[CLUE-Tech] Buying a (cheap) laptop for Linux

[Weaver, Michael]

Here is what I got. Dell did not give out the board manufacture and such.
You can see it is a slightly above mid range laptop with hopefully fair
performance. The ports are pretty skimpy and the port replicator is not
worth buying. I intend to run it with 750 megs so I paid way to much to get
1 256 DIMM instead of the standard 2 * 128. Only one slot is user accessible
and hopefully they stick the DIMM in the non user accessible slot in the
factory. The upgrades I got were 1 DIMM, 16 M more video memory and the
DVD/CDRW drive. I have no idea if this system will work with Linux since
they did not ship it yet but it should from what I see. No floppy drive
which may be a problem  since I want to dual boot both MS and Linux and all
the disk will be partioned for MS. All in all I am happy with the price per
features as long as it works like I hope. Final cost is $1277.00 so cheap is
relative. You can get a fast loaded desktop for this price. Extras probably
added a little over $215.00. Third party 512 DIMM is around $125.00 Be aware
that Dell has already changed the promotion I bought under. They now throw
in the DVD/CD combo for free and charge for other upgrades I got for free.
When I know for sure how it all works out I will post back.

FREE 15.0 XGA Display Upgrade! Intel® Pentium® 4,2.4GHz,15.0 XGA Qty: 1 Unit
Price: 1,427.00 
FREE TaxCut Deluxe Software from H&R Block FREE TaxCut Deluxe software from
H&R Block 
Digital Music Dell Jukebox powered by MUSICMATCH 
Limited Warranty, Services and Support Options 1Yr Ltd Warr plus 1Yr Mail-in
Service + 90Day Dell SecurityCenter (McAfee) 
Productivity Software Microsoft® Works Suite 2003 
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Home 
Memory 256MB 266MHz 1 DIMM 
Primary Battery 94 WHr Lithium Ion 12-Cell Battery 
Hard Drive FREE UPGRADE! 40GB Ultra ATA Hard Drive (from 30 GB) 
Network Adapter Integrated Network Card 
Fixed CD/DVD Drives 24X CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive 
Internet Access Options 6 Months America Online Internet Access Included 
Modem Internal 56K Modem 
Mail-In Rebate Offer SAVE $150 with mail-in rebate! System price shown
before rebate 
Video Card 32MB ATi Mobility(tm) Radeon(tm) 7500 
Digital Photography Dell Picture Studio, Image Expert® Standard 


I/O Ports   
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 IEEE 1394 integrated port (1394 cable and software sold separately)
 2-USB 2.0 (Universal Serial Bus) compliant 4-pin connectors
 Video: 15-pin monitor connector
 S-Video: 7-pin mini-DIN connector
 10/100 Ethernet LAN: RJ-45 connector
 Modem: RJ-11 connector
 Audio jacks: Line-out (external speakers/headphone) and external microphone