What are your computer’s specs? Which specs are particularly important to you?

Comments

[Stephen Belovarich]

2.3 GHz Intel Core i9 w/ Turbo Boost up to 4.8 GHz
32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4 ✅
Radeon Pro 560X 4 GB
Sonnet eGPU w/ 8GB Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 580 ✅
500GB Apple SSD ✅

I went for the second most powerful Apple MBP this time around. The most powerful configuration is overclocked and didn't want to mess with that.

Someone told me I wouldn't need 32GB RAM but so far it hasn't hurt!

SSD is essential. I was using an older computer w/o SSD for awhile and boy did I feel it while developing.

I can't recommend the eGPU enough. It drives my monitors so my MBP doesn't have to (and I only have to plug in one cable to dock my MBP). On top of that, I've found multiple apps will actually take advantage of it, including web browsers. This is a huge plus when I'm experimenting with WebGL. I can swap out the video card too whenever I want to upgrade.

[Ynoa Pedro]

So much power

[Phillip Shim]

Nice, what kind of docking station do you use?

[Stephen Belovarich]

No docking station. Single Thunderbolt 3 cable runs from MBP into eGPU with doubles my VRAM and powers the MBP.

When I rarely need to use another port that's not available on the MBP or when I'm on the go I use a HyperDrive Duo 7-in-2 USB-C Hub. Its great because its compact and it gives me all the ports I need! I can even go old school and connect a SuperDrive to it (even though Hyper claims this doesn't work I recently pulled some archived materials off burned DVDs using an old SuperDrive I pulled out of a legacy MBP).

hypershop.com/products/hyperdrive-...

[Fulton Browne]

Very jealous beside the fact its a mac, I love it (I am not an apple fan , OK).

[Cheston]

Lenovo T420.

OS:Manjaro KDE
CPU:i5 (very old)
RAM:16GB
SSD:130GB
Battery Life: < 15 minutes.

Shes old but shes gold.
Most of the stuff I work on is browser based, so a decent CPU and as much RAM as I can cram in there is usually what I go for.

I'm trying to hold out for more ARM based laptops for maximum portability before I put this one down for.

[Ben Sinclair]

I have an T410 but I bought a NOS battery for a tenner on ebay so there's that.

[Douglas R Andreani]

Thumbs up for the thinkpad legionaires

[Miloslav 🏳️‍🌈 🦋 Voloskov]

MacBook 12.

Instead of following the never-ending rush for the latest hardware I trained myself and build my tool palette exactly the way that allow it to run on pretty much any hardware.

The thinnest and lightest (less than one kilo) MacBook is sleek. It's elegant. It makes me smile and it also makes a walk with it in my backpack a breeze. I can launch projects wherever I want.

[Mohammed Ismail Ansari]

I wanted to have a setup like that a couple of years back, then ended up with a MacBook Pro 13" (late 2016 model, without touchbar).

[Miloslav 🏳️‍🌈 🦋 Voloskov]

Good! It’s way more powerful.

But core m3 seems to satisfy all my needs. Photoshop, Illustrator, 40+ Chrome tabs, Atom, Slack, bunch of running servers and databases, all that at the same time. Yes it works.

But even if it wasn’t, it’s still a 900 grammes of aluminum that can easily be the only creative instrument you need. So I’ve chosen this path.

[Mohammed Ismail Ansari]

And the fact that it is so small/thin/light/cute I got infatuated with the design the first time I tried it at an Apple Store back in India. A fully capable machine at that size, something that can run a 'real' operating system is just fascinating! I call it a huge technological milestone.

[Miloslav 🏳️‍🌈 🦋 Voloskov]

I’m glad you get this. Some of my hacker friends just go like “reeeee it’s got a mobile processor and can’t run crysis”

[David J Eddy]

I kind of span the gamut when it comes to computing. The only OS not at use in my daily life is Windows.

