Reply to: Which Laptop for Software Development

[cykophysh39]

I think there are more questions you need to ask yourself here.

Are you likely to run Virtual Machines?
How many Virtual Machines are you going to run at a time?
What are you going to run VM's i.e Biztalk, SQL Server, Sharepoint yada yada

What type of development are you going to do? Web Dev? Enterprise Dev?

How many Operating systems do you target in your Dev?


Answering these questions usually lead to uping the spec of your machine, due to memory and processor usage etc.

If you just doing a bit of php web dev, then either of those machines will do, and yoru choice can basically come down to Screen size for mobility. but you may want to consider what type of docking stations are available for the machines, if you're like me and cart your laptop between work and home and have workstations setup.

Thats my 2p's worth anyway

[Scrag Meister]

Dell XPS 15, 8Gb, I7, 512Gb SSD, 1.25Gb GFX card tulip off a shovel.

HDMI for watching stream movies to a TV

Facial recognistion login, Full HD res screen.

Had it since Sept, very pleased with it.

External monitors, larger screens are useful when doing the dev stuff though.

[VectraMan]

I've found there's a big performance difference with VS2010 in 6GB or 8GB vs 4GB. Not sure why, it doesn't really add up, but the extra definitely made a world of difference.

[eek]

More importantly, will it run run GTA V when it comes out

the 15" with dedicated graphics card will easily do that.

[darmstadt]

I was looking at these but they just didn't quite hit the spot for me so I went for a real developers machine: Lenovo W530, i7 vPro, 32gb RAM, 1920*1080, 750gb drive (thinking of adding an SSD) and that really flies. I run multiple VMs plus some specialised emulation software that requires power and memory. The only problem is the disk is nearly full as some files can grow to 127gb and I have a few of them...

[Spacecadet]

More importantly, will it run run GTA V when it comes out

[SimonMac]

How much disk space does that take up

I have a 100GB allocated but only using 60gb (on the host) with another 10gb of snapshots. There is a lot of free space on the virtual machines disks so with more efficient management it could be done better

[eek]

Which Laptop for Software Development

How much disk space does that take up

[SimonMac]

probably web stuff so VS2012, Intellij and Sql server management Studio/

I doubt I will need to run many databases on the box if that helps.

One downside is that there is no difference in price between the 15" 8gb 256gb and the 13" 8gb 256gb so its possible to live with 128gb of disk space the 15" wins by default.

I run VS2010, SQL 2008 R2 and BizTalk 2010 on a Windows 2008 R2 VM, allocated 4gb ram, with the other 4gb ram for the host and it flies

[eek]

Depends what you are developing?!

probably web stuff so VS2012, Intellij and Sql server management Studio/

I doubt I will need to run many databases on the box if that helps.

One downside is that there is no difference in price between the 15" 8gb 256gb and the 13" 8gb 256gb so its possible to live with 128gb of disk space the 15" wins by default.

[SimonMac]

Is 8gb enough memory. I'm not sure whether to get a 13" MBr or the 15" version and the memory is 1 big reason for buying the 15" version.

Depends what you are developing?!

[eek]

I have a 13" MBP, 512gb SSG and 8gb RAM, I don't use boot camp however I do have a Windows 2008 R2 running in VirtualBox as VM for any Dev work which allows me to use snapshotting etc when I am compiling and deploying locally.

Is 8gb enough memory. I'm not sure whether to get a 13" MBr or the 15" version and the memory is 1 big reason for buying the 15" version.

[SimonMac]

had a look at macbook pro, looks awesom, i see you can install dual boot with windows, i mainly develop with windows, would this be an option?

I have a 13" MBP, 512gb SSG and 8gb RAM, I don't use boot camp however I do have a Windows 2008 R2 running in VirtualBox as VM for any Dev work which allows me to use snapshotting etc when I am compiling and deploying locally.

[VectraMan]

I would not got for the I7 but spend the £300 on an SSD which you will get a much better return on performance increase. Just went for a Crucial m4 and my MBP files now

Yes, but more importantly, get 8GB RAM (or more if you can).

[Greg Longshaft]

I would not got for the I7 but spend the £300 on an SSD which you will get a much better return on performance increase. Just went for a Crucial m4 and my MBP files now

so would you go for the S series, but get SSD instead of better processor, whats your opinion of the E17 with larger screen and plastic build?