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.
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).
I've been a professional C, Perl, PHP and Python developer.
I'm an ex-sysadmin from the late 20th century.
These days I do more Javascript and CSS and whatnot, and promote UX and accessibility.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hello! My name is Thomas and I'm a nerd. I like tech and gadgets and speculative fiction, and playing around with programming. It's not my day job, but I'm working on making it a side gig :)
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:
Keyboard - my primary way of interacting with the computer.
Monitors - following the first, if I can't see what I type it's mostly pointless isn't it?
Everything else - as long as it works and runs fast enough I'm not bothered.
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
Passionate about solving problems since 2012! I'm a full stack web developer with experience in AWS, TypeScript and React. Looking for new opportunities!
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 :)
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
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. :)
I'm a professional PHP, Python and Javascript developer from the UK. I've worked with Django, Laravel, and React, among others. I also maintain a legacy Zend 1 application.
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.
I'm going to not even look at @steveblue
's setup (or attempt to look any further than the comment box), lest I get unbearable tech envy...
Anyway, my current personal laptop is an HP ENVY 15t-j100 (over 5.5 years old now). 16 GB DDR3 RAM, 2.4 GHz Core i7. On-board Intel HD graphics. 1 TB SSD (I will probably never do that again lol).
Used to run Windows 10. Currently running Kubuntu 19.04. I've seen some people say Plasma is a resource hog, but it's super lightweight compared to Windows 10 (including general application resource usage), so I'm happy with that.
Only thing I will say about this laptop is that the screen colors kind of have an extra bluish tint I couldn't even get rid of on Windows 10 via Intel's display adjustment tools. It's not nearly as easy to adjust on Kubuntu either, but it's bearable. Just don't try to do professional design work on the built-in monitor and you'll be good.
Oh, I'll also add that I've never been able to get my laptop's build-in HD sound to work correctly on Linux (it's Beats Audio, from I think before Apple bought them). The sound is just standard, which definitely does stink.
I've tried playing with the pin settings via some software recommended on multiple forums, but it would always result in the sound not working at all until reboot (which, really, caused the changes I was playing with to revert anyway). And even then for a little while after, my speakers would pop occasionally, especially when I was switching between Kubuntu and Windows 10 while dual-booting up until months ago.
If anyone here happens to have any suggestions, I'm willing to at least look into them.
I've been a professional C, Perl, PHP and Python developer.
I'm an ex-sysadmin from the late 20th century.
These days I do more Javascript and CSS and whatnot, and promote UX and accessibility.
I recently upgraded to this from a roughly-equivalent Vaio, because that had a hardware fault on the USB controller and a 15" plastic laptop is just too creaky and cumbersome to use on the sofa. I used its RAM and SSD to upgrade the T410 and bought a new battery on ebay for £10.
What's important to me?
The SSD, because it lets any old machine perform responsively.
The keyboard light lets me work in the dark - it's not as good as a backlit keyboard, but it's still much better than nothing.
If I was made of money I'd buy something with a non-integrated GPU and more CPU cores so I could use tools like Blender, I guess, but to be honest I'd probably do that on a desktop machine anyway. I have a gaming PC running Windows that I could probably make into something but I can't be bothered to get off the aforementioned sofa.
It's the best config I could find for the budget offered by my company, Macs were more expensive then this but wouldn't match this config in power. So far my second precision and would keep buying them without thinking twice.
I use mainly windows today mainly cause WSL, but i still have dual boot with fedora. My specs are an Lenovo Ideapad 320 with i5, MX150,500GB SSD, 8gb RAM, not too much but enough to work and play some games. Going 16gb ram soon.
Memory is important, I swap desktops and apps frequently. The less local lag the better!
Hard drive space is important to a point. There has to be enough that the system doesn't run out of room, but I don't need it to be overwhelming. External media is cheap.
Hi, my name’s Aaron Powell and I’m a Cloud Advocate at Microsoft. My area of specialty is front-end web dev and .NET (especially F#), but I enjoy doing silly things with technology.
I've had Surface devices since the Pro1 came out (only missing the 6th gen from my collection!).
I must have a touch screen, don't know how anyone works without one these days. Behind that battery life and portability are super important. I'm on the road a lot so I need something that is easy to carry around and can last the distance if I need it.
I must say that an SSD for development is 100% needed, and with our IDE's taking more Ram I would say that 8GB or ram is the minimum needed, 12 to be kinda nice and 16 is just good.
Any CPU with 4 cores and a decent speed is good. As well as any external GPU's these days even in laptops.
