Buying a Laptop - Can I have some help?
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Okay, what spec should I look for for a dev ready laptop? I won't need over 15" screen as I have an external I'll use as well, but I'm after help on processor [i5?] and memory [4GB]. I am undecided between going down Win8 or finally switching to Ubuntu [Ubuntu, they use it in the Jungle!]. HDD capacity isn't a big thing, I've got 2TB, and growing, external. But a DVD player would be useful or should I move to an external. The budgie right now is ~£400 but I'd like to know what I should get [probably costs more] and then look at what I can get. Mercans can only suggest if they'll ship it here. For free. As in beer.
Reality is an illusion caused by a lack of alcohol "Nagy, you have won the internets." - Keith Barrow
I know it's a little over your budget - but hey, the girls won't need uniforms for another three years :) Go the MacBook air
MVVM # - I did it My Way ___________________________________________ Man, you're a god. - walterhevedeich 26/05/2011 .\\axxx (That's an 'M')
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Okay, what spec should I look for for a dev ready laptop? I won't need over 15" screen as I have an external I'll use as well, but I'm after help on processor [i5?] and memory [4GB]. I am undecided between going down Win8 or finally switching to Ubuntu [Ubuntu, they use it in the Jungle!]. HDD capacity isn't a big thing, I've got 2TB, and growing, external. But a DVD player would be useful or should I move to an external. The budgie right now is ~£400 but I'd like to know what I should get [probably costs more] and then look at what I can get. Mercans can only suggest if they'll ship it here. For free. As in beer.
Reality is an illusion caused by a lack of alcohol "Nagy, you have won the internets." - Keith Barrow
Maybe you should look to have a DisplayPort also (this is for external displays with resolutions bigger than 1920x1200). i5 should be enough (I have an i3 and it's still good), but definitely go with more than 4 Gb RAM and an SSD.
If you can't explain something to a six year old, you really don't understand it yourself. (Albert Einstein)
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Okay, what spec should I look for for a dev ready laptop? I won't need over 15" screen as I have an external I'll use as well, but I'm after help on processor [i5?] and memory [4GB]. I am undecided between going down Win8 or finally switching to Ubuntu [Ubuntu, they use it in the Jungle!]. HDD capacity isn't a big thing, I've got 2TB, and growing, external. But a DVD player would be useful or should I move to an external. The budgie right now is ~£400 but I'd like to know what I should get [probably costs more] and then look at what I can get. Mercans can only suggest if they'll ship it here. For free. As in beer.
Reality is an illusion caused by a lack of alcohol "Nagy, you have won the internets." - Keith Barrow
Take a look in the BT shop. (Unless it is restricted to customers only). I saw an i3 with 4G and a 320 drive plus a 20G ssd(don't ask me how that works) for £350. Built-in DVD RW. Or pad out a used Elitebook with new bits for a couple of hundred(smelly I know).
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4GB RAM is fine - I've had an i5 laptop for about 2 years where I was doing all sorts of SQL Server, Oracle, VS development. However, having recently forayed into Ubuntu (yuck) and Ruby on Rails, 8GB became absolutely necessary to run Ubuntu in a VM. Fortunately, I've been able to get all the RoR stuff to work under Windows so I can do all my development there. Yay! Marc
Funny that. I run Ubuntu with W :laugh: indows virtual machines and get away with 2GB RAM. It must be some bloatware you're using to put up VM. What host are you using?
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Okay, what spec should I look for for a dev ready laptop? I won't need over 15" screen as I have an external I'll use as well, but I'm after help on processor [i5?] and memory [4GB]. I am undecided between going down Win8 or finally switching to Ubuntu [Ubuntu, they use it in the Jungle!]. HDD capacity isn't a big thing, I've got 2TB, and growing, external. But a DVD player would be useful or should I move to an external. The budgie right now is ~£400 but I'd like to know what I should get [probably costs more] and then look at what I can get. Mercans can only suggest if they'll ship it here. For free. As in beer.
Reality is an illusion caused by a lack of alcohol "Nagy, you have won the internets." - Keith Barrow
I recently bought a refurbished DELL XPS 1730 for development purposes that meets the mini-specification you cited in all particulars: 32 GByte SSD, 1 TByte normal hard disk, 4G Bytes RAM, DVD reader-writer, and so forth. $700 on eBay, and there were others available at the same price. I'm quite happy with it. Among persons I know who've bought refurbished laptops, the experiences appear to be generally positive. The machines we've purchased have proved reliable...so far!
