[Solved] Can anyone recommend to me a cheapish, current model notebook that loves Linux?

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azrielle
Posts: 162
Joined: Mon Feb 15, 2016 6:34 am

Re: Can anyone recommend to me a cheapish, current model notebook that loves Linux?

#11 Post by azrielle »

Ivy Bridge based notebooks that I have that run Linux very well in multiple boot with Win7SP1:
Lenovo ThinkPads X230, i3-3220 based x131e, or T430 and L430
Acer v5-171
All have been retrofitted with240GB or 500GB Samsung or Adata SSD's. And they FLY!
Lenovo T430 i5/3320m 8GB MX17.1/Win7SP1 180GB SSD/128GB mSATA
Lenovo X230 i7/3520m 12GB MX17.1/Win7SP1 500GB SSD 480GB mSATA
Lenovo X131e i3/3227u 8GB MX21Xfce/Win7SP1 500GB SSD
Lenovo 11e Celeron n3150 4GB MX19/Fedora30Games 128GB SSD

rob68
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Sep 27, 2017 12:04 pm

Re: Can anyone recommend to me a cheapish, current model notebook that loves Linux?

#12 Post by rob68 »

I have Sony Vaio laptops (even an old i3 VPCEB1E1E, lately upgraded to the max. of 8GB RAM) all with Radeon GPU.
They "fly" with MX. (one of them has Arco installed as well in order to test a few things in Arch as well)
I would look for a used one in proper shape if the nowadays again manufactured models are too pricey for your needs.
(https://us.vaio.com/vaio-s/)

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handy
Posts: 611
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:00 pm

Re: Can anyone recommend to me a cheapish, current model notebook that loves Linux?

#13 Post by handy »

Thanks to you all for your VERY helpful advice. :happy:

The country song comment made have a good laugh... ;)

I'll let you know the result when I manage to manifest it.
1_MSI: MAG B560 TORP', i5, RAM 16GB, GTX 1070 Ti 12GB, M2 238GB + USB, MX-23 Fb to Openbox
2_Lenovo: Ideapad 520S, i5, RAM 8GB, GPU i620, HDD 1TB, MX-21 - Openbox
3_Clevo: P150SM-A, i7, RAM 16GB, nVidia 8600, 2x 1TB HDD & M.2 256 GB, MX-21 - Openbox

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KBD
Posts: 959
Joined: Sun Jul 03, 2011 7:52 pm

Re: Can anyone recommend to me a cheapish, current model notebook that loves Linux?

#14 Post by KBD »

Highly recommend the X220 Thinkpad for durability.
As Rok mentioned, an Acer Chromebook can be a nice portable device if you are willing to flash the bios--not too difficult on the C720. I would look for a 4gb ram model though for a C720, and one without hard use for longer battery life.

nik.gnomic
Posts: 13
Joined: Sun Mar 26, 2017 8:56 pm

Re: Can anyone recommend to me a cheapish, current model notebook that loves Linux?

#15 Post by nik.gnomic »

Inverters are not good option - very inefficient and expensive to get one supplying clean power for laptop

I have been using a very underpowered atom notebook (2G RAM) on road trips for watching movies and music
low power processor and big battery was good for > 6 hours, which was plenty for a long weekend
I don't even have a dog any more
you should get one - we have two so don't need heater in the van (and much less effort washing dishes when nobody is looking)!

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penguin
Posts: 260
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2017 3:15 pm

Re: Can anyone recommend to me a cheapish, current model notebook that loves Linux?

#16 Post by penguin »

Lenovo X201i
Lenovo X201
Lenovo T410i
Lenovo T410

I think that these are lastest series of Lenovo that can boot directly from SD Card ( on the newer models T420 and T430 I arrived to boot up from SD Card using SD/SDHC/SDXC to Expresscard Adapter Reader)

They are cheaper ones on ebay. Find something without hdd. Buy a SD Card 16gb or 32 gb and run MX Linux from it.Or a cheap 32 or 64 gb SSD.
I run MX Linux on a Lenovo X201i with a SanDisk SD Card 16gb Class 10 (Ultra or Extreme) or any better one.

