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StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

starlabs.systems

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Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#321

Post by pmontra »

darrenf wrote: post #210
pmontra wrote: post #167

There are many great features in this laptop, mainly no numberpad and 16:10 screen. I didn't check weight and user serviceability. They don't have the keyboard layout for my county (Italy) but I can live with that because my fingers know where keys are and I work with the USA layout most of the time. The only showstopper is the touchpad without physical buttons. I copy and paste text the X11 way by selecting and clic…

Regarding user serviceability, for the Starbook (which I own) they have a complete pictorial disassembly guide: https://support.starlabs.systems/kb/guides/starbook-mk-v-com... I’d expect the same tbh.

Thanks. It seems that the keyboard is the last component in the disassembly sequence. It's the component that I replaced most in all my laptops because I either dig a hole in the most used keys or I break the mechanics below them. They last me two or three years.

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#322

Post by hajile »

platz wrote: post #244

Considering these two processors: Intel® Core® i9-12900H (2.50GHz 14-core / Turbo Boost up to 5.00GHz) and AMD Ryzen™ 7 (3.20GHz 8-core 6800H / Boost clock up to 4.70GHz) Would the Ryzen actually be faster on average on single-core workloads since it's base spec is 3.20GHz vs the intel's base spec 2.50GHZ? (Not sure how long single core's can Boost for) Or does the Intel outperform the Ryzen pretty much unilaterally?

Golden Cove is a much wider core than Zen 3 and has decently higher IPC. I'd guess Zen 3 is faster at base clocks, but I believe the 12900H doesn't stay at base clocks very often.

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#323

Post by hajile »

ajb wrote: post #178
OptionX wrote: post #50

Back in the old DDR4 people used to say extremely high frequency ram (lets says above 3600MHz), that normally was O.C'd, would make your system unstable. Any one knows if it still happens in these DDR5 days? I'm asking because 6400MHz seems ludicrously high for a guy like me that just last week got some good old 2400MHz sticks for my home server and I'm wondering if it isn't marketing just to show high numbers.

The actual ram internally doesn't clock that fast, and many in fact run at the same rate as in the ddr4 days. The interface tackes the high rate down to a much lower rate but with more data flowing in parallel. But the ratio is locked, so if you overclock, the ram rate has to go up too, which is most likely what makes it unstable. So the upshot is that if this 6400Mhz device is not overclocked, it shouldn't be unstab…

It's far worse than you make it out to be.

Max internal clocks on DDR4/5 are about 400MHz. There's a fundamental limit (rapidly diminishing return) to how fast you can drain and charge capacitors.

They try to make up for it by reading/sending entire row(s) at one time and sending quickly over the wire, but that's clearly reliant on cache line optimization of the program and doesn't do much to improve real-world latencies.

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#324

Post by sschueller »

okasaki wrote: post #164
hedora wrote: post #2

This Linux laptop looks too good to be true. It's available with an AMD or Intel processor, there aren't any strange ergonomic decisions (other than the stow-able web-cam). In particular, they centered they trackpad + keyboard, and it looks like it has decent thermals. The battery is rated for 18 hours. You can choose between a medium resolution, high frame rate display (UHD @ 165Hz) or a 4K 60Hz display. The screen…

- A 16" laptop with no dedicated graphics card. - Matte only option is a weird default over a glossy screen with an optional matte screen protector - Corporate pricing (+324 gbp to go from 32gb to 64gb ram) - Keyboard looks like crap - Only 1 year warranty - Like you said, 4-5 month lead time - Plastic? Basically, you can get better for less, with next day delivery

You can pay for a longer warranty however if they are shipping this to Europe they need to warranty it for 2 years irregardless in Europe.

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#325

Post by azinman2 »

mihaaly wrote: post #165
chx wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Am I missing something? Yeah. The company is three people with practically no money at hand. I can't imagine this being real. Check "full accounts made up to 28 February 2022" https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c... with cash at hand being just 13,887 pounds. How on earth are you making a laptop from that? Framework started with a nine million seed round and had the former head of hardware a…

They seem to be real entrepreneurs running the thing from a farm in rural settings [1] where the director lives (same personal address declared). If I read it right they are in ca. 400k debt so far, working it down slowly. I am wishing them quick success as their product looks great. Perhaps if I will be patient enough waiting 5 month for delivery after payment and will not worry about if warranty (or even shipment)…

I wish them good luck, I just wish as you pointed out with the hyperbolic statements they weren’t trying to poorly emulate Apple marketing. I found the page very harsh graphically and full of elementary design mistakes (font ratios, spacing, layout, etc), and not great copy writing. I know people feel the need to maximize their product marketing, but if you’re going to swing this hard, hire someone who is good enough to do it for you.