(This message is programming you in ways you cannot detect. Be afraid.)
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Funny that. I run Ubuntu with W :laugh: indows virtual machines and get away with 2GB RAM. It must be some bloatware you're using to put up VM. What host are you using?
Simon O'Riordan from UK wrote:
It must be some bloatware you're using to put up VM. What host are you using?
I'm using Virtual Box. It would be fine, but in the VM I was running Ruby on Rails with the RubyMine IDE doing lots of feature test runs, and it's slow, plus switching to Windows using my own Intertexti application (see article somewhere here, haha) for taking meeting notes, etc. Which is why it was really nice when I solved various problems with native gems to get the whole web app running under Windows with RailsInstaller and Cygwin. Marc
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Simon O'Riordan from UK wrote:
It must be some bloatware you're using to put up VM. What host are you using?
I'm using Virtual Box. It would be fine, but in the VM I was running Ruby on Rails with the RubyMine IDE doing lots of feature test runs, and it's slow, plus switching to Windows using my own Intertexti application (see article somewhere here, haha) for taking meeting notes, etc. Which is why it was really nice when I solved various problems with native gems to get the whole web app running under Windows with RailsInstaller and Cygwin. Marc
Rails-I mentioned one Ruby automation ute I wrote for softie admin at one company, and now I get loads of job ads aimed at Rails experts. My favourite fun time is Mono c# on Linux(I'm tight, only free stuff); one toy I've written is a cross-platform encryption pad( GUI-based of course so that anybody's mum could use it). Should I put the project up in an article, you think? Maybe not. When I put it on my anon FTP, the host had a 'policy change' and stopped anon. Nudge nudge, wink wink.
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Rails-I mentioned one Ruby automation ute I wrote for softie admin at one company, and now I get loads of job ads aimed at Rails experts. My favourite fun time is Mono c# on Linux(I'm tight, only free stuff); one toy I've written is a cross-platform encryption pad( GUI-based of course so that anybody's mum could use it). Should I put the project up in an article, you think? Maybe not. When I put it on my anon FTP, the host had a 'policy change' and stopped anon. Nudge nudge, wink wink.
Simon O'Riordan from UK wrote:
and now I get loads of job ads aimed at Rails experts.
I haven't update my online resume to include the Rails work I've been doing - I've got more than enough work at the moment and more in the pipeline, but its good to know there's a demand out there, even though RoR has only something like .2% of the web development market (some stat I saw on CP a couple months ago.)
Simon O'Riordan from UK wrote:
Should I put the project up in an article, you think?
Suer, why not? Marc
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I don't know half this shit. :laugh: :laugh: I've found a Toshiba, a brand I trust and like, with an i5, 4gb and 1TB HDD all for £390. It can take a second 4gd RAM block [or so it is said] which I'll do later. It might be I are sorted.
Reality is an illusion caused by a lack of alcohol "Nagy, you have won the internets." - Keith Barrow
Nagy Vilmos wrote:
I've found a Toshiba, a brand I trust and like, with an i5, 4gb and 1TB HDD all for £390. It can take a second 4gd RAM block [or so it is said] which I'll do later. It might be I are sorted.
Check to see that you have access to put the 2nd 4gb stick of RAM in. I have a Toshiba i5, came with 4GB and is able to take 8GB. When I got it 12 - 18 months ago I bought 8GB of RAM to stick in it. Turns out, all I have to do is remove the keyboard, then the motherboard, put the RAM in and put it all back. If only all things were this fucking easy. Still has 4GB by the way.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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harold aptroot wrote:
4GB RAM seems a little tight to me
I agree. I'm running Weven and my observation is that it likes to run in 8GB. At work, they got me a 16GB i7 and I really have to lean on it to get it to use more than 8GB (once I start running virtual machines it uses more). Whereas my quad core AMD Phenon II system at home seems to be wheezing with its initial 4GB. I added 2GB to it for 6GB and it seems only marginally better.
Psychosis at 10 Film at 11 Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it. Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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Take care with the resolution available with an external monitor. I have a 2 year old Samsung that was very expensive, i7, 8gb, ssd, blah blah. It wont do more than 1024*768 resolution on an external monitor..
