# Which laptop with nvidia for FreeBSD



## MorgothV8 (Jul 28, 2009)

Looking for best laptop choice.
Conditions:
-must have NVIDIA card (not onboard) - to use NVIDIA binary 32bit driver
-must be quite inexpensive
-must be max possible compatible with FreeBSD i386 7.X (or 8.0BETA)

Any suggestions?


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## vermaden (Jul 28, 2009)

Dell D630/D830 or IBM/Lenovo T61/R61, both with nVidia Quadro.


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## aragon (Jul 28, 2009)

I've always been most pleased with Dells.  Somehow they just get their all their hardware working correctly.  In contrast, the first and last HP I ever owned (Pavilion dv2600) was horrendously bad - Broken ACPI, broken USB controller.

My recommendation is any Dell that meets your spec.  Right now I own an XPS M1330 and love it.


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## wnsi-m2 (Jul 28, 2009)

I strongly agree with the Dell Latitude recommendation. Very easy to install, configure, and use. Only time the D630 gave me problems was when I tried to get it to work with a port replicator and then it was just making X work the way I wanted.


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## MorgothV8 (Jul 30, 2009)

Thanks.
I'm checking those notebooks, DX30 looks quite OK


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## Carpetsmoker (Jul 30, 2009)

> In contrast, the first and last HP I ever owned (Pavilion dv2600) was horrendously bad



Be sure to compare apples to apples. The HP DV* seies is a budget-oriented consumer notebook, whereas the Dell Latitude or T61 are quality-oriented business notebooks.

There is a big difference, both in quality and in price.



> I'm checking those notebooks, DX30 looks quite OK



I assume you mean D630?

I personally prefer the Thinkpad T61, it has a better touchpad/trackpoint and a better keyboard. Not that the Dell is bad, but the TP is just better.



> must be quite inexpensive



What do you mean with ``inexpensive''?
You can get secondhand thinkpad T4* series pretty cheap, probably the most sturdy non-ruggerized notebooks ever made. But of course you will not have the same performance. For a secondhand D630/T61 with a Quadro you will probably pay at least 600-700 euro...

As another recommendation, the HP business series are pretty good too. (All models ending with a `b' are business, some standard `s' are OK too).


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## aragon (Jul 31, 2009)

Carpetsmoker said:
			
		

> Be sure to compare apples to apples. The HP DV* seies is a budget-oriented consumer notebook, whereas the Dell Latitude or T61 are quality-oriented business notebooks.



I disagree for two reasons:

* At $1600, my dv2600 was certainly not budget.
* A low price tag is no excuse for broken hardware.  Low performance, cheap hardware yes, but broken hardware, no.


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## Carpetsmoker (Jul 31, 2009)

One final thing I forgot to mention, is that whatever you do, buy a mat screen! They are infinitely better than those stupid reflecting glare screens so many notebooks have nowadays.


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## MorgothV8 (Jul 31, 2009)

OK, and what about: Lenovo SL500 - looks quite good and the price is also good

1. I need NVIDIA M (9xxx) would be graet
2. The price must be low (assuming condition 1 is met), I DO NOT need performance (I won't play games on it) I DO need reliability and compatibility with FreeBSD. I just want notebook that works fine on FreeBSD, has hardware supported OpenGL and works without problems for years - that's all.
OpenGL with hardware is mandatory - I just like writing shaders and I will try to use NVIDIA Cg on FreeBSD (I know there is no version for FreeBSD), If this fails I will just use OpenGL extensions to write shaders....

This Lenovo SL500 I can but at 2400 PLN (polish currency) wchich is 589 Euros or 828 USD (today). Is this Lenovo OK? What about its compatiblity with FreeBSD?


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## vermaden (Jul 31, 2009)

MorgothV8 said:
			
		

> OK, and what about: Lenovo SL500 - looks quite good and the price is also good
> 
> This Lenovo SL500 I can but at 2400 PLN (polish currency) wchich is 589 Euros or 828 USD (today). Is this Lenovo OK? What about its compatiblity with FreeBSD?



My buddy has SL500 with 1680x1050 resolution, along with nVidia graphics, but with stock 4-cell baterry, which lasts about 2 hours on Windows Vista (he does not uses *NIX), so at least get version with 6 or more cell battery.

But I havent tried FreeBSD on SL500.

About compatibility, you will have problems with WiFi for sure, at least for some time, and its more expensive then Latitudes and ThinkPads we mentioned earlier.

If you want reliable compatibility, then get T60 (14"/15") / T61(14"/15") / D630(14") / D830(15") with extended baterry and better resolution screen.

For example I can work about 8:30 on batteries on my D630

About HP, the only model that I would recommend is HP 2510p 12", dual core, X3100 graphics, non-glare screen, great price (2200PLN), so if you need 12" powerful laptop, then 2510p is the choice. You also have 3 choices if it comes to battery, 4-cell (5 hours), 6-cell (8 hours) and 9-cell (10 hours) with 2510p, but that only for 12".

... I forgot about other HP model that is worthy (and very cheap), HP ProBook 4510s, but I do not know if they have nVidia graphics.


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## DutchDaemon (Jul 31, 2009)

Carpetsmoker said:
			
		

> Be sure to compare apples to apples. The HP DV* seies is a budget-oriented consumer notebook, whereas the Dell Latitude or T61 are quality-oriented business notebooks.
> 
> There is a big difference, both in quality and in price.



That's right. The HP Compaq series (I have the 8510W) is _very_ enjoyable under FreeBSD, without unneeded tricks or hacks.


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## venomous (Aug 7, 2009)

MorgothV8 said:
			
		

> Looking for best laptop choice.
> Conditions:
> -must have NVIDIA card (not onboard) - to use NVIDIA binary 32bit driver
> -must be quite inexpensive
> ...



Try Acer Aspire 4530 with Nvidia 9100M, Atheros Wifi is working on FreeBSD-8.0-BETA2.  Broadcom NetXteme is not working, but you can try NDIS.


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