Notebook/Laptop For Developer

Moridin

Moridin

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Hi

Falling in with this first post.

I am a software dev working from home, and the boss says it's time that I replace my dinosaur. I do most of my dev work using IntelliJ doing mostly Spring Java apps, but I am also thinking of doing some ASP.NET Core work.

My budget is R30k - R40k.

What is the best Notebook/Laptop I can get for that money. Minimum requirements are:

- 15 inch screen (IPS)
- Decent keyboard with keys decently spaced for comfortable typing
- 1TB SATA drive
- 256GB SSD drive
- 8GB memory

I looked at the Dell Precision 5510, which at 41k is slightly outside the budget, but not a great fan of Dell also.
 
Who is paying for it?

Who is supporting it - will your employee provide technical assistance?

Just seems odd that you are choosing your own laptop.

Why not a fan of Dell?
 
Ancalagon said:
Who is paying for it?

Who is supporting it - will your employee provide technical assistance?

Just seems odd that you are choosing your own laptop.

Why not a fan of Dell?
Click to expand...

Boss is paying. I am quite proficient with hardware, so I will sort most issues out myself.

My current notebook is a Dell. Previous to that I had HP/Compaq, Acer, Fujitsu, etc. The best so far was the Fujitsu, followed by Acer, and the HP. HP had continuous issues with PSU brick going bad. The Dell is way too slow for the hardware config it has (possibly poor motherboard architecture).

Yes, my boss allows me to choose my own laptop :-)

That happens when you are working in a decent company and you are one of the key personnel.
 
Not MSI

Dell has served me best over the years, but the last one I had wasn't the greatest (albeit the strongest of the lot). But over the years we've subjected those Dell's to a lot of punishment and they haven't failed us.
 
I agree for the keyboard, taken from 13" laptop. There is so much unused space on sides. They reduced keyboard to make space for a giant touchpad. And you pay for a touch screen you don't need.

Have you looked for Lenovo? They always paid attention to the keyboard.
 
There is a reason corporations use Dell. Their 3 year next business day warranty and support is 2nd to none. It doesn't matter if you are a techy or not when it comes to replacing something. My 2 year 10 month old home 14 inch Latitude recently had a CPU problem and I had a new motherboard and CPU installed within 3 days.

I really wouldn't look at anything else.

At work I have just got a new Latitude. i7 quad core / 8 thread, 8GB RAM, 256GB m2 ssd (and a free HDD bay for another drive), Radeon m370 GPU, 15 inch IPS, full backlit keyboard. Was about R26k.
 
If you want to spend all the budget, Dell XPS or precision. 3 year onsite is great, especially when you need it.

What rubberized palm rest? What hybrid SSD? Don't think the 9550 or 9560 come with either of these.
The keyboard is a letdown, plenty of space for numpad.


Any skylake/kabylake mobile i7, 16 gig ram and SSD will do it however.
Hell, I still use a i7-4510U in my dell inspiron 5547, and I have no issues running multiple intellij instances plus supporting apps/services
 
Last edited:
Tell your boss thanks for being cool.

Is there a reason it has to be a laptop? You'll get much better bang per buck with a desktop.

30-40 is a very respectable budget.

Random thoughts:
>Get an enterprise line. Latitude/Thinkpad/whatever
>Get extra screens. Two of them. Plus a laptop stand with high lift, giving you effectively 3 screens to work on. Make sure the lappy supports the extra screens
>Wireless keyboard & mouse. Doesn't have to be fancy. Laptop keyboards are a tiny bit small in my experience
>For that money you can do better than 256gb ssd and 8 gb memory

Also NB. Tell your boss man you want to use some of the budget for good intertubes if you don't have something already. No point in him giving you a 40k machine and then using dialup
 
HavocXphere said:
Tell your boss thanks for being cool.

Is there a reason it has to be a laptop? You'll get much better bang per buck with a desktop.

30-40 is a very respectable budget.

Random thoughts:
>Get an enterprise line. Latitude/Thinkpad/whatever
>Get extra screens. Two of them. Plus a laptop stand with high lift, giving you effectively 3 screens to work on. Make sure the lappy supports the extra screens
>Wireless keyboard & mouse. Doesn't have to be fancy. Laptop keyboards are a tiny bit small in my experience
>For that money you can do better than 256gb ssd and 8 gb memory

Also NB. Tell your boss man you want to use some of the budget for good intertubes if you don't have something already. No point in him giving you a 40k machine and then using dialup
Click to expand...

I have a proper desktop with 2 screens at my home office. The laptop is only for traveling.
 
Go to carb and get one there. Half the price and twice the spec of the Dell you mentioned in the OP. And with warranty.

Madness spending more than R20k when you don't have to.
 
I currently use a surface book as my development laptop. At home I connect it to my external monitor and use an external keyboard and mouse. Works like a charm! Just an idea for you to consider
 
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