New Laptop for Work

dori2o

Looking at a new laptop to do my Software Development/Coding work.
I want a device with 16Gb Ram but the price jump in stores from 8Gb to 16Gb for the same machine is huge.
So, the questions are.
1) For Development work is there much difference between an i5 or i7 (intel), and Ryzen5 or Ryzen7 (AMD) processor?
2) If so which would be best the intel or the AMD?
3) Should I buy the laptop I want with 8Gb and then upgrade immediately by buying a RAM module to upgrade from 8Gb to 16Gb?

The difference in devices in stores for 8Gb and 16Gb RAM is around £200, but I could get another 8Gb module for between £60 and £80 depending on Mhz, (or a single 16Gb/matched pair of 8Gb module(s)) for around £100, saving myself between £100 and £140.

Any advice very much appreciated.

[Deleted User]

I'm a project manager working with developers and the one thing they always say is big / multiple screens are so beneficial with coding work so just throwing it in there about either getting a desktop or docking the laptop to use twin monitors?

What sort of software do you develop, that is going to be more important for deciding the specification? What platform will the software be deployed on?

Will come back on the specific questions with if you can provide the above info but generally the highest spec you can afford for development. Also what is approx budget for this laptop?

neilmcl

What sort of coding/software development do you do?

Unless you're doing lots of graphics stuff you can easily get away with 8Gb of RAM and decent processor.

pbartlett

agree with @neilmcl - you are unlikely to need 16gb

 Don't get hung up between the differences between AMD and core Intel - just go for something reasonably powerful - have a look at Dell uk for example

Chino

dori2o said:

but the price jump in stores from 8Gb to 16Gb for the same machine is huge.

Really? In absolute terms, an extra £200 for something you'll be using professionally seems a pittance.

dori2o said:

The difference in devices in stores for 8Gb and 16Gb RAM is around £200

dori2o

Deleted_User said:

I'm a project manager working with developers and the one thing they always say is big / multiple screens are so beneficial with coding work so just throwing it in there about either getting a desktop or docking the laptop to use twin monitors?

What sort of software do you develop, that is going to be more important for deciding the specification? What platform will the software be deployed on?

Will come back on the specific questions with if you can provide the above info but generally the highest spec you can afford for development. Also what is approx budget for this laptop?

I have multiple screens in my home office set up, and they're right, it's much easier with multi/large screens.
The developments are mainly web apps but there are some standalone apps we build and maintain.
Both front and back end development.
We currently build/expect to build in a few different languages (C#, Js, Python, R, etc) using .Net Core with many linked to SQL Server), but we also build apps related to data analysis and reporting which includes Power BI, which is quite intensive.
We use Visual studio/Azure/MSDN platforms/tools etc.
I'm looking for something to obviously use now, but which will still be relevant in 3-4 years time.

Just one more question, do people recommend a normal laptop or one of these 2-in-1 flip types that I can use as another screen alongside the monitors and use a traditional mouse/keyboard (which I find much easier)

dori2o

Chino said:

dori2o said:

but the price jump in stores from 8Gb to 16Gb for the same machine is huge.

Really? In absolute terms, an extra £200 for something you'll be using professionally seems a pittance.

dori2o said:

The difference in devices in stores for 8Gb and 16Gb RAM is around £200

If the difference was several different things I would agree, but when it's just RAM i personally think that's excessive.

[Deleted User]

Still not sure of your budget for this so haven't recommended a specific model.

dori2o said:

1) For Development work is there much difference between an i5 or i7 (intel), and Ryzen5 or Ryzen7 (AMD) processor?
2) If so which would be best the intel or the AMD?
3) Should I buy the laptop I want with 8Gb and then upgrade immediately by buying a RAM module to upgrade from 8Gb to 16Gb?

1) Have a look at the link below to give you an idea of comparative performance of the various laptop chips. Top end of i5 is better than bottom end of i7 so don't just make the choice based on the model. Some are designed for power saving laptops with long battery life, others for raw performance. Between bottom end i5 / Ryzen 5 and top end i7 / Ryzen 7 then there is potentially 4x times performance difference. 

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html

Good example is my current laptop has the i5-8300h which is nearly 3 yr old CPU but performs similiar to an i7-10610U released last year according to benchmarks - the model numbers don't tell the full story - an 8th gen i5 performing as good as a 10th gen i7 seems silly but that's the way it is.

