Suggestions for .NET developer laptop specs
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I'm moving to a new company and they asked me what kind of machine I want when I get there (this is a first). I've never developed on a laptop and want to be able to bring things on the road with me. I never gave any thought to what kind of horsepower a developer machine needs because I was always told what I would be using and just put up with the performance. Now that I get to pick I'm at a loss. They're a Dell shop and suggested that I build one on Dell.com and send them the link. My only requirement is that I can hook up two monitors. Other than that I want to keep it reasonable for them, so no crazy peripherals like a BluRay burner... Any suggestions/direction greatly appreciated!
Mike Devenney
Sony Vaio, always, the best laptop ever Besides the amount of memory and processor speed you have been recommended to take, y recommend you to take care about the size of the screen, there is some vaio laptops with a 16-inch screen and with a resolution of 1600x900 pixels, that's my recommendation Good luck! Regards Juan
Saludos!! ____Juan
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I'm moving to a new company and they asked me what kind of machine I want when I get there (this is a first). I've never developed on a laptop and want to be able to bring things on the road with me. I never gave any thought to what kind of horsepower a developer machine needs because I was always told what I would be using and just put up with the performance. Now that I get to pick I'm at a loss. They're a Dell shop and suggested that I build one on Dell.com and send them the link. My only requirement is that I can hook up two monitors. Other than that I want to keep it reasonable for them, so no crazy peripherals like a BluRay burner... Any suggestions/direction greatly appreciated!
Mike Devenney
I say see if they'll spring for one of these(fully loaded of course): http://www.dell.com/us/en/business/notebooks/precision-m6500/pd.aspx?refid=precision-m6500&s=bsd&cs=04&~oid=us~en~4~precision-m6500-anav2~~[^] A core i7 Extreme, 16GB DDR3 @1333Mhz and a 1TB RAID should just about handle VS2010
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I'm a .net platform developer currently wondering around a services mesh... With this kind of architecture I easily find myself with 4, 5, 6 Visual Studio's 2008 opened at the same time + one SQL SERVER Management Studio... + several services running on my machine to deliver content do the site... 4Gb is too short for me... 8Gb minimum... Still... for a couple of years I used only one laptop (a powerful ASUS G1S) as my only machine, with a 2nd monitor. Although the machine was very good, it isn't the same thing as having a desktop with 2 big monitor plus one laptop. So my current configuration is a Quad Core with 8Gb, 500Gb disk space and thinking about adding 2 more HD's to try to speed the IO, 1x 22" monitor + 1x 19" monitor. The Laptop is nothing that fancy but also have 4Gb and a cool performance. I have both computers on all the time but use only one keyboard and one mouse to control both. InputDirector is the best free tool around for this (way better than Synergy). At extreme cases where I need a 3rd monitor I use a tool called MaxiVista to extend the desktop PC desktop into the laptop screen... very coll and very very handy! :) Cheers mate! Good luck on your new job! :)
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Think of a suitably large number for memory, double it, specify that as RAM. Repeat for HDD. Long Life Battery. Best Network Card you can specify.
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave
Skip the long battery life - if you want a laptop you can actually develop on then battery should be the least of your worries. Even on the road you'll have someplace to plug it in - and programming on a plane isn't really worth the trouble anyway. Or you can get an airline adapter if you really need to. I've tried working on some burly laptops we bought for developers that wanted a laptop, and I'm much happier sticking to a desktop. For half the price I get much better performance and don't get annoyed waiting for every compile. At half price I can get a burly desktop for home and work, and be more productive. I only use a laptop if I have to be on-site at a client, and even then I usually spend my time RDP'd to a desktop machine. That said, if your company is paying for your system, don't skimp based on price - think of how much you get paid and how many hours the faster machine will save you over it's life, and its pretty easy to make the ROI case for another $500. Also, I'd focus on RAM and CPU - developing code usually isn't that hard drive intensive (unlike video editing or something). Shaving 10 seconds off boot time isn't really that big a deal, unless you are crashing your system all day.
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4gb RAM, 250GB SSD, dual-core CPU
.45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly
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"Why don't you tie a kerosene-soaked rag around your ankles so the ants won't climb up and eat your candy ass..." - Dale Earnhardt, 1997
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"The staggering layers of obscenity in your statement make it a work of art on so many levels." - J. Jystad, 2001I second that, just pay very good attention to L2 Cache. Make sure it's 2MB minimum. 1066 MHz DDR3 RAM, should also be a must.
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Skip the long battery life - if you want a laptop you can actually develop on then battery should be the least of your worries. Even on the road you'll have someplace to plug it in - and programming on a plane isn't really worth the trouble anyway. Or you can get an airline adapter if you really need to. I've tried working on some burly laptops we bought for developers that wanted a laptop, and I'm much happier sticking to a desktop. For half the price I get much better performance and don't get annoyed waiting for every compile. At half price I can get a burly desktop for home and work, and be more productive. I only use a laptop if I have to be on-site at a client, and even then I usually spend my time RDP'd to a desktop machine. That said, if your company is paying for your system, don't skimp based on price - think of how much you get paid and how many hours the faster machine will save you over it's life, and its pretty easy to make the ROI case for another $500. Also, I'd focus on RAM and CPU - developing code usually isn't that hard drive intensive (unlike video editing or something). Shaving 10 seconds off boot time isn't really that big a deal, unless you are crashing your system all day.
