Computer's Requirement Enough for Sharepoint 2010

Question

Goal:
Using the new laptop to be enabe to use Sharepoint 2010

Purpose:

• Improve my knowledge by using Sharepoint 2010.
• Drop and click and C# coding will also be involved when working with Sharepoint.
• In addition, I will use Sharepoint for private purpose.

Problem:

• Is this computer's specification (below) enough to be enable to use Sharepoint 2010 and SQL server 2012 inside of VMware Player?
• Will Sharepoint go fast based on suggested computer's specification?

Background info:

In foundation, I'm going to use Win 7 x64 and install VMware Player. Inside of VMware Player, I'm consider installing Sharepoint 2010, SQL server 2012 and Windows server 2008R2.

I'm consider buying a new laptop with following specification:

• Computer's title "HP PROBOOK 6560B CI5"
• Intel Core i5 2450M 2,5 GHz
• 16 GB memory
• 320 GB hard drive space

Answer 1

It will work fine but if you can find the cash then you really want to get an SSD. They provide the best bang for buck improvement on a machine you can buy. Don' get too hung up on whcih model and speeds, any recent SSD is such a massive improvement over a hard drive that the machine will appear much much faster. Second thing I would look to is getting a quad core rather than dual core, all depends on your budget of course.

Answer 2

As planetWilson said, the SSD drive for the system is the best way to improve the performance.

That said, you should consider investing in a second drive, for the "DATA". Common SSD size are 128GB or 256GB. You will quickly reach the size limit when you will run multiple VM.

So, I suggest you to have a second drive, at least 7200 Rpm. If you want to benefit the speed of the SSD, you should create a base vhd drive, with all the common stuff (windows, sharepoint bits, etc.), stored on the SSD drive. Then create as many differentiation disk as needed, this time stored on the second disk (or on the SSD, and you move the diff disk from/to the data disk when changing work).

A final word, be careful with the screen size/resolution. Visual Studio can require a lot of screen place to work comfortable. Target at least 1680x1050 pixels screens. My corporate laptop has a 1280*768 screen and working with this is very painful (fortunately, I have a second monitor).

Answer 3

Those specs are sufficent. I have a Sharepoint VM running on a similar machine, but with only 12 GB of RAM.

As the others already stated: The bottleneck of your system will be your HDD. Your VM will definitely go beserk on it. SSD is definitely the way to go.

Answer 4

IMO, you computer specs are fine for SP 2010 dev/evaluation purposes. But, I believe the most important requirement in your case is the I/O per second. Whatever HD and HD interface you pick, make sure the IOPS is good. In production the recommended IOPS is 2 IOPS per GB.

I suggest the following two options:

• Use cloudshare. You can access your environment from the browser without a need for a high end computer. You can create SP farms.
• Buy this laptop with less HD storage. If you have the option, buy it with a 80 GB or so SSD HD (place the OS on it). Make sure the laptop has a USB 3.0 port. Buy an external SSD HD with USB 3.0 interface. Place the SP VM on this external drive. Also, you have the option to run the VM as a VHD boot.