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Ivy Bridge and 8GB or Sandy Bridge and 16GB

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    Ivy Bridge and 8GB or Sandy Bridge and 16GB

    This laptop is dying slowly, so I'm looking at getting a new one.

    Because I'm not sure I want to just throw money at it (and I'm not in contract at the moment), I'm torn between two options.

    Intel Ivy Bridge i7-3820QM with 8GB RAM
    or
    Intel Sandy Bridge i7-2640M with 16GB RAM

    The price difference isn't too much and the rest of the spec is pretty much the same because it's a custom build machine.

    Just not sure whether I should go for the quad core but lower memory or dual core with more. I'm not prepared to go for the quad core and 16GB because then I start putting stupid things in the machine and end up looking at £1600 for a new laptop, which isn't what I want to spend by a long shot.

    So - which one?
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    #2
    What do you plan to use it for?

    My desktop only has 4Gb for Win7-64bit-ultimate and it's OK, so unless you're doing VMs running DBs I'd strongly suspect 8Gb in a laptop is fine.
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      #3
      Originally posted by d000hg View Post
      What do you plan to use it for?

      My desktop only has 4Gb for Win7-64bit-ultimate and it's OK, so unless you're doing VMs running DBs I'd strongly suspect 8Gb in a laptop is fine.
      Possibly running VMs running Oracle - I've got one built somewhere

      I normally run a Windows XP VM on here quite a lot as I use it for my <ahem> unofficial uses - not that it does a lot, but occasionally I do need a Windows machine for some of the Oracle software as well.

      If I was running Oracle on here, I'd need two VMs running at the same time - one for the development tools (or some of them) and one for the server. I can't be bothered to have another go trying to install it all on Windows again.
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        #4
        In my experience, take the RAM - disk is your limiter in a laptop (unless you've got External SATA or USB 3 , in which case go for the proc)

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          #5
          <Bunk>Get a Mac<Bunk>

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            #6
            Go for the Ivy Bridge. You can upgrade your memory in the future but you can't upgrade the processor....

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              #7
              Also consider SSD.
              Never has a man been heard to say on his death bed that he wishes he'd spent more time in the office.

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                #8
                Originally posted by rsingh View Post
                <Bunk>Get a Mac<Bunk>


                When did I become the new Pooperscooper?

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Scoobos View Post
                  In my experience, take the RAM - disk is your limiter in a laptop (unless you've got External SATA or USB 3 , in which case go for the proc)
                  Laptop will have multiple USB3 sockets, and I have a 1.5TB USB3 drive sitting in my desk drawer which I've used once.

                  Originally posted by rsingh View Post
                  <Bunk>Get a Mac<Bunk>
                  **** off!

                  Originally posted by Durbs View Post
                  Go for the Ivy Bridge. You can upgrade your memory in the future but you can't upgrade the processor....
                  Don't think the motherboard will support more than 8GB. That said, by the time I notice that I "need" more RAM, I'll probably be wanting a new machine anyway.

                  Originally posted by Scrag Meister View Post
                  Also consider SSD.
                  I'm considering a hybrid HDD. I need to have lots of disk space for the VMs, which means that either I sacrifice the DVD player and get two hard drives, or I need to go for a big hybrid drive. SSD is far too expensive in the size I need it - my Oracle VM is nearly 300GB on it's own.


                  Hmmm - decisions, decisions.

                  And one of the desktop monitors is playing up today as well - flickering every few seconds and earlier the machine wouldn't recognise what kind of monitor it was so put it in crappy resolution mode.
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                    #10
                    Originally posted by TheFaQQer View Post
                    Don't think the motherboard will support more than 8GB. That said, by the time I notice that I "need" more RAM, I'll probably be wanting a new machine anyway.
                    AFAIK if your mother board will support more than 4GB of RAM than it will support more than 8GB.
                    I know this as my old dell only has 32bit address lines to the RAM meaning it's capped.
                    Next up is 64 bit address lines which give peta-bytes of RAM access

                    If your machine is dying then it's probably just in need of a physical clean out to prevent over heating. Install something that can measure the CPU temps, they should be around 40C when idling and be able to return to cold from hot reasonably quickly.

                    A fresh install of windows on an SSD (128GB for < £100 now) might help, secondary HDD's can also help spread the burden when running VM's

                    Of course if you just want shiney new kit to spunk your excess profits on then ignore all of that and get ordering!
                    Coffee's for closers

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