Most powerful laptop for under £1000!

[Sysman]

For SQL work, any mid range Core i7 (preferably IB rather than SB), 8GB ram will do the job, just go for whatever has consistently good reviews. Wouldn't bother getting an SSD factory fitted, prices are really starting to drop now, Overclockers have 256GB sata II SSD's for £99.95 now! (if you don't mind sata II speeds rather than III), not long ago it was around £1/GB across the board.

Crucial M4 and Samsung 830's seem to be the reliable top range ones to go for at the moment, just got an 830 for my desktop and its FAST.

Yes, SSD prices are definitely starting to drop. I was looking for extra RAM on Crucial's web site and once I found what I was looking for (16GB RAM at USD ˜90 - yes please), there were some tantalisingly good offers on SSD drives displayed on the same page.

[OwlHoot]

A couple of weeks ago I bought a Samsung RF711 17.3-inch Laptop , which is now just over £700, and am very pleased with it (once I had disabled the mousepad and started using a decent trackerball mouse).

It comes with a c 700 Gbyte drive, and has an expansion slot for another 1000 Gbyte drive, which I'll be ordering in due course.

[Durbs]

I was dead against shiny screens too, but in the end gave up looking for a non-shiny laptop for a shiny price. But now I've had one for a few months, it hasn't really bothered me at all, and actually all other LCD monitors do now look a little "washed out".

All well and good until you decide to go and work in the conservatory like me over summer, I just ended up staring at an image of myself, which was obviously great in its own way, but not particularly productive.

For SQL work, any mid range Core i7 (preferably IB rather than SB), 8GB ram will do the job, just go for whatever has consistently good reviews. Wouldn't bother getting an SSD factory fitted, prices are really starting to drop now, Overclockers have 256GB sata II SSD's for £99.95 now! (if you don't mind sata II speeds rather than III), not long ago it was around £1/GB across the board.

Crucial M4 and Samsung 830's seem to be the reliable top range ones to go for at the moment, just got an 830 for my desktop and its FAST.

[VectraMan]

Just make sure the fecker hasn't got a shiny screen.

Designers of shiny screens are on my death list.

I was dead against shiny screens too, but in the end gave up looking for a non-shiny laptop for a shiny price. But now I've had one for a few months, it hasn't really bothered me at all, and actually all other LCD monitors do now look a little "washed out".

[VectraMan]

I bought an XPS15 - the old old one, the L502x from Dell Outlet a few months back for £500 (someone else on here did the same), and then spent another £100 on an SSD. That's a quad core i7 with 6GB RAM, and I mostly use it as a development desktop with keyboard/monitor/mouse attached. It's certainly not slow. It's not thin, light or particularly pretty, but I needed something to work on rather than pose with on the train.

I guess for SQL Server you want the fastest disk system and as much RAM as you can get.

[escapeUK]

Id be looking for something with a i7, generous memory and SSD.

I spotted this:-

Lenovo IdeaPad G780 i7-3612QM 8GB 1TB 17" BluRay W7HP Bronze (M842VUK) - dabs.com

Which ticks all boxes except SSD, but is only £750. So plenty of money left to buy a SSD yourself.

I dont know anything about this model other than the specs / price, so it might be worth hunting around for a review or seeing if you can see on in the flesh first.

[fullyautomatix]

What you need a super computer.

[MayContainNuts]

Any recommendations, I'm looking to purchase a laptop for my present contract. Doing a lot of SQL Server work, which I''d like to set up locally, can anyone recommend a decent laptop / configuration bearing in mind I want it as a normal work machine as well!

Thx

MCN!