Dev Laptop <£600 - Ubuntu 14.04

[JVassie]

Looking to get a light and portable laptop for development work. I aim to install Ubuntu 14.04 on it. Thoughts please? Anyone bought a laptop with no OS from PCS before and installed Ubuntu?

Chassis & Display
Genesis Series: 15.6" Matte HD LED 16:9 Widescreen (1366x768)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Dual Core Processor i5-5200U (2.20GHz, 2.7GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
Integrated Intel® HD Graphics
1st Hard Disk
240GB KINGSTON V300 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
Ultra Slim 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Wireless/Wired Networking
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N-7260 HMC (300Mbps, 802.11BGN) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options
3 x USB 2.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 3.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Genesis Series 32WH Battery (Up to 9.5 Hour Battery Life)
Power Cable
1 x UK Power Lead & 30W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
GENESIS SERIES INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Windows 10 Upgrade
FREE Upgrade to Windows 10 with all Windows 7 & Windows 8.1 Purchases*
DVD Recovery Media
NO DVD RECOVERY MEDIA REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Gold Warranty (2 Year Collect & Return, 2 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 5 to 7 working days

 

[Stephen M]

Have been using Ubuntu since my first PCS laptop two plus years ago and have had no problems. Only thing I would change on yours is the SSD, the V300s have performance issues, either the Kingston Hyper X or Samsung is fine and does not cost much more.

 

[JVassie]

Have been using Ubuntu since my first PCS laptop two plus years ago and have had no problems. Only thing I would change on yours is the SSD, the V300s have performance issues, either the Kingston Hyper X or Samsung is fine and does not cost much more.

Thanks for the reply. I presume when you ordered it, you chose 'Without an Operating System'?

 

[Stephen M]

Correct. It came with a 30-day trial version of Windows 8, they need an OS for testing. That was the only slight problem as I had not encountered UEFI before, so needed to deactivate that before changing the boot order in the BIOS. Ubuntu is now UEFI compliant so you may not have that problem.