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Laptop for Dev

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  • 21-05-2015 2:30pm
    #1
    Buford T Justice
    Registered Users Posts: 6,259 ✭✭✭


    I'm heading back to College in September and I'm looking to get a laptop for same. This will be used strictly for software development and not much else as I have other machines for the rest of my family to use.

    I'm looking to get one for as little dosh as possible (obviously) so I'm looking at 2nd hand tech

    I was thinking along the lines of a lenovo business class machine 2nd hand as they are generally quite robust but would appreciate some input.
    I don't need any bells and whistles and I don't want a laptop that has a numberpad stuck to the keyboard. Sizewise 13" would be fine but a decent resolution on the screen would be desirable.

    I would be running dual boot linux and windows, as I currently write and dev in Linux, and I will be studying C# in college so I will need to use visual studio. The machine would therefore need to be able to handle some heavyweight IDE's reasonably well.

    Any suggestions as to the minimum spec I'd need? or potential machines


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    #2
    Alanstrainor
    Registered Users Posts: 23,157 ✭✭✭✭Alanstrainor


    So can you put a figure on your budget?

    Low budget and high resolution screens aren't really available. Which is mad in this day and age tbh. But there you go.

    I would be thinking a current gen i5, 8GB ram + and whatever hard disk you like would be your best bet.

    Do you mind me asking what you're doing in college? Typically you just wont need that much horsepower for most BA stuff in college. I know I didn't. I survived with an ancient dell for years.


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    #3
    circadian
    Registered Users Posts: 6,965 ✭✭✭circadian


    Buford T Justice wrote: »
    I'm heading back to College in September and I'm looking to get a laptop for same. This will be used strictly for software development and not much else as I have other machines for the rest of my family to use.

    I'm looking to get one for as little dosh as possible (obviously) so I'm looking at 2nd hand tech

    I was thinking along the lines of a lenovo business class machine 2nd hand as they are generally quite robust but would appreciate some input.
    I don't need any bells and whistles and I don't want a laptop that has a numberpad stuck to the keyboard. Sizewise 13" would be fine but a decent resolution on the screen would be desirable.

    I would be running dual boot linux and windows, as I currently write and dev in Linux, and I will be studying C# in college so I will need to use visual studio. The machine would therefore need to be able to handle some heavyweight IDE's reasonably well.

    Any suggestions as to the minimum spec I'd need? or potential machines

    I've been using Lenovo for work as a system/network admin running Linux and it's grand if a little on the heavy side.

    I would avoid newer models like the T440 etc as the touchpad is like a giant spacebar and they have one upgradable ram module, the other is embedded.

    I'd suggest a Dell business model. They arent fancy but generally decent workhorses and lighter than a Lenovo of similar standard. An i5 would probably suit your needs although an i7 would give you a performance boost it will eat into your battery much quicker.
    I'd suggest upgrading RAM to 16Gb, getting an SSD for the OS's and convert the DVD to a HDD caddy and throw the biggest drive you can in there for storage.

    You can do all this on a relatively low end machine, the CPU is what you're looking at and the upgrades shouldn't cost too much in the current market.

    What's your budget?


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    #4
    Buford T Justice
    Registered Users Posts: 6,259 ✭✭✭Buford T Justice


    Alanstrainor wrote: »
    So can you put a figure on your budget?

    Low budget and high resolution screens aren't really available. Which is mad in this day and age tbh. But there you go.

    I would be thinking a current gen i5, 8GB ram + and whatever hard disk you like would be your best bet.

    Do you mind me asking what you're doing in college? Typically you just wont need that much horsepower for most BA stuff in college. I know I didn't. I survived with an ancient dell for years.

    Budget is whatever I can scrape together. I don't want to end up with a machine that can't handle the display of an IDE with a couple of different panes properly. I'm doing an Hons Degree in Software Dev. I have my own stuff in PHP atm and want to keep that on Linux too. I have an ancient Macbook that I used to use but it struggles to render some pages in chrome in fairness.

    In terms of performance, whats the i5 like?


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    #5
    circadian
    Registered Users Posts: 6,965 ✭✭✭circadian


    The i5 are great processors in my opinion. I don't think the increase in cost for an i7 on a laptop justifies it if you're stretching yourself to get it.

    The most recent i5s have pretty good integrated graphics so unless you're doing serious rendering you won't really notice that it's not dedicated.


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