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:

1. Is this computer's specification (below) enough to be enable to use Sharepoint 2010 and SQL server 2012 inside of VMware Player?
2. Will Sharepoint go fast based on suggested computer's specification?
3. Is it better if I install windows server 2008R2 as a primary operativ system, instead of Win7, in the new laptop instead of using the first option due to high resource and memory requirement?

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 "DELL LATITUDE E5520"
• Intel Core i7 2640M 2,8 GHz
• 8 GB memory
• 500 GB hard drive space

Answer 1

Is this computer's specification (below) enough to be enable to use Sharepoint 2010 and SQL server 2012 inside of VMware Player?

Yes, laptop specs you provided are enough to be able to handle SP 2010 development/testing.

Will Sharepoint go fast based on suggested computer's specification?

If you will be doing development/testing, you should not notice any lags.

Is it better if I install windows server 2008R2 as a primary operating system, instead of Win7, in the new laptop instead of using the first option due to high resource and memory requirement?

Yes, it is better if you can avoid running SP in a VM. But, again VM provides you with some advantages that running SP on your host machine does not. For example, using a VM, you have the option to take snapshots and roll your VM back to a specific snapshot.

My recommendation:

Do not buy a laptop, instead create a CloudShare account.

Why? (you can also do a search here in SP.SE for CloudShare and see what other say about it)

• If you buy a laptop now in a few years that hardware specs will be out of date. With CloudShare account you do not have to worry about the H/W going out of date.
• Going with the laptop solution I would say is twice as more expensive in the short-term. In the long term is a lot more expensive.
• With the CloudShare account you do not need to buy an msdn license for most of the software. The license is included in your subscription.
• All you need to access your environments is a browser. You simply RDP into your various environments. Thus, you do not need to spend money on getting a beefed up host hardware.
• You can share the CloudShare environment with others for free (for 48 hours)
• It is a no brainer. Go with the cloud solution.

PS: I am not affiliated with CloudShare in anyway. I am just a happy customer.