Laptops with Big RAM?

Fubari wonders: "Anybody know when laptops over 4gb might be coming out? Some of the dev-tools I want to run are just obscene RAM-pigs. On the desktop I'm using now (Win2003), it sucks up 1.6gb just to boot. By the time I log in and start doing work, it is stretching 2Gb. Move that to Vista, add a VM-Ware session or two, and I'm worried I'll be pushing 4Gb. I'm torn between buying a 4Bb-max laptop now, or some mini-desktop that can fit in a set of luggage wheels. A friend of mine suggested something like this, but my first choice would be something designed to be portable. Any suggestions?"

Easy Answer: May

[ZachPruckowski]

You can get a Santa Rosa platform Centrino chipset in May, which will allow for 4 GB of RAM, with 2 x 2 GB sticks. However, 2 GB SODIMMs aren't cheap...

Thinkpad

[NaNO2x]

I sugest a Thinkpad. They are durable, small, ment for portible offices. Most allow a preinstalled 4GB or more of RAM. I know some go over 6. They are pricey but they are worth it I feel. So check them out.

Re:Harder than you think

[HardCase]

Oh crap, here I am replying to my own post. Where I said 2GB, please substitute 4GB instead. D'oh!

Re:Dell?

[Anonymous Coward]

He is probably doing some development work that requires W2k3 thus his dev platform is W2k3. There are a few SDKs from Microsoft that will not work on XP (home or pro) and basically require W2k3 if you want to be able to build and test on the same box. He didn't tell us what exactly he was doing, or why he needed W2k3, just that he was using it. I wouldn't jump to the conclusion he doesn't know what's he doing just because he has W2k3 installed instead of XP.

It's all about bandwidth

[skinfitz]

Why not have a big behemoth server sitting on the net somewhere and access it remotely using a nice wireless OSX machine?

Re:Harder than you think

[Lost Race]

Oh crap, here I am replying to my own post.

There's never been anything wrong with replying to your own posting when you have something new to add, unless of course you use a sock puppet [wikipedia.org] to do it.

VNC? Remote Desktop?

[amuro98]

Instead of creating a portable development environment/lab on your laptop, why not setup a secure network, and use something like Remote Desktop or VNC to access your big-beefy-box (BBB) at the office?

Use the laptop for light file editting and whatnot, then upload the files to your remote BBB for compilation and testing.

I used to do this at a former job when telecommuting. It was a lot easier when I could simply access "my desktop" exactly as it was as if I were sitting in the office. Well, OK, I only had 1 monitor when telecommuting, but I could still be productive.

Re:Thinkpad

[ckaminski]

Please explain again the usefulness of Windows XP 64bit edition, then?

<quote>
Description of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition

Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is a near feature-complete version of Windows XP Professional that runs on x64 processors. Windows XP Professional x64 Edition supports 128 GB of RAM and 16 terabytes of virtual memory address space, as compared to 4 GB of both physical RAM and virtual memory address space for 32-bit Windows XP Professional.

Windows XP Professional x64 Edition runs 32-bit applications in the Windows on Windows 64 (WOW64) subsystem providing compatibility with the more than 10,000 existing 32-bit Windows applications while enabling new 64-bit applications.
</quote>

<Url:http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/64bi t/russel_exploringx64.mspx>
<url:http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/over view.mspx>

Re:No you can't.

[John Harrison]

I'm typing this on an IBM Thinkpad T60p. One has to look very hard to find the word Lenovo on it. It says IBM in big bright letters. Levnovo has the right to use the IBM brand for 5 years and is partly owned by IBM. I should add that until 10 days ago I worked for IBM.

What is the real question

[zippthorne]

You could wait, spend a fortune, lug a desktop, or even buy a mac as everyone here has suggested, perhaps.

But the real question is, What is it that you need a +4GB laptop for? Sometimes, (many times perhaps) we have a problem that we get an idea how to solve that may or may not be the most effective way to do it. We then go and as questions about how to accomplish individual steps in our not particularly effective method.

But depending on the problem, it is sometimes better to ask about the actual problem. Someone is bound to have solved it or something similar or have an insight that would make many of our steps (hopefully the hardest ones) unnecessary.

Re:Harder than you think

[Chryana]

I verified recently if RAM was a power hog on a laptop, and the consensus was that it did not make that much of a difference (although I will concede that 4GB is a lot). One benchmark was stating that doubling the RAM from 512MB to 1GB reduced the battery life by 8 minutes, which is not too bad on a total battery life of over 2 hours and a half. Additionally, having more RAM, especially when it is used, may result in lower hard disk usage, and the hard drive draws far more power than memory (it was placed second only to the display in terms of power consumption). So yes, there will definitely be a difference in terms of battery life if he installs 4GB, but given his memory requirements, it may turn out to be better than to abuse the swap file constantly. Also, if he really uses that much RAM it will be much more pleasant for him to use his computer than to wait wait wait while the computer is crawling, constantly swapping content in and out of the page file.

Re:It's all about bandwidth

[iMac Were]

I'm posting this from a mac.

You can wriiiite and hav aannnnnnnnal sex at the same tim e????????///////?