New Vostro 1310 Laptop
My old laptop, a Compaq nx 9010, was old and weak, but then it also became stolen, too. So, I’ve put in an order for a Dell Vostro 1310.
(Photo taken from
PC Magazine.)
Why This?
Most laptops are ugly. To get something café-worthy, my options appeared either to be the MacBook, a Vostro, or a Thinkpad. Thinkpads have a bunch of useless buttons littering the keypad, which is sort of a deal breaker. Also, they’re more expensive than this laptop, for essentially the same thing. And the battery sticks out the back. But, they are the quintessential no-nonsense business-class laptop. The T61 is indeed a comparable model to what I’ve ordered.
The MacBook is more expensive for a similar machine ($1900 before shipping for a 4GB 2.4GHz C2D in black.) It is about 1/4 of an inch thinner, though, and is more handsome. The speakers work fairly decently, too. But, it doesn’t have a PC BIOS, which sounds like insanity to me. Furthermore, Mac is proprietary as anything.
HP is too expensive and offers you out of date components to boot. I don’t take Sony or Asus seriously, and Gateway has a bad rep on the Linux scene. So, it had to be a Dell. And, this is the least offensive looking Dell laptop I have ever seen (largely because it appears to have been modeled aesthetically based on the ThinkPad chasis.)
Released Two Days Ago!
The laptop came out in the UK on April 15th, 2008, and I bought it two days later. It won’t hit the U.S. until May 1st, 2008. Currently, there are only a few articles online about it, mostly from pre-release samples that Dell sent out. Notebook Review’s article on the 1310 offers a fairly good review, and CNET has posted a lovely photo gallery of the machine.
My Configuration
Below is an outline of the configuration I chose for the laptop, and a collection of useful links about the various components and specifications.
| Component | Manufacturer | Model | Power Cons. | Speed | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Processor | Intel | C2D T9300 | 35W TDP | 2 x 2.5GHz | 6MB L2 Cache |
| System | Intel | GM965 Express | (See Intel Datasheet) | 800MHz FSB | 1MB EPROM |
| Memory | ? | ? | ? | 667MHz DDR2 | 2 x 2GB |
| Hard Drive | ? | ? | Estimated: Read/Write: 2.5W Idle: 2W Standby: 250 mW Sleep: 100 mW |
5400rpm | 320GB |
| Wireless | Intel | 3945abg | Transmit: 1.8W (max) Receive: 1.4 W (max) Idle mode: 150 mW (nominal) Sleep mode: 30 mW (max) (Source: HP) |
802.11b: 1, 2, 5.5, 11 Mbps 802.11a/g: 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 Mbps |
N/A |
| Graphics | Intel | GMA X3100 (i965) | 13.5W (Notebook Review) | 500MHz | Shared with System Memory |
Linux: X3100 vs. 8400M GS
The laptop was available with the option of a discrete graphics card, the nVidia GeForce 8400M GS. After reading all of the relevant pages linked on Google, I decided that the X3100 probably works better on Linux, and would save some battery life. For example, there was an eight page thread on NV News talking about the horrible performance of the Linux drivers.
NVidia is supposed to be good at making drivers! More than likely, nVidia will release better drivers soon which will make it a better Linux chip than the X3100, but I don’t want to wait. For the timebeing, the 8400M GS needs to run at full power all the time just in order to be usable with Compiz. This is due to a power-saving feature called “PowerMizer” which is causing trouble in the Linux drivers for the card.
The Xv / Compiz issue with the X3100 was a concern, though. However, it appears to have been more or less resolved by some Ubuntu Hardy fanboys in this bug report. The XAA rendering architecture is supposed to be deprecated for EXA, anyway, so it’s not terrible that the workaround relies on the new EXA architecture.
Intel released all programming documentation for the 965 chips on January 31st, so the open source drivers should only be getting better as time goes on. What’s going on at nVidia? Who knows; their Linux drivers are proprietary, of course. Two cheers for open source drivers!
Lastly, the X3100 is a chip with huge distribution. It’s in a ton of Dells, Lenovos, the MacBooks, and God knows what else. Anything one can do to chose common commodity hardware is always a bonus with Linux. This is not to say that the 8400M is not also to be found absolutely everywhere, but I think the Mac’s inclusion of Intel’s integrated solution, among other things, pushes the balance more towards X3100 market dominance.
Linux and Some Other Components
I’m not expecting to have trouble with any other components. The harddrive is SATA - standard. Processor? We’ll use an x86_64 SMP kernel. (We’ll need to run x86_64 in order to use the full 4GB of memory.)
The Intel 3945abg wireless chip is another component that is so common on the market as to already have decent support and documentation by necessity. As of Kernel 2.6.24, the supporting iwlwifi code is in the Kernel anyway.
Other than that, there’s some junk like a card-reader, finger-print scanner, and a 1.3MP camera which I will just disable.
