[mdlug] Laptop upgrade (was: Linux is "greener")

[Ingles, Raymond]

> From: Ingles, Raymond 

>  When and if I bump up the memory, I will also put in a 16MB video card (to
> replace the 8MB one in there now) - but that'll have to wait until I have
> some xmas money to play with...

 And now I do, and I did the upgrade over the weekend. It was pretty
straightforward to pop up the keyboard and extract the DIMM and the video
module. I ended up having to reassemble the laptop one-handed, since Luke
woke up from his nap early. :->

 But it works nicely. I can report that the combination of an 802.11g card
(vs. the 802.11b card that I was using), 512MB RAM vs. 384MB, and 16MB VRAM
vs. the 8MB that was in there, results in a noticeably more responsive machine
when running Ubuntu 7.10. (This laptop doesn't run Windows at all - the CD
drive is shot and installing Windows over the network is... awkward.)

 So far, the only program that's *dramatically* improved is bzflag. With the
8MB Geforce2Go module, it would only run smoothly at 320x240 with all eye candy
disabled. I figured it *should* have been faster, but that's not what I saw.
With 16MB, it was running just fine with good detail at 1024x768. There must be
a minimum VRAM size it'll work with... or else it was RAM pressure.

 Sincerely,

 Ray Ingles                                           (313) 227-2317

 It's funny how, when it's an economic issue, it's all "We are fifty
 sovereign states" but when it's a (so-called) moral issue, all of a
         sudden we are one nation. - Bernard HP Gilroy
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