my new 15.6" UltraNote II

uber_tom

Member
Specs

Chassis & Display
UltraNote: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Backlit Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i5 Dual Core Mobile Processor i5-4210M (2.60GHz) 3MB
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
INTEL® HD GRAPHICS MEDIA ACCELERATOR 4600
1st Hard Disk
500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
UltraNote Series: 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD INC. BLUETOOTH 3.0
USB Options
2 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
2 x UltraNote Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery


its lots of fun. i installed opensuse tumbleweed on it and everything seems to work. my initial plan was to install a light system based on the openbox desktop but i soon learned i'm useless at setting up wireless without the network manager so i ended up using kde.
I'm not a big fan of these new on chip gpus but i suppose it makes sense on a laptop. it supports openGL pretty well so i've got my desktop set up how i like it, wobbly windows and everything.
i would had happily paid extra for a blu-ray option if it was available, i'd be nice to get see how the linux decoding works on a decent cpu (my linux desktop is only a sempron @1500 mhz, and it just can't handle blu-ray content).
battery life seems about average, even with the dodgy linux power management (2 hours+ when streaming videos over my network).
not sure if it's 'cos i piad extra for thermal past or just 'cos i haven't really pushed it but it seams to run pretty cool, the fan hardly ever kicks in.
i went for a cheep HDD and its fast enough for me. i was tempted to go for a small SSD as space isn't that much of an issue for me (i have plenty of NAS space) but i was worried about swap space eating up write cycles and wearing the disk out quickly (does anyone know if this is an issue?).
if i had to change anything i might've gone for the lower res screen, i'm not sure 15.6" is big enough for HD and my eyes suck.
still pretty pleased with it, not exactly suitable for hardcore gaming, but i suck at gaming on laptops anyway. that said i might install neverwinter nights on it later and i can't see it having any trouble with that.
 

mantadog

Superhero Level Poster
Looks like a nice build.

I'll just pick up on the SSD issue. In short no, you can write as much as you like to a SSD and it wont have a short lifespan. The figure thrown around a while ago was 10GB/day for 10 years that's a lot of data for getting on for double the lifespan of an average PC. it may have come down a bit as new types of NAND are being used, but if you look round the tech sites they have stories of manufacturers having drives on a bench somewhere that have been punished beyond all write cycle reason and are still alive and well.

So if you get the chance to upgrade to a SSD do it. They are blindingly fast and will rip your 5400 rpm drive to bits in terms of everything.
 

uber_tom

Member
Thanks for the info. i've been wary of SSD for a while but now i think i'll include one on my next system. i'm not sure i'll upgrade this laptop though as it only takes a few seconds to rusume from hibernation and i only really use it to browse the web and move files around the network (where network bandwidth is the bottleneck, not the HDD). altough that said if i find a more intensive use for it it might be worth the effort.
 

Joshu42

Member
Swap is useful only if you want to use hibernate... and take about 2x the size of your RAM. With a SSD, it's easier to power off, andthen boot the laptop when needed. It takes less than 10 seconds...

I have a similar configuration. Not the same size, but I'm curious.

As you use linux as me, can you report your temperature sensors result when you laptop is idle, like after a fresh restart ?
Just run this in a terminal :
$ cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone0/temp
$ cat /sys/class/thermal/thermal_zone1/temp

Thanks a lot !
 

uber_tom

Member
zone 0 14000
zone 1 46000

looks a little suspect to me, but i guess you know what you're looking for.

also isn't swap also used for pageing space/ virtual RAM? i'd have thought that was a good thing, although i did go through a phase of not having any swap and i don't recall having any problems with those systems.
 

Joshu42

Member
zone 0 14000
zone 1 46000
looks a little suspect to me, but i guess you know what you're looking for.
THANKS ! So around 46°C at start on yours.
I have roughly the same now ; but I had to drill several small holes just above the fan.
small_holes.jpg
When I get the time, I probably repaste it.

also isn't swap also used for pageing space/ virtual RAM? i'd have thought that was a good thing, although i did go through a phase of not having any swap and i don't recall having any problems with those systems.
Nowadays, you don't need it :) And 8Go of RAM is plenty ;)
 
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