Will this Optimus vii specification work for Linux Mint

[susrho]

I want to buy my son a good spec laptop for university - for computer science, animation, gaming use. He uses Linux mint, which he is happy to install himself. Are there likely to be any problems with this specification ? Advice thanks !

Chassis & Display
Optimus Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Quad Core Processor 6300HQ (2.3GHz, 3.2GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
16GB HyperX IMPACT 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 960M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
1st Hard Disk
480GB KINGSTON UV400 2.5" SSD, SATA 6 Gb (550MB/R, 500MB/W)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
Ultra Slim 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Integrated 6 in 1 Card Reader (SD /Mini SD/ SDHC / SDXC / MMC / RSMMC)
AC Adaptor
1 x 120W AC Adaptor
Power Cable
1 x 1 Metre Cloverleaf UK Power Cable
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Def. Audio + SoundBlaster™ Cinema 2
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8265 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0
USB Options
4 x USB 3.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Battery
Optimus Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (62.16WH)
Keyboard Language
OPTIMUS SERIES BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED

 

[Stephen M]

Unfortunately there may be problems with that one, the GTX 960 does not work well on Linux distros and it will take a lot of work to get it right, I have that machine and am currently running Ubuntu 16.10 on it bit still not totally happy. If you have a look on the Linux section of these fora there is quite a bit about it and it is worth doing a web search for the GTX960 and Linux. It is the only PCS machine i have struggled with, I have two others. Normally I would switch to the nVidia drivers rather than use the X.org but this is the problem with the 960 and all attempts to do this lead to a log in loop.

Obviously your son has a good computer knowledge so he may sort things easily but it will be a problem. Personally i would go for a machine with a different GPU but that depends on your budget. Also, I would consider a different SSD, the one you have chosen is the Kingston budget SSD, it is OK but about the slowest of the SSDs, a lot of us go for an m2, the Samsungs are great of 256GB and a normal HDD for storage.

 

[susrho]

Thankyou for your advice Stephen. I felt uneasy when I saw the strong disclaimer about Linux that is posted when you select this specification - with good reason it seems. Useful to know about the SSD too, thanks. The search for the right laptop for him continues !

 

[Stephen M]

Normally I would say to ignore the disclaimer, it is just something PCS have to do to cover themselves. All other laptops seem to be fine with Linux but you will see the disclaimer on every one. If you choose something with a different GPU you should be OK.

 

[rapiddescent]

you've probably already bought by now; just to add what Stephen says - I've bought 4 different laptop types from PCS now and run Fedora Linux (KDE spin) on them all.

They all worked with the exception of a few bugs on the 2013 Skyfire V:

• it had dual "optimus" graphic cards (not the same optimus as the PCS laptop) that required some tricky setup using "bumblebee" - but it did work
• it's webcam never worked - but the webcams on the other laptop types worked. i suspect it was actually faulty rather than a driver issue.