Looking for fully working Intel-based laptop

[Adam Vande More]

On Tue, Dec 15, 2015 at 3:31 PM, Anton Sayetsky <vsasjason at gmail.com> wrote:

> > Dell Precision M6600
> Thanks, I will take a look at this model.
>
> > acpi complains about SD controller coming out of resume, and doesn't
> work after resume(it does before).  Since I don't use it, it's not an issue
> for me.
> I don't care about SD too, so this is not a problem.
>
> > I'm also not sure about "totally disable Intel graphics".   Obviously
> you can just not load the driver, but that will not eliminate power
> consumption.  I have the nvidia card for this laptop as well, but it isn't
> physically installed so I cannot confirm it would work, although I expect
> that it would.
> I'll try to explain. Correct me if I wrong.
> It's about so called nVidia Optimus. AFAIK, this works by doing rendering
> on Intel or nVidia card, but the display output on Intel unconditionally.
>
I think it switches the output between them internally when stuff like 3D
is active.

> Latest supported Intel graphics on FreeBSD is that comes with Ivy Bridge.
> So if I will buy Haswell-based laptop, I won't get fully functional video
> subsystem even if nVidia card is present. I'm also not sure if disabling
> screen output through Intel is physically possible.
>
This laptop is a Sandy Bridge and the low end Intel-only video performance
is excellent for all tasks I perform, the most demanding of such would be
playback of full HD video eg streaming 1920x1080 TrueColor.  I no lag, no
stuttering, no distortion.  I suppose it's 3D isn't so good, but I don't
use it.

I believe it probable Haswell support will be in 11.0, but not guaranteed.
For my needs, Haswell/Broadwell doesn't provide much value over Ivy Bridge
and Sandy/Ivy Bridge models are still in a sweet spot for used pricing.

All in all it's a nice laptop which has allowed me to get rid of several
other systems.  However it is big and heavy.  It does not fit in standard
laptop carriers eg a laptop backpack, and it has a hypersensitive
touchpad.  But there aren't many laptops capable of of 32GB RAM along with
all its other power.



-- 
Adam