Mirage will it work?

[amosela]

I'm thinking about buying a 13" laptop to run Ubuntu 11.10 and for that sole purpose, ill be doing basic tasks such as web, office like stuff, programming and using hacking tools (This is ONLY for educational purposes as I will be studying Networks and Security next year and ill have a module is CEH) I also have a tendency to add affects through Compiz add ons.

Will Ubuntu 11.10 run on:
The Mirage
Chipset; AMD Fusion Chipset with Integrated CPU/APU
Processor Support; AMD® Fusion Mobile Processor E350 (1.60GHz) 1MB Cache
Memory Type 4GB DDR-III 1333Mhz
Hard Drive Type 1 x 9.5mm, 2.5” Intel 320 series SSD, SATA 3
Display & Graphics
Graphics AMD Mobility Radeon™ 6310 - DirectX 11
Maximum Resolution 1366 X 768

And if so, will it run well with the add ons. If it'll run well but won't like the Compiz, it's not the end of the world.

Hopefully someone knows off the top of there head. Also anyone know battery life of normal use?

Many thanks to anyone who can help me.

 

[Music Guy123]

I don't have any experience with the mirage but could you cope with 14.1" screen? And what is your budget because you may want a slightly more powerful laptop.

 

[PCS]

The Mirage will run web/office/programming apps no problem. It's not designed for playing high end games or video editing, but anything else should be fine.

We have not carried out battery tests on this chassis, but given the very low voltage APU I would imagine you'll be getting more than the average laptop, perhaps 5 hours or more. I've seem some customers reporting circa 10 hours but we have not been able to verify this. If battery life is imperative, let us know and we'll run a battery test for you.

 

[amosela]

Thanks for help.

I have a new laptop to be my main PC, for media, video editing and all other things. It's a great machine however battery life isn't the best. And I don't fancy dual booting it due to SSD space.

If it'll run basic application with Ubuntu that is great. I would like a 13" screen to be honest portability is an issue with lectures and such. Also budget is about £500.

Also if you could run a battery test that would be fantastic.

Thanks for the help

 

[Wozza63]

this is much faster over all and is only an inch bigger and costs £521.00

Chassis & Display
Xenon: 14.1" Glossy HD LED Backlit Widescreen (1366x768) - LED and one inch bigger

Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i3 Dual Core Mobile Processor i3-2330M (2.20GHz) 3MB - faster speed, bigger cache and has hyperthreading so its almost like having 4 cores

Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG 1333MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (1 x 4GB) - you can upgrade to 8GB later on with this setup

Graphics Card
Intel® HD Graphics 3000 Video Memory Technology up to 1.7GB

Memory - Hard Disk
120GB INTEL® 320 SERIES SSD, SATA 3 Gb/s (upto 270MB/sR | 130MB/sW) - I'm not sure which SSD you selected but this would be good and very fast, an upgrade to the Kingston would also improve load speeds

DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
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)

Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack

Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS 802.11N CARD INC. BLUETOOTH 3.0

USB Options
3 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD

Battery
Upgrade to 62.16WH 6 Cell Lithium-ION Battery (£39) - added this improved battery as you said it may be a problem

Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 65W AC Adaptor

Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED - you said about linux so im assuming you dont need windows?

Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE

Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE

Keyboard Language
INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD

Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE

Webcam
INTEGRATED 1.3 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM

Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)

Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)

Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 4 to 6 working days

 

[amosela]

Wozza365 Thanks for checking all that.

It's a hard decision for me the extra speed is always nice and would make sure any power hungry tasks would be handled well.
However battery performance will take damage. With any luck the Administrator battery performance test will be impressive.

And ill be able to make an informed decision.

 

[Wozza63]

well with the improved battery that i chose on the Xenon, it should surely out run the Mirage

if you want to improve battery, make sure you keep your desktop as streamlined as possible, so dont have 100 programs up

 

[amosela]

That is true. Mhmm I'll wait for the Administrators results first. I'm doing more research into what tools ill be using so I don't go for extra power when it may not even be needed.

 

[Wozza63]

well they will always say a requirement for the program, but the performance of the program will increase when your hardware is improved

 

[amosela]

Also true somehow stumped on which one I should invest in. I suppose for power hungry task I have my main Laptop which is capable of any program that I have used or will be using.

Thankyou Wozza you have been incredibly helpful.

 

[Wozza63]

no problem glad i could help

 

[amosela]

To PCS Expert Administrator A battery test would be incredibly helpful if you was to carry one out for me.

Thanks

 

[Tom DWC]

Mirage re. Ubuntu - have tried it myself and it wasn't much fun. Everything installs okay, drivers and all, but performance was poor in comparison to Windows 7. It just felt too sluggish and unresponsive. Battery life took a hit too.

 

[amosela]

Tom what version was you using?
And was was it all round performance or on specific tasks?

Thanks btw

 

[Wozza63]

lol my performance on my laptop improved dramatically, i used to use windows on a scorpio black 7,200RPM drive and i have to use Ubuntu 11.04 on a 5,400RPM drive, and it still boots quicker than windows

 

[amosela]

It is a bit confusing, because Ubuntu requires very little power to run. Have it on an old desktop with 1.5GB RAM and a 2GHz processor. Anyone else had Ubuntu running on the Mirage?

 

[Music Guy123]

I would strongly recommend upgrading to the 14.1" xenon. It will be a lot more powerful and will make sure that ubuntu runs smoothly and quickly. It isn't that much more, if you buy it without an os, it will be relatively cheap. Wozza's original xenon spec was a fairly decent one and the cpu will be much more powerful.

 

[amosela]

It looks like that is going to be the best option. But don't want to spend extra if I don't have to.

 

[Music Guy123]

Ok, well what is your budget? I will try and spec something as close as possible that is the most powerful for your money.

 

[amosela]

It's around £500 I can get the the Mirage for £414 with 4GB RAM 80GB SSD With the 1.6GHz Processor
With the Xenon Ill have the I3 Processor 2.2Ghz 4GB RAM 120GB SSD £517

Ubuntu requires
1 GHz CPU (x86 processor (Pentium 4 or better))
1 GiB RAM (system memory)
15 GB of hard-drive space (or USB stick, memory card or external drive but see LiveCD for an alternative approach)
800 by 600 screen resolution