Laptop for plc and engineering programming

[Paullys50]

If you get a 15" laptop, be sure you get on with a resolution of 1920x 1080 often times anything less than 17" will default to a pitiful 1366 x 768...

 

[JordanCClark]

...On my desk was a 200 foot serial cable and an Air Canada ticket.

Thanks, Ken. I needed a good chuckle!

Back on topic, I'm not sure I agree with avoiding SSDs. Win7 and higher SSD Management is not too shabby. Certainly better than XP. And overall quality keeps improving. Just the same, to help avoid needless writes to the drive, install as much memory as you can. If you decide to go with a portable workstation, you can usually install up to 16GB of RAM.

Another thing to consider is that (based on the 'engineering' portion of the topic title) if you do anything more graphic intensive-- like any sort of CAD work, then you will want to pay special attention to the video hardware. A dedicated video chipset with its own memory over a shared memory scenario.

 

[irondesk40]

thanks for suggestions.
going to order a dell E6440 with a 500 GB Hybrid SSD drive.
Only could get 8 GB of ram. Dell said that was how they sold them, so when it gets here will just purchase another 8 from crucial.

Now looking VM Wear Workstation and Converter.
This was based on a local Siemens rep and local allen bradley rep.
The dell i ordered is actually the same that the local AB rep used and some other folks i know use and they seem to be pretty happy with it.

 

[NetNathan]

Dell Precision laptops are very durable.
I am on the road about 30-50% of the time and on many different job sites with pretty dirty environments sometimes.
I get 4-5 Years from my laptop, it could be longer but technology advancement justifies upgrades.
I also supply Dell Precision when there is a RFQ for "Maintenance Laptop" to be supplied with the job.

 

[The Plc Kid]

thanks for suggestions.
going to order a dell E6440 with a 500 GB Hybrid SSD drive.
Only could get 8 GB of ram. Dell said that was how they sold them, so when it gets here will just purchase another 8 from crucial.

Now looking VM Wear Workstation and Converter.
This was based on a local Siemens rep and local allen bradley rep.
The dell i ordered is actually the same that the local AB rep used and some other folks i know use and they seem to be pretty happy with it.

Don't expect a lot from a Hybrid drive. I see the advice of a hybrid drive was given in post 8 and is incorrect. An SSD drive is the very best thing to run a VM from. SSD management in windows 7 SP1 and higher is great.

VM's run best from a separate physical drive than the Host OS is on and that's not just for VM Ware that for any type 2 Hypervisor. The best setup is 2 SSD drives one larger than the other and the smaller one for the host OS or next best is 1 SSD for Host OS and a regular HDD for the vm's to sit on.

Nothing wrong with a hybrid drive but just make sure you carefully consider the price and make sure it matches what you are getting.

Hybrids are good as they cache areas of the disk in ram that are accessed frequently making it faster and can help a decent bit when running only a single VM but if you run more that one VM at a time the cache is clearing so often it does not make a performance difference.

I have benchmarked all of these methods so I know their good and bad points.

In summary Flash SSD is always king when you are looking for performance and for VM's 2 flash drives are the ultimate setup but can be pricey.

I have found that Vendors like Dell and HP tend to charge a lot for Drives and memory. Many people are not aware of this but those are the primary areas in which they profit.

It's best to find the model you want based on screen size and expansion and ports. Buy something that comes with 2 smaller HDD and then put after market SSD's in at a much better price.

Same thing with memory get a unit with a low shipping amount of memory like 4 GB or 8 GB but one that can be expanded to 16 GB or 32 Gb and get aftermarket memory from crucial or other vendors for a much better price.