Looking for fully working Intel-based laptop

[Michael B. Eichorn]

On Tue, 2015-12-15 at 17:07 -0600, Adam Vande More wrote:
> 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.

I would quibble with this, the Iris Pro Graphics are a significant step
up from the HD Graphics line. It means I have to use Linux (for now),
but it is a rather nice GPU.

> 
> 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.
> 
> 
>