I have a small netbook Lenovo (w/ Intel Atom and 2GiB of RAM). And let me tell you, it's unbearably slow! It takes at least a minute to build any of my projects. I do OS development on this thing and it takes a full 5-10 minutes to fully compile the kernel. Anyways, can anyone recommend me a place (online maybe?) on where I can find used Lenovo Thinkpads? I'm looking for something that is powerful computation wise (CPU and RAM, basically). WiFi support really is important as well as screen size. I'm going to be running Linux (or possibly OpenBSD). Hard drive space, ideally would be the biggest possible. In essence, the biggest screen, the most RAM, HDD space, and CPU power I can get for $400 max (without shipping) Budget: $300-$400. Let me know if what I want is outrageous...
What OS are you using? If using Ubuntu 11.10 change the desktop environment to either Unity 2D (still a whore), XFCE, LXDE or GNOME or move to Lubuntu/Xubuntu which has the LXDE and XFCE dekstop environments respectively.
Yeah, I would recommend that too. Speaking of my A21m thinkpad, I installed Xubuntu on that, and it runs like a dream. Well, a pentium 3 dream. N.B. compared to XP, that is.
If you don't mind using windows 7, I run a Asus Eee PC 1215N. I found a used one for $250 but when I got it, it was new in the unopened box. What a steal. I have 8GB of RAM installed as well as a 500 GB hybrid solid state hard drive. If you just upgrade the RAM, you should come in close to the $400 limit. This machine has a dual core Atom proc clocked at 1.8 GHz and a Nvidia ION 2 for graphics power. It comes with a 250 GB hard drive factory. To get all 8GB or RAM to show in Windows 7 32 bit, a kernel hack is needed as well as a BIOS update. 64 bit OS is also compatible if you go that route and no kernel hack needed for the memory. My machine is overclocked to 2.3 GHz with no problems. I use set FSB for it. The OS is Windows 7 Home Premium. It has WiFi and a 12.1 inch screen. For Linux, there might be some experimental drivers out there to make the ION GPU show up. I'll have to look around for them. If they exist, this would make for a killer netbook with the needed requirements. Just found the page for some drivers. Go here: http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html These should allow for most or all features of the GPU to be enabled. This page has some help on installing them: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BinaryDriverHowto/Nvidia Hope this helps. I know it is not a Lenovo, but the 1215N is the most powerful netbook out there that I know of.
I'm currently using a Thinkpad X61 tablet. I like it to some extent but the lack of a trackpad is bugging me, especially because I'm too lazy to carry a mouse. Probably going to sell it soon, quite frankly. Aside from that issue this thing is built like a brick you-know-what. Hinge gets tons of usage and it still quite tight, it's a powerful machine and runs everything that I run with ease. Plus the tablet function is great for Photoshop, with the Wacom screen (matte finish, Mmmm). Not to mention that you can cram in a full 8GB of ram into this thing. Incredible, I had no idea 4GB single sticks of DDR2 existed. The laptop version of this one is an extremely good machine, with a slightly faster processor and invincible hinges. Plus, you get that hasn't-changed-since-the-90's design, which is thief deterrent, in a way. Oh, and check your local Craigslist if you haven't already.
Looks like there's a Lenovo Thinkpad just around here: http://www.assemblergames.com/forum...-hardware-and-UMPC-sale-(Canada-gt-Worldwide) , might be worth checking out.
linux kernel compile is really slow, even in high performance processors. I don't know how is your setup, but maybe you can buy a good and cheap desktop pc and send the compiling works there
Yep. For example, the kernel I just built (stripped down to just what I need, i.e. no kernel modules for acoustic couplers and whatnot) took 5:20 (1:55 realtime due to building in parallel). That's with an i5-2400. So 5-10 minutes with an Atom sounds okay imho. Good advice. distcc is your friend if you have secondary machines (like coworkers') to offload work to. So is ccache (even on a single machine). On my machine(s), most of the time, the bottleneck is the linker (which still has to be done locally in any case).
