The cost was 986 UK pounds........Oops! Regards Sid. Sid Boyce wrote:
Dylan wrote:
Hi
I'm looking to buy a laptop, and seeing as Athlon64 units are equivalently priced to P4 units with essentially equivalent other spec. I'm seriously considering one...
Timely post, I received an Acer 1501LCe from RL Supplies Ltd. in Watford on Monday. Athlon 3000+, 512M DDR 333, 64M radeon, 15" XSGA LCD (1400x1050 resolution) 3D video - S-video output, 10/100/1000 Broadcom 5788 NIC (using bcm5700 module), DVD/CD-RW, AC97 audio + dual speakers, Firewire port, IRDA, 2 PCMCIA slots, Intel 537 winmodem, 40G HD and 4 USB 2.0 ports. All for 968 UK pounds including delivery and XP Home Ediotion which I blew away within 5 minutes of it coming out of the box.
As I understand it, I can install the 32bit edition and the processor will run as if it was a 32bit chip.
That's correct, but I installed SuSE 9.0 Pro x86_64 by ftp, no issues there except it didn't install things like make by default, I did a YOU update to grab all the other stuff I needed.
I have some general queries about the x86-64 edition though:
Do all apps have to be compiled 64bit as well, or do 32bit packages function as normal (albeit presumably without the benefits.)
You get a mix, but most things are compiled as 64-bit in 9.0 x86_64. 32-bit apps are supposed to run at about the equivalent for a P4.
If h/ware has 32bit binary-only modules (nvidia for example) can they be used? Or would kernel modules need to be 64bit also?
NVidia do a 64-bit driver if you get one with their video. Here's the rub, trying to compile slmodem which has a proprietary 32-bit module, it does not build, it complains it's incompatible. The intel 537 driver likewise has a 32-bit module, so no go there either, but my PCMCIA Psion 56K fax/modem gets detected. I tried compiling the latest cdrtools and it complained about x86_64 stuff missing, so it seems some packages have to be 64-bit aware.
Cheers Dylan
I am very pleased with this laptop and it's speedy. Regards Sid.
-- Sid Boyce .... Hamradio G3VBV and keen Flyer Linux Only Shop.