February 5, 2008 at 8:31 am
Hello,
I am looking to buy a laptop that i load SQL 2005/2008 on to learn the ropes and have a play with.
I am currently a SQL Server Developer hoping to move into a junior DBA role in the next couple of weeks and want to get ahead start with DBA tasks and such.
I have been looking at a Dell Vostro 1500 with the following specs:
Intel Core Duo2 (2.0ghz)
3,072 mb ram
160 gig 5,400rpm hdd
15.4"
cheap graphics card etc
Does anyone have any recommendations on specific models? I am looking to spent around £800/$1600.
Would prefer a supplier in the UK.
Kind Regards,
Matt
February 5, 2008 at 8:36 am
Hi. Nothing specific I can help you about hardware in the UK. You will definitely want to get a laptop with XP PRO or above O/S so you can join domains and other functions useful in things like replication, distributed transactions, etc.
Good luck to you
Toni
February 5, 2008 at 8:37 am
Thanks Toni.
I would also like to use Virtual Machines to play with replication, log shipping and clustering etc.
Matt
February 5, 2008 at 9:10 am
XP Pro does support VMWare as well as Microsoft Virtual PC 2004.
Toni
February 5, 2008 at 9:26 am
If you plan on lots of VM work, get an external USB drive. Makes a big difference with performance.
February 5, 2008 at 9:34 am
Yer, i had thought of that Steve - cheers.
No-one got any laptop recommendations then?
M.
February 5, 2008 at 9:56 am
If you can afford the sticker shock - stick with the Core 2 duo's T7000 and higher. They've included some nice chipset improvements to memory management and cache pipelining which make it worthwhile IMO.
Of course - they're the premium chip to get these days, so this might blow out your budget.
Also - there actually are some RAID-0 and/or Raid-1 configured laptops, which would help with performance or reliability (depending on what your primary concern is). I'd go performance, so Raid-0 on 7200RPM's, but that's just me:).
Of course - I get into the "if I am going to spend THAT much - I might as well tweak it all of the way out....".
All right - back to my Hardware Junkies anonymous meeting.....
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
February 6, 2008 at 10:15 am
I just got a Toshiba Qosmio, Dual Core, 2.4, 2GB RAM, 200GB disk, around US $1600. Not sure what that would be in UK.
Works well, fairly quick, but no XP drivers. It was Vista only, which didn't thrill me.
February 7, 2008 at 2:48 am
I think I have to register a vested interest before answering this; I work for Toshiba in the UK.
For obvious reasons, I can't, therefore, comment on the Dell. Nor am I going to sell the virtues of our laptops, since I reckon we've already got a pretty good reputation and there's little useful I can add to that.
What I would say, though, is that of our lineup, my choice'd probably be a Tecra. Certainly most of our models will be up to the job, quite a few of them (Qosmio included) have been designed first and foremost as home machines. The Satellite Pro and Tecra are the models targetted at mainstream business apps, with the latter being the beefiest. Certainly, I use a Tecra myself, and we've plenty within the department running multiple VMs, so we know that aspect works fine.
As for buying, I'd suggest you simply take a look around our main website at http://uk.computers.toshiba-europe.com/. There's a facility for answering questions to see which laptop best fits your needs (the "Help me choose" link in the middle of the page). There are, of course, also links to let you buy online. However, if you've got any questions after that, you can always post them here or send me a PM and I'll do my best to help.
Semper in excretia, suus solum profundum variat
February 7, 2008 at 3:00 am
Thanks Major - I'll take a look at the Tecra.
Matt
February 7, 2008 at 4:27 am
Just to back up majorbloodnock, Toshiba are good.
I borrowed a Dell from work and just didn't like the machine. Resolution was horrible, keyboard was terrible and well it only had 512MB so it was slow for SQL Server.
My wife works for Toshiba, so I bought a Tecra A9, 160GB, 2GB RAM - I did get a nice discount through her employee purchase 🙂
Vista is absolutely horrible so I uninstalled that straight away and installed XP. SQL Server 2005 developer runs like a dream. I've not toyed with the VM side of things yet, but it runs SQL with no problem.
February 7, 2008 at 4:33 am
I ditto the Vista issue. Learning a new OS while trying to learn SQL Server is NOT a good combination.
As far as laptops go, I've got an older Sony Viao that I'm running XP and SQL 2005 on. The hard drive is only 40 GB which makes it hard for me to do big stuff (considering all the other crap on my box), but it still works pretty well for most of my developing / playing at home. And like I said, it's an older model which is why the hard drive is so small.
2 GB of RAM. SSIS is a little slow, depending on what else I've got running at the time. Database Engine connecting in SSMS to a remote SQL Server (over wireless network) is slow too, but local DB connections are fine. Despite this, the Viao hasn't caused me any problems yet.
February 7, 2008 at 5:54 am
The biggest thing that I can't believe that no one has mentioned - hard drive SPEED!!
Don't get a laptop with a hard drive slower than 7200 if you can. My work laptop has a 5400 drive in it and it just kills the performance of the laptop. This is where a lot of laptop manufacturers cut corners. I have even seen some new laptops with hard drives SLOWER than 5400!
You are also going to want to get the 'desktop replacement' type of laptop, and not the smaller laptops out there. Go for performance specs if you are looking to test out SQL Server.
Also, after you get the machine, max out the memory.
Send me a personal message and I can direct you to a website that gives just about the best deals on laptops that you can find. I have bought a bunch of stuff from them and am very happy with the results.
February 8, 2008 at 7:27 am
I thought that the Vostro line was for small businesses - i.e. they require buying in lots of five or more.
I know someone who tried to call and buy a Vostro that was listed at about $650 in the advertisement. The Dell rep said they had to but 5 or more to get a Vostro. When they speced out a home laptop with the same specs, it ended up being almost $900.
Check to see if you can get just one Vostro.
As for myself, I have a Macbook Pro and I love it. It is definitely not the cheapest alternative, but it is the best put-together laptop I've ever seen. I use Parallels to run windows apps (including SQL Server).
February 8, 2008 at 7:32 am
Chris,
I would definately prefer a Macbook, but i didnt know you could run SQL Server on it?
How does parallels work - is it basically a virtual machine type program that allows you to install XP on?
M
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