And the 2+ monitors/widescreen. Where 1 monitor for the project/front-end and the other for code. Any extra screen is only better.
I am using lenovo G-500 , with intel pentium quad core , 4GB ram .Though its preety old ,but still serving me good with ubuntu .Good for web development projects . Thinking of upgrading it with some SSD's and more ram . Any suggestions,like to hear?
Only real issue for me is space on the hard drive. And sometimes if Gradle throws in some larger build process RAM is an issue here. The rest of the time it works like a charme.
I'm a Systems Reliability and DevOps engineer for Netdata Inc. When not working, I enjoy studying linguistics and history, playing video games, and cooking all kinds of international cuisine.
I actually use two computers on a regular basis, my laptop (which I'm typing this from), and a home-server system.
The laptop is a System76 Oryx Pro (third-generation) with the following specs:
Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU (2.8GHz, 4 cores with 2-way hyperthreading).
8GB of DDR4-2400 RAM in a single module (bought it with 16G, one of the memory modules went bad recently and I just haven't taken the time to replace it).
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 GPU with 6GB of GDDR5 VRAM.
15.6 inch Full HD IPS display.
3 SSD's (two M.2 SATA, one 2.5 inch SATA) totaling approximately 1.5TB of storage space).
I rarely use the laptop with more than one display, but it's typically hooked up to an external display (also a Full HD IPS display, but 23 inches). Biggest thing for me with it is raw performance, as I use it for gaming just as much as for coding. It's configured to dual boot Windows 10 (for gaming) and Gentoo (for coding, using the ~amd64 keyword).
The home server, OTOH, is a custom build in a mini-fridge sized case (when I bought the case, I needed something that could handle 8 3.5 inch hard drives and didn't need to be rack mounted):
AMD Ryzen 7 1700 CPU (3.0 GHz standard, under-clocked to 2.6 GHz to save power, 8 cores with 2-way SMT).
32 GB of DDR4-2400 RAM in 4 modules.
NVIDIA GeForce 210 GPU (I don't really need the GPU for much, so cheap is fine here).
2 1TB SSD's in a software RAID1 configuration.
2 500GB SSD's in a software RAID1 configuration.
This one I mostly care about memory bandwidth and storage space. 95% of the workloads are memory bound, and I have a lot of data I need to store on it. The system itself is also running Gentoo Linux, though it's got a dozen other Linux distros running in QEMU VM's as well that I use as reference systems for cross-platform testing. As mentioned above, I've got the CPU under-clocked by about 400MHz to save power, which for my usage translates to it running at about 20-25W below the designed TDP most of the time, which is nice given that it's on 24/7.
Planning on updating this at some point in the next two years or so since I'm getting sick and tired of the quirks of the MSI motherboard I'm using right now (won't POST without a display connected, on-board sensor chip isn't supported by Linux because MSI are idiots, LED's on the board can't be turned off at all, etc).
I also, technically, use a pair of VPS nodes hosted on Vultr on a regular basis, though they're pretty boring infrastructure systems (I mean, they're participating in the ntp.org pool, but that's not all that exciting, and other than that they're just used for file sharing and as VPN reflectors). Obviously care about network performance above all else for those.
I have several, primary desktop - Ryzen 2700X (8 cores, 16 threads), 32GB overclocked RAM, Intel Optane SSD, nvidia 1080 ti (don't have games but at least google hangouts aren't lagging :D).
Secondary build server is intel NUC with i5, 16GB RAM and 500GB SSD, it's mostly used as a drone.io server + agent (I also run agent on my desktop), does most of the testing/builds.
When I need to go out, I have 2015 MBP with i7 and 16GB RAM, it does the job as well, although I always miss my desktop when I am using it :)
Ryzen 7, 128Gb of ram, RX 580 graphics on a strix ROG Mobo. I'm about to upgrade the hard drive to a M.2 nvme for OS and Software and a 4tb SSD for everything else. I just got into graphics and animation so I'll be upgrading my graphics soon. My biggest problem is ram and hard drive speed. I run a lot of heavy programs at the same time so I need a PC that can handle multi tasking.
Personally I'm not a fan of the extra-large curved screens, something about them just seems a bit "off" to my eye. I will very readily admit to that being personal preference and not an objective fact. I also like to have one monitor in portrait mode for code. Multi-monitor setups also tend to be more efficient in terms of "pixel-area per dollar", but this is obviously dependent on which exact monitors you're looking at.
