Laptop specs for VS 2005 development?

[digitalcolony]

Developing in VS 2005 is choking my current desktop. Perhaps I just
need an excuse to buy a new machine! Any tips on who makes a good
laptop for developers? What specs should I be looking for in machine I
want to last a few years. In addition to VS 2005, I'll also be
developing w/ SQL 2005.

thanks - MAS

 

[Stimp]

Developing in VS 2005 is choking my current desktop. Perhaps I just
need an excuse to buy a new machine! Any tips on who makes a good
laptop for developers? What specs should I be looking for in machine I
want to last a few years. In addition to VS 2005, I'll also be
developing w/ SQL 2005.

Windows XP Pro (not Home since it doesn't have IIS afaik), plus as much
RAM/CPU speed/Hard Disk space as you can afford.

 

[Juan T. Llibre]

Why anybody would get a laptop for development is beyond me,
unless you get an extra keyboard for coding.

If you don't get an extra keyboard, you will wind up
with a severe case of cramped fingers from having
to code in the space-challenged laptop keyboards.

Other than that, get the most machine you can afford.
That's the best spec.

 

[ayende]

At _least_ 1GB RAM, and try for 2 GB or more.
CPU speed doesn't really matter beyond the 2.5Ghz, I think.

_Fast_ HD, I can't stress this enough, I got a beefy laptop but a slow
harddrive, and that is _the_ bottle neck for the system.
Don't worry too much about space, you can always have an external HD,
but make sure that the main HD for the laptop will be as fast as you
can get.

Windows XP Pro SP2.

I usualyl develop on a laptop, and my home machine has a laptop-like
keyboard. After you get used to it, it's not bad.
Although working with different laptop can be a killer, since all the
keys are in different places.

Make _sure_ that the keyboard has all the relvant programming keys (for
instance Shift+2 shoudl produce @, but some keyboards produce ")
without requiring to kill a chicken and sing in the rain first.
At a minimum, Home/End/Delete, standard numeric behavior, etc.
Also be sure that they are conviently located.

Buy a cordless mouse, I recomend MS Notebook Optical, it's small, but
it's comfy even for my huge hands. And I didn't replace its battery
once, and it's over a year old.

 

[digitalcolony]

Thank you - this post has been very helpful.

Do you have a prefered manufacturer?

MAS

 

[Stimp]

Thank you - this post has been very helpful.

Do you have a prefered manufacturer?

I recommend Toshiba

 

[Patrick.O.Ige]

But which Toshiba?

I recommend Toshiba