Guys,

What would you recommend for a developer? My current Thinkpad T40 is
getting old and its time to get a replacement...

Apps I use a lot:

* Firefox, Office, Outlook / Thunderbird, Visual Studio 2005, MS
Project, ClearCase etc.
* Media Player Classic (Xvid and Divx movies)

Would like to be able to play modern games ... Alan Wake / Crysis but
would be able to live without 'em.

My budget is ~$3500
(Funnily enough, the first post I found when searching google groups
for 'good developer laptop' happens to mention the same budget only
back in 2003)

CPU wise - don't care about 64 bit. Would like virtualization. Both
Core 2 Duo and Turion X2 sound good.
Video card - must have dedicated memory, would like 7950 based or x1950
based... but could compromise here.

I guess the main contenders are:

Thinkpad T60 series...
HP dv8000 series
Apple MacBook Pro - running Windows with Bootcamp, though I've heard
Bootcamp + Windows = low HDD performance

Has anyone tried out the Dell XPS m2010? Is it impossible to lug
around? Even with a good backpack?

I love the build quality of my thinkpad... been using it for years and
its taken quite a battering ... but keeps going. Not sure if they're
still the best build quality wise, or whether HP / Apple etc have
reached an equivalent level...

So what do you folks think?

Regards,
Vishal.

Vishal Doshi wrote:
> Guys,
>
> What would you recommend for a developer? My current Thinkpad T40 is
> getting old and its time to get a replacement...

T60P or a T60 wide screen.
--
James

Visit the Thinkpad Forums
http://forum.thinkpads.com

You mean a good developer *and* gaming laptop, right? And I assume
portability is not key?

I went for the T60p, and somewhat regret it because it's not nice to use
sitting on your lap. To heavy, big, and hot. In fact I now leave it on
my desk and I'm writing this on my old T40.

What irks me is I could have gotten a machine just as fast for software
development in a much smaller package. What really bloats the size and
power requirements of the laptop is the video card, which I really don't
care much about.

I didn't go for MacBook Pro because bootcamp is not an officially
supported product, as I understand. I do need to run 3d Windows apps
from time to time, so I thought it would be risky/irresponsible to rely
on unofficial software.

All that said, if you don't fly much and don't like to sit on the couch
and write presentations and code (like I do), then you don't care about
size/weight and the T60p is a very good performer with a 3 year
warranty, great screen, decent linux support, and no build quality
problems yet IMHO.

Vishal Doshi wrote:
> Guys,
>
> What would you recommend for a developer? My current Thinkpad T40 is
> getting old and its time to get a replacement...
>
> Apps I use a lot:
>
> * Firefox, Office, Outlook / Thunderbird, Visual Studio 2005, MS
> Project, ClearCase etc.
> * Media Player Classic (Xvid and Divx movies)
>
> Would like to be able to play modern games ... Alan Wake / Crysis but
> would be able to live without 'em.
>
> My budget is ~$3500
> (Funnily enough, the first post I found when searching google groups
> for 'good developer laptop' happens to mention the same budget only
> back in 2003)
>
> CPU wise - don't care about 64 bit. Would like virtualization. Both
> Core 2 Duo and Turion X2 sound good.
> Video card - must have dedicated memory, would like 7950 based or x1950
> based... but could compromise here.
>
> I guess the main contenders are:
>
> Thinkpad T60 series...
> HP dv8000 series
> Apple MacBook Pro - running Windows with Bootcamp, though I've heard
> Bootcamp + Windows = low HDD performance
>
> Has anyone tried out the Dell XPS m2010? Is it impossible to lug
> around? Even with a good backpack?
>
> I love the build quality of my thinkpad... been using it for years and
> its taken quite a battering ... but keeps going. Not sure if they're
> still the best build quality wise, or whether HP / Apple etc have
> reached an equivalent level...
>
> So what do you folks think?
>
> Regards,
> Vishal.
>

Hi Vishal,

I would strongly recommend the HP dv8000 laptop. The configuration I
got was the Turion 64b running at 2.2GHz, 2GB of RAM, dual 120GB
hard disk, Wi-fi, Bluetooth, card reader, and ATI X300m video card.