"unless you're crashing your system all day" He did say ".NET development".
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I'm moving to a new company and they asked me what kind of machine I want when I get there (this is a first). I've never developed on a laptop and want to be able to bring things on the road with me. I never gave any thought to what kind of horsepower a developer machine needs because I was always told what I would be using and just put up with the performance. Now that I get to pick I'm at a loss. They're a Dell shop and suggested that I build one on Dell.com and send them the link. My only requirement is that I can hook up two monitors. Other than that I want to keep it reasonable for them, so no crazy peripherals like a BluRay burner... Any suggestions/direction greatly appreciated!
Mike Devenney
My Core2 (not Core2 Duo) 1.8GHz 2GB RAM laptop (a General Dynamics XR-1 GoBook, if you want to look up the specs) isn't fast enough for the VS2008 debugger with C# .NET code -- it misses breakpoints all over the place. The other developers in my group with quad-core desktops have no problems. So.. if you're going to be doing C# .NET debugging under VS2008 on it, get something at least as fast as a quad-core desktop. YMMV of course.
patbob
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I'm moving to a new company and they asked me what kind of machine I want when I get there (this is a first). I've never developed on a laptop and want to be able to bring things on the road with me. I never gave any thought to what kind of horsepower a developer machine needs because I was always told what I would be using and just put up with the performance. Now that I get to pick I'm at a loss. They're a Dell shop and suggested that I build one on Dell.com and send them the link. My only requirement is that I can hook up two monitors. Other than that I want to keep it reasonable for them, so no crazy peripherals like a BluRay burner... Any suggestions/direction greatly appreciated!
Mike Devenney
Mike, I have a DELL laptop that up until recently (Ive had it 3 years) was sufficent to serve as bothg a desktop and mobile and it wasn't too small either. The only downside is you will not be using it on a plane as it's too big for the flip down trays unless you are in first class. The DEL XPS M2010 is a big monster but it is big enough and powerfull enough to serve as a mobile and a desktop because it is in essence a portable desktop computer. You really have to try it out to fully appreciate it. So long as you are OK with not being able to work on it in yoru lap then you will find no better mobile computer. I think its the only one with a built in carrying handle. The M2010 is a 17" with detachable (Blutooth) keyboard and mouse that has built-in multimedia aduio/video (I love wattching movies on mine). One additional note; pay for the extar warranty that covers hardware and get 3- years worth. The one problem you may have depending on how much you travel with it (I take mine tow ork every work day) is that the mechanism that latches the keyboard and the bottom half to the monitor portion (The top half) can need repair after alot of use over 2 years or so. If you do decide to get one be sure to share your experience.
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I'm moving to a new company and they asked me what kind of machine I want when I get there (this is a first). I've never developed on a laptop and want to be able to bring things on the road with me. I never gave any thought to what kind of horsepower a developer machine needs because I was always told what I would be using and just put up with the performance. Now that I get to pick I'm at a loss. They're a Dell shop and suggested that I build one on Dell.com and send them the link. My only requirement is that I can hook up two monitors. Other than that I want to keep it reasonable for them, so no crazy peripherals like a BluRay burner... Any suggestions/direction greatly appreciated!
Mike Devenney
I'm very satisfied with my work laptop: i7 64-bit (4 cores, hyperthreading), 1.6Ghz 6GB RAM 320GB (non-SDD) Drive 160GB SSD Drive Windows 7 Pro 64 I've had as many as 3 VMs and 3 very large software solutions open (with 2 of them compiling) and half a dozen other apps, and never notice a slow down. (Oh and Winamp playing - gotta have my music at all times) A couple of random thoughts: * A lot of high-end laptops have HDMI and VGA out, so to hook up an additional monitor, you only need the monitor. * Mine isn't a Dell and in my case I don't have this option, but I think if I did, I would definitely get a couple of docking stations (one for home one for work). Right now I have to hook up power, external VGA, and USB and it's a minor annoyance. * If I had to, I'd probably sacrifice 2 GB ram to keep the SSD drive - the uber-fast drive makes a real difference with Visual Studio builds - it has to open/read/close thousands of individual files during a build. I put all my virtual hard drive files and source code on the SSD drive, for this reason. (You'll have my SSD when you pry it from my cold, dead laptop!) * Get an external keyboard if you use one at home. Switching between two very different keyboards is a killer. If you do use the laptop keyboard, see if you can find a model with an easy way to disable/enable the touchpad when you get to typing a lot. My old HP laptop had a button right above the touchpad to do this, and it was a godsend while coding. Eric
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I'm moving to a new company and they asked me what kind of machine I want when I get there (this is a first). I've never developed on a laptop and want to be able to bring things on the road with me. I never gave any thought to what kind of horsepower a developer machine needs because I was always told what I would be using and just put up with the performance. Now that I get to pick I'm at a loss. They're a Dell shop and suggested that I build one on Dell.com and send them the link. My only requirement is that I can hook up two monitors. Other than that I want to keep it reasonable for them, so no crazy peripherals like a BluRay burner... Any suggestions/direction greatly appreciated!
Mike Devenney
A lot of laptops have VGA & HDMI - but I have no idea if they can work concurrently..
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza
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