_Josh_ wrote:
It wont do more than 1024*768 resolution on an external monitor..
What connector is used to connect to the external monitor? Can't believe anything that new couldn't do better.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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Okay, what spec should I look for for a dev ready laptop? I won't need over 15" screen as I have an external I'll use as well, but I'm after help on processor [i5?] and memory [4GB]. I am undecided between going down Win8 or finally switching to Ubuntu [Ubuntu, they use it in the Jungle!]. HDD capacity isn't a big thing, I've got 2TB, and growing, external. But a DVD player would be useful or should I move to an external. The budgie right now is ~£400 but I'd like to know what I should get [probably costs more] and then look at what I can get. Mercans can only suggest if they'll ship it here. For free. As in beer.
Reality is an illusion caused by a lack of alcohol "Nagy, you have won the internets." - Keith Barrow
• i5/i7 • 7200rpm drive, but SSD much preferred • RAM = 8G or more (RAM is cheap) /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
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Okay, what spec should I look for for a dev ready laptop? I won't need over 15" screen as I have an external I'll use as well, but I'm after help on processor [i5?] and memory [4GB]. I am undecided between going down Win8 or finally switching to Ubuntu [Ubuntu, they use it in the Jungle!]. HDD capacity isn't a big thing, I've got 2TB, and growing, external. But a DVD player would be useful or should I move to an external. The budgie right now is ~£400 but I'd like to know what I should get [probably costs more] and then look at what I can get. Mercans can only suggest if they'll ship it here. For free. As in beer.
Reality is an illusion caused by a lack of alcohol "Nagy, you have won the internets." - Keith Barrow
Why a laptop? Do you really require it to be a laptop? If you don't require mobility, better get a Desktop, you will get something twice better, if you select a Desktop, for the same price... The aim is easy, get as much as you cant. RAM, Processor and Video Card (I you will not work with heavy video/images or gaming you can same some buck without an expensive Video Card) Now if you really need a Laptop... Again, get as much as you can pay, laptops are one buy without real possibilities of upgrade, so get as much as you can pay, be sure to get a lot of RAM (8GB as minimum) and Processor, for sure a Laptop will not be used for Video/Image unless you pay like 3000+ UDS for a Graphic performance laptop (stupid because a 1000 USD desktop will do better) But my last advice is: if you will do heavy work, better get a Desktop, laptops always die by heat...
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Okay, what spec should I look for for a dev ready laptop? I won't need over 15" screen as I have an external I'll use as well, but I'm after help on processor [i5?] and memory [4GB]. I am undecided between going down Win8 or finally switching to Ubuntu [Ubuntu, they use it in the Jungle!]. HDD capacity isn't a big thing, I've got 2TB, and growing, external. But a DVD player would be useful or should I move to an external. The budgie right now is ~£400 but I'd like to know what I should get [probably costs more] and then look at what I can get. Mercans can only suggest if they'll ship it here. For free. As in beer.
Reality is an illusion caused by a lack of alcohol "Nagy, you have won the internets." - Keith Barrow
You didn't specify what development tools you intend to use on your new laptop. I tend to do my development in VMs so when I finish a project I can either delete or backup the VM and move onto the next project. I work with the Microsoft development stack and found that development with Visual Studio and any version of SQL Server other than the CE edition on an i3 with 6GB of the 8GB RAM available dedicated to the VM brought the machine to its knees due to swapping. It would work with that configuration as long as I worked directly on the host O/S rather than in a VM. In this case the host and VM OSes were Windows 7 Ultimate. About 9 months ago I was upgraded to Windows 8 Enterprise on an i7 with 16GB RAM and have not had any problems using VS and SQL Server in a Windows 7 Ultimate VM with the VM getting 10 - 12 GB of RAM. The i3 laptop had a 5400 RPM physical hard drive and the i7 laptop has a 7800 RPM hard drive. Of course, YMWV (your mileage will vary).