DELL Laptop, preferably Dell Latitude

Code: Select all

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell_Latitude
Follow Models
Exx30 Models (2012/2013)
Exx20 Models (2011/2012)
I am not very sure if you can boot these Dell models from SD Card.

HP Laptop, preferably HP EliteBook

Code: Select all

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HP_EliteBook
Follow Models
Third generation or Fourth Generation
I am not very sure if you can boot these HP models from SD Card.

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handy
Posts: 611
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:00 pm

Re: Can anyone recommend to me a cheapish, current model notebook that loves Linux?

#17 Post by handy »

@nik.gnomic, thanks for your helpful info'. ;)

@penguin, & my thanks to you too. :)

I've backed away from the intense research I did over the web. I'm just letting it settle down in my brain. Hopefully, one morning before getting out of bed, a solution to this problem will present itself (my sub-conscious does my best thinking)... I can always hope... ;)

I'm just going to start another thread on what Valve/Steam is up to, which kind of complicates this new notebook situation for me.
1_MSI: MAG B560 TORP', i5, RAM 16GB, GTX 1070 Ti 12GB, M2 238GB + USB, MX-23 Fb to Openbox
2_Lenovo: Ideapad 520S, i5, RAM 8GB, GPU i620, HDD 1TB, MX-21 - Openbox
3_Clevo: P150SM-A, i7, RAM 16GB, nVidia 8600, 2x 1TB HDD & M.2 256 GB, MX-21 - Openbox

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handy
Posts: 611
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:00 pm

Re: Can anyone recommend to me a cheapish, current model notebook that loves Linux?

#18 Post by handy »

Well, I bought a Lenovo Ideapad 520s-14IKB. Which means it has an 8th gen i5 CPU 1600hz, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, 1x USB-3.0, 1x USB-C (3.1), 1x USB 2.0, multi-card reader, HDMI & a 14" screen @1080p. I think that's about it. Oh, & Win10, which I had never really looked at in person before. I found/find it to be really repulsive.

Win10 boots-up so incredibly slowly I'm surprised that Lenovo even sell this machine with Win10 on it, it is that slow.

So, you can imagine my concern, as I discovered this incredibly poor performance after I had bought the thing.

Two major concerns:

1.) Whether Linux would even run on this model Lenovo (I didn't research this one before I bought it - which is most unlike me? :crossfingers: )

2.) how well will it run with Linux.

I just got to test this machine out, using an Antix live USB stick.

I had to use an opened up paper clip to push the little hidden in a hole button, on the right hand side of the machine - whilst the computer is turned off, to get it to automatically start up & present its hidden menu, as follows:

Normal Startup
BIOS Setup
Boot Menu
System Recovery

I went into the BIOS & turned off Secure Boot
& turned off Fast Boot

Saved the settings & left the BIOS.
Turned off the machine, plugged in the Antix live USB stick
Used the bent paperclip to to bring up the hidden menu
Choose the Boot Menu
Where I had the Windows Boot Manager &
My Kingston USB stick (boy was I glad to see that!)
I chose the USB stick
& immediately was presented with the Antix boot menu - which I reconfigured blah blah

Antix booted up really quickly. :number1:

I shut it down, & booted again, & Win10 was chosen.
So I shut down Win10
Started with paperclip; went to the BIOS, where I could now (as the USB stick was still plugged in) choose to give the USB stick boot priority over Windows Boot. Saved the BIOS & restarted.

Now Antix boots everytime from cold or warm boots. :)

I expect that if I pull the Antix stick, & boot into Win10, that the next time I put the Antix stick in, it will need me to either use the Boot Menu, or go into the BIOS & change the boot priority again.

Anyway, I'm VERY happy (& somewhat relieved) with the absolutely incredible change in the responsiveness of the machine once it can use Linux instead of Win10.

