need some help to decide for an optimal build on a set budget laptop

[kyuubimerc]

Hi there,

I'm planning to get a laptop as a gift for someone who's a programming student and will use this laptop mainly for work with coding.

here is what it's going to be mainly used for:

• 
  Eclipse - creating servers, projects
  DrJava - Java code reading
  Notepad++ - html and css coding
  SQL Developer - sql programming
  PHPDesigner8 - storing all web based information, web codes, locations, hosts
  Firebug - code on webpage identification

the budget is around £500 and since I don't know too much about a coding computer builds I would be thankful for build advice to make this computer good enough for all the programming needs and also snappy and enjoyable as a general use laptop for everyday web browsing. It will not be used for games at all. It will run either Win8.1 or Win7

i'm buiding it on pcspecialist's website and here are the choices to keep it within the £500 budget:

to start with it's a 17.3" Cosmos II

Chassis & Display - Cosmos Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED widescreen (1920x1080) (Seems to be a good quality display so i'm not including the low res options here)

CPU - ( I'm leaning towards i3-4110M (2.60 GHz) 3MB because it seems that it's not worth getting i5 on this particular build)

• 
  - Intel Pentium Dual Core 3550 (2.30 GHz) 2MB
  - i3-4100M (2.50 GHz) 3MB
  - i3-4110M (2.60 GHz) 3MB
  - i5-4210M (2.60 GHz) 3MB
  - i5-4310M (2.70 GHz) 3MB
  - i5-4340M (2.90 GHz) 3MB

RAM - (I'm leaning towards 8 GB Kingston Sodimm DDR3 1600 MHz (1 x 8GB) because I think 8 GB would make the overall system faster and snappier than the 4GB one)

• 
  - 2 GB Kingston Sodimm DDR3 1333 MHz (1 x 2GB)
  - 4 GB Kingston Sodimm DDR3 1600 MHz (1 x 4GB)
  - 8 GB Kingston Sodimm DDR3 1600 MHz (1 x 8GB)

GPU - Intel HD Graphics Media Accelerator 4600 (I don't think that it's worth exploring other options here because it's not going to be used for Games and as far as I know programming does not really need powerful GPU)

HARD DISK - (I'm leaning towards 120GB Kingston V300 SSD or Samsung 840 EVO SSD because in general SSDs seem to boost the overall performance of a computer. Also limited storage is not an issue)

• 
  - 500GB serial ATA II 2.5" 8MB cache (5,400rpm)
  - 500GB WD Scorpio Black WD5000BPKX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 16MB cache (7200 rpm)
  - 500GB Seagate Hybrid SSHD, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB cache (5400 rpm)
  - 120GB SSD and 1TB HDD WD Black2 Dual Drive WD1001X06XDTL
  - 120GB Kingston V300 SSD, SATA 6Gb (450MB/R, 450MB/W)
  - 120GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD, Sata 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR, 410MB/sW)

I would be grateful for any advice to make this gift the best value for money.

Thank you.

 

[USAFRet]

Programming at that laptop budget:

i5, not i3
8GB (he may want to run SQL Server)
Samsung 840 EVO over the V300

 

[kyuubimerc]

Programming at that laptop budget:

i5, not i3
8GB (he may want to run SQL Server)
Samsung 840 EVO over the V300

thank you for your answer, could you please elaborate a bit more your choice for i5 over i3?
I understand that it's better point blank, but is there a good enough reason why i3 would not perform just as good for what this build is for?

also which of the 3 i5s would be good enough?
- i5-4210M (2.60 GHz) 3MB
- i5-4310M (2.70 GHz) 3MB
- i5-4340M (2.90 GHz) 3MB

Thank you in advance.

 

[USAFRet]

Programming at that laptop budget:

i5, not i3
8GB (he may want to run SQL Server)
Samsung 840 EVO over the V300

thank you for your answer, could you please elaborate a bit more your choice for i5 over i3?
I understand that it's better point blank, but is there a good enough reason why i3 would not perform just as good for what this build is for?

also which of the 3 i5s would be good enough?
- i5-4210M (2.60 GHz) 3MB
- i5-4310M (2.70 GHz) 3MB
- i5-4340M (2.90 GHz) 3MB

Thank you in advance.

Programming - you want as much raw processing power as fits in the budget.
Is it 'required'? No. You can do 'programming' on a 15 year old P2 300Mhz. It will be slow, though.