[uk.d-i-y because there are just as many people there who might have an
opinion on this]


What would you choose:

Dell E6440, i5-5310M with Radeon HD8690M graphics but only 802.11a/b/g/n
WIFI

or

Dell E7740, i5-4310U with Intel HD 4400 Haswell graphics with
802.11a/b/g/n/ac WIFI


And does anyone know if the 256GB SSD MiniCard disk option is any good?[1]

Any random thoughts?

BTW - Lenovo have stopped offering a "build your own" custom buy and the
T series trackpads have gone down the pan according to reviews. So no
more Lenovo.

Why Dell? Well I can get a decent academic discount as Dell supply my
uni. And I quite like SWMBOs E6420 - at least it's form factor.

====

Basically, my old Lenovo T410i is giving up slowly. My "absolutes" a

1 - 8-16GB RAM
2 - Medium CPU (i7 seems not much better than i5)
3 - Graphics that x.org can manage 3D for (eg GoogleEarth) plus VMware
player needs to manage 3D support for guests.

4 - 500GB "spinning rust" HDD PLUS
256GB (ish) SDD for OS+home+VMWare-disks

5 - 802.11ac (I am going "ac" at home)

6 - 14-15 inch and vert res of 900 min. No smaller screen size and no
bigger as it makes me unpopular on the train!

Works with linux
HDMI second screen

====

The only official Dell way to get the HDD options is an internal SSD
MiniCard and a media bay mounted 500GB HDD

Personally I'd prefer to get a 500GB internal spinning HDD and buy a
generic mediabay adaptor (NewModus prob - cannot find a Dell part) and
stick a SanDisk Extreme II in as I know and trust these.


No 802.11ac is annoying but not a disaster as I *could* use a USB dongle....

On 02/09/14 18:42, Tim Watts wrote:
[uk.d-i-y because there are just as many people there who might have an
opinion on this]


What would you choose:

Dell E6440, i5-5310M with Radeon HD8690M graphics but only 802.11a/b/g/n
WIFI

or

Dell E7740, i5-4310U with Intel HD 4400 Haswell graphics with
802.11a/b/g/n/ac WIFI


And does anyone know if the 256GB SSD MiniCard disk option is any good?[1]

Any random thoughts?

BTW - Lenovo have stopped offering a "build your own" custom buy and the
T series trackpads have gone down the pan according to reviews. So no
more Lenovo.

Why Dell? Well I can get a decent academic discount as Dell supply my
uni. And I quite like SWMBOs E6420 - at least it's form factor.

====

Basically, my old Lenovo T410i is giving up slowly. My "absolutes" a

1 - 8-16GB RAM
2 - Medium CPU (i7 seems not much better than i5)
3 - Graphics that x.org can manage 3D for (eg GoogleEarth) plus VMware
player needs to manage 3D support for guests.

4 - 500GB "spinning rust" HDD PLUS
256GB (ish) SDD for OS+home+VMWare-disks

5 - 802.11ac (I am going "ac" at home)

6 - 14-15 inch and vert res of 900 min. No smaller screen size and no
bigger as it makes me unpopular on the train!

Works with linux
HDMI second screen

====

The only official Dell way to get the HDD options is an internal SSD
MiniCard and a media bay mounted 500GB HDD

Personally I'd prefer to get a 500GB internal spinning HDD and buy a
generic mediabay adaptor (NewModus prob - cannot find a Dell part) and
stick a SanDisk Extreme II in as I know and trust these.


No 802.11ac is annoying but not a disaster as I *could* use a USB
dongle....



I got a 'free' PC from my supplier because it was scrap (onbaord
networking didn't work) . Its a thunderingly good machine running linux
(Mint 17). With a separate ethernet card (also scrap) added to it..

