Suitable laptop for .NET development

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Skywalker42

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Calling all serious developers.
I need to get a laptop for .NET development, but my hardware knowledge is not up to date. :cry:
My budget is +- R 7000.

What would the minimum specs be for a suitable laptop?

RAM: Is 2GB enough ? (will be using Virtualbox to boot different OSes)
Disk size and speed ?

CPU ?
What do all these numbers mean ?
Intel Core i5-430
Intel Core i7-620M
Intel Core i3-330M
Intel Core i5-520M

Is the brand name important ?
HP, Dell, Packard Bell, Sony ? Anything to avoid.

If you are a developer please tell me what you use and are happy with.

Thanks in advance.
 
Ok, your budget is screwing you a bit....but if you can get an Core i3 with at least 4GB RAM, you've got a fighting chance. The Core i3 has two physical CPUs and simulate another two with hyperthreading. Works a treat.

If you're gonna run virtual boxes, you can run two max.....2 CPUs + 2GB RAM for the host system and then 1CPU + 1GB RAM for each virtual pc.

*Skip the Core i5, all it does is to overclock the CPU for an extra 200Mhz in speed, but it does not justify the price tag....check Anandtech/Toms Hardware if you don't believe me.
 
@kingrob 100% on the money RE: i3 and i5

Slap as much RAM as you can into that sucker. Chances are you'll be running your IDE (VS 2010 I assume), A Database, Webserver, Webbrowser and your rocking coding tunes. 2GB of RAM goes all too quickly.

What sort of development are you going to be doing? Web or Application?
The virtualisation, is it for testing purposes or someother reason. If it's purely for testing, then don't base too much of your choice on the virtualisation factor. You can pickup a dinky desktop these days for very little.

But then again I did C++.NET development on a HP nx9100 (3gig Pentium 4 - overheated like crazy), it was painful. Run Delphi alright but VS seemed like bridge too far.
 
For development I would think screen real-estate to be a criteria and then work down from there. Have to agree with kingrob, R7k isn't enough.
 
These days I prefer low or high en gaming notebooks for development. They usually have more than enough screen real-estate, memory, CPU grunt and all the extras that you need for high performance, things that make coding a lot less painful.
So yeah, R7K might be a little tight. I'd look at the Asus offerings if I were you (reliability, reliability, reliability)
Also, you might consider a business type notebook with crappy display card, a decent i3 or i5 chip and 4GB of memory, then drop an 80GB SSD in for windows, visual studio etc. Those SSD's would work great with Visual Studio and all the small file reads that goes along with running VS.
 
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Drake2007 said:
For development I would think screen real-estate to be a criteria and then work down from there. Have to agree with kingrob, R7k isn't enough.
Click to expand...

+1 to real-estate. I have a 17" 1920x1200 notebook. Big to carry around, but can see soo much. Alternatively... external display helps sort this out as well. I use my notebook screen with an external display as well.

Don't know much about the current notebook processors... but I can add two cents here:

Find a notebook with next business day support. I'm using a Dell, and if anything goes wrong, they come fix the next day, and are always on time. They also just bring new parts and replace (not fix). I haven't had to send my notebook away in the nearly 4 years that i've had it, yet basically the whole machine has been replaced, piece by piece (mobo, gfx, keyboard, screen, HDD).

The three year support options comes standard on all their machines (I bought mine a while back with accidental damage cover extra that covers damage - screen hinges etc - which is not in the standard 3 year warranty, so get the facts if you buy).

Run 64bit (I think most machines are these days), and get more than 2GB RAM (even if you buy the RAM extra). This of course depends on the types of apps you are going to build, but it helps when opening multiple instances of VS. I'm running at 2.11GB ram as I type on Win7.

Last comment: Depending on the type of dev work you are doing, it might be advantageous not to have the latest greatest CPU, because you might not notice bottle necks that could severely hamper users on slower machines. This is not so important for Web Dev, where the server is likely more powerful than ur notebook. Also, the argument is moot if you have a slow test machine that would be perfect for the job.
 
Thank you guys.

I will be using Visual Studio and MySQL for desktop apps only and I have a 21" monitor
to plug into the laptop, and the VBox will be for testing purposes only.

Incredible connection has a Packard Bell TM87
Intel core i3-330 2.13 Ghz
4 GB RAM
for R 6999.00

Will that do ?
 
Look at the HP 4720s, its a tad over R8000 I think.

i3, 4GB ram, 320GB disk, 17.3" display (1600x900 though).

I use it at work for dev and I cannot complain the slightest, it works well!
 
Any AMD based laptop with 4GB (at least) RAM will do for .NET 4.0 development. HP and Acer usually have some nice AMD machines in their product line up.
 