I primarily write custom databases in Clarion and Access, but I also
do quite a bit of web development as well as graphics. I also use
programs like PhotoShop quite a bit. I tend to have a dozen or more
windows open at any time including a few MS virtual machines and I
am getting very good response times. I also tend to keep music going
all the time via mp3s or XM Radio streaming. The system was a little
to the expensive side (including the HP 3 year extended warranty at
$499), but is well worth it. I have been using it for about 5 months
now, and my only regret is not springing for the 160GB hard disk.

One word of warning before choosing your processor. Certain IDEs do
not allow multi-threading and ignore multi-processors. I was looking
at getting a Core Duo until I found out the the folks at
SoftVelocity specifically designed Clarion so that it would not make
use of multi-threading or secondary processors. Once I found that
out, I decided to go with the 64b Turion.

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

"When hope is lost . . . the spirit dies."
-- Lao Tzu

http://blog.tlerma.com/

C.Joseph Drayton wrote:
of warning before choosing your processor. Certain IDEs do
> not allow multi-threading and ignore multi-processors. I was looking
> at getting a Core Duo until I found out the the folks at
> SoftVelocity specifically designed Clarion so that it would not make
> use of multi-threading or secondary processors. Once I found that
> out, I decided to go with the 64b Turion.
>

I sure wouldn't consider a single-core CPU at this point. There are
some tools that don't use multi-core, but some very popular ones do
(netbeans, gnu make) and the future is clearly multi-core. The price
premium is small, the single-thread performance is still fine, even
battery life doesn't take much of a hit... what's not to like?

Thanks for your replies folks...


timeOday wrote:

> I sure wouldn't consider a single-core CPU at this point. There are
> some tools that don't use multi-core, but some very popular ones do
> (netbeans, gnu make) and the future is clearly multi-core. The price
> premium is small, the single-thread performance is still fine, even
> battery life doesn't take much of a hit... what's not to like?

Dual - core is a definite must for me - Visual Studio 2k5 does use both
processors. Other than that, I've found compile times are lowered when
using source control + compiler because they can both run on different
processors...

Regards,
Vishal.

I use a m1710 it is heavy but I only lug it from home to office.
Not advisable to haul it around a collage campus, if you know what I mean.
It will do everything you want and fast.
"Vishal Doshi" <vishal.doshi******.com> wrote in message
news:1168870658.894509.263090@38g2000cwa.googlegro ups.com...
> Guys,
>
> What would you recommend for a developer? My current Thinkpad T40 is
> getting old and its time to get a replacement...
>
> Apps I use a lot:
>
> * Firefox, Office, Outlook / Thunderbird, Visual Studio 2005, MS
> Project, ClearCase etc.
> * Media Player Classic (Xvid and Divx movies)
>
> Would like to be able to play modern games ... Alan Wake / Crysis but
> would be able to live without 'em.
>
> My budget is ~$3500
> (Funnily enough, the first post I found when searching google groups
> for 'good developer laptop' happens to mention the same budget only
> back in 2003)
>
> CPU wise - don't care about 64 bit. Would like virtualization. Both
> Core 2 Duo and Turion X2 sound good.
> Video card - must have dedicated memory, would like 7950 based or x1950
> based... but could compromise here.
>
> I guess the main contenders are:
>
> Thinkpad T60 series...
> HP dv8000 series
> Apple MacBook Pro - running Windows with Bootcamp, though I've heard
> Bootcamp + Windows = low HDD performance
>
> Has anyone tried out the Dell XPS m2010? Is it impossible to lug
> around? Even with a good backpack?
>
> I love the build quality of my thinkpad... been using it for years and
> its taken quite a battering ... but keeps going. Not sure if they're
> still the best build quality wise, or whether HP / Apple etc have
> reached an equivalent level...
>
> So what do you folks think?
>
> Regards,
> Vishal.
>