GRcade

Any recommendations for a solid windows laptop with a strong intel processor, loads of ram and 3tb hdd? I would need it to cope with sql databases without any speed issues and maybe the odd game if possible.

SQL databases as it will act as the server?

gamerforever wrote:Any recommendations for a solid windows laptop with a strong intel processor, loads of ram and 3tb hdd? I would need it to cope with sql databases without any speed issues and maybe the odd game if possible.

You'll probably need to replace the drive, not seen any laptops that come with a 3TB HD. Probably make more sense to put the DB on a USB 3 HD.

3TB internal laptop drives are expensive, they're often cheaper as external even though they are usually the same drive inside. Also RAM tends to be artificially inflated in a laptop unless you buy it separately. By "loads" I guess you mean 16GB or more.

Out of curiosity why do you need a hold such a massive database on a laptop because what's going to connect to it while still moving it around? Surely a mini ITX machine or something like that would make more sense if it's stationary (or even if you need to move it around, I have on that fits in a laptop bag and has space for 2 or 3 hard disks and you could just remote to it using TeamViewer).

Well 1tb will do. The sql database is needed for my accountancy suite. I would prefer a full hd screen and a 15.6 inch screen size.

At present i have an older core i5 from 2012 i think, which is starting to slow down a bit with windows 10.

gamerforever wrote:Well 1tb will do. The sql database is needed for my accountancy suite. I would prefer a full hd screen and a 15.6 inch screen size.

At present i have an older core i5 from 2012 i think, which is starting to slow down a bit with windows 10.

If you are going to just be using SQL by yourself, you won't be needing to go overboard on the CPU. More memory and SSD would probably be better. Can't you just change your drive and add more memory to your current laptop?

Death's Head wrote:

gamerforever wrote:Well 1tb will do. The sql database is needed for my accountancy suite. I would prefer a full hd screen and a 15.6 inch screen size.

At present i have an older core i5 from 2012 i think, which is starting to slow down a bit with windows 10.

If you are going to just be using SQL by yourself, you won't be needing to go overboard on the CPU. More memory and SSD would probably be better. Can't you just change your drive and add more memory to your current laptop?

I have 12GB RAM already.

Your current laptop sounds powerful enough.

It probably needs a fresh copy of windows installed on it if an i5 is slow. Or clean up the programs that are loading on startup.

"msconfig" is your friend.

That sounds like a ballache, everyone I know uses cloud accounting now.

Green Gecko wrote:That sounds like a ballache, everyone I know uses cloud accounting now.

What? I thought everyone ran a local accounting system and SQL server on their laptop. How times have moved on....

Dunno if you're being serious or not but yes it is far less hassle and is usually paired with an app/mobile thing.

https://www.xero.com/uk/
https://www.freeagent.com/
https://www.quickbooks.co.uk/accounting-software/

etc. Something to think about for that year end!

These aren't accounting packages. I am talking about companies such as IRIS. I will likely go cloud based eventually as it is the way forward.

Well something like Xero scales to any company's accounts and offers RTI payroll management as well, you can forget about hardware issues. There are loads of big and small solutions out there for any size of business, it will cost you or the company less in the long term to switch.

I'm not sure what you mean by not accounting packages, that's a large part of what IRIS offers but tied in with payroll solutions. I'm aware IRIS does a lot of HR management stuff as well I just wonder why it's on a single laptop as that sounds a giant ball of stress to me. The larger databases get the more likely they are to go tits up without any form of redundancy and slow to work on.

I can see why this would be a sticky situation over a long period of time, thankfully I've never had to deal with a large database on a local machine. The largest one is GRcade and that obviously has its own server with plenty of resources and backup - cloud stuff is the same really. The bottleneck then is just your internet connection. I have no idea what I would do if a large business database got corrupted in these days of very little paper filing.

Sorry if this seems off topic, I just think it's the real answer to business application performance and reliability.

Green Gecko wrote:Dunno if you're being serious or not but yes it is far less hassle and is usually paired with an app/mobile thing.

https://www.xero.com/uk/
https://www.freeagent.com/
https://www.quickbooks.co.uk/accounting-software/

etc. Something to think about for that year end!

I'll give you a clue, no one has ever had an SQL server installation on their laptop just to do their accounts.

Right, got it.