Re: [Discuss-gnuradio] Good laptop for GR/USRP

[Michael Dickens]

Probably won't come as a surprise to those who know me, but we have  
used MacBook Pro's with good results.  While I've never tried, in  
theory a MacBook (not Pro) could also suffice, since internally it's  
about the same as the Intel iMac, of which we also have a number  
running GNU Radio at full USB speeds.

Various benefits of either a MacBook or MB Pro (or iMac):

* You can run OSX, WIndows, Linux / *BSD, or combinations of these  
via Virtual Machine(s).  My preference is OSX with a Linux (Ubuntu  
for now) VM.  Very handy for checking correct functionality of my GR  
programming.

* Intel Core-2 Duo w/ good L1/L2/L3 cache.  Get 2 GB of DRAM (as 2x 1  
GB).  Comes with a decent hard drive, but if speed is what you need  
then adding a FireWire 800 drive or array will get you plenty more  
than 32 MBps of sustained r/w throughput.

* "reasonable" cost given the expected life-span and versatility of  
the computer.

* Doubles (easily) as a desktop machine in power, portable for  
presentations and demos.  This is especially true for the MacBook  
(not Pro), at a mere roughly 5 pounds.

If you can wait another month or so, you can probably get the next  
generation laptop, which will likely come with the "hybrid" hard  
drive which includes a large flash cache to speed things up much  
further.  My US$0.02. - MLD