Stuff That Isn’t Ideal
The below list is a little long, but none of the problems are really “deal breakers,” as they said at Notebook Review.
- Flimsy plastic
- Glossy back of laptop lid
- Fingerprint scanner
- Media transport buttons above keyboard
- Weak mono speaker
- Card reader
- 1.3MP Camera
- Non-solidstate harddrive
Conclusion
Should be a sick laptop. I’ll be making a full writeup about getting Linux running on the Vostro 1310 just as soon as the thing actually arrives and I get a chance to play around with it! It ships with the k’th iteration of Windows Beasta, so that should be fun to play around with for about an hour before I get serious about computing and life again. How much battery life will she get? What am I going to do with 4GB of RAM? Was my decision to go with the X3100 correct? Only time will tell.
Hi,
I just bought my vostro 13130, Can you please tell me the procedure to install linux on it.
The error i am getting is drivers not found and hard disk space not recognized.
Please help.
Thanks & Regards,
MA
Hi,
Great post!
I realise your post is four months ago, so you probably already have your laptop… but dont be turned off by the fingerprint scanner - of course, it wont work unless you hunt for software in linux but it works great in windows. I use long, random passwords and simply swiping my finger is so much easier and safer.
I have a 1510 so I don’t know if the case is the same plastic as the 1310, but it is NOT FLIMSY AT ALL. It is actually very hard - almost like metal on the main body and the screen is better than a lot of laptops I have seen (but of course, not as hard as the main part).
And, the media buttons are great! Mid-game / programming suddenly a really horrible song on your list come on and you want it to skip it takes milliseconds to do so, and they are never accidentally pressed - plus, it has the eject button there so you cant disable them unless you dont want to use cds (or dvds) / only use one cd. the trayless cd is also awesome, im always paranoid about it snapping and it always seems to be the motor that breaks in other drives.
The gloss looks great but attracts fingerprints like nothing before. The only other complaint I have is that when typing sometimes my finger gets caught between the keys… I don’t really know whats going on there. It is probably my dodgy typing but I am going to blame the Vostro’s keyboard anyway
Hi there… I got a vostro 1310 for work the other day and I had problems with the network card in stable Debian and Ubuntu! But I found the answer in Debian Lenny 64-bit (I’ve got Dual Core 2 Duo) and I’ve got a fantastic 64-bit system for work. Good 3D acceleration (nvidia drivers), media keys, suspend, hibernate, they all work!
Problems remain with: sound (!) - webcam - wifi (but should be possible through ndiswrapper) - fingerprint reader (haven’t tried anything yet)
I am hoping they’ll get gradually fixed through periodic apt-get upgrade, until lenny is properly released!
So… what’s your story? any insights?
The webcam works with Video4Linux2. Sound is working for me (although not the integrated microphone). Wifi works out of the box with newer kernels. intelllinuxwireless.org.
Wherever is the eject button on the 1310? I have put in a CD installation programme but can’t find any button to eject it!
Sarah,
It’s the farthest button to the right on the top line of media buttons. It’s a triangle with a bar under it. :-).
Jameson
hi.i just reformatted my vostro and downgraded form vista to xp,but now it says that i dont have any sound device installed. sigh..any insights??
Sure - install Linux!
hi everyone…..i just get my dell vostro 1310 but the pc card doesent fit well
can u please help me???
hi…i also had bought vostro 1310….
how to use wabcam with vista…
now it’s not working….
somebody help me?
The Vostro 1310 is a great laptop, I won’t kid you. I’m sorry to hear about your various troubles with Windows, but I do not condone the use of that operating system as you can tell from this post. Questions about Windows usage and operation are best suited for their respective forums. If you are a Vostro 1310 Linux user, I look forward to responding to your comments here.
Hi Jameson,
I am in the process of buying a Vostro (also for Linux-only computing), and I still don’t know which one to take (i.e. the 1310 or the 1510?). I want to use it for programming, latex editing and web browsing. As I carry my laptop everywhere, I would try the 1310. However, is’t the screen too small?
Dragos, my last laptop was a 15″ screen and so I too was initially worried about the screen size on the 1310. However, if you’ve ever used a MacBook, it’s roughly the same screen. Before I bought the 1310, I used my friends’ MacBook for a bit and did think it would be a tough adjustment. It has been 100% a non-issue. It’s right in front of your face since you type on it, and it has 1280×800 resolution which is close to what most people are used to from the CRT days. My advice would definitely be to go for the 1310 because it is smaller, looks cleaner, and the unless you are hard of sight, the screen size shouldn’t be a problem. Bringing it around hasn’t ever been an inconvenience: it’s easier than lugging a textbook, basically. Incidentally, I use my laptop for nearly identical purposes (programming, html editing, and web browsing.)
Thank you very much for the reply :). I think I will go for 1310 in the end…
Did you even manage to get the internal mic going? I see reports that people have managed to get the ALC268 going, but I’ve had no luck.