Development Laptop

I've been considering purchasing an Asus laptop. I've had good experiences with other Asus products, so I really want to stick with Asus on this. Right now, I mostly use computers for programming, web developing, some designing, etc.

The problem is, I can't decide which model to get. I'm leaning towards the V6J right now, but I'm open to all models. If there's anyone else here that uses their Asus laptop for development, some suggestions would be nice. Thanks!

 

What type of dev are you doing? The V6j is a perfect notebook for 99% of all Asus buyers, but other models are certainly right there, just offer a different look or size to pull some people towards one or another. If we carried just one notebook and expected it to sell to a wide group of people.. it would either be the V6j or the W3j. The V6 doesn't have all the graphics power the W3 does, but only a small group of people really need all that power. The V6 and W3 have similiar screens, but a 15" regular ratio like on the V6 is basically identical in width to a 14" widescreen as on the W3, but about 1 1/2" taller. That extra height is what makes the V6 better for office apps and makes it the ideal "professional" system. I'm not sure of what type of development you're doing, but if you can figure out what would be better for you - regular ratio or widescreen - I'd tell you that you could miss with either of those two, with the V6 probably winning out in the end in your particular situation unless you're leaving some tidbits out.

 

I was in the same boat as you, with much more of an emphasis on programming / database design. My requirement was that it had to extremely portable as I work on-site with clients 2-3 times a week. The rest of the time, I have desktops / servers at the main office which I use.

I pre-ordered a W7J as I felt it was a good blend of performance and portability. The only drawback I see is the RAM limitation, but I hope it will support 2GB+ with a future BIOS update.

my .2c

 

I do web development and DB programming as well, my A8Jm suits me fine. The V6J prob would be a nice choice since you have more vertical space that could be useful if you have long lines of code going down....

 

Thanks for the replies. I do both web development and software development. I primarily use Dreamweaver and Visual Studio .NET. Occasionally I use Photoshop.

I agree, the standard screen ratio on the V6 would probably be good for the extra vertical space. One thing that's bugging me about the V6 is that the CPU frequency seems to be lower compared to other Asus laptops around the same price. I believe the V6J has 1.66ghz, while the W3J has 2ghz, and W7J is at 1.83ghz. Would it really make that much of a difference for what I'm doing, though?

Thanks

 

I doubt CPU speed will make too much of a difference. Extra RAM might though, since I also do .NET, and .. well.. can you say memory hog ?

 

I have a low-end dualcore in one of my desktops (Pentium 820D), and I notice a huge performance with SQL Server and multiple instances of .Net studio open.

A lot of the larger apps take advantage of multi-threading, improving performance. I'm expecting the same with the notebook's core duo CPU. Although I'd recommend a minimum of 1.83Ghz.

.......
Check out the sticky in the "What Notebook Should I Buy" subforum for direct comparisons of notebook CPUs to Desktop CPUs.

-edit- here ya go


Alviso/Sonoma Pentium-Ms:
P-M 1.40GHz* - 2.5GHz Pentium 4
P-M 1.50GHz - 2.8GHz Pentium 4
P-M 1.60GHz - 3.0GHz P4
P-M 1.73GHz - 3.2GHz P4
P-M 1.86GHz - 3.4GHz P4
P-M 2.00GHz - 3.6GHz P4
P-M 2.13GHz - 3.8GHz P4
P-M 2.26GHz - 4.0GHz P4
*Not avaialable in an Alviso/Sonoma model; comparison uses older Banias core.

Core Solo/Duo Pentuim-Ms:
Core Solo 1.50GHz - 2.8GHz P4
Core Solo 1.66GHz - 3.0GHz P4
Core Duo 1.66GHz - 3.2GHz Pentium 4HT
Core Duo 1.83Ghz - 3.6GHz P4HT
Core Duo 2.00GHz - 3.8GHz P4HT
Core Duo 2.16GHz - 4.0GHz P4HT

 

Yes, .NET is probably the most resource demanding application I use. On this desktop, I have a P4 3.2ghz HT, which is closest to the Core Duo 1.66ghz according to those comparisons. VS.NET runs quick enough on that, I guess.

I suppose I can upgrade the RAM later, sometime in the future-- and hopefully I can upgrade to merom if I need to.

Well, it looks like the V6 is going to be my best bet, now. Thanks for all the help.

 

This isnt going to happen, the 512 is attached to the mb, thus is non replaceable, thus the maximum allowed is 1.5Gb, that is if/until 2Gb sodimms are made.
a

 

I had been seriously considering Asus for engineering work. I had settled on the Z96j - almost the same size as V6j, WSXGA+; less costly. Most retailers offer a 3 year warranty, and you can get much better hardware at a reasonable cost.
If u'r in US, u shood also consider getting a dell precision or latitude, there is a 30% off ALL dell systems coupon going on right now (quite rare). EPP program gives another 12% off. Discover card another 5% cashback

 

Funny, I made a few posts about this exact subject earlier.

In short I think the V6j is the best machine if you don't use an external monitor for most of your work. Otherwise the A8j or W3j are the best choices. IMHO.

 

I think you really hit that on the nose there. Using an external monitor in certain situations certainly allows you to scale down the overall screen size of the notebook, as long at it would be usable say 70% of the time...... the other 30% you could hook up a giant monitor to do more intense stuff at home or at the office..... or even at a clients.

 

Exactly what I'm saying. If there's a BIOS update to support 2GB sodimm, then it will support 2GB+ RAM. Not saying it will- but I'd like that to increase dev performance 2 years from now.

 

First of all, the difference right now between 1.5gb and 2gb in a laptop for any use is will have prove not much more helpful. 2gb dimms are starting to roll out, but anyone who's willing to drop the dough on them has both too much money and not a whole lot of sense (little unintended pun). Give it 7-12 months and 2gb sticks will be 40-50% more than 1gb are right now....... if that. Also, bios updates certainly will be coming and that's if it won't work in the system already. The only reason they're not certified for them is becasue even notebooks that are just arriving were in production before 2gb sticks were anywhere on the market. So, some of these may need to be tested and so forth and a bios update may be needed, but maybe not. Two years ago 1gb sticks weren't certified for the first dothan systems, and we sent out the first dothan system with 2gb of ram out for a major review and it did just fine.... So it might just work, but someone has to try it.....