If any of these are a consideration for you, you might want to pick "more smaller monitors", but I will say that there is a certain coolness factor in the battlestations with gigantic high-resolution screens. It also depends on what will fit on your specific desk - investing in a new desk is an entirely separate ordeal.
How’s it going, I'm a Adam, a Full-Stack Engineer, actively searching for work. I'm all about JavaScript. And Frontend but don't let that fool you - I've also got some serious Backend skills.
Location
City of Bath, UK 🇬🇧
Education
10 plus years* active enterprise development experience and a Fine art degree 🎨
I'm not gona do specs because they are out of date. Honestly what matters is that I don't have dial-up internet and everything runs smoothly. I have been considering Chromebooks lately as they are pretty disposable, and with codesandbox I could have almost vscode.
Thinkpad E590 CPU: 1.8GHz i7-8565U, Turbo Boost up to ~2GHz ⬅️ (not that it's extremely powerful) RAM: 32 GB DDR4 2400MHz ⬅️ GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620 Disk: 512 GB SSD ⬅️ OS: dual boot Windows 10 and Manjaro Linux Battery: lasts about 5-6 hours ⬅️
It's a solid laptop for its price, but not a gaming machine by any means. While it's more of a low-end one it does the job and doesn't overheat too much (expect perhaps when IntelliJ is doing its "indexing").
I've been deciding between this one and some other gaming laptop, but have choosen the Thinkpad (not just because I'm not a gamer but my first laptop was a Thinkpad T40 and so far I've never had any bad experience with Thinkpads).
By the way, 32 gigabytes of RAM get used up pretty quickly if you run some virtual machines and/or IDEs.
My name is Matteo and I'm a cloud solution architect and tech enthusiast. In my spare time, I work on open source software as much as I can. I simply enjoy writing software that is actually useful.
GTX 1050 Ti mobile (kept turned off, to save on battery)
Manjaro Linux
As I use a lot of containers and container-based solutions I need a lot of CPU cores and a fair amount of RAM. I really don't need any GPU power, that's why I turned off my laptop's graphics card (I use the desktop for gaming and VR, so that's what the 1070 Ti is for)
I usually work on a home-built Linux machine (which handily dual-boots to Windows 10 for gaming). Most of the hardware is around 6 years old, though the graphics card is recent. It looks like this:
6-core (12 with hyperthreading) Haswell i7.
64G RAM
A bunch of SSDs, plus a spinning metal oxide storage device for nearline storage.
An nVidia 2060 (and, confusingly, also a 660 Ti).
Three 2.5K screens, one in portrait format.
Roccat keyboard and mouse.
The most important thing? Memory. 64G is a ridiculous amount of memory, but I find I can sacrifice everything but memory on a workstation.
I was an early adopter on multiple CPUs - had a pair of Opterons when they came out, for instance - but everyone has several cores these days. The graphics card is just for fun - originally the machine had a pair of 660 Tis, mostly because I thought one wouldn't let me plug in the three screens I had at the time, but actually not only did the 660 Ti drive three on its own, but it did so even when I upgraded to three 2.5K screens. The 2060 really is for gaming (and I let PhysX use the other 660 Ti).
I switched to SSDs early as well, but I could handle running on just one small cheap one easily enough. The others are just... well, nice.
But memory? I do a lot of heavyweight data processing and server development. I've never come close to running out of memory on 64G, but I've gone over 32G several times over the past few weeks alone. Twenty years ago, when most machines had perhaps 4M, mine had 40M, so merely having 64G is quite restrained for me (although it was less so when I built the machine).
When I'm on the road - and as a remote worker just starting on a new job, that's often - I switch platform to a Dell XPS 2-in-1.
Dell effectively give you a choice between a traditional laptop form factor and 32G, or a 2-in-1 with 16G. Given my addiction to memory, you'd think I'd go for the traditional form factor, but actually I find the 2-in-1 useful particularly when travelling - it handles plugging in an additional 4K screen perfectly well, and folding it into tent mode with an external keyboard suits the desktop space excellently.
This machine, too, is dual boot between Windows and Linux - but increasingly I do the bulk of my work when on the road in Windows. Yes, there's WSL 2, which helps me enormously, but mostly I find the machine performs more reliably, and in some cases better, when it's running Windows. A decade ago that'd be unthinkable - and more so to admit. But there we are. Loosely, Windows handles the laptop and tablet form factors better, and also appears to handle low-memory situations slightly more efficiently.
In any case, I found the 2-in-1 so good that my son now has one as well for his 18th.
