[LAU] [LAD] How well do thinkpad notebooks work for audio?
Peter Finnegan
peter.c.finnegan at comcast.net
Wed Jul 29 10:52:41 EDT 2009
On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 2:52 AM, Frank Barknecht<fbar at footils.org> wrote:
> Hallo,
> hollunder at gmx.at hat gesagt: // hollunder at gmx.at wrote:
>
>> It feels like my several year old PC will crap out soon for one reason
>> or another, so I need a replacement, better sooner than later.
>> This time it should be a laptop and I heard that formerly IBM and now
>> Lenovo thinkpads are of good build quality, even if they only come
>> with intel CPUs and cost an arm and a leg.
>
> The Thinkpads seem to have a pretty active net community doing sites like
> www.thinkwiki.org, which are very helpful. There's nothing bad about Intel
> CPUs, actually I consider them the best choice ATM for laptops, especially if
> you get a device with an Intel gfx chip inside, they have excellent FLOSS
> drivers. Personally I agree that Thinkpads are a bit overpriced, you can get
> equivalent laptops cheaper from manufacturers like Acer or MSI, which are the
> two companies I have first hand experience with: I have an MSI S260 which
> currently gets replaced by an Acer Timeline 3810T. Both are well supported by
> Linux. The new one requires bleeding edge software, i.e. Debian unstable in my
> case. On the ACER, no interrupts are shared when AHCI is enabled, but I guess,
> that's normal for AHCI:
>
> $ cat /proc/interrupts
> CPU0
> 0: 31601 IO-APIC-edge timer
> 1: 7186 IO-APIC-edge i8042
> 8: 99 IO-APIC-edge rtc0
> 9: 13850 IO-APIC-fasteoi acpi
> 12: 25164 IO-APIC-edge i8042
> 16: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb3, uhci_hcd:usb7
> 18: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb8
> 19: 24 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb6
> 21: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb4
> 22: 182 IO-APIC-fasteoi HDA Intel
> 23: 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb2, uhci_hcd:usb5
> 26: 138998 PCI-MSI-edge i915
> 27: 8011 PCI-MSI-edge ahci
> 28: 61621 PCI-MSI-edge iwlagn
> NMI: 0 Non-maskable interrupts
> LOC: 15229 Local timer interrupts
> SPU: 0 Spurious interrupts
> RES: 0 Rescheduling interrupts
> CAL: 0 Function call interrupts
> TLB: 0 TLB shootdowns
> TRM: 0 Thermal event interrupts
> ERR: 0
> MIS: 0
>
> I didn't yet do any hardcore audio tests on that laptop, it's running an
> upstream large latency kernel. With laptops, I think, it's important to know
> your ways of using it. For example, the Acer is not the fastest device around
> (it's just a single Core CPU), but it's very light (1.65kg) and has an amazing
> battery life (up to 8h with dimmed display), so it's great to take on the road
> which is where I will be using it the most and where I can deal with a slower
> CPU, but not with a huge and heavy monster. The other extreme would be a
> netbook, but I prefer the 13" screen of the Acer - my eyes don't cope well with
> 10" screens, and Atoms just don't cut it in the long run for audio work. So to
> me, the Timeline is a good compromise, but your compromise will probably look
> different.
>
> Ciao
> --
> Frank
I have been using a thinkpad z61m. The most problems that I have had
were the graphics, in that it had an ati x1400 display. Now that the
driver is open source, I don't have to deal with the headeaches of
fglrx and realtime. As of the latest distros, I have had no problems
getting anything working. I have never gotten the webcam to work,
though, but I have never had a use for it either.
The Z61m is quite large, definitely not thin and light, but it is
sturdy. The reason I got it initially was due to the fact that it had
firewire built in, while the T series did not. You may be able to get
a deal on a slightly older model of thinkpad as it comes off lease.
Unfortunately, I do not know of a good wholesaler to recommend.
I do not know if the T series have similar interrupts, but I will
post the commands you requested below.
$ cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0 CPU1
0: 54945 1 IO-APIC-edge timer
1: 786 0 IO-APIC-edge i8042
8: 1 0 IO-APIC-edge rtc0
9: 1026 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi acpi
12: 55270 2 IO-APIC-edge i8042
14: 3383 0 IO-APIC-edge ata_piix
15: 0 0 IO-APIC-edge ata_piix
16: 6803 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb2, mmc0,
yenta, tifm_7xx1, radeon at pci:0000:01:00.0
17: 2431 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb3,
ohci1394, HDA Intel
18: 28 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi uhci_hcd:usb4
19: 212 0 IO-APIC-fasteoi ehci_hcd:usb1, uhci_hcd:usb5
2296: 2 0 PCI-MSI-edge eth0
2297: 5600 2 PCI-MSI-edge iwl3945
2298: 19132 1 PCI-MSI-edge ahci
2299: 0 0 PCI-MSI-edge pciehp
2300: 0 0 PCI-MSI-edge pciehp
2301: 0 0 PCI-MSI-edge pciehp
2302: 0 0 PCI-MSI-edge pciehp
NMI: 0 0 Non-maskable interrupts
LOC: 12979 27960 Local timer interrupts
RES: 10722 14651 Rescheduling interrupts
CAL: 30 91 Function call interrupts
TLB: 229 486 TLB shootdowns
SPU: 0 0 Spurious interrupts
ERR: 0
MIS: 0
$ lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML
and 945GT Express Memory Controller Hub (rev 03)
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/PM/GMS, 943/940GML
and 945GT Express PCI Express Root Port (rev 03)
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High
Definition Audio Controller (rev 02)
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express
Port 1 (rev 02)
00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express
Port 2 (rev 02)
00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express
Port 3 (rev 02)
00:1c.3 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express
Port 4 (rev 02)
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB
UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02)
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB
UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02)
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB
UHCI Controller #3 (rev 02)
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB
UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02)
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2
EHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GBM (ICH7-M) LPC Interface
Bridge (rev 02)
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE
Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801GBM/GHM (ICH7 Family)
SATA AHCI Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 02)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon Mobility X1400
02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetXtreme BCM5752M
Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
03:00.0 Network controller: Intel Corporation PRO/Wireless 3945ABG
[Golan] Network Connection (rev 02)
15:00.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
15:00.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant
IEEE 1394 Host Controller
15:00.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia
Card Reader (SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
15:00.3 SD Host controller: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 SDA Standard
Compliant SD Host Controller
$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 005: ID 0c45:627b Microdia PC Camera (SN9C201)
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 0a5c:2110 Broadcom Corp. Bluetooth Controller
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 0424:2502 Standard Microsystems Corp.
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 002: ID 0483:2016 SGS Thomson Microelectronics Fingerprint Reader
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
As Frank mentioned, the Thinkwiki has been a wealth of information for me.
-Peter
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