He y there;
I have a newly purchased Asus M50NM-X. I shopped for it looking for a certain feature set, and this met the mark at a really good price. Specs:
Intel Core 2 P8400 @2.26 ghz
4 gigs Ram
Dvd Multi drive
250 gig hdd
Nvidia 9600GS discreet card w/1gig memory
Fingerprint reader and Webcam
15.4 WXGA LCD @ 1280 x 800
built-in wireless a,b,g,n (Atheros 928x)
I didn't, unfortunately, check out this hardware with "nix" in mind. Issues I have found thus far:
1) Wireless card/chip sees my network, but will not connect. (driver issue, I think, or possibly an issue with 64 bit WEP encryption) 2.0 network manager only seems to make provision for 128 bit encryption.
2) No sound,( have been all over forums, and tried many ways/still no sound).
3) DVD drive has issues with "nix", so I had to install 2.0 using Easy BCD and a full ISO on my hard drive ( I'm sure there were others ways).
I am VERY frustrated, and just about to try another distro (maybe 1.8 first), then, which ever distro will work with this hardware. I may just put it on hold and see if any of my posts for help on Ubuntu Forums, Linux Forums, and Notebook Review Forums, come back with results in the weeks ahead. In the mean time I would say that while I really like this machine, (even if I am stuck with Vista for a while), I would not recommend it anyone who intends to either dual-boot or remove Vista and run "nix". Anyone who has some suggestions on getting this hardware to work, feel free to "chime in" or "PM" me.