Spec me a .NET developer laptop

[Karl]

Hi!

I've currently got a Macbook pro 2017 which has reached the end of its shelf life, and I need a new laptop for work.

I don't want to use virtualisation anymore like I did with my Macbook, as I do a lot of Windows dev, so I'd like a Windows machine.

It would probably be connected to an external display and used in clamshell mode quite a bit.

I spend a lot of time programming and need plenty of RAM (I think around 16gb), a 1tb SSD, and I want it to be really snappy opening things like:

- SQL Server managment studio
- Multiple browser windows
- IIS instances of websites
- Multiple Visual Studio windows running multiple IIS express websites
- Couple of spreadsheets
- Slack chat client, maybe MSTeams as well

Graphics card isn't really much of a consideration as long as it's capable of powering my monitor - a LG 34" 34WN780-B.

USB-C would be good, as I'll be hot-desking at work, and they have displays with keyboards and mice plugged in which then connect to laptops.

For reference, I'm happy with the spec for my main desktop PC in terms of doing all this stuff, which is the following spec:

- AMD Ryzen 7 5800X 8-core
- 32gb RAM (I can cut this down a bit, I accept I don't need this much in a laptop for development)
- WD Blue SN550 1TB SSD NVME M.2 2280 PCIe Gen3

- MSI MPG B550 Gaming Edge WiFi (AMD AM4) B550 ATX mobo
- RTX 3080Ti (Definitely doesn't have to be anything like this - Onboard graphics would probably suit anyway wouldn't it?!)

Budget is ideally under £1,000 but I reckon could get my boss to stretch to £1,500. I'm happy with Ryzen or Intel, but Ryzen seems to be a lot cheaper.

Any help's appreciated, as always!

Cheers!

K

 

[Snapshot]

Sounds like yet another job for the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro.

 

[Andre]

I would aim for 32GB Ram as VS2022 is now a 64 bit app and during build can quite happily use all available Ram
I have for Work a Dell Latitude 5520 with 32Gb, 2 Thunderbolt 4 and 2 USB 3.2 ports, HDMI and wired network. Run a 1920x1080 and a 2160x1080 monitor on it with no problems
Has an i7 11gen in it, seems plenty fast enough

 

[Karl]

Sounds like yet another job for the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro.

This looks like quite an impressive machine for the money. Food for thought.

I would aim for 32GB Ram as VS2022 is now a 64 bit app and during build can quite happily use all available Ram
I have for Work a Dell Latitude 5520 with 32Gb, 2 Thunderbolt 4 and 2 USB 3.2 ports, HDMI and wired network. Run a 1920x1080 and a 2160x1080 monitor on it with no problems
Has an i7 11gen in it, seems plenty fast enough

Thanks for the input. It looks like the lattitude 5520 has been superceded by the 5521 but there's nothing in that model in my price range with 32gb ram, and I can't find a 5520 that has more than 16gb (unless it's upgradable for reasonable money?)

 

[Andre]

It cost £60 for a 16GB of RAM from Crucial, so highly affordable. I keep on frightening my team mates and boss when I threaten that I might need 64GB as a compilation topped the 32GB out

 

[Karl]

It cost £60 for a 16GB of RAM from Crucial, so highly affordable. I keep on frightening my team mates and boss when I threaten that I might need 64GB as a compilation topped the 32GB out

Always a threat of upgrade

Any other advances on this two machines?

 

[radderfire]

Have a look at Dell Inspiron 2-in-1's, they can be used in clamshell mode. They should be powerful enough if you up the memory and SSD size. I've got one and I'm pleased with it.

 

[JasonM]

dot net developer here.

32GB is absolute minimum now, I'm using 64GB.
I would get a good SSD / NVMe such as WD Black or Samsung Pro, they have more DRAM and faster controllers, even with 32GB you will be hitting page file.
Option for second NVMe is useful, as you can boot from original NVMe, then use second for work/data.
Make sure the built in graphics can drive your monitor at 75Hz refresh.
My preference would be a laptop with some dedicated graphics, they are faster even for 2d and YouTube as there not sharing main memory.
8 core CPU is fine, you only need really powerful if your developing say AI applications or compute intensive applications, again your main slow down will be memory / ssd access as your switching applications / screens with everything loaded.

 

[Karl]

Thanks for the input on this guys.

I've heard from a couple of lads at work that their laptop is either struggling at 16gb, or are using up 13.5gb just day to day programming with one solution open. I've sometimes got 2 or 3 open, so I think I'd struggle on that. 32gb is the minimum.

 

[JasonM]

Thanks for the input on this guys.

I've heard from a couple of lads at work that their laptop is either struggling at 16gb, or are using up 13.5gb just day to day programming with one solution open. I've sometimes got 2 or 3 open, so I think I'd struggle on that. 32gb is the minimum.

I was programming with 16GB back in 2011! Since 2018 I've been using 64GB on previous computer also. I have honestly considered even more but i'm using ECC memory and it's super expensive, I am working on an AI project that's memory intensive. My next computer (whenever that is) will have 128GB ECC however.

It's not just Visual Studio, but SQL will cache data especially if your using large databases. Just with a single Visual Studio and SQL Management open, plus google screens, plus office uses 20GB. This is on a desktop with dedicated graphics card, shared graphics can take another 1GB from your RAM, so account for that also.

 

[Karl]

Back in 2011 I had 8gb

I work with website content management systems a lot, so databases stay a relatively modest size, as do the applications. I've got a machine with 32gb of RAM and running 3 instances of VS plus web browsers etc still only seems to hit 16gb of it, so I won't be reaching for 2 sticks of 64gb just yet, but I can see your point!

 

[JasonM]

but I can see your point!

I started programming on an 8 bit Atari with just 16k.

After I suffered with just 16k I vowed never to be short again, so I always go extra on the memory