At 01:09 PM 3/30/2006 +0200, Hans du Plooy wrote:
On Wed, 2006-03-29 at 19:56 -0500, Doug McGarrett wrote:
WARNING: It comes with Windows 98. That is almost a guarantee that it doesn't have the horsepower to run Windows XP, and by logical extension, the latest versions of Linux.
The other clues are, Pentium III, speed of 1.3 GHz, and only 128 GB RAM.
This sounds like an Evo m600 or Armada m700. They are really good notebooks, with more than enough horsepower for WinXP or SUSE 10. I ran both without any issues on a 1Ghz m700 with 256mb RAM. It is a very solid book, with very strong performance. All the onboard hardware works in linux, even the (win)modem is supported in SUSE out of the box.
The only hassle was that the maximum memory on it is 576MB. It has 64MB onboard, and two slots that can each take up to a 256MB dimm, PC100. The compaq modules are quite expensive, so are the certified_for_this_notebook modules from third party manufacturers. Generic modules *don't* work - the notebook picks them up but serious corruption follows if you try to boot.
If you don't need a lot of memory, or you're willing to spend the money, this notebook will last you a while. The other advantage is, at least with the m700, I replaced the battery with a cheap-o chinese one, and ended up getting more than five hours of battery life...
Hans
/snip/ OK, I seem to be outvoted, altho in my experience, competitive computers from "professional" computer sales organizations always show the slower computers running an older OS, and I suspect that the reason is as I have stated. However: this computer appears on P 7 of the Heartland America catalog for April 2006, and sells for $499.99. It's item number D4-79615. Their website is www.heartlandamerica.com Phone number is 1-800-229-2901. Maybe they can tell you the model if you call. They take Visa, MC, Discover, and Amex. Note that for computers and related products there is only a 7-day satisfaction guarantee return policy, so if you try it out and it won't hack the task, you'd better be quick about getting an RMA. I couldn't justify a laptop for myself in any case, even tho they're "cool," but if somebody springs for this, I'd be interested in hearing your report. --doug -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.1.385 / Virus Database: 268.3.3/296 - Release Date: 3/29/2006