Even gotta win XP license on it



--
Everything you read in newspapers is absolutely true, except for the
rare story of which you happen to have first-hand knowledge. €“ Erwin Knoll

On Tue, 02 Sep 2014 18:42:11 +0100, Tim Watts wrote:

[uk.d-i-y because there are just as many people there who might have an
opinion on this]


What would you choose:

Dell E6440, i5-5310M with Radeon HD8690M graphics but only 802.11a/b/g/n
WIFI

or

Dell E7740, i5-4310U with Intel HD 4400 Haswell graphics with
802.11a/b/g/n/ac WIFI



My preference would be the Intel graphics machine. The Intel graphics is
very well supported.

On 02/09/2014 19:03, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

I got a 'free' PC from my supplier because it was scrap (onbaord
networking didn't work) .


Someone stole the magnetics?

On 02/09/14 20:22, ray carter wrote:
On Tue, 02 Sep 2014 18:42:11 +0100, Tim Watts wrote:

[uk.d-i-y because there are just as many people there who might have an
opinion on this]


What would you choose:

Dell E6440, i5-5310M with Radeon HD8690M graphics but only 802.11a/b/g/n
WIFI

or

Dell E7740, i5-4310U with Intel HD 4400 Haswell graphics with
802.11a/b/g/n/ac WIFI



My preference would be the Intel graphics machine. The Intel graphics is
very well supported.


Really - I'm glad to hear that.

My Lenovo with Intel graphics caused me a few problems because Linux
could not support 3D acceleration on it.

At 2 Sep 2014 19:22:43 GMT ray carter wrote:


On Tue, 02 Sep 2014 18:42:11 +0100, Tim Watts wrote:

[uk.d-i-y because there are just as many people there who might have an
opinion on this]


What would you choose:

Dell E6440, i5-5310M with Radeon HD8690M graphics but only 802.11a/b/g/n
WIFI

or

Dell E7740, i5-4310U with Intel HD 4400 Haswell graphics with
802.11a/b/g/n/ac WIFI



My preference would be the Intel graphics machine. The Intel graphics is
very well supported.

And if it has Intel WiFi, that would also be a plus. Intel WiFi cards/chips
are also very well supported.



--
Robert Heller -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/ -- Linux Administration Services
-- Webhosting Services

On 02/09/14 20:22, ray carter wrote:
On Tue, 02 Sep 2014 18:42:11 +0100, Tim Watts wrote:

[uk.d-i-y because there are just as many people there who might have an
opinion on this]


What would you choose:

Dell E6440, i5-5310M with Radeon HD8690M graphics but only 802.11a/b/g/n
WIFI

or

Dell E7740, i5-4310U with Intel HD 4400 Haswell graphics with
802.11a/b/g/n/ac WIFI



My preference would be the Intel graphics machine. The Intel graphics is
very well supported.

+1

Both actually have Intel graphics, the E6440 here is a hybrid graphics
model featuring both Intel HD 4600 & AMD HD8690M.

The HD8690M is supported by an AMD driver, but AMD doesn't show support
further than Ubuntu 14.04 AFAICS but that may change.

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-arti...ta-Driver.aspx

So someone here is having fun ...

"Angry At wits end with Dell Inspiron/AMD Radeon HD 8670M"
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2204332

Currently these users end up running the Intel graphics.


--
Adrian C

On 02/09/2014 18:42, Tim Watts wrote:
[uk.d-i-y because there are just as many people there who might have an
opinion on this]


What would you choose:

Dell E6440, i5-5310M with Radeon HD8690M graphics but only 802.11a/b/g/n
WIFI

or

Dell E7740, i5-4310U with Intel HD 4400 Haswell graphics with
802.11a/b/g/n/ac WIFI

I can't find this one. Do you mean E7440?


And does anyone know if the 256GB SSD MiniCard disk option is any good?[1]

Any random thoughts?

BTW - Lenovo have stopped offering a "build your own" custom buy and the
T series trackpads have gone down the pan according to reviews. So no
more Lenovo.

Why Dell? Well I can get a decent academic discount as Dell supply my
uni. And I quite like SWMBOs E6420 - at least it's form factor.

I really wouldn't go with a Dell. Or at least make sure you get a
support package. Some at work have them and they do break down...

