the laptop to the integrated chip and rendering the dedicated gpu nearly useless ...


Another stupid technology that works like s*****… the simpler the better.

Why not just buy a desktop? You should be able to get more machine for your money with desktops, and you dont have to worry about Optimus, or Radeon dual graphics....

Optimus under windwos isnt switching technology. At least some of the optimus under linux pojects are switching.

As fro how well optius laptops will work with linux, its almost impossible to say. There are lots of 'doesnt work for me' reports, but optimus isnt exactly userfriendly to set up with liux. IMO at least some of those 'doesnt work' reports will be due to user errors.

I have been debating for a few days now if i should just build a desktop... for 700$ I can get a decent machine but why I keep bouncing back between the desktop and laptop is because of the random moment ill be traveling and want my computer with me... also to use around the house (living room, upstairs, outside ..)..

I also agree with you about the optimus technology .. often in Linux its a user problem ..

There is a thread started by user R3VOLV3R on this forum regarding the Lenovo v570 laptop.. he and I are (within a few details ) in the exact same situation.
I sent him an email and posted on his thread to ask him about his feedback and experience with the v570 under slackware ..

Lets see what he has to say.

If the v570 isn't great, desktop it is!