Which laptop specs for faster compiling?

Monkey Archive Forums/Monkey Discussion/Which laptop specs for faster compiling?

Pakz(Posted 2016) [#1]
I did some searching and read that the cpu is important for the compiling. Is this also so for Monkey and with smaller projects?

I almost ordered a new cheapish laptop today but I have no idea what you need for a faster development flow. I now sometimes work on a cheap 15 inch with a n2820 processor with 2gb of memory. Programming is doable but I would be interested in having something faster.

Is a more expensive cpu enough? (<200 price)Or does sdd/cashed andor more memory also have a good/better influence?

I usually stay below a few thousand lines per project.

I have seen 2 laptops for sale that interest me. low spec hp Pavilion 360. One has a iirc 50 dollar more expensive cpu.


Goodlookinguy(Posted 2016) [#2]
The speed of your storage drive has a tendency to be an incredibly important factor more often nowadays, since it's usually the bottleneck. I would recommend, instead of buying new components and such, to instead install a RAM drive and see how the speed on that works out for you. Mind you, you will need to save you data before shutting it off because the RAM drives are just allocated chunks of memory to be used in drive emulation. I have seen RAM drives speed up just about everything, with the exception of poorly programmed or old software. It's also better than a SSD because it doesn't waste the limited number of writes a SSD has.

Now, if after trying that you don't see a significant speed up, that's when you go off on tangents of actually switching hardware.

As a note, I custom build, repair, and maintain computers for a living. I will tell you straight up that a cheap laptop is a, "you get what you pay for," kind of thing. My typical clients who have HP Pavilion type laptops usually have their storage drive die in 1-3 years (3-years being generous), their battery overheat to the point of potential burns, their graphics chip (or APU) overheat so badly that it damages some of the solder contacts around them making me have to reflow their boards.


Gerry Quinn(Posted 2016) [#3]
Your computer is about as slow as it can be, so I guess any non-notebook would probably be a speed up. But the RAM drive sounds like a good idea.

Personally I have been around so long that everything compiles in a flash compared to how it used to be!


Pharmhaus(Posted 2016) [#4]

I now sometimes work on a cheap 15 inch with a n2820 processor with 2gb of memory.


I have a similiar device here which acts as a media server (not a notebook).
The performance is just horrrible, it couldn't be any worse compared to my regular notebook.

Is a more expensive cpu enough? (<200 price)Or does sdd/cashed andor more memory also have a good/better influence?


Any decent i7 and a small SSD will do. Just make sure not to buy any of the intel atom processors (which were renamed and now have a single letter prefix such as N) note that some intel atoms are now called pentium as well.
If you aim for development make sure to have at least 8GB ram as some dev envrionments for mobile dev will simply black out if you don't have enough.