ArcGIS Software?

I have one other question about the XPS 15. I am an environmental science student, and will have to take some geographic information systems classes, and was wondering if anyone has run any of the software, and how demanding it is?
Thanks!

 

I haven't run it personally, but we ran it in the lab I worked in as an undergrad about 4 years ago and I just remember my mentor who bought it chose the laptop with the fastest CPU, GPU, and largest amount of RAM she could get.

 

i don't personally use it, but i do know that the lab in the Geography building on campus used to run Pentium 4 desktops with 2GB of memory. i would imagine that your XPS could handle it if P4's could.

then again, they could be older versions of ArcGIS...

 

There's no minimal system requirement stated somewhere on their site?

 

ArcGIS Desktop 10 System Requirements | ArcGIS Resource Center

The minimum processor requirement is 2.2ghz dual core. Is a quad core that is less than 2.2 ghz equally as capable?

The lowest quad-core Sandy is a 2.20 ghz, but if I take the class next year, and ArcGIS required a 2.4 dual core, would a 2.2 quad suffice even if the hz were lower?

If a program requires a certain min GHZ for a processor of x number of cores, does adding more cores allow the min GHZ to be lowered, or is a min GHZ a bright line rule regardless of the number of cores?

 

barney, all of the new quads would be sufficient, but if I were you and needed GIS for work or grad school, I would get the Core™ i7-2820QM.
And get 8gb RAM.
And the 1080p screen.

 

My 740QM with 1.73ghz is at least 4times as capable than the 2.4ghz dual core on my desktop. Core clock is not everything.

 

I used ArcGis last year for a class but that was before I had my XPS (i5, 4GB ram).
I don't remember what version of the software it was, but I had no problems with it on my old desktop (x2 3800+, 1 GB ram).

 

One thing to consider is ArcGIS will only take advantage of the multiple cores as of version 10.0:

31903 - Does Esri support multi-core or multi-CPU hardware with the ArcGIS Desktop products?

I work in a GIS development shop and ArcGIS is a resource hog. ArcMap takes a minute just to load on my dual core T9800 laptop, but it's usable. An XPS w/Sandy Bridge is about the best you'll be able to do in a laptop as far as performance. An SSD would help speed things up, but generally GIS folks need the extra space in a traditional drive.