Rouxenator said:
Any AMD based laptop with 4GB (at least) RAM will do for .NET 4.0 development. HP and Acer usually have some nice AMD machines in their product line up.
Click to expand...

LOL. You with AMD. You are really obsessed.
I'd like to buy a VW. What do you think?
 
Game has HP-G62 with free printer for R5999.
Core i3 350m, 3gb ram, 320GB HDD, Windows 7.
Also has Toshiba i3 for R5999 and 3yr warranty (2Gb ram though).
 
I think you should always support the least evil company possible and ensure your money goes to a company that actually needs it and will use it to deliver great things in the future.

also you should try and be a little different and not just be mainstream, boring and a sheep. But hey, if you like being part of the crowd an intel i7 Dell / Lenovo and a VW Passat / Eos will have the desired effect.
 
superskully said:
Game has HP-G62 with free printer for R5999.
Core i3 350m, 3gb ram, 320GB HDD, Windows 7.
Also has Toshiba i3 for R5999 and 3yr warranty (2Gb ram though).
Click to expand...

For that money rather get an HP 625 (R4600) and spend an extra R1000 to upgrade the RAM to DDR3 4GB. Maybe also upgrade the Windows 7 license to professional.
 
I'm not sure if you'll be able to get a brand new laptop suitable for development for just R7000.

I bought my Dell Inspiron 9400 (Dual Core [T7200 @ 2GHz], 2GB RAM, 100GB HDD, ATI Mobility x1400, 17" @ 1920x1200, WinXP) 2nd-hand about 2 years ago for R4500 and I spent about another R2500 on 4GB RAM and a new battery -> total ~ R7000.
It's OK for development due to its high resolution, which is actually slightly too high for that screen size, but it doesn't have enough memory and cores for running virtual machines that often.
At my work I have an Core i7 860, which is perfect for running multiple Virtual Machines. I just wish that I bought 8GB of RAM instead of 4GB so that I can run Virtual Machines all the time.

I would try to go for a laptop with at least a Core i5 or i7, 4GB or more RAM, 16" or larger screen @ 1600x1024 or larger resolution and 2x digital video out (HDMI + DVI) and Win7 x64 Pro.
If you have 2 external screens, then you can sacrifice on the laptop's screen size of course.
A PC like this would set you back like R10k - eg. ASUS N61JV (Core i5-460M, 4GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, 16" @ 1366x768 [a bit small resolution for my taste])

I really don't know how you can work on a single 21", seeing as 2x 23" isn't always enough for my development work.
 
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I'd emphasize screen size & quality too. Unless you're doing heavy DB dev like Tourist said, then the screen might have to take a back seat.

You'd also need a keyboard with a feel & size you like....they differ quite a bit between brands.

shogun said:
Find a notebook with next business day support. I'm using a Dell, and if anything goes wrong, they come fix the next day, and are always on time. They also just bring new parts and replace (not fix). I haven't had to send my notebook away in the nearly 4 years that i've had it, yet basically the whole machine has been replaced, piece by piece (mobo, gfx, keyboard, screen, HDD).
Click to expand...
Not exactly a plus point for Dell if pretty much everything has already failed. ;)
 
Skywalker42 said:
Thank you guys.

I will be using Visual Studio and MySQL for desktop apps only and I have a 21" monitor
to plug into the laptop, and the VBox will be for testing purposes only.

Incredible connection has a Packard Bell TM87
Intel core i3-330 2.13 Ghz
4 GB RAM
for R 6999.00

Will that do ?
Click to expand...

I agree with other replies, get yourself at least a 17.3'' notebook.

Otherwise your specs look ok.

*I saw a nice Acer 17.3'' Core i3/5 at Incredible Corrupution, should do the trick....hope you have good negotiation skills. Good luck!
 
I didnt get the impression that you are doing sharepoint development. But I am mentioning this if you ever get there... If you are going to run the latest sharepoint 2010 + sql 2008 in virtual pc mode you better have 8 gig of ram. It'l work on 4gb but its sslooww...
 
Nefertiti said:
I didnt get the impression that you are doing sharepoint development. But I am mentioning this if you ever get there... If you are going to run the latest sharepoint 2010 + sql 2008 in virtual pc mode you better have 8 gig of ram. It'l work on 4gb but its sslooww...
Click to expand...

Thanks Nefertiti

No. I don't expect to do sharepoint dev any time soon.

/googles sharepoint :D

I'm more into desktop apps at his stage but I made a mental note of your comment.

Thank you all for sharing your knowledge and experience. I appreciate it.
 
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