Tomorrow I'll clone the Win10 drive to an image, & then install Antix on the machine. I can see no great benefit (only lots of extra work in removing systemd) of installing Manjaro on this machine, as this machine is not for playing games, it is for web surfing & playing movies off of an external 2.5" HDD.

This machine needs to be able to have its battery charged from my campervan's house batteries;- which, with its 65Watt PSU won't be a problem. I bought a 200Watt pure sine wave inverter for the job. The thing will most likely allow me to run my 180Watt Clevo.

Though that is not what it is for (& I think that maybe the long summer days may be required too - for my solar system to hold it together - also, this inverter solution wasn't offered in early 2015 when I last went looking for such a solution for the Clevo...that's not to say that something similar wasn't available, I think I just got bad advice back then).

This Ideapad is touted as having 12 hours battery life. I know that will be marketroid speak for a battery life reality somewhat lower. If it gives me 9-10 hours, I'll be really happy.

Anyway, there you go. It looks at this stage (oh oh) to be a happy ending. :crossfingers:
1_MSI: MAG B560 TORP', i5, RAM 16GB, GTX 1070 Ti 12GB, M2 238GB + USB, MX-23 Fb to Openbox
2_Lenovo: Ideapad 520S, i5, RAM 8GB, GPU i620, HDD 1TB, MX-21 - Openbox
3_Clevo: P150SM-A, i7, RAM 16GB, nVidia 8600, 2x 1TB HDD & M.2 256 GB, MX-21 - Openbox

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handy
Posts: 611
Joined: Mon Apr 23, 2018 2:00 pm

Re: [Solved] Can anyone recommend to me a cheapish, current model notebook that loves Linux?

#19 Post by handy »

After cloning the Win10 (& associated partitions) drive to image, I cast an image that I had of MX.17 onto the 1TB drive. I had to chase my tail a bit to get it to boot. Though that was more my lack of practice at doing this stuff these days, than anything else.

Though, there was one thing that blocked me from being able to boot, that wasn't obvious, & a web search was needed to supply the solution:

The image of MX that I used was of my earlier install on the Clevo notebook. Which was not using UEFI.
Even though the Lenovo had an option in the BIOS to change from UEFI to Legacy & offered some other options in that regard (once I could do it). The UEFI option was ghosted in the BIOS - I couldn't make Legacy available.

I found that I had to change the system being used for IO on the SATA drive (there are only two, so if anyone reading this in the future has the same problem, just change it to "the other one" & it should solve this problem). After I did that, then I could use Legacy & also set the priority to UEFI over Legacy if it exists. Doing that allows me to more easily boot a UEFI USB stick if I put one in. If not, the Legacy on-board drive boots up.

I spent some time getting this lot to work, as I was fumbling about in the dark (so to speak), & repeated the cloning, formatting & even installed the partition table more than once, for various reasons re. trial & error.

Once MX was booting, it was great, as I had to change next to nothing & my custom Openbox/Worker/Tint2/PIA-VPN setup, is all done. Which saved me many, many hours (let alone the bandwidth). :)

The Lenovo 520s, with MX 17 on it, is running very quickly. You wouldn't believe it was the same machine, if you used it running Win10 :turtle:
1_MSI: MAG B560 TORP', i5, RAM 16GB, GTX 1070 Ti 12GB, M2 238GB + USB, MX-23 Fb to Openbox
2_Lenovo: Ideapad 520S, i5, RAM 8GB, GPU i620, HDD 1TB, MX-21 - Openbox
3_Clevo: P150SM-A, i7, RAM 16GB, nVidia 8600, 2x 1TB HDD & M.2 256 GB, MX-21 - Openbox

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Richard
Posts: 1577
Joined: Fri Dec 12, 2008 10:31 am

Re: [Solved] Can anyone recommend to me a cheapish, current model notebook that loves Linux?

#20 Post by Richard »

Congratulations!
Thinkpad T430 & Dell Latitude E7450, both with MX-21.3.1
kernal 5.10.0-26-amd64 x86_64; Xfce-4.18.0; 8 GB RAM
Intel Core i5-3380M, Graphics, Audio, Video; & SSDs.

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