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Laptop for Dev

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  • 19-01-2014 2:16am
    #1
    ulinbac
    Registered Users Posts: 707 ✭✭✭


    Hi,

    Moving in to the Dev side of work so looking to buy a decent but not too pricey laptop for this.

    I have a Macbook already but its seen better days and will just use this for downloads, streaming etc. Its Java Dev work and so far been told to get a laptop with 8GB of ram.

    Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks


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    #2
    SilverScreen
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,113 ✭✭✭SilverScreen


    8GB RAM isn't really necessary for Java development work. I use a 5 year old HP laptop with 2 GB RAM and I never have any bother. Any old laptop will do.


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    #3
    cython
    Registered Users Posts: 4,757 ✭✭✭cython


    SilverScreen wrote: »
    8GB RAM isn't really necessary for Java development work. I use a 5 year old HP laptop with 2 GB RAM and I never have any bother. Any old laptop will do.

    I would put the caveat on this that it really depends on the nature of the development being done. Many smaller Java applications will be fine to run on 2GB, but in our office we find people pushing well up to the 8GB installed in the development machines between running eclipse for a large project, running Oracle locally for unit tests, and running server instances (EJB and web front-end), along with the usual additional software used day to day (web browser, Outlook, Lync etc.).

    Now if the machine was only being used for Java and not the secondary applications above, and didn't have to run Windows 7 (as is the case in our place) but rather was running a lighter Linux distro or something, 2GB might be fine. By secondary software, i also mean that oracle would be shipped off to another machine, as even XE will take a good chunk out of 2GB and result in a lot of swapping if even eclipse is open at the same time.

    OP, you might get slightly more specific answers if you can narrow down the nature of the dev work (even slightly), and give details of what IDE and or other software you would need to run at a given time.


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    #4
    ulinbac
    Registered Users Posts: 707 ✭✭✭ulinbac


    cython wrote: »
    I would put the caveat on this that it really depends on the nature of the development being done. Many smaller Java applications will be fine to run on 2GB, but in our office we find people pushing well up to the 8GB installed in the development machines between running eclipse for a large project, running Oracle locally for unit tests, and running server instances (EJB and web front-end), along with the usual additional software used day to day (web browser, Outlook, Lync etc.).

    Now if the machine was only being used for Java and not the secondary applications above, and didn't have to run Windows 7 (as is the case in our place) but rather was running a lighter Linux distro or something, 2GB might be fine. By secondary software, i also mean that oracle would be shipped off to another machine, as even XE will take a good chunk out of 2GB and result in a lot of swapping if even eclipse is open at the same time.

    OP, you might get slightly more specific answers if you can narrow down the nature of the dev work (even slightly), and give details of what IDE and or other software you would need to run at a given time.

    Thanks for the answers.

    IDE is eclipse. Some work in Oracle but will mainly using it to develop a trading platform for banks/upgrade trading platforms. Will be doing a lot of VPN from home and probably work on mobile games/apps in spare time.


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    #5
    Creamy Goodness
    Registered Users Posts: 26,556 ✭✭✭✭Creamy Goodness


    Eclipse is the IDE of choice. 8gb minimum!


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    #6
    cython
    Registered Users Posts: 4,757 ✭✭✭cython


    ulinbac wrote: »
    Thanks for the answers.

    IDE is eclipse. Some work in Oracle but will mainly using it to develop a trading platform for banks/upgrade trading platforms. Will be doing a lot of VPN from home and probably work on mobile games/apps in spare time.

    Ok, with eclipse in use, and when you mention the type of development if you want to run a local test environment (I assume you would) that could potentially mean supporting some form of DB (Oracle or otherwise), an app server and/or JMS solution (maybe not, but many such platforms would require it) which might be something as lightweight as Jetty/Tomcat, but could equally be a "full" JEE solution. Also, since you're working over VPN (as opposed to personal projects) you'll presumably have the secondary applications as above (and the browser could be required for testing if the platform uses as web-based UI, so I would agree with the 8GB, and potentially more if you can do it at not too much cost (e.g. if the laptop is available with 4GB you might get 16GB online and install yourself for the price difference of buying with 8GB.

    I say this as much for convenience as anything else, as while you might be able to get by on less resources, you could find yourself having to close down Outlook or similar while you launch a server to debug (maybe not such a bad thing :D) due to issues with allocating memory, or having to put up with crappy performance because you've a lot of swapping going on.


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    #7
    croo
    Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 1,333 Mod ✭✭✭✭croo


    You can never have too much memory in my book... buy as much as you can.

    I like to run lots of VM with different configurations (os/appServer/database) for testing and the extra memory always comes in handy. I also use VM to keep customer specific configurations in differnent VM to help with debugging... sometimes you need this to replicate a problem you cannot on your main development environment.


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    #8
    Talisman
    Registered Users Posts: 6,001 ✭✭✭Talisman


    ulinbac wrote: »
    Hi,

    Moving in to the Dev side of work so looking to buy a decent but not too pricey laptop for this.

    I have a Macbook already but its seen better days and will just use this for downloads, streaming etc. Its Java Dev work and so far been told to get a laptop with 8GB of ram.

    Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks
    Which MacBook do you have? Beefing it up might be the cheapest option if it has a decent processor - upgrading the RAM and hard drive would give it a new lease of life. You can always get a monitor if the screen is too small.


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    #9
    ulinbac
    Registered Users Posts: 707 ✭✭✭ulinbac


    Talisman wrote: »
    Which MacBook do you have? Beefing it up might be the cheapest option if it has a decent processor - upgrading the RAM and hard drive would give it a new lease of life. You can always get a monitor if the screen is too small.

    Old model macbook from 2011. Been trying to upgrade to lion 10.7 but wont accept it. wont run latest java until upgrade to 10.7.3. Spends a lot of time just howing the rainbow cirlce. Its seen better days!!


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    #10
    Talisman
    Registered Users Posts: 6,001 ✭✭✭Talisman


    2011 is not an old model Apple laptop - It should have a decent processor in it.

    Go to "Apple menu > About this Mac > More Info..." and see what it says there.

    It should say something like MacBook Pro, 15-inch, Early 2011 and list the processor and RAM details.

    If it's a 2011 model, the minimum processor is an Intel Core i5 2.3GHz and the standard RAM configuration would be 4GB (expandable to 16GB).

    To update the system try the following steps:

    - Reboot the computer
    - Open Disk Utility (Applications \ Utilities \ Disk Utility)
    - Click Verify Disk Permissions (It will more than likely find some issues)
    - Click Repair Disk Permissions (this may take a while)

    Once the permissions are fixed you should be able to install the combo system update.

    OS X Lion Update 10.7.5 (Client Combo)


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