Laptop for Development

[Loft]

I'm looking for a cheap laptop at the moment for university. Basically, I'll need it for the usual stuff - internet, email, word, music, maybe a bit of DVD playing etc. and also development, mostly in Java. Now at the moment I'm running a P4 2.0GHz, 1GB RAM (speedy I know!) and this performs fine, but it's slowly on it's way out. I don't mind any laptop with similar specs, so I'm looking at the low end of the market, Sempron laptops, Celeron-M laptops etc. Would these be okay to be able to give the performance of what I'm getting now?

Also, I understand when you buy laptops, there's often a hidden partition for restore purposes and that sort of stuff, and as I'm looking to dual-boot Windows and Linux, possibly only Linux, would it be okay to completely format the entire HDD, hidden partitions and all?

Thanks in advance.

 

[5tephen]

Now at the moment I'm running a P4 2.0GHz, 1GB RAM (speedy I know!) and this performs fine, but it's slowly on it's way out.

Do you mean it's on the way out as in getting worn, or just slowing down? If it's slowing down, format it and reinstall. I've had a few people thinking their well-specced machine is getting old just because it's clogged up with software, but when it's formatted makes it pretty much as quick as a standard new machine today.

 

[Energize]

Dell Inspiron 640m

- Intel Centrino Mobile Technology with Intel CoreT Duo T2300 1.66Ghz
- 2MB L2 Cache
- 14.1" WXGA Widescreen Panel (1280x800)
- 1024MB DDR2 Memory (2x512)
- Intel GMA 900 Graphics Accelerator with upto 128MB shared memory
- 60GB IDE 5400rpm Hard Drive
- Internal 8x DVD+/-RW Drive
- Intel ProWireless 2200 802.11b/g Wireless LAN
- Internal 56k V.92 Modem
- Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
- 1yr DELL collect & return warranty

£605.07

 

[Matt]

Clearly a MacBook would be ideal for your purposes

£644 on Higher Education discount gets you:


13.3-inch widescreen display
1280 x 800 resolution
1.83GHz Intel Core Duo1
512MB memory (2 x 256MB SODIMMs)
60GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive 2
Combo drive (DVD-ROM, CD-RW)

You can install OS X/Windows/Linux/etc...
RAM/HDD is really easy to upgrade as well.

 

[Energize]

Clearly a MacBook would be ideal for your purposes

£644 on Higher Education discount gets you:


13.3-inch widescreen display
1280 x 800 resolution
1.83GHz Intel Core Duo1
512MB memory (2 x 256MB SODIMMs)
60GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard drive 2
Combo drive (DVD-ROM, CD-RW)

You can install OS X/Windows/Linux/etc...
RAM/HDD is really easy to upgrade as well.

That costs more and has got half the ram of the dell one I mentioned and its got a smaller screen, no dvd-rw either and the dell one doesnt even have a discount, the dell one also comes with warranty..

 

[Matt]

That costs more and has got half the ram of the dell one I mentioned and its got a smaller screen, no dvd-rw either and the dell one doesnt even have a discount, the dell one also comes with warranty..

Ok...

The Dell is probably designed and built to a cost of roughly 3p, and therefore won't look as good, and be as solid as the Mac. The smaller screen shouldn't really be an issue as it's a laptop, and laptops by definition should be portable, and you can plug in an external TFT anyway DVDRW can be added later, as can RAM. Er... all laptops come with a warranty, it would be slightly illegal if they didn't! and Apple Higher Education kit comes with a 3yr warranty too

 

[Energize]

My point is the dell is cheaper and more powerful, from experience I can tell you that model is well built and looks fine, and peoples general experiences with dell are that now their laptops have great built quality. An external tft isnt portable and if its being used at a uni there will be plenty of power sockets.