[GTALUG] Thinkpad choices today?

D. Hugh Redelmeier hugh at mimosa.com
Fri Nov 14 22:41:25 UTC 2014


| From: Giles Orr <gilesorr at gmail.com>

| On 14 November 2014 14:54, Daniel Wayne Armstrong
| <daniel at circuidipity.com> wrote:

| > Second the C720 Chromebook as a cheap and cheerful Linux laptop. I replaced
| > Chrome OS with Lubuntu 14.04. My install notes (with Synaptic config):
| >
| > http://www.circuidipity.com/c720-lubuntubook.html

Thanks!  I'm about to embark on this.

Can I install with developer mode and then, when I'm happy, THEN do the 
write protect screw thing?  Or would that require installing a second 
time?

| > Bit hard to find on sale (at a reasonable price) in Canada... though 
| > Newegg and Tigerdirect had some refurbished units on sale a few weeks 
| > back for $170CDN.

Right.  I bought ours from this sale at TD, with a $20 off coupon to
boot.  Driven by the bargain!

Otherwise, the C720 is getting a little long in the tooth.  There is
probably a better choice at regular prices.

| I was going to second the C720 comment, but I'm reduced to third
| because Daniel beat me to it.  I have the same Chromebook he does (I
| think mine has a bigger SSD than his, but they're otherwise
| identical), and its been lovely.

The bigger SSD sounds good.  I imagine 16G is a bit tight.  A 64G m.2
SSD seems to be $75 so I'm intending to try to do without.

| My experience with the Atoms has been that my 2010 Atom-based netbook
| makes my 2005 Pentium-M laptop look like an absolute speed demon.  I
| really, really don't like the Atom.

I don't know if I believe these benchmarks, but here goes.
Notice how the original Atoms were way slower than current ones.
Also, the video controllers are now OK and supported by Linux.

Passmark CPU Mark from cpubenchmark.net:

Atom N270 @ 1.6GHz 306	[in early netbooks]
AMD C50 @ 1.0GHz 461	[in my netbook]
Athlon 64 Processor 3200+ @ 2.2GHz 496	[in my old old desktop]
AMD E350 @ 1.6GHz 682	[in Scott's notebook]
Atom D525 @ 1.8GHz 697	[in some later netbooks]
C2d L7300 @ 1.4GHz 822	[in my ThinkPad x61t]
Celeron N2815 @ 1.86GHz 891	[in Asus X200MA-US01T-BL netbook]
Atom Z3745D @ 1.33GHz 984	[in Asus x205]
Celeron 2995u @ 1.4Ghz 1519<-different source	[in chromebook c720]
C2q Q6600 @ 2.4GHz 2989	[in my old desktop]
i3-3110m @ 2.4GHx 3062	[in my T530]
i5-4200u @ 1.6GHz 3294	[in Yoga 2 Pro]
i7-4770 @ 3.4GHz 9909	[in my current desktop]


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