>>>>>>>Thank you, Kevin. Do you have Windows 7 or Windows 10 on your PC? And how much RAM?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>I have Windows 10, though I've done it with Windows 7 as well.
>>>>>>I have 2 primary machines - a laptop with 16 GB and a desktop with 32 GB.
>>>>>>Both handle VM instances quite well.
>>>>>>An SSD drive will definitely help.
>>>>>
>>>>>Thank you. I don't use desktops, only laptops. I will see if, when I buy the next one, I can get it with 32 GB of RAM.
>>>>
>>>>It's not easy finding laptops that will support 32 GB, especially ones that have an SSD drive and where the manufacturing of the laptop is aiming for a lighter footprint.
>>>>
>>>>Many of the "high end" ones only go to 16. If you actually find a good i7 laptop with an SSD drive and 32 GB of memory (and preferably that doesn't weigh more than 7 lbs) and it goes for under 2K, I'll be really curious.
>>>
>>>Yes, I have not see a laptop with more than 16 GB. I recently bought a Lenovo (for my daughter), the latest and the greatest; it had 16 GB and I don't remember the option for 32 GB. I will be buying a new laptop for myself soon so I will do more research.
>>
>>You will have a hard time finding one that tries to out-Apple everybody else. If you look at gaming laptops, you will get 17' screen, 2 (sometimes 3) HD slots besides DVD, so SSD and HD are possible and due to better cooling the option to buy a real quad-core i7 (I think HQ) which will help with VM usage.
>>
>>Downside is those machines weigh more than double of the glitzy things 2-core i7 allow, but as long as you travel with car should not be a problem. Working during flight or train is borderline, as you need some space of 1 seat beside you in cramped flight areas. Also battery is drained faster...
>>
>>9 years ago I worked a lot on trains on a 17' so I know exactly (at least on european trains...) and there is a newer gaming laptop in the family, so I also know what power those can pack
>
>Hopefully between Dell and Lenovo, I will find something that won't weigh a ton and will have enough RAM to do the work.

If you develop on your portable machine you should reconsider. Most of the times nowadays I develop on a VM in the customer network, (sometimes via my own laptop) so I do not need a beefy machine. If I were to develop on my own HW on site today I would have one of those gaming rigs. You can get 32GB in a 15.6 screen case, which is better in trains (for instance the French TGV) and with M2 interfaces now even with all peripherals, but for engineering temperature safety margin I'd opt for a 17.3 screen case. Weight difference negible unless you cram more HW like 2.SSD into case, but more room to add/spread heat dissipating copper.

You can always brag about having a multi-purpose machine : portable heavy-hitting DB server and fitness device rolled into one.
I did turn of the century when for 6 month I always brought my HEAVY desktop rig with DVD-Ram, 2 IDE, 5 SCSI discs and 1 tape drive for the 4 day week optimizing insurance app data slinging. When the machine was in the cubicle, first need was shower as those early drives were solid ;-)