Quad-core laptop and PCI-Express for software developer

[Ron_2]

Hi all, I'm not really an enthusiast and am on a budget, but would like crazy fast speed during my software development work entailing: using developer software such as C++ Visual Studio or Java Eclipse IDE, compiling code repeatedly, and running a web server or two. I'd like my machine to not slow down (preferably even when it is running automated system scans, though I could pause those).

Questions:
1) Will I see much difference in going with quad core's like i7-5700HQ or i7-4720HQ, vs. the ultra low voltage standard of i7-5500u dual-core that most laptops in brick-and-mortar stores are coming with (which www.cpubenchmark.net/laptop.html scores about half as good as the quad-cores)?
2) Will I see much difference in going with PCIe SSD vs. regular SSD (I’ve heard Windows experience is mostly small file reads, not large sequential reads)? Further, how about the latest NVMe SSD?

My buddies have MacBook Pros which appear to come out of the box with powerful quad-core i7 and PCIe SSD, which seem to startup super-fast and compile nearly immediately without slowing. I don’t want to regret not matching their power on my windows machine (which is much harder to find, by the way… especially the PCIe), but I don’t want to spend hundreds more expense for very little reason.

Opinions appreciated!

 

[Calculagator]

Yes the quad core will make a big difference for compile times-especially if you are running other things simultaneously. Likewise, the PCI-E ssd will be much faster. NVMe probably doesn't make much difference.
The macbook pro makes a great windows machine. Some macs are overpriced, but if you want the same hardware as the macbook pro in a pc laptop, you will end up spending at least as much. You can save money, but you will have to sacrifice somewhere.

 

[Shadowcalen1]

I would browse around, Macbooks dont come cheep. While they are super durable and thin, I have a gaming laptop that the full price was $1300 (cad) after a upgrade to 16Gb of ram and a 850evo 250Gb msata SSD. It also has a i7-4710hq, and a 860m. Lossing the GPU, you could save some more and get a much cheeper machine.

 

[velo3100]

The quad core cpu's will make a huge difference in compiling code. I don't know about the storage but I assume you won't notice it unless you are moving files around. The macs are really designed for video or image editors that frequently import and export files which is why they always have the fastest storage.

I am pretty sure it is the cpu that is the most important thing for coders and not so much on the storage. Obviously it will make a difference if this was between hdd and ssds.

 

[Ron_2]

Thanks all! I think most important takeaway is to go quad-core, with which I concur. @Shadowcalen1, funny thing is it seems hard to find powerful cpu without getting the gpu, at least for much cheaper... but I will check again.

Also, since some 6th gen laptops released today, I'm wondering how long until one shows up near my $900-ish budget, if ever...