Dell Studio 15 - Suitable for VMWare?

[Alien18]

Hi All,

I've just specced myself a Dell Studio 15, as follows:

• Intel® Core™ i5-430M (2.26Ghz, 4Threads, turbo boost up to 2.53 GHz, 3MB cache)
• 15.6" High Definition (1366x768) WLED
• 4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
• 500GB (5400RPM) Serial ATA Hard Drive
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD5470 Graphics Card

My question is, do you think this will be suitable to run a Virtual Machine or two (most likely will be Win XP, but could also be Vista or 7 on the odd occasion).

It's rare that I'll need to run two at a time.

I was looking for a laptop originally to have 6Gb RAM, but that's an extra £180 for 2GB!!

The idea would be to use the host machine for personal/web browsing, keeping it as clean as possible (i.e. OS, Office, Firewall & anti-virus). And use Virtual Machines for development and testing of various software/apps.

I'm planning on keeping the Virtual Machines on a NAS drive so I can access them on both my PC and Laptop, has anyone had much experience running a VM over a wireless connection or would it be best to just copy the VM to the laptop when I need to? (I specced the laptop with a wireless n card, so it's future proof for when I get a wireless n router)

It'd be nice if there was a way to sync VMs to a server and keep a local copy on my laptop & PC and have them sync to the NAS.

Any help/advice is very much welcome & will be appreciated.
Alien

 

[Alien18]

Sorry, I have one more question. My OH got a Mini 10 from Dell and it was loaded with Dell crap! I removed all I could find, but it still runs really slow. Without having to format/wipe a brand new laptop is there any easy way to undo all of Dell's messing?

The reason I ask is because I want to use Win 7 64bit that comes with the laptop but I'm guessing the Dell restore discs (as normally come) won't be a simple Win 7 disc will it? It'll be one that restores it to the out-of-box condition, including all the Dell crap, correct?

 

[tom_e]

Sorry, I have one more question. My OH got a Mini 10 from Dell and it was loaded with Dell crap! I removed all I could find, but it still runs really slow. Without having to format/wipe a brand new laptop is there any easy way to undo all of Dell's messing?

The reason I ask is because I want to use Win 7 64bit that comes with the laptop but I'm guessing the Dell restore discs (as normally come) won't be a simple Win 7 disc will it? It'll be one that restores it to the out-of-box condition, including all the Dell crap, correct?

The windows disc that came with my studio 15 and my last vostro were straight windows installs no crap

 

[Alien18]

The windows disc that came with my studio 15 and my last vostro were straight windows installs no crap

Oh cool, so no need to worry about that then! Thanks (as a side note: How would I reinstall XP on my OH's netbook? It comes with install discs, but no CD drive, I have no external CD/DVD drives, would it have to be a memory stick job? not done one of them before)

The more I think about it the more I think the spec I have for the laptop should be fine. My PC runs 1 XP machine fine and 2 XP machines generally work ok, and it only has 3Gb DDR2-6400 RAM & an older CPU.

If I am right in that assumption, is there a way to operate the same Virtual Machine, over a number of host machines, as previously suggested?

Many thanks,
Alien

 

[Hellsmk2]

That spec will run a few VM's without too many problems.

Your question about syncing vm's has me massively confused though - a vm would sit on the NAS and would be accessed via your laptop or desktop client. There would not be a local copy on each box that synced with the NAS.

VMWare doesn't need local copies across all machines, and is not designed to operate that way anyhow!

 

[Alien18]

That spec will run a few VM's without too many problems.

Your question about syncing vm's has me massively confused though - a vm would sit on the NAS and would be accessed via your laptop or desktop client. There would not be a local copy on each box that synced with the NAS.

VMWare doesn't need local copies across all machines, and is not designed to operate that way anyhow!

Apologies, what I meant is that sometimes, I'll be traveling with my laptop and won't have access to the NAS. Am I best to simply copy the VM back and forth in these cases, or is there an easy way to "check out" a VM from the NAS, then "check in" when I return home and can connect the laptop back to the NAS?

Hope that's clearer.

Thanks for your answer, regarding the laptop, just have to decide whether I can definitely afford it over the next couple of days now before the offer ends!

Alien

 

[Hellsmk2]

In that case, the best way would be to import the VM to the laptop when you need to travel, then export it back to the NAS when you get home.

You'd have to delete the one on the NAS in order to export the laptop version back onto it.

 

[Alien18]

In that case, the best way would be to import the VM to the laptop when you need to travel, then export it back to the NAS when you get home.

You'd have to delete the one on the NAS in order to export the laptop version back onto it.

That's grand I thought that might be the case, but wanted to double check in case someone had a fancy clever method that simply worked! lol!