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The biggest drawback, by far, is the insanely low RAM. Anything less than 8GB is unusable for me, and I certainly can't be the only one.
by daeken 15y ago
The biggest drawback, by far, is the insanely low RAM. Anything less than 8GB is unusable for me, and I certainly can't be the only one.
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoSurely you're exaggerating. 8GB is necessary for a dev machine where you're going to be intentionally straining it. Most laptops nowadays come with 4GB. You're seriously saying those are "unusable" for you? What are you doing that requires 8GB of memory? Running multiple instances of SQL Server, AutoCAD, Visual Studio, and 2 or 3 games simultaneously?
- danieldk 15y agoOh, some of our software barely compiles with 4GB of memory (unless you have enough time). E.g. large finite state transducers dumped as a big array of structs in C tend to blow up the compiler ;). Also, some people tend to work with large data sets or problems that just require lots of memory. E.g. I work on language generation, and generally the more memory the better. For me 8GB is the minimum for doing serious work, and most machines that I use have >= 8GB and <= 64GB of memory.
- danieldk 15y agoSo, someone asks "why would anyone need 8GB of memory". I describe one situation where I need that amount of memory. Can the downvoter please explain why this comment is objectionable? Edit: my question is not rhetorical, I really would like to know.
- masklinn 15y agoCan't say i found anything objectionable to your comment (while I'm not doing that kind of stuff, in my day-to-day web development I have to juggle with virtual machines and 8GB RAM is also a bare requirements to be able to work correctly without the machine swapping to death), so I put you back above threshold.
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoI didn't downvote you but I would guess it was the hyperbolic wording of "insanely low" and "unusable".
- masklinn 15y agoHow is it hyperbole? If the machine can not support the workloads it will be put under, how is it not unusable for him?
- deong 15y agoAlso not a downvoter, but it's hyperbole because he didn't qualify it by saying that he has very particular needs. It would be like saying, "the Ford Excursion is an unusable piece of junk due to the lack of interior space...I can't even fit my 42 foster kids in it for a trip to Disneyland."
- MatthewPhillips 15y agoThat's cool, surely that's a niche situation though. People deving mobile apps and websites (most people here) can do fine with 4GB. I do think the low end MB Air at 2GB is pushing it though.
- adolph 15y agoYep, sounds like you need something heftier than a super-light laptop for that sort of task. Hopefully you have already provisioned thusly.
- daeken 15y agoMy new laptop has 16GB of RAM. Last night, I was using 12GB of it. I was running one VM with 4gb of ram, and the rest was taken up with my browser (where I was exploring a vulnerability involving a massive number of objects), my debugger, and IDA. 8GB will work for me (that's all I have at work) but it definitely makes my life hard.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- eli 15y agoHonest question: Are there any ultra-lightweight laptops that handle 8GB?
- daeken 15y agoThe Dell Adamo (their answer to the MBA, which was nicer than the original, just way too expensive) did a couple years back, but that's now dead. Not sure what else is out there in the space, but just about any newer laptop with upgradable RAM can do 8GB -- almost all will support 4GB in each of the (standard) two banks.
- eli 15y agoI believe most in this category only have a single bank. I think the MBA actually has zero -- it's soldered to the motherboard.
- kooshball 15y agolenovo x220 can take 8