Having said that, why not try the Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu pre-installed:
http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/xp...id=xps-13-9333

It's a very high quality screen and nice and light without compromising
on performance.

====

Basically, my old Lenovo T410i is giving up slowly. My "absolutes" a

1 - 8-16GB RAM

I'd go with as much as you can get.

2 - Medium CPU (i7 seems not much better than i5)
3 - Graphics that x.org can manage 3D for (eg GoogleEarth) plus VMware
player needs to manage 3D support for guests.

I'd go with Intel, Radeon are often hard to configure. I still can't get
accelerated 3D to work on my desktop.

4 - 500GB "spinning rust" HDD PLUS
256GB (ish) SDD for OS+home+VMWare-disks

How are you going to get two disks in the above laptops?

5 - 802.11ac (I am going "ac" at home)

6 - 14-15 inch and vert res of 900 min. No smaller screen size and no
bigger as it makes me unpopular on the train!

Works with linux
HDMI second screen

Not a problem.

====

The only official Dell way to get the HDD options is an internal SSD
MiniCard and a media bay mounted 500GB HDD

Personally I'd prefer to get a 500GB internal spinning HDD and buy a
generic mediabay adaptor (NewModus prob - cannot find a Dell part) and
stick a SanDisk Extreme II in as I know and trust these.

HDDs are getting rarer in laptops now. I wouldn't go back to HDDs - the
performance improvement you get with SSDs is a big bonus.


No 802.11ac is annoying but not a disaster as I *could* use a USB
dongle....

On 02/09/14 21:20, Adrian C wrote:
On 02/09/14 20:22, ray carter wrote:

My preference would be the Intel graphics machine. The Intel graphics is
very well supported.

+1

Both actually have Intel graphics, the E6440 here is a hybrid graphics
model featuring both Intel HD 4600 & AMD HD8690M.

The HD8690M is supported by an AMD driver, but AMD doesn't show support
further than Ubuntu 14.04 AFAICS but that may change.

http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-arti...ta-Driver.aspx


So someone here is having fun ...

"Angry At wits end with Dell Inspiron/AMD Radeon HD 8670M"
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2204332

Currently these users end up running the Intel graphics.

Thanks! Rather a turnaround... Radeon used to have very good support...

Pity there are no Nvidia options.

On 02/09/14 21:21, chris wrote:


Dell E7740, i5-4310U with Intel HD 4400 Haswell graphics with
802.11a/b/g/n/ac WIFI

I can't find this one. Do you mean E7440?

Yes, sorry. Spazzy typing...


And does anyone know if the 256GB SSD MiniCard disk option is any
good?[1]

Any random thoughts?

BTW - Lenovo have stopped offering a "build your own" custom buy and the
T series trackpads have gone down the pan according to reviews. So no
more Lenovo.

Why Dell? Well I can get a decent academic discount as Dell supply my
uni. And I quite like SWMBOs E6420 - at least it's form factor.

I really wouldn't go with a Dell. Or at least make sure you get a
support package. Some at work have them and they do break down...

Luckily the 5 years next day on site costs very little on an academic
purchase...

Every laptop I've ever owned had some sort of problem in 5 years. HP -
the hinges broke. Lenovo fan is dying and the touchpad covering fell off.

Having said that, why not try the Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu pre-installed:
http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/xp...id=xps-13-9333


It's a very high quality screen and nice and light without compromising
on performance.

It does tick a lot of the boxes. Unfortunately it seems to have no
touchpad buttons (not real ones anyway).

Sorry - I could not list every detail, but I use the TP heavily and like
2 or 3 real buttons. In act I always disable "soft click" as it always
misfires when I use TPs.

But I am impressed by the screen specs.

How do you find the TP?

====

Basically, my old Lenovo T410i is giving up slowly. My "absolutes" a

1 - 8-16GB RAM

I'd go with as much as you can get.

2 - Medium CPU (i7 seems not much better than i5)
3 - Graphics that x.org can manage 3D for (eg GoogleEarth) plus VMware
player needs to manage 3D support for guests.