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Okay, what spec should I look for for a dev ready laptop? I won't need over 15" screen as I have an external I'll use as well, but I'm after help on processor [i5?] and memory [4GB]. I am undecided between going down Win8 or finally switching to Ubuntu [Ubuntu, they use it in the Jungle!]. HDD capacity isn't a big thing, I've got 2TB, and growing, external. But a DVD player would be useful or should I move to an external. The budgie right now is ~£400 but I'd like to know what I should get [probably costs more] and then look at what I can get. Mercans can only suggest if they'll ship it here. For free. As in beer.
Reality is an illusion caused by a lack of alcohol "Nagy, you have won the internets." - Keith Barrow
Nagy Vilmos wrote:
a dev ready laptop
I won't need over 15" screen as I have an external
I've got 2TB, and growing, external
a DVD player would be useful or should I move to an external
With everything external like that, why are you considering a laptop at all? You'll be pretty well lashed to a particular physical location with all that stuff hanging off the box. At that point, you might as well get the extra performance you can have by getting a desktop for your money. If you do decide on a laptop anyway, I'd make sure it has USB3 or something fast like that for the disk. Using a USB2 disk for the kind of development I do is painfully slow.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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What about AMD CPU's? What would be equivalent to an i5.
Reality is an illusion caused by a lack of alcohol "Nagy, you have won the internets." - Keith Barrow
An A10 gives you quad core with decent graphics. Take a look at this one on sale at Fry's this weekend: http://www.frys.com/product/7412985#detailed[^] Here is another one: http://www.frys.com/product/7672387?site=sa:adpages%20page:P33_MON%20date:082613[^] I use one at work and have an i5 for my personal laptop. They are pretty equivalent in performance, but I believe the A10 has the edge in raw speed, where the i5 is a bit better with battery life. However the i5 is a 15.6" screen while the A10 is a 17", so that affects battery life, too.
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Okay, what spec should I look for for a dev ready laptop? I won't need over 15" screen as I have an external I'll use as well, but I'm after help on processor [i5?] and memory [4GB]. I am undecided between going down Win8 or finally switching to Ubuntu [Ubuntu, they use it in the Jungle!]. HDD capacity isn't a big thing, I've got 2TB, and growing, external. But a DVD player would be useful or should I move to an external. The budgie right now is ~£400 but I'd like to know what I should get [probably costs more] and then look at what I can get. Mercans can only suggest if they'll ship it here. For free. As in beer.
Reality is an illusion caused by a lack of alcohol "Nagy, you have won the internets." - Keith Barrow
Depends what you are developing for, if the computer is you main computer or not. I use three, a desktop with multiple screens, a laptop (asus game republic) which has 16gb and dual SSD disk with 1920x108 screen and a surface pro 128 (same res screen).The surface Pro can plug into a HD monitor. You want either Windows 8 or Ubuntu. I am not sure you are defined on what you want to develop. your price range is really looking at the lower range machine in what I would not consider development machines.
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Okay, what spec should I look for for a dev ready laptop? I won't need over 15" screen as I have an external I'll use as well, but I'm after help on processor [i5?] and memory [4GB]. I am undecided between going down Win8 or finally switching to Ubuntu [Ubuntu, they use it in the Jungle!]. HDD capacity isn't a big thing, I've got 2TB, and growing, external. But a DVD player would be useful or should I move to an external. The budgie right now is ~£400 but I'd like to know what I should get [probably costs more] and then look at what I can get. Mercans can only suggest if they'll ship it here. For free. As in beer.
Reality is an illusion caused by a lack of alcohol "Nagy, you have won the internets." - Keith Barrow
I use VMs, deal with images, video rendering, dozens of browser tabs open. I can make really good use of an i7 & 8GB of memory to the extent that I wish I had 16GB. Depends on how big the project and what your using it for specifically: VMs, Video, 100 tabs open, etc. Get and SSD if you can .. the difference is very, very noticeable. Karl
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_Josh_ wrote:
It wont do more than 1024*768 resolution on an external monitor..
What connector is used to connect to the external monitor? Can't believe anything that new couldn't do better.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004
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_Josh_ wrote:
It has hdmi and vga
HDMI can do 1920 x 1080 and I've had VGA doing greater than that on a DELL E43?0 and E61?0.
Michael Martin Australia "I controlled my laughter and simple said "No,I am very busy,so I can't write any code for you". The moment they heard this all the smiling face turned into a sad looking face and one of them farted. So I had to leave the place as soon as possible." - Mr.Prakash One Fine Saturday. 24/04/2004