[SOLVED]Looking for suggestions in buying a new laptop

[realitykid]

Hello all! I'm looking to buy a new laptop this summer for school, and was wondering which ones would work best with Linux Mint 12/13. What do you all use?

The laptop needs at least an Intel Core i3 or comparable processor, 4gb of ram, 500gb hdd, and 128mb graphics card.

Also, I want Linux Mint 12/13 to work out of the box with all the hardware. I also want it to be able to adjust the screen brightness, even if that means I need to use some sort of work around. Otherwise, it'd defeat the purpose of using it for school as the battery would die pretty fast.

Anything that you can suggest will help. Thank you and I appreciate it very much!

[xenopeek]

Moved here by moderator.

When you write you need a 128mb graphics card, do you mean a discrete graphics card from Nvidia or AMD, or are you fine with the integrated graphics chip in the Intel i3 (which uses a small portion of your system ram, but definitely will have access to at least 128mb). Depends a bit also on if you want to run Windows games or not I guess...

So do you want it to also run Windows? If not, Linux Pre-Loaded has a long list of vendors that offer laptops with Linux (ensuring compatibility).

Another option is to check perspective options against compatibility with Ubuntu or with Linux Mint. See here for Ubuntu https://friendly.ubuntu.com/ and check the hardware database over at the Community website for how other users of Linux Mint rate their hardware.

[wayne128]

I thought just to add in mine

which ones would work best with Linux Mint 12/13. What do you all use?

I had two dells, old already.
this new laptop is Asus X42J laptop with intel i5
viewtopic.php?f=46&t=78209&hilit=+asus

The laptop needs at least an Intel Core i3 or comparable processor, 4gb of ram, 500gb hdd, and 128mb graphics card.

Yes, all met your requirement.
see lspci on the link
graphic is RADEON HD6470M

Also, I want Linux Mint 12/13 to work out of the box with all the hardware.

Yes Mint12 works out of the box. Just like Mint10,11 and many other Linux OSes.
No Mint13 unknown

I also want it to be able to adjust the screen brightness, even if that means I need to use some sort of work around.

Try jupiter, it can save battery life by setting to power save more and thus screen is dim most of the time until you set it to performance more ( bright and drain battery )

Otherwise, it'd defeat the purpose of using it for school as the battery would die pretty fast.

Suggest you read those posts regarding power regression since kernel 2.6.38 and their work around.
For this laptop of mine, win7 is the coolest of all when run all the way till battery flat.
Mint is either warm , hot, warm to hot depending on version, as you can read from some data I captured.

Fuduntu plus jupiter works as cool as win7...

[realitykid]

Moved here by moderator.

When you write you need a 128mb graphics card, do you mean a discrete graphics card from Nvidia or AMD, or are you fine with the integrated graphics chip in the Intel i3 (which uses a small portion of your system ram, but definitely will have access to at least 128mb). Depends a bit also on if you want to run Windows games or not I guess...

So do you want it to also run Windows? If not, Linux Pre-Loaded has a long list of vendors that offer laptops with Linux (ensuring compatibility).

Another option is to check perspective options against compatibility with Ubuntu or with Linux Mint. See here for Ubuntu https://friendly.ubuntu.com/ and check the hardware database over at the Community website for how other users of Linux Mint rate their hardware.

Yes, I am fine with the integrated graphics chip in the Intel i3, which I currently use on my laptop. I'll definitely look at that list of vendors offering preloaded Linux machines. Windows 7 will only be used in a virtual machine, if needed.

Try jupiter, it can save battery life by setting to power save more and thus screen is dim most of the time until you set it to performance more ( bright and drain battery )

Jupiter seams ultimately useless to me. It doesn't even do anything on my current laptop. And I cannot change screen brightness on my laptop either. That's probably why. lol

[Zwopper]

Any ASUS!
The new Zenbooks about to be released are REALLY nice!
Highly recomended!

[realitykid]

Update: I discovered why my laptop wouldn't let me adjust my screen brightness. The issue has been fixed now. lol

Any ASUS!
The new Zenbooks about to be released are REALLY nice!
Highly recomended!

I'll take a look at the ASUS brand then too. What model do you have? Thanks!

[GatheringSpectacles]

Hello all! I'm looking to buy a new laptop this summer for school, and was wondering which ones would work best with Linux Mint 12/13. What do you all use? ... I want Linux Mint 12/13 to work out of the box with all the hardware. I also want it to be able to adjust the screen brightness, even if that means I need to use some sort of work around. Otherwise, it'd defeat the purpose of using it for school as the battery would die pretty fast. Anything that you can suggest will help. Thank you and I appreciate it very much!

The best way to ensure that everything works under Mint when buying a laptop, is to buy one with it pre-installed. I know that doesn't seem like a very easy thing to do, but there are a couple of people that do it. Look at: http://www.linuxpreloaded.com I don't know how many of the people they listed sell laptops with mint, but I know InaTux does.

The laptop needs at least an Intel Core i3 or comparable processor, 4gb of ram, 500gb hdd, and 128mb graphics card.

How about one of these:
http://www.inatux.com/?p=sys12
http://www.inatux.com/?p=sys16

Personally I like AMD, especially AMD video cards, so I'll also suggest this one:
http://www.inatux.com/?p=sys09

Hope that helps!

[realitykid]

Thanks. Ya, that helped. I might get one of the AMDs, the quad core one. Not sure yet though. If not, I'm gunna get an Intel Core i3 from InaTux, seems as how these are name brands, and not some unknown off brand.

Again, thanks!