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#326

Post by mixedCase »

okasaki wrote: post #311
LtdJorge wrote: post #225

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A 16" laptop with no dedicated graphics card is exactly what I would prefer. I would also prefer glossy, tho. But yeah, I don't get why there are no laptops with high power CPUs that don't include a dGPU, for compiling and many other CPU heavy tasks, there's absolutely no need to go over an iGPU, with a Radeon 680m being almost level with an RX 6400.

> A 16" laptop with no dedicated graphics card is exactly what I would prefer. OK, so you are not interested in games, machine learning, 8k60, or any other thing that depends on a dedicated GPU. But you are willing to blow $2000 on a laptop. That's a very niche situation.

A lot of people don't need to run the latest AAA blingfest at max settings, run ML workloads on localhost, or drive freaking 8k displays on the go.

And yet, people want quality hardware, good screens, comfortable input devices, and snappy enough hardware to either do work on them or consume online content without going blind.

I'm looking to replace a T490 to improve on the shitty screen that came with it, get a faster CPU with moar cores to compile code faster, and take advantage of the latest iGPU performance jump to drive the 4k display. That's pretty much it.

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#327

Post by mihaaly »

ahoya wrote: post #285
mihaaly wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They seem to be real entrepreneurs running the thing from a farm in rural settings [1] where the director lives (same personal address declared). If I read it right they are in ca. 400k debt so far, working it down slowly. I am wishing them quick success as their product looks great. Perhaps if I will be patient enough waiting 5 month for delivery after payment and will not worry about if warranty (or even shipment)…

That’s impressive, they are really bootstrap. The quality of their hardware and their support has been fantastic I highly recommend them if you can afford the weight

It is very promising they are having such good customer feedback.

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#328

Post by ChuckMcM »

LtdJorge wrote: post #233
ChuckMcM wrote: post #4

Cannot see if the 64GB option has ECC. That would be a nice feature for such a big chunk of memory.

64GB of soldered 6400MHz LPDDR5, with ECC? Nope, I don't think so.

Which is sad for me. I really do appreciate ECC on "big" memory (> 32GB) machines.

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#329

Post by teawrecks »

ahoya wrote: post #56
hedora wrote: post #2

This Linux laptop looks too good to be true. It's available with an AMD or Intel processor, there aren't any strange ergonomic decisions (other than the stow-able web-cam). In particular, they centered they trackpad + keyboard, and it looks like it has decent thermals. The battery is rated for 18 hours. You can choose between a medium resolution, high frame rate display (UHD @ 165Hz) or a 4K 60Hz display. The screen…

I have their latest starbook, just arrived a couple months ago and it is stellar. Covid delayed it almost a whole year, but in that time they upgraded frob adwertised 11th gen intel to 12th gen for free, quadrupling cores. It runs extremeley well with latest coreboot and everything. I considered canceling my pre-order because of the long delay, but Support was extremely quick and receptive and it turns out the trust…

I'm seeing conflicting comments about the RAM. You say you're an owner and it has upgradable RAM, other commenters here are saying the RAM is soldered. Is only this new model soldered?

Re: StarFighter 16 inch: 4K Coreboot/Ryzen Linux laptop

#330

Post by blagie »

ldelossa wrote: post #317

I really want to like this laptop but... If you go to their twitter, its a constant barrage of angry customers who havent received their orders in over a year. I dont think im okay with shelling out $3000, waiting possibly over a year, and being told "we are working on it" the entire time. I personally just went with Tuxedo for a linux first laptop.

Except for the wonky webcam (which I can live with), and the lack of GPU (which I'm less sure about; I do a lot of ML workloads), this laptop is exactly the laptop I'd buy, if I knew it actually existed.

Problem is, I'm not confident it actually will exist.

The webcam decision is wonky. My Thinkpad has a little cover I can slide over the webcam. I can buy aftermarket stick-on covers too. Why the complex magnetic mess + storage compartment?

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