T440p or System 76 Galago Ultra Pro

[johnny9fingers]

I'm torn between getting a T440P and a System 76 Galago Ultra Pro. The Galago seems to have pretty good specs,
4th Gen Intel® Core i7-4760HQ – 2.0GHz Quad-Core, 14.1″ 1920×1080 IPS, Matte Finish screen,
Intel® Iris Pro 5200 – 128 MB eDRAM, 16 GB Dual Channel DDR3 @ 1600 MHz RAM, Storage 1× mSATA, 1× 2.5″ SATA III
Expansion 3× USB 3.0, SD Card Reader, Multitouch Clickpad, Chiclet Keyboard, Networking Gigabit Ethernet,
Intel® Wireless-AC WiFi, HDMI, Mini DisplayPort, Audio Stereo Speakers, Stereo Mic, Headphone Jack, Mic Jack
1.0 Megapixel Webcam, Security Kensington® Lock, 6 Cell Smart Li-Ion – 53.28 Wh battery.
But I've only had Thinkpads (T530 currently) and have been happy with them. Has anyone had any experience with
System 76 machines?

John

[as]

No personal experience, but the Galago Ultra Pro is a Clevo W740SU. There was a problem with the first generation keyboards, but apparently they fixed that - something you might want to verify. Notebookcheck has a review of it, which suggests you might find the build quality lacking if you're used to Thinkpads. Also see the notebookreview forums. You can probably get the same laptop cheaper if you don't mind installing your distribution of choice yourself - some vendors (such as RJtech) will sell it to you without any OS.

No affiliation with any of the named parties, just trying to be helpful.

[jdrou]

Some points to compare:
The Thinkpad has option for a faster CPU but even with nVidia GPU option graphics will probably be somewhat slower than the Clevo.
The Clevo uses mSATA which can reach higher capacity than the 42mm M.2 slot in the Thinkpad.
If at all possible you should test the T440p touchpad before you buy it. The pseudo-button design gets a lot of complaints (also some don't like the large size).

At this point you might also consider waiting a few more months to see what the next generation brings.

[johnny9fingers]

Thanks for the replies. I love my T530, and sometimes think a bad Thinkpad (is there such a thing?) is better than the best of almost any other machine.
I think when all is said and done I'll get another Thinkpad, but am also considering the X240 and may take your advice and wait to see what the next few months brings. Another question, is it difficult to switch a Thinkpad from a windows OS to an Ubuntu or other OS?

[Shelby Griggs]

Another question, is it difficult to switch a Thinkpad from a windows OS to an Ubuntu or other OS?

I have a dual boot on my T410 with WIN7 and Linux Mint, been several years since I installed BUT as I recall was easy...

SHG

[johnny9fingers]

I've heard people sometimes run into problems getting things to work on a Windows machine running Linux. It sounds like there are workarounds but they can be a pain and may not always work. That's why I was looking into the System 76 machine.....

[BlazF]

I run Win8.1 and Ubuntu dual boot on my T440p with no problems.
You need to disable UEFI and it works just fine.

If you wish to mount your NTFS volumes from Linux you must also disable fast boot in Windows. This way the NTFS volumes will be in a clean state after reboot and you will be able to mount them. Disabling fast boot on SSD (which you should be running anyway) does not really cause more than a few seconds slower boot times.

Hope this helps.

[ThinkRob]

I've heard people sometimes run into problems getting things to work on a Windows machine running Linux. It sounds like there are workarounds but they can be a pain and may not always work. That's why I was looking into the System 76 machine.....

Perhaps, but the System 76 machines aren't designed for Linux or anything. They're just Clevo/other ODM boxes that System 76 does a pre-install and a bit of branding on.

ThinkPads are used by a lot of Linux and BSD developers, and consequently tend to have pretty good support.

[johnny9fingers]

Thanks for the tips & info BlazF and ThinkRob. If I can't wait a few months for the next offerings from Lenovo as jdrou suggested, I will probably get the T440P with an i7-4700 MQ processor, FHD 1920x1080 screen, and 256 GB SSD....
Thanks again everyone, this is a great site.....
John

[johnny9fingers]

Well, now I think I'll wait for the next generation T and X series machines as it sounds like they may be available the end of this month or early February so I'll wait to see them. In the mean time I'll install a second hard drive in the optical bay on my T530 and load Ubuntu or Arch. Now I have to decide between an Intel or Samsung SSD.....