maybe someone from here knows(Visual Studio 2008 Requirments)

Question

Visual Studio 2008 Requirments
i found this on msdn2.com:

Minimum: 1.6 GHz CPU, 384 MB RAM, 1024x768 display, 5400 RPM hard drive

Recommended: 2.2 GHZ or higher CPU, 1024 MB or more RAM, 1280x1024 display, 7200 RPM or higher hard drive
But if i had a core 2 duo with 2.0 Ghz , i know thats better than single core 2.2 ghz and more ,but is that enough or would it be good to have a 2.4Ghz core 2 duo ? and if the harddisk has only 5400rpm(do laptops hardisk run faster than that?) is that enough for VS2008 to run good ,i mean real good :D

Alan · Answer

IMHO the single most important factor in running VS 2008 or any other monolithic piece of software is having plenty of RAM. Hard disk speed only becomes a serious factor if you're low on RAM because of the increased need to swap stuff to and from disk. Microsoft seem to have a tendency to underestimate the amount of RAM needed to run their software apparently forgetting that you may have other applications running at the same time. I wouldn't even consider trying to run VS 2008 with less than 1 GB RAM (it'll run but like a dog!) and you really need 2 GB for it to run at a reasonable lick. The benefits of dual core processors can only be fully realized if software is written to take advantage of concurrent processing and I'm not sure to what extent that applies to VS at the present time. Having said that I feel sure that your processor and hard disk speed will be adequate provided you have sufficient RAM. If you don't have much RAM and are unable to upgrade it for some reason I'd look at using the free VC# 2008 Express rather than the full VS. The former is adequate for many purposes and is not quite as memory hungry as its big brother. Incidentally it's true that most hard disks used on desktop systems nowadays run at 7200 rpm and most laptop systems run at 5400 rpm though if you pay a bit more you can get faster HDs for the latter as well.