Specs:
Home Desktop:

AMD 8 core, at least 4 years old
16Gb RAM, DDR3 i think
RAID 0 @ 100Gb for OS and caches
RAID 0 + 1 @ 500Gb for long term storage
Some 4 year old GPU, dont game much anymore anyways
Dual Viewsonic 1080p 24" LED displays
Ubuntu 19.04 with Windows as a dual boot option but have not been there in months

Home Notebook:

mid-2015 MacBook Pro
- 16Gb MEM
-Retina display
-OSX

Work Notebook:

Lenovo ThinkPad T series of some sort
Ubuntu 18.04

Important:

Startup Time; I press the power button, it needs to be on before my butt hits the seat. Program start up time need to be zero.

I/O: Must be able to push 1080p or better dual displays. Plenty of USB for input / output devices.

Responsiveness: When starting, switching, running multiple applications the system _can not_ be what I am waiting on. It waits for me, no compromise.

Terminal: MUST be POSIX compliant. Worse part of any job I have had was dealing with Windows Command Prompt or Powershell. Screw both of those abominations.

[Thomas Landin]

Intel i5-4650K 3.8GHz
16 GB RAM
nVidia GTX-680 2 GB
1x240GB SSD
2x500GB SSD
1x1.8TB HDD
1x22" Benq screen (60Hz)
1x24" Benq screen (120Hz)
Keyboard: Leopold FC-980
Mouse: Steelseries something or other

Most of the HW is from 2013. I've added disk space and I originally had identical 22" screens but wanted a 120Hz screen for gaming. This runs perfectly on Linux including gaming, so I've no reason to switch anything out just yet. I value performance-per-dollar and stability first and performance second. I've never overclocked anything in my life.

In order of importance:

1. Keyboard - my primary way of interacting with the computer.

2. Monitors - following the first, if I can't see what I type it's mostly pointless isn't it?

3. Everything else - as long as it works and runs fast enough I'm not bothered.

[Edvin Dunaway]

My current setup:

Intel Core i7-7700K CPU @ 4.20GHz × 8
Asus ROG Strix GeForce GTX 1080 Ti/PCIe/SSE2
Asus PRIME Z270-K
2x Asus ROG PG258Q 1920x1080@240Hz
Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 DRAM 2400MHz (PC4-19200) C14 Memory Kit - Black
Samsung 960 NVMe EVO M.2 SSD 500GB
Hydro 600W PSU
Corsair Glaive RBG
Corsair K65 Lux RBG
Astro A40 TR Headset + MixAmp Pro TR

This setup is now 2 years old, but no need to upgrade just yet, even though there are better components out there now.
The Cores/Threads, RAM and SSD are essential for my work, but the 1080Ti with my 240Hz screens for FPS gaming in CS:GO

[I'm Luis! \^-^/]

It's a dell latitude E6410 with 8GB of RAM and an i5 CPU

Most important to me is CPU/RAM (speed). I don't use a lot of storage because once I dropped my laptop and lost all my info. So I keep my local info to a minimum.

It's pretty old now, but now that I got my first programming job I can buy one under $1000. I'm taking recommendations :)

[Rémy 🤖]

The first computer in bought with my first salary (which I almost completely spent on it) was a Thinkpad X1 Carbon (1st Gen). Still serving me well today 6 years later.

I wouldn't hesitate to put more money for something that lasts

[Ghost]

old Thinkpad x230 with a broken screen as a "desktop", 8GB RAM and is painful, but has made me very resource savy with Gentoo+i3. To me, displays are the most important, is really painful to decrease the screen area, when the laptop screen broke was like losing an arm. A good keyboard is almost as important. A slow PC helps me work my patience and work with more efficient programs, bad keyboard or displays makes me hate the universe and whole its contents. :)

[Matthew Daly]

I do most of my work on my open source projects on an HP Stream netbook with 2GB of RAM and 32GB storage space.

It doesn't sound a lot, but I run Xubuntu on it and it's fast enough. I don't usually need a database other than SQLite, nor do I need a full web server. It's portable enough to take anywhere, and cheap enough that if I lose it it's not a big deal.

It wouldn't be sufficient for my day job, and I sometimes switch to my Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition for more demanding work, but I can get a surprising amount done with the Stream.

[Ashlee (she/her)]

The screen is big: 15.6”. The battery lasts a long time: ~8 hours even while coding and running a local server. There’s a number keypad too. 😋