I'd go with Intel, Radeon are often hard to configure. I still can't get
accelerated 3D to work on my desktop.

+anotherone for Intel...

4 - 500GB "spinning rust" HDD PLUS
256GB (ish) SDD for OS+home+VMWare-disks

How are you going to get two disks in the above laptops?

Mediabay adaptor - like I did with the Lenovo. I never use the DVD so
that gets pulled out.

5 - 802.11ac (I am going "ac" at home)

6 - 14-15 inch and vert res of 900 min. No smaller screen size and no
bigger as it makes me unpopular on the train!

Works with linux
HDMI second screen

Not a problem.

+1

====

The only official Dell way to get the HDD options is an internal SSD
MiniCard and a media bay mounted 500GB HDD

Personally I'd prefer to get a 500GB internal spinning HDD and buy a
generic mediabay adaptor (NewModus prob - cannot find a Dell part) and
stick a SanDisk Extreme II in as I know and trust these.

HDDs are getting rarer in laptops now. I wouldn't go back to HDDs - the
performance improvement you get with SSDs is a big bonus.

It's still cost - I need 750GB but 500GB can be slow - hence the dual
disk approach.


Thanks for the ideas!

["Followup-To:" header set to comp.os.linux.misc.]
On 2014-09-02, ray carter wrote:
On Tue, 02 Sep 2014 18:42:11 +0100, Tim Watts wrote:

[uk.d-i-y because there are just as many people there who might have an
opinion on this]


What would you choose:

Dell E6440, i5-5310M with Radeon HD8690M graphics but only 802.11a/b/g/n
WIFI

or

Dell E7740, i5-4310U with Intel HD 4400 Haswell graphics with
802.11a/b/g/n/ac WIFI



My preference would be the Intel graphics machine. The Intel graphics is
very well supported.

However, be a little cautious with very new hardware, because it
is possible your favorite distribution might not have released a
version of kernel and Xorg that support the latest hardware.

For example, I just put a Haswell i5-4690 in an Asus H97M-Plus
motherboard and tried to run Tinycore 5.x on it. After a little
searching, I found an X server in the Tinycore TCZs that works
with both monitors (as long as I don't map the low-res monitor
exactly on top of the VLC video window). However, the 3.8.13
kernel won't drive the on-board audio or on-board NIC. (Yes, the
audio and NIC are related to the board rather than the CPU.)

HTH

--
Robert Riches

(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

Why Dell? Well I can get a decent academic discount as Dell supply my
uni. And I quite like SWMBOs E6420 - at least it's form factor.

I really wouldn't go with a Dell. Or at least make sure you get a
support package. Some at work have them and they do break down...

Well we do have one and it did develop a hard drive fault but they sent
someone around to us!, we didn't have to send it off anywhere they came
and replaced it on site here...

--
Tony Sayer

On 03/09/14 08:36, tony sayer wrote:
Why Dell? Well I can get a decent academic discount as Dell supply my
uni. And I quite like SWMBOs E6420 - at least it's form factor.

I really wouldn't go with a Dell. Or at least make sure you get a
support package. Some at work have them and they do break down...

Well we do have one and it did develop a hard drive fault but they sent
someone around to us!, we didn't have to send it off anywhere they came
and replaced it on site here...


Dell's service is ace if you pay.

I would take the next day on site option as it's not a lot extra.

My work gear as 4 hour on site - I can get an email in the morning about
a failed SAN disk and have it in my hands by 2pm, and have the old one
boxed and ready for their courier to collect by 5pm.

An engineer is optional - I fit myself as it woul dbe as much effort to
go top the datacentre to escort their man in as it is to fit the disk
myself.

That's *not* cheap though...

On 02/09/2014 21:52, Tim Watts wrote:
On 02/09/14 21:21, chris wrote:

I really wouldn't go with a Dell. Or at least make sure you get a
support package. Some at work have them and they do break down...

Luckily the 5 years next day on site costs very little on an academic
purchase...