Ryzen 1700
16GB Kingstone HyperX Predator
M.2 KC1000 480GB and Crucial MX 500GB
RX 590 8GB Nitro
Asus Prime x370-pro
I mainly focus on CPU because of multitasking thus non gaming Ryzen. It's important to have SSD as HDDs are too slow for me hehe. Also good board is very important in terms it needs to have good enough network and audio thingies. Ram is just important in terms of quantity. Other stuff is just good enough not to create bottlenecks. And of course some graphics so I can play sometimes but not expensive ones.
My PC is used for gaming about as much as it's used for work so these specs are a bit overkill.
CPU: Intel Core i9 9900k @ 3.6Ghz GFX: EVGA 2070 RTX RAM: DDR4 3000MHz 16GB Storage: Samsung 970 PRO 512 GB M.2 (and 2 more SSDs and 2 more HDDs) MOBO: ASUS TUF Z390M-PRO
CPU and GFX are obviously most important for me from a gaming perspective, but the M.2 drive is my favorite thing about this build. I'm also running 4 monitors (one 4k, one 1080p, one 144hz 1080p, one ultrawide 3440x1440), a DAS Keyboard Pro 4, a Logitech G403 and a Logitech Z906. I spend about 12 hours a day behind this PC so I've really gone all out on it and I'm about to upgrade the screens again.
Most important specs for me are the CPU and GPU. CPU because I like a fast experience and GPU because I do a bit of gaming in my spare time.
RAM is important, but not as important. I could do with 8GB, but I don't like to restrict my usage if I don't have to.
I also have a beefier desktop PC for more intense gaming, but the XPS is my primary development machine for personal stuff (I use a Mac for work).
System76 Oryx Pro 15"
32GB of RAM
500GB of NVMe Drive
NVidia RTX 2060 (1920 Cuda Core) 6GB
Pop_Os! 18.04 LTS with Encrypted Drive
3 years warranty
I was hesitating between this computer and a MacBook Pro 15". But even with the $ CAD to $ USD rates, shipping cost and duties, it was $ 1000 CAD less for the same (RAM, Drive, Warranty). Furthermore, Apple is still using ATI graphic cards and since I am going to do some AI next semester, I wanted an NVidia chip.
Hello, I work in machine learning, which means that I juggle SQL, python and frameworks all the time. I am also DevOps by necessity and I must admit it by taste. I was going to forget, I am in hidden startup mode, for another reason.
I have to deliver my innovative solutions (and they are) in the next four years, hopefully. So much for the context. This means that I cannot settle for just one computer to train the algorithms. So I turn to cluster computing and the joys that go with (TensorFlow parallel, MPI) so my CPUs necessarily Ryzen 5, SDD and HDD with good capacity between 8 to 16 GB of RAM for the nodes and a day after day I dither between GTX 1660 super and simple RTX 2060, knowing that what I save with GTX, this potentially allows me a "free" node, dilemma, dilemma
I'm loving the 2019 Craver/StackOverflow build. It's overkill for a lot of dev work but if you are running multiple services then it's nice to have the extra cores and ram.
Lead Product Evangelist @Kentico, Founding partner @craftbrewingbiz. love to learn / teach web dev & software engineering, collecting vinyl records, mowing my lawn, craft 🍺
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.
So much power
Nice, what kind of docking station do you use?
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-...
Very jealous beside the fact its a mac, I love it (I am not an apple fan , OK).
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.
I have an T410 but I bought a NOS battery for a tenner on ebay so there's that.
Thumbs up for the thinkpad legionaires
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.
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).
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.
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.
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”
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:
Home Notebook:
Work Notebook:
Important:
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:
Keyboard - my primary way of interacting with the computer.
Monitors - following the first, if I can't see what I type it's mostly pointless isn't it?
Everything else - as long as it works and runs fast enough I'm not bothered.
My current setup:
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
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 :)
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
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. :)
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.
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. 😋
I'm going to not even look at @steveblue 's setup (or attempt to look any further than the comment box), lest I get unbearable tech envy...
Anyway, my current personal laptop is an HP ENVY 15t-j100 (over 5.5 years old now). 16 GB DDR3 RAM, 2.4 GHz Core i7. On-board Intel HD graphics. 1 TB SSD (I will probably never do that again lol).
Used to run Windows 10. Currently running Kubuntu 19.04. I've seen some people say Plasma is a resource hog, but it's super lightweight compared to Windows 10 (including general application resource usage), so I'm happy with that.
Only thