Best laptop for software development?

Question

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I am asking this question here since I would like to get some feedback from other software developers and not just system admins, etc... I am a .NET software developer and I want to get a laptop that will offer me enough power, speed and a very high screen resolution to do software development 80% of the time and maybe some gaming the rest of the time.

If you can give me some details of the laptop you use for software development, one that you have been very happy with it, I would really appreciate the input. I am considering the following laptop but would like to make the best choice based on other developer's input:

Sony F-series
CPU: 1.60-GHz Intel Core i7-720QM
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
RAM/Expandable to: 8GB/8GB
Hard Drive Size/Speed: 500GB/7,200 rpm
Display Size/Resolution: 16.4 inches/1920 x 1080
Optical Drive: BD-ROM

Answer 1

Personally, I'm a big fan of Lenovo (formerly IBM) Thinkpads. If you want a large screen, you should look into the Thinkpad W Series.

Answer 2

I'm a fan of the Toshiba Qosmio: http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/pdet.to?poid=460941 The Toshiba Satellite can be configured similarly and is customizable: http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cdetland.to?poid=467917

Answer 3

I use HP Pavillion dv6000 2.0 GHz Core2Duo, 2 GB RAM, 1280x800 screen resolution with Windows 7 OS and it goes very well.

Answer 4

I once fried a MacBook by doing development on it. Compilation is quite CPU-intensive - laptops were not designed for this. Use a desktop.

Answer 5

One big thing to consider is what you are going to do with the laptop. Is it really a desktop replacement because you want to carry it around the house/office, or are you really going to be traveling and lugging it around. This is typically my big problem, I'd like a small laptop that fits in my bag and doesn't kill my shoulder, but it needs to really have some horse power.

The other big consideration that is different for coding is IO since compiling is so IO intensive. I'd definitely get a high speed hard drive, or even consider a solid state drive.