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Lenovo Q150, OCZ vertex 2, 4Gb of Memory and Ubuntu 11.04


This time I wanted to speed up the the Q150.
I love the Q150, since I got it the disk access seems slow and I wanted to add a bit more memory for disk cache and desktop speed up.

So I got a 60Gb OCZ Vertex 2 for 129$ and corsair 4Gb DDRII 800Mhz for 99$, pics below.

So here are some basic stats with the new hardware.

30s Boot (11s for bios and grub 19s for ubuntu)
5s suspend sleep
5s suspend wake
4s shutdown

Disk speed for OCZ vertex 2
$ sudo hdparm -T -t /dev/sda1
/dev/sda1:
Timing cached reads: 1656 MB in 2.00 seconds = 827.89 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 582 MB in 3.00 seconds = 193.75 MB/sec
Everything is snappier:
  • Firefox loads in 2s
  • Chromium in 1s
  • LibreOffice Calc in 6s.
  • Hulu desktop loads and plays video in 10s.
The machine is still using a Atom CPU, so no miracles can be expected. With almost no noise and 24W power consumption this machine is very useful. It can also attach to the back of any monitor or TV and provides a great web computer to play mpeg videos at full speed and browse websites.

Q150 with SSD and 4Gb DDR mem





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Comments

  1. UnknownFebruary 6, 2011 at 11:24 AM

    Keep up the posts! I enjoy seeing what you have done with the Q150.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownMarch 6, 2011 at 12:02 AM

    Thanks for your blog!

    Are the issues the same with HDMI-sound and wlan @Ubuntu 11.04?

    I am using yavdr 0.3a and there is no panel for the spdif on alsamixer with the Nvidia-Card.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Luis AlvesMarch 6, 2011 at 12:44 AM

    Hi Mczett,

    With Ubuntu 11.04 the HDMI sound and the wifi, is all configured out of the box. Actually all hardware for the Q150 is detected and configured out of the box.

    ReplyDelete
  4. UnknownMarch 8, 2011 at 7:37 PM

    Thanks for all your Blogs. You are go to for the Q150.

    I just put 11.04 on and finally got wireless working. Still have no sound from the HDMI.

    ReplyDelete
  5. benMarch 15, 2011 at 12:33 PM

    That's wonderful that the wireless finally works out of the box. Is there a USB stick build of 11.04 anywhere?

    ReplyDelete
  6. JoeMarch 17, 2011 at 1:00 PM

    Did everyone with 11.04 on their Q150 install it over 10.10 or did you do a fresh install?

    I'm stuck in the mud with the wireless and HDMI issues.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Luis AlvesMarch 18, 2011 at 9:55 PM

    Hi neil,
    just download a iso of 11.04 in a ubuntu 10.10 and Sytem->administration->Startup Disk Creator.

    Hi Ben,
    I did a fresh install, but I have a separate home partition and root partition, I always format the root partition and do a fresh install, and always keep the same home so when I log in I never lose anything. I just need to install all non default apps.


    Hi Neil,
    If you install nvidia drivers sound should work out of the box for HDMI, the think open source drivers don't support sound over hdmi. After installing the nvidia drivers just go to sound Preferences and select Hardware->HDAC to on, and disable the other sound devices.

    ReplyDelete
  8. JoeMarch 19, 2011 at 2:42 PM

    hey
    i got HDMI sound working.

    My setup:
    Lenovo Q150
    11.04 Natty Alpha 3 (no partition on drive)
    Samsung 46inch 1080p

    its a little tricky to get HDMI sound,took me a bit of luck and Lafa's help. if you would like a USB build of mine i would be happy to send it to you. i have not put on XBMC or tested the wireless. leave a contact on this board and i will find you.

    Joe C

    ReplyDelete

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