Configuration for Software Development Laptop

[gjettam76]

I'm a software developer looking to replace my W500, but I'm not really up-to-date on the latest technology. I'm looking for recommendations on laptop models and configurations.

Minimum requirements:

15.6" (15" to 16" will do)
FHD (1920 x 1080)
USB 3.0
Stick pointing device (trackpoint)

From what I can see, that means a W520 (if it's a Thinkpad).

My biggest frustration with my W500 (Windows XP), is the amount of time from power on until I can do productive work (SQL Server and Visual Studio or IBM RAD). I would say it takes a good ten to twelve minutes before the system isn't totally consumed by loading software. Is the 'enhanced experience' and mini-ssd technology geared more toward people who want to boot up and do web browsing? Would it help with what I need to do? I guess my biggest questions are about SSD/HDD configurations that will help me get up and running quickly, or at least quicker than what I'm experiencing today. Any help is appreciated.

[davidhbrown]

You might be interested to read Adamp's thread where he describes self-installing the Intel 80GB mSATA SSD and successfully booting his T420 from it. I plan to do the same when my W520 finally shows up (the drive should be here Thursday).

While Lenovo seems to be doing some sort of transparent automatic data relocation thing with their RapidDrive apprach, I suspect you might prefer deciding what goes where yourself. There was some discussion on that here.

The mSATA SSD option is fundamentally nothing like Dell's original "ON" mini-PCI card that was a computer-on-a-chip that ran a stripped Linux for simple check-your-flight-status-and-webmail browsing, music playback, etc. Their current "ON FLASH" seems to be just the same software on a card but using the system CPU. I suppose you could put such an OS on the mSATA SSD, but with 80GB of space, you certainly aren't limited to that.

[MikeM]

Yep, the mSATA looks to be the way to go on the W520. My 80GB mSATA card arrived this afternoon (I ordered it yesterday morning and it shipped ground - ). Now, all I need is my W520 that I ordered Sunday.

I figure that I can cram Windows 7, Office 2010 including Visio and all of the other doo-dads, my Expression Web-ish group of software, and some other stuff that I use under Windows all on that 80GB chunk and still have room left over for my Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs video.

Watch it now; watch it....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHF558u6Q_8

[freakwave]

Hi gjettam76,

I assume that your W500 has a normal harddrive.
You can solve all your problems right away if you put in a SSD.
My W510, which feels not that snappy as my former T500 does following under 3 min:
- boot
- login (there is no delay after login at all, you can immediately start your programs)
- start vmware with Oracle DB
- start eclipse with all jboss tools plugins
- start lotus notes
- start pl/sql developer


You can not log into the tools quickly enough because they pop up so fast.
And that is really mainly the SSD.
The T500 was about the same speed, only when it comes to extreme multi threading the W510 has an edge.
As I read so far the W520 should be really an improvement when it comes to speed, e.g. compiling stuff.
But I do not expect the load times getting any faster than they already are.

If you do have a SSD installed, then something is seriously wrong wtih your computer.

Kind regards,

Wolfgang

[gjettam76]

Thanks everyone for the advice. My current W500 has a HDD, so I'm sure a mSATA SSD would be quite an improvement.