[2005] Best PC for R & D

[Equis]

Hello

I am going to get a new PC for using with vs2005

Will a quad core be best?

Will vb take advantage of that?

Thanks :-)

[Kasracer]

Visual Studio is a fancy text editor with some GUI components. A celeron would be fine.

Go with ram upgrades rather than just CPU power.

[RhinoBull]

Go with ram upgrades rather than just CPU power.

I agree - single core P4 with 2GB of memory is more than enough for VS 2005.
However, if you can afford quad core (and tons of memory) than go for it.

[RhinoBull]

Also, keep in mind that typically developers have much more powerful machines than typical user so your experience may (and usually does) differ from your end users - especially when graphics involved and lots (or shall I say tons ) of calculations too.
So, long story short I have multiple dev machines so I can compare performance. One of my machines is (hardware and software) a typical user's "build".

[Hack]

So, long story short I have multiple dev machines so I can compare performance. One of my machines is (hardware and software) a typical user's "build".

This is crucial.....you have to be able to test an app on a "users" machine before deploying it, but I see soooooo many places that think multiple machines for a single person is a wasted extravagance.

You said you are getting a new machine which, to me, implies you currently have one. I would keep that one and get the new one. Take the old one and "convert" it into as much as standard "user" machine as you can so you will have a working test platform.

Not only is the necessary for app testing, but it is also necessary for installation testing. You always test those installs before rolling them out.

[RhinoBull]

Not only is the necessary for app testing, but it is also necessary for installation testing. You always test those installs before rolling them out.

To test deployment on various operating systems if multiple machines become an issue Virtual PC always comes handy.

[Kasracer]

To test deployment on various operating systems if multiple machines become an issue Virtual PC always comes handy.

I have a typical Windows XP and Windows 2000 installation setup in Virtual PC and it's been a huge help with testing.

What I did was I originally installed every possible browser version of different browsers (I'm roughly around 100 at this point) then I enabled the disk rollback feature. Now I can install something and rollback the disk so there are absolutely no traces left of the old application. Very very useful in testing applications and installations.

[RhinoBull]

Virtual PC is very nice tool [no doubt] but it comes with price thou - each instance requires at least 1GB of memory so 2GB at least must be installed.