My Laptop Dilemma

[MindoverMaster]

I have a question for y'all.

I currently have a ASUS UL80J-BBK5. Bought it maybe a year ago. It's good and all that. It was refurbished from Newegg. There was nothing wrong with it at first.

The problem I had, is the wireless somehow "dissapears". It is still registered in the system, but is not shown in network devices. I read that the problem was imminent in that line. I had to send it in once, and they said they fixed it, but about a week later it starts disappearing again. Think its a defect in the connection or something. I read people sent it in 4 or 5 times with no such luck.

Does the above in both Win 7 and Ubuntu 11.10. So it is not software dependent.

I do not use it that often, but when I do, I like to be wirelessly connected. And not have to restart the system all the time.

I was just thinking of selling this one off, and use the money from that to pay for a new one. The reason being, a dongle would be hard to configure in Linux. I know, I tried.

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If I were to buy a new laptop, I am no stranger to refurbished products. My ASUS laptop was refurbished coming from Newegg.

With it, I like to explore the Linux world. I now have a dedicated desktop to Linux, but having it on a laptop is a bit more of a challenge. I do not game, except for Minecraft. If I ever want to play other games, I'll do it on my desktop.

I am looking for a 13-15" screen. Dedicated video, but doesn't have to be the next best thing. I'm fine with a NVIDIA 530m. Just no Intel crap. Battery life doesn't matter to me. I'll have it on AC 90% of the time. HDD or RAM, I can always upgrade. At least 4GB of RAM, though. Processor, I want at least an i3 or AMD equivalent. If it has HDMI on it, I'd like it, but not a necessity.

I am looking in the range of $450, the lower the better.


Been looking at Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, and several others' outlet stores, see what deals I can get.

 

[GhOsT1321]

This one has a phenom and a Mobility Radeon HD 4250
Micro Center - Hewlett-Packard Pavilion g6-1a44ca Laptop Computer Refurbished - Pewter LV995UAR#ABC

Here are some more referbs.
Micro Center Products: Computers: Laptops, Netbooks: Refurbished

Edit: This one seems like a nice offering.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834158199

The newegg laptop I posted would be better for gaming, while the one from MC would be better overall (faster processor).
Heres some benchmarks of the GPUS used in both.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Radeon-HD-4250.29664.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6520G.55734.0.html

 

[MindoverMaster]

Yeah, I defy HP. But, at least it is not a DV6 model. *shudders*

I actually have been looking at Toshiba's outlet store, at eBay. Directly from Toshiba. Looking at the C655D models.

NB305-N600 Netbook, Genuine Windows 7 Starter, Intel Atom, 1GB, 250GB, webcam items in Toshiba Direct Store store on eBay!

 

[Puddle Jumper]

The Intel HD 3000 gpu that comes with Sandy Bridge Core iX processors is actually pretty good, it's faster than the HD 4250 and is also faster than the Geforce 310m in your current system so you may not want to rule it out completely. Intel usually has decent linux support as well.

 

[MindoverMaster]

I read that some have Intel graphics, but have their own GDDRAM. So is it integrated, but not using up your system RAM?

Any suggestions, Puddle?

 

[GhOsT1321]

I had thought that you said no intel video cards due to Minecrafts lack of Intel support.

 

[MindoverMaster]

Oh, Puddle was not thinking about that, I'm sure. /sarcasm

Yeah, I'm unsure exactly what he meant. Like you said, Minecraft and Intel don't mix. No matter how 1337 it is. And I know he plays every day.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

When it comes to the new Intel cards plus Minecraft the performance is complicated at best. While out of the box it's certainly disappointing it should run better than it does and I have seen some people claim to get better fps under Linux which would indicate it is a problem with the drivers not the gpu itself. Unfortunately any good info on exactly what the bottleneck is in Minecraft is buried under 10,000 results of someone trying to run it on a old GMA950 and wondering why it doesn't work so it's hard to make much progress in tracking the issue down.

Assuming the performance is better under Linux the HD 3000 could give you a lot more options in smaller laptops but I'll admit it's kind of a risky move. Going with one of the AMD Llano laptops might be a safer bet since their gpus should be more than powerful enough to run Minecraft well.

I'll see if I can find newer drivers for the HD3000 so i can give you a more accurate picture of how it runs with everything completely up to date.

 

[GhOsT1321]

I haven't played for awhile, but when I did (before sandy bridge) the majority of Intel graphics would not even run Minecraft, it would crash or simply black screen immediately.
Back then it was stated that Intel cannot run Minecraft, but I don't see that now. Supposedly there's varying rates of success now.
Tutorials/Minecraft Help FAQ - Minecraft Wiki

 

[Puddle Jumper]

The older Intel igp's aren't really relevant when it comes to Sandy Bridge, Intel started taking graphics seriously with the HD3000 and it shows. I've played Minecraft on my laptop plenty of times so it does indeed work with the Intel Hd3000

As of the final release Minecraft will get playable fps running on a Core i3 2310m and HD3000 with older drivers so Sandy Bridge should be an option. I'd also expect the latest drivers to have some positive impact on performance.