Hi,

Yesterday I went to the Bangkok ICT expo

http://www.reedtradex.co.th/bangkoki...about_show.htm

and came accross a laptop with the following specs in a clearance sale from supreme computer Supreme G320 Notebook (www.supreme.co.th) :

CPU Mobile C3 1.0 GHz
128 MB SO-DIMM RAM
30gb hdd
1.4 mb fdd
14.1" TFT screen
Accelerator 3D AGP onboard
24X cd-rom
Audio AC'97 Codec onboard
USB port 4 usb
Speaker
12 function keyboard (?)
Linux*
56Kbps internal fax/modem
Lan 10/100

I am in the market for something that will do basic WP, surfing, solitaire etc and this machine is going for approx 500US$, which is a good price for notebooks here even if a little low on the spec side.

I have three questions for those in the know,

1) I had never heard of VIA C3 processors until yesterday but after a little googling it seems they are claimed to be very power efficient, does anybody have experience of this? (and any Slackware related info too)

2) Since the machine has NO pcmcia/bluetooth/wireless only USB does anybody know if I will run into problems trying to use USB wireless mouse (I hate touchpads), a bluetooth dongle etc etc ?

3) I think it is a clone/re-brand and it seems that this model has disappeared from Supreme's website, any idea what it is a clone of? (I know that is a longshot)


Thanks for any input,

mark

* the "linux" was a Thai-ised version of RH9 called Linux TLE if anybody is interested but it seemed that the touchpad etc was all configured OK, I didn't have too much time to play but dmesg and syslog looked OK at first glance

Umm. bump, anybody know about C3 processors etc

They're fine, not powerful, but ok for light use.

Fedora Core 2 won't boot on C3 processors for some reason discussed in Buzilla (and fixed IIRC) - but other distros should be fine.

I've seen the laptop you're talking (or something very similar) about on ebuyer.com, check the price there.

Im not sure but arent the C3 cpu's the same as the old Cyrix cpu's just more up to date etc,
if so then they are ok for what you want to do, just dont go in for some heavy programming /gaming etc

Try this link for the laptop,, is it the same?
http://www.ecsusa.com/products/g320.html

I don't have any direct experience with the VIA C3. They're also used on mini/nano-ITX boards, which have been on my wishlist for some time, because they can be case-modded into anything.

On the VIA website, there are articles on using Linux with VIA C3 boards, and there is a Linux forum.

Also, an article on using VIA C3 with Debian suggests that:

"Although VIA C3 is i686 compliant, some software packages use non-i686 compliant instructions (like cmov) in their i686 distributions. Examples for this is libcrypto and libssl.
You should compile and use a i586/MMX compliant kernel for VIA C3. When using apt-get and install on some packages like libcrypto and libssl, you can have problems running them."

Since Slackware by default uses i486 compiled software and kernel, there shouldn't be problems.

Can't comment on the rest of your notebook components, however.

You should compile and use a i586/MMX compliant kernel for VIA C3

The kernel can be compiled specifically for VIA C3 processors. The platform for an embedded project I'm working on uses the C3 and that is how I've compiled the kernel it runs.

Thanks TBP, that is indeed the machine, and also thanks spurious for the good links.

cheers
mark

I think the machine you mentioned, was a Ecs notebook with a Supreme sticker on it.
Here's a link for the original noteebook:
http://www.ecs.com.tw/ECSWeb/Product...uID=55&LanID=0
This one has a 1200 Mhz via c3 built-in though(it's still not a speed demon), so it might the a
newer version.

Here's a test of a mini-itx mainboard with the same chips
http://www.mini-itx.com/reviews/mii12000/?page=1 that might give a hint to how the notebook
performs