2) AMD will generally give you better bang for buck however I'm a bit of a sucker for the Intel chipsets - for my current one it was because I need a Thunderbolt 3 port to dock my laptop to dual monitors / keyboard / mouse / ethernet / webcam all with one simple USB C plug. You won't find TB3 on an AMD machine - it is awesome - 40Gbps interface - maybe your solution for another screen question, I have 3 screens on the go, 1 laptop and 2 monitors connected to one set of wireless keyboard / mouse.

3) Yes, upgrade if it works out cheaper but note that some laptops will come with 2x4GB chips meaning you need to buy 2x8GB rather than just one. I would recommend 16GB unlike some of the other posters above, I run 16GB on all my machines and can easily use it all with intense activities, gives headroom for running virtual machines as well and crunching big data sets. Mines using 9.4 GB right now with just Outlook / Skype / Teams and 9 browser tabs open.

Dell XPS 15 is my shout on this. I'm a sucker for Dell Laptops, always been excellent for me, I have a G5 which is more for gaming with an nVidia GPU but performance is excellent and so well built.

dori2o

[Deleted User] said:

Still not sure of your budget for this so haven't recommended a specific model.

dori2o said:

1) For Development work is there much difference between an i5 or i7 (intel), and Ryzen5 or Ryzen7 (AMD) processor?
2) If so which would be best the intel or the AMD?
3) Should I buy the laptop I want with 8Gb and then upgrade immediately by buying a RAM module to upgrade from 8Gb to 16Gb?

1) Have a look at the link below to give you an idea of comparative performance of the various laptop chips. Top end of i5 is better than bottom end of i7 so don't just make the choice based on the model. Some are designed for power saving laptops with long battery life, others for raw performance. Between bottom end i5 / Ryzen 5 and top end i7 / Ryzen 7 then there is potentially 4x times performance difference. 

https://www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html

Good example is my current laptop has the i5-8300h which is nearly 3 yr old CPU but performs similiar to an i7-10610U released last year according to benchmarks - the model numbers don't tell the full story - an 8th gen i5 performing as good as a 10th gen i7 seems silly but that's the way it is.

2) AMD will generally give you better bang for buck however I'm a bit of a sucker for the Intel chipsets - for my current one it was because I need a Thunderbolt 3 port to dock my laptop to dual monitors / keyboard / mouse / ethernet / webcam all with one simple USB C plug. You won't find TB3 on an AMD machine - it is awesome - 40Gbps interface - maybe your solution for another screen question, I have 3 screens on the go, 1 laptop and 2 monitors connected to one set of wireless keyboard / mouse.

3) Yes, upgrade if it works out cheaper but note that some laptops will come with 2x4GB chips meaning you need to buy 2x8GB rather than just one. I would recommend 16GB unlike some of the other posters above, I run 16GB on all my machines and can easily use it all with intense activities, gives headroom for running virtual machines as well and crunching big data sets. Mines using 9.4 GB right now with just Outlook / Skype / Teams and 9 browser tabs open.

Dell XPS 15 is my shout on this. I'm a sucker for Dell Laptops, always been excellent for me, I have a G5 which is more for gaming with an nVidia GPU but performance is excellent and so well built.

Thanks for your comments.
The reason I'm ideally wanting the 16Gb is as you say the Virtual machines and the data analysis for extremely large datasets, which most of ours are.
We're not there yet with the virtual machines but will be in the next 12-18 months, and I don't want to have to buy another.
Its the same with Teams which uses 3Gb as minimum, plus Power BI which I can't use beyond the online version on my current 4Gb machine cause it falls over.
I'm not too bothered about buying 2 matched 8Gb chips cause from the research I've done it still comes out cheaper.

Doshwaster

Our standard corporate laptop config is Core i5 with 16GB RAM though power users can request a higher spec. An extra £200 over the lifetime of the system (4 years?) really isn't that significant..
Also, think about where you are going to be using the machine. If you are going to be at your desk all day then weight and battery life isn't that important as you will be plugged. If you are always on the move then they are critical. I'd also concentrate on getting a good external screen(s) setup and not worrying too much about the laptop screen size.

TheRightOne

Chino said:

dori2o said:

but the price jump in stores from 8Gb to 16Gb for the same machine is huge.

Really? In absolute terms, an extra £200 for something you'll be using professionally seems a pittance.

dori2o said:

The difference in devices in stores for 8Gb and 16Gb RAM is around £200

May I refer you to to the URL in your address bar or simply remind you of the name of this website?
It's not just a board for technical advice. It's technical advice twinned with saving money. So why should he spend £200 as opposed to £60 to £80 for exactly the same thing....and why doesn't he tell anyone the budget involved, even though he has been asked twice?