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Laptop

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Stupeo

Posted Tuesday, February 05, 2008 8:31 AM

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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

Post #451670

toniupstny

Posted Tuesday, February 05, 2008 8:36 AM

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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

Post #451674

Stupeo

Posted Tuesday, February 05, 2008 8:37 AM

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Thanks Toni.

I would also like to use Virtual Machines to play with replication, log shipping and clustering etc.

Matt

Post #451675

toniupstny

Posted Tuesday, February 05, 2008 9:10 AM

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XP Pro does support VMWare as well as Microsoft Virtual PC 2004.

Toni

Post #451703

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Posted Tuesday, February 05, 2008 9:26 AM

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If you plan on lots of VM work, get an external USB drive. Makes a big difference with performance.

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Post #451721

Stupeo

Posted Tuesday, February 05, 2008 9:34 AM

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Yer, i had thought of that Steve - cheers.

No-one got any laptop recommendations then?

M.

Post #451724

Matt Miller (#4)

Posted Tuesday, February 05, 2008 9:56 AM

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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?

Post #451737

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Posted Wednesday, February 06, 2008 10:15 AM

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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.

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Post #452345

majorbloodnock

Posted Thursday, February 07, 2008 2:48 AM

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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.

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Post #452614

Stupeo

Posted Thursday, February 07, 2008 3:00 AM

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Thanks Major - I'll take a look at the Tecra.

Matt

Post #452620

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