Good.

Every laptop I've ever owned had some sort of problem in 5 years. HP -
the hinges broke. Lenovo fan is dying and the touchpad covering fell off.

Having said that, why not try the Dell XPS 13 with Ubuntu pre-installed:
http://www.dell.com/uk/business/p/xp...id=xps-13-9333



It's a very high quality screen and nice and light without compromising
on performance.

It does tick a lot of the boxes. Unfortunately it seems to have no
touchpad buttons (not real ones anyway).

Sorry - I could not list every detail, but I use the TP heavily and like
2 or 3 real buttons. In act I always disable "soft click" as it always
misfires when I use TPs.

But I am impressed by the screen specs.

How do you find the TP?

Sorry, I don't have one. A colleague does and I've not heard him
complain about the touchpad.

Personally, I always use an external mouse for day-to-day usage. When I
do use a touchpad I hate physical buttons and get really frustrated when
I borrow someone else's laptop which has buttons.

====

Basically, my old Lenovo T410i is giving up slowly. My "absolutes" a

1 - 8-16GB RAM

I'd go with as much as you can get.

2 - Medium CPU (i7 seems not much better than i5)
3 - Graphics that x.org can manage 3D for (eg GoogleEarth) plus VMware
player needs to manage 3D support for guests.

I'd go with Intel, Radeon are often hard to configure. I still can't get
accelerated 3D to work on my desktop.

+anotherone for Intel...

4 - 500GB "spinning rust" HDD PLUS
256GB (ish) SDD for OS+home+VMWare-disks

How are you going to get two disks in the above laptops?

Mediabay adaptor - like I did with the Lenovo. I never use the DVD so
that gets pulled out.

Is that still possible with current laptops? More and more manufacturers
are moving to the ultrabook model where nothing is user upgradeable (not
even RAM!).

On 02/09/2014 21:04, Tim Watts wrote:
On 02/09/14 20:22, ray carter wrote:
On Tue, 02 Sep 2014 18:42:11 +0100, Tim Watts wrote:

[uk.d-i-y because there are just as many people there who might have an
opinion on this]


What would you choose:

Dell E6440, i5-5310M with Radeon HD8690M graphics but only 802.11a/b/g/n
WIFI

or

Dell E7740, i5-4310U with Intel HD 4400 Haswell graphics with
802.11a/b/g/n/ac WIFI



My preference would be the Intel graphics machine. The Intel graphics is
very well supported.


Really - I'm glad to hear that.

My Lenovo with Intel graphics caused me a few problems because Linux
could not support 3D acceleration on it.

Integrated Intel graphics have come on leaps-and-bounds in the last few
years. No longer are they the puny bare minimum one used have to tolerate.

On 03/09/14 08:57, chris wrote:
On 02/09/2014 21:52, Tim Watts wrote:

How do you find the TP?

Sorry, I don't have one. A colleague does and I've not heard him
complain about the touchpad.

Personally, I always use an external mouse for day-to-day usage. When I
do use a touchpad I hate physical buttons and get really frustrated when
I borrow someone else's laptop which has buttons.

I have to use it on the train (no space for amouse) - but I do use an
external KB and mouse when at home.

Mediabay adaptor - like I did with the Lenovo. I never use the DVD so
that gets pulled out.

Is that still possible with current laptops? More and more manufacturers
are moving to the ultrabook model where nothing is user upgradeable (not
even RAM!).

The Latitude E6xxx models *do* have a mediabay (even Dell have HDDs in
bay adaptors, just don't sell the adaptor empty, but you can get clones
from people like NewModus).

I believe with the E6xxx series, everything is very accessible from
underneath:


http://prohardver.hu/dl/cnt/2014-03/...0_inside_b.jpg

On 03/09/14 09:00, chris wrote:

Integrated Intel graphics have come on leaps-and-bounds in the last few
years. No longer are they the puny bare minimum one used have to tolerate.



I am encouraged - I shall drop the "No Intel Graphics" from my
list... Which means the E6440 meets the criteria IIRC - off to check.

