Re: AMD64-based laptops from HP/Compaq are crippled

From: General Schvantzkoph (schvantzkoph_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 08/14/05 

Date: Sun, 14 Aug 2005 15:32:53 -0400

On Tue, 05 Jul 2005 05:56:46 +0000, Robert Klute wrote:

> On Mon, 04 Jul 2005 20:46:58 -0700, alex goldman <hello@spamm.er> wrote:
>
>>I've been researching my next laptop purchase, and whether it will run
>>Linux, and completely accidentally stumbled upon an alarming issue that
>>people need to be more aware about.
>>
>>Apparently (and if my understanding is correct), HP/Compaq disables
>>dual-channel memory access in Socket 939 motherboards, making CPU <-> RAM
>>communication slower, and overall performance less than what people would
>>expect when buying a system with the outward characteristics of what they
>>think they are getting.
>>
>>http://zv6000forums.com/viewtopic.php?t=148
>
> The laptops use the Turion chip. According to AMD, the Turion's
> integrated memory controller can use PC1600, PC2100, PC2700 or PC3200
> unbuffered DDR SO-DIMMs and has a maximum throughput of 3.2 GB/s.
>
> So, explain to me what engineering in dual channel support is going to
> buy you. BTW, does any vendor manufacture dual channel compatible
> SO-DIMMs?

HP has a number of different A64 notebooks, at least one (R4000) uses a
939 pin processor which could have supported dual channel memory if they
had chosen to do so. All laptops in this range have two DIMM sockets so
dual channel memory is entirely doable assuming that the processor has
support for it (there is no such thing as a dual channel DIMM, dual
channel memory systems use DIMMs in pairs).

The latest laptops all use the Turion which appears to be a single
channel processor. However the Turion is available with a 1M cache which
more then makes up for the lack of dual memory channels.

BTW I have a Compaq R3000z with an 3400+ in it. It's screaming fast and
I've had no trouble running Fedora Core 3, 32 and 64 bit on it. The only
thing that's a pain is the built in Broadcom wireless chip which lacks a
native Linux driver. It can be made to work using Ndiswrapper but that's a
lot less convenient then having a wireless card with a native Linux
driver. If you get an HP/Compaq and they are still using the Broadcom
wireless chip (I bought mine a year ago) I'd recommend that you delete
that option and buy a Linux compatible PCMCIA card.

As for buying an HP/Compaq. The HPs and the Compaqs are identical except
for color. On any give day the price on http://www.hpshopping.com for
identical models can vary significantly between the HP and Compaq versions
depending on the specials of the day so check both models. HP also sells
systems without Windows, you can get Linux or Freedos instead. They don't
offer these systems on hpshopping, you have to go to http://www.hp.com and
look up business systems. I don't know if this is actually cheaper then
paying the Windows tax on hpshopping.com, you'll have to do the
comparisons for the model that you are interested in yourself.

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