Programmer's Notebook

No, I am not referring to the Battle Programming. I am thinking of buying a new computer. I have an old, assembled, desktop at home which is good enough to play games such as Half Life 2 at medium/moderate settings. However maintaining, or rather piece-fully upgrading it is now something I don't have time for. So the choices are:

1. I retain the old machine and use it for the occasional gaming urge I get after I am done surfing porn and wasting time in office.
2. Ditch it and go for a powerful laptop which allows me to watch TV while programming (bad idea, but I shall mostly not do this)

If I go with option 2, the choice would really be any good / powerful notebook available today between 30-40k, or ~$800. However if I decide to retain the desktop (since I won't likely get a good price for it), I shall still be looking for something lightweight and portable and powerful enough as a travel companion.

It should be capable of running VS as well as Eclipse
It should have a full keyboard (not the cramped arrow keys!)
Does not have to have touch screen
Does not necessarily need an optical drive (keeps weight down)
Should have around three full-sized USB ports
Nice to have Ethernet
WiFi is a must
Good hard disk size (500 GB)

Main uses would be trying out various code samples, working on some apps in the spare time and carrying it around in a backpack. Should last me for three years at least, so a warranty support for three years, plus the specs shouldn't get outdated quickly.

Any models out there?



By the way, does a Windows 8 mobile run the 'normal' windows applications?

Nope, Windows RT runs only 'mobile' applications, while the regular Windows runs both.

Just got one of these for work:
http://www.samsung.com/au/consumer/p...NP350V5C-S07AU

It's light enough and it has a proper keyboard (with the numeric keys).
I put in 16GB of RAM, an SSD, and threw out Windows 8. It's reasonably nice to use; the screen resolution is disappointing, but if you're using as your regular work machine you'd connect it to a monitor anyway.

So, a Windows 8 mobile is actually running RT and not the pro/normal version?

I hear only Sony offers a backlit keyboard. And I don't need an optical drive, strictly speaking, so it should be lighter/thinner than the Samsung one you have posted above. The specs do look impressive, but I am sure so would be the price. I wish I could use the same device for my office as well as personal work, but currently that's out of question.

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