Surprised! To say the least...

I am planning on re-installing Windows on this machine for my wife so she can do school work (she needs a computer).

I was looking for me something new to run Linux on. Of course, in the days gone past (?) it seemed the cost/performance ratio was better on a desktop machine vs a laptop. I told my wife I may just build a desktop to replace this laptop for myself.

I was really shocked in looking for my next Linux machine to find this may no longer be the case. I built a really nice desktop with monitor and all for $1006 excluding shipping, i7 and all that stuff. In a laptop I can get more for the buck at a much lower price point. This really surprised me!

I am looking to spend about 1k on whatever I replace this with and from my investigating it looks like I would be better off with a laptop as my next Linux box.

I never thought I would see the day where the price points have come so close.

I am really surprised!

 

You might want to checkout System76 or Zareason.

 

I have had those bookmarked for awhile. The problem with the systems from either one of those is the cost/performance ratio is thrown way off.

Look at this for example, I would not be to even get close to those specs from either of those.

Thanks though...

 

That's pretty good....2 years ago I almost bought the 17inch gaming beast from Xotic (Sager)....what about the optimus though?

 

Hopefully Nouveau will come through.

Not really interested in gaming so the onboard gfx will be fine for me. And the day they do get it working will just be an added bonus .

 

Its usually cheaper to buy something that is a "windows" laptop. The "open source" laptops seem to be much more for price.

 

Actually, I am taking a hard look at this one. Looks nice and the price is decent.

New product offering from them. Only thing I'm wondering is about the screen resolution. Is 1920 x 1080 a little high for a 15.6 inch screen? My 17.3 here is 1600x900 and I find it perfect.

 

I believe AVADirect (avadirect.com) provides the option for Linux OS on their custom Clevo laptops. So you can get what ever you can from Sager/XoticPC etc. but with Fedora installed.

 

For me it's a little high....I have 1920 x 1200 on my Precision m6500 17 inch. I guess I'd have to take it over the alternative res listed there.

 

Have you looked at thinkpads? The one I'm using is pretty nice.

 

I'll just dual boot to game, given that:


"Windows 7 is nothing more than a life support system for Starcraft II"

 

LOL... I hear that.

For many years I dual booted to get my gaming fix. Nowadays I spend more time reading news,checking email,browsing forums,listening to music and so on.

Besides, there are some decent games for Linux, I am actually thinking about getting into a MUD... Oldschool I know but could be fun at least to try out, I liked nethack anyway .

 

Price/performance still highly favors the desktop. Even though laptops come with powerful CPUs, they're nothing next to modern desktops. If you're building a $1000 desktop, there's no laptop you can buy that will touch that performance. At least not for less than $5000.

That said, you can get a very nice laptop at a very nice price point, and if you want mobility it's great.

The choice is really like it's always been, more power and less portability for a desktop, and less power and more portability for a laptop. The difference is now that most laptops are "good enough" for 99% of users (including me). You won't still want more after going for top of the line components like you used to