Personal Instance on Personal Computer I finally got my hands on a copy of SQL Server 2008 R2 Developer Edition.  I have installed an instance on my server at home.  I wanted to get all the Management Tools (SSMS, Profiler, etc.) on my laptop so I removed my copy of SQL Server Express.  Then I installed the Management Tools (Complete) on my laptop.  It's great, I can hit the instance and everything.

But for the times when I'm away from my local network and not able to connect to my server's instance, what is recommended?  Should I reinstall an install of SQL Server Express just for testing purposes?

I guess what my question is, is SQL Server Express less taxing on my laptop than if I was to install a full version instance?  Or is it equivalent to installing my Developer Edition?

I could always install the Developer Edition (Enterprise) on my laptop and have the SQL Server services start manually so I'm not hogging resources when I am connected to my local network (and server that houses my active instance).

What is advisable here?
First impression I have, if you're needing your laptop for testing code you're running against a full version of SQL 2008, you'd want your laptop running a full version of SQL 2008.

You hit the nail on the head with setting the services to start manually. You could then have a simple .bat file to start and stop the SQL services when needed. This is exactly what I do on my home PC when needing to play with some databases.