Anyone using the Dell Latitude 6430u for programming?

I'm in need of a new laptop, and since it might be a long time for many popular models to get a Haswell refresh, I'm thinking about just getting an Ivybridge based laptop. Does anyone own the Latitude 6430u and use it for application development (Visual Studio or Java based)? How's the performance? Only reason why I am even thinking about the 6430u is because of the size/weight, and the fact it has a removable battery, and user serviceable memory/hdd slots. Just a bit worried about the dual core i7-3687U..

 

It will be fine. I'm running VS on the XPS 14 with dual core i5 and its pretty smooth. If you're going to be running any VMs however, I'd opt for the E6430 or forthcoming E6440 instead as they're more powerful and more expandable. At the cost of extra weight and bulk of course.

 

Can't speak to Visual Studio as I haven't done Windows dev work in over a decade, but for Java you should be alright.

Unless your applications are really huge and you're using a well-parallelized build structure for most of the Java IDEs (IntelliJ, Eclipse, at least; I use both at work), the amount of memory and disk speed will matter more than that processor -- i7-3687U with SSD and 8gb will be fine unless your project sizes are huge -- seriously, don't even THINK of 4gb, Java is a memory hog of the first order.

I'd forgotten that the E6430u even COULD take 16gb until I just looked, but if your applications are huge enough that you're thinking about needing 16gb of memory, they're probably big enough that you should be looking at a higher-clocked CPU on the E6430s.

 

I have the 6430u with 1.8GHz Core i5-3427U, 128GB SSD, and 8GB of DDR3 RAM. Although I don't use it for programming, I am a 'power user' and do a lot of very demanding tasks and couldn't cope with any performance issues! It only came with 4GB of RAM, but as soon as I upgraded to 8GB I've been very happy with it all around.

I highly recommend the HD+ (1600x900) display. It is superior to the standard HD (1366x768) unit in every way.

I am also very impressed with how cool AND quiet the system remains under load!

Filling the shoes of my faithful old E6400 workhorse that served me faithfully for more than four years is no easy task. But the 6430u is doing the job just fine....

 

I'm writing this post on 6430u, second day since I've received it. I'm gonna return it tomorrow because the noise levels are really awful. Right now (15min just using firefox) The cpu has almost 60ºC, if I try to compile the temperature gets 90ºC and the fan is really nerve-breaking. I would not recommend this laptop to my worst enemy.
First week with the Dell Latitude 6430u | marcoullasci
Dell Latitude 6430u - Fan Speed - Laptop General Hardware Forum - Laptop - Dell Community

 

Interesting as others comment how cool and quiet it is. Is it the i7 which is hot & noisy or does it affect the i5 as well. And have Dell adjusted the BIOS to compensate?

 

Mine is the i7 versions, I don't really know if is the model itself or I had bad luck and this model is not well assembly (maybe thermal paste?). In both scenarios I'd prefer to forget about this laptop ever exists (BIOS is up to date, was first thing I looked for)