I would appreciate some suggestion by competent experts at chhosing a laptop tha meets my needs.Since I run and develop Monte Carlo simulations that are CPU-intensive,
I need the foollowing features:

2GB RAM
the FASTEST processor and clock
at least 80GB internal hard-disk
PCIMIA modem
optical cordless mouse
high-resolution screen
SuSE 9.2 or Debian
wireless ethernet (if it is not too expensive)

I've been given the following websites to choose from:

linuxcertified.com/linux_laptops.html

laclinux.com/en/Laptop

laclinux.com/en/Laptop

What about this 64-bit architecture available with LC2464
64-Bit Linux Laptop? Shouldn't it be very fast ?
Will I be ablle to run application developed on 32-bit architecture ?
I feel at a loss.

Thank you in advance.

Why develop these Monte Carlo applications and run them on a laptop?

Hi
I have no idea what Monte Carlo aplications are, but try this site ( http://www.powernotebooks.com/ ) they have some great notebooks and a active Linux comunity.
Hope this is of use.
Jim

WoW... thats some pretty hot demands. Why do you need this is a laptop you do know that for all the shizzle you want your gonna spend over 5k US. For that amount of cash I'd go with a lite portabox PC if you need the portability... Get a mobile batt if you need mobility... and a nice spanky LCD. All in all it should be cheeper and faster then any laptop you can get... PLUS you can go way more easily with a A64.

I'm not sure if that linux distro runs well with the 64bit archetecture of linux... Unfortunatly the 64bit Linux system was developed off a ONIX/UNIX OS which runs Intel's Itanium 64 CPU's. SO you might even have to go that route, it you really need the cpu headroom.


NOTE: If CPU clock speed is the main concern for a heavy graphic number crunch app... go with a desktop and the fastest CPU you can get in the class. Then Spend some more cash and get a Phase Changin system for cooling. Then overclock the hell outa the CPU and hope to god linux can keep up .

But if mobility is your main concern you'll have to accept that your gonna pay way more for less... and that your upgrade options in the future are slim to none.


Hope this helps a little bit.


- NeRMaTriX

First of all I'd like to thank all members who are helping me through a laptop choice.
Since my previous message gave rise to some obvious remarks I feel I have to provide some more details.
Monte Carlo simulations are very CPU-intensive event-driven programs. They emulate stochastic processes. To get good statistical results they have to handle bilions of events. The ideal computational environment for MC simulations are super-computers (if they can run on top of MPI or VPM).
I regularly run "production" long simulations on a 64-node Linux computers cluster. Whereas I use my home
mini-tower desktop (running SuSE) for development.
So why a laptop ? ... Because I'll be away from the laboratory for a month to visit my family. I'll have to keep working anyway. In the past years I rented a desktop computer for the period I spent at my parents'.
But the rental cost and the time it takes to recreate the working environment (from experience) make me think that a good laptop (if is really good) would presumably save my time and energy. I could plug it in and start working right away locally for development (if it is not slow) and connect to the lab computers cluster for launching big simulations ...
By the way ... my father has a modern last generation desktop running (sigh ...) Windows.
I reject Windows. I firmy believe it's not the right platform for developing scientific s/w..

Ok well the absolute fastest processor out there today is the Pentium Xeon/Opteron 64 Processors from Intel. Second is the Athlon 64 FX-51. Now your looking with the Xeon to spend nearly 900 on the CPU alone.

THE BIG NEGATIVE with the Xeon is you will need to get a hardware weenie to custom rig a laptop for you to run it... because no laptops today have the proper mobo/slots for a Xeon.

The Athlon 64 and FX-51 are both supported on mobos that have made way to laptops. You can get the clocked down version of the Athlon 64 for about 500bucks in a 64M or mobile model... which is better on batt... but it sounds like you want killer performance so then you want to go with the flagship FX-51.


Now I've read that the Athlon 64's are supported under SuSE 9.2 and you can run almost everything, but with the majority of apps still based in 32bit land... the only increase you get is pure clock time. So MHZ...

If you need a smoking hot laptop box... and money is NOT an issue... definatly check out customizing something for yourself... You can get a tech to put it together for about 500 bucks labor and you'll have a bitchin rig...

Start out at Asus.com and check out the laptop chassis they have for sale. Pick the toughest one with the mobo for a Athlon 64 FX-51 and a good powerful GPU (probably a ATI 9600+ chip with 128mb vram). Then go grab 2 gigs of ram from Crucial, a spanky 5400RMP or 7200RMP 16mb Cache HD from Hitatchi/IBM, CD/DVD from wherever and take it to the guy to build. Make sure he's reputable and knows his stuff... then get a warrenty for a year on it parts and labor and U should be good to go.



FYI... This method is WAY EXPENSIVE...


You really need to decide what is the most important factor in this. Is it:

A) POWER- if it is then go somewhere else cause laptops are just to restricting....
B) PORTABILITY- if so then you can go with a preconfig from someone like Sager... they have good fast machines...
C) 64bit Processor- if this is the major buying factor... do switch for a desktop. because 64bit on a laptop is insanity... don't expect to pull your AC off ur laptop cuz you won't have time to put her to standby before it shuts it's self off...
D) PRICE- because eventually it all comes down to dollers... What you have to spend and what deals you can work out.

But in the end it comes down to 3 topics with laptops:

PERFORMANCE, PORTABILITY, AND PRICE.

DECIDE THE ORDER OF IMPORTANCE BEFORE YOU TRY TO GET ANY HELP BECAUSE OTHERWISE WE JUST THROW USELESS INFO AND OPINIONS AT YOU.

Hope this helps.



- NeRMaTriX

I'm personally keen on small and light laptops. The kind of laptop you're asking for is going to a) cost a bomb and b) weigh a ton.

When you're on vacation, will you have a net connection? If you do, you could always SSH back to your work machines. No laptop is going to be able to compete with a 64bit cluster, and if you can SSH back and forward X windows from the cluster, it'll be as if you are working from one.

My recommendation is if you have access to the net while being away, just SSH back to your work machines.

My thoughts exactly. You can use a not-so-great laptop then. Unfortunately he mentioned a PCMCIA modem, which makes me think he doesn't have broadband access, in which case X over ssh might be kind of slow.

You could also just install linux on the windows machine and remove it when you leave.