In article , Tim Watts
scribeth thus
On 03/09/14 08:36, tony sayer wrote:
Why Dell? Well I can get a decent academic discount as Dell supply my
uni. And I quite like SWMBOs E6420 - at least it's form factor.

I really wouldn't go with a Dell. Or at least make sure you get a
support package. Some at work have them and they do break down...

Well we do have one and it did develop a hard drive fault but they sent
someone around to us!, we didn't have to send it off anywhere they came
and replaced it on site here...


Dell's service is ace if you pay.

This was under warranty...


I would take the next day on site option as it's not a lot extra.

My work gear as 4 hour on site - I can get an email in the morning about
a failed SAN disk and have it in my hands by 2pm, and have the old one
boxed and ready for their courier to collect by 5pm.

An engineer is optional - I fit myself as it woul dbe as much effort to
go top the datacentre to escort their man in as it is to fit the disk
myself.

That's *not* cheap though...

--
Tony Sayer

On Wed, 3 Sep 2014 12:13:24 +0100
tony sayer wrote:

In article , Tim Watts
scribeth thus
On 03/09/14 08:36, tony sayer wrote:
Why Dell? Well I can get a decent academic discount as Dell
supply my uni. And I quite like SWMBOs E6420 - at least it's
form factor.

I really wouldn't go with a Dell. Or at least make sure you get a
support package. Some at work have them and they do break down...

Well we do have one and it did develop a hard drive fault but they
sent someone around to us!, we didn't have to send it off anywhere
they came and replaced it on site here...


Dell's service is ace if you pay.

This was under warranty...


I would take the next day on site option as it's not a lot extra.

My work gear as 4 hour on site - I can get an email in the morning
about a failed SAN disk and have it in my hands by 2pm, and have the
old one boxed and ready for their courier to collect by 5pm.

An engineer is optional - I fit myself as it woul dbe as much effort
to go top the datacentre to escort their man in as it is to fit the
disk myself.

That's *not* cheap though...


It was a few years ago, and it was a PC owned by my US employer, but
when my Dell Dimension started to shut down on its own while I was in
Buenos Aires, within the three year US onsite warranty period, Dell
engaged a local Sperry repair service to meet me at my hotel and
replace the mother board, all while sitting at a lobby bar table.
I was impressed with the service.

--
Davey.

On 03/09/14 08:57, chris wrote:

How are you going to get two disks in the above laptops?

Mediabay adaptor - like I did with the Lenovo. I never use the DVD so
that gets pulled out.

Is that still possible with current laptops? More and more manufacturers
are moving to the ultrabook model where nothing is user upgradeable (not
even RAM!).

OK - bit of research:

E7xxx do not have media bays.

However, if you don't have the WWAN (3G/4G mobile data) option,
apparantly it is possible to mount an mSATA minicard flash in the same slot.

In fact according to various forum postings, this is the default if you
but a minicard SSD - even to the point where Dell save £2.57 or
something by NOT supplying the SATA connector to the main bay!

the online configurator will not let me choos 2 disks though so I've put
it to our sales rep.

Failing that, I might buy with either a 500GB SATA and fit my own 240GB
minicard or buy with the cheapest SATA HDD and throw it away in favour
of a 480/500GB SSD that might be sufficient...

In article , Tim Watts wrote:
I might buy with either a 500GB SATA and fit my own 240GB minicard
or buy with the cheapest SATA HDD and throw it away in favour of a
480/500GB SSD that might be sufficient...

Or a 1TB hybrid drive, maybe?
--
Cheers,
Daniel.

On 04/09/14 12:58, Daniel James wrote:
In article , Tim Watts wrote:
I might buy with either a 500GB SATA and fit my own 240GB minicard
or buy with the cheapest SATA HDD and throw it away in favour of a
480/500GB SSD that might be sufficient...

Or a 1TB hybrid drive, maybe?


Did consider that but not having tried one, I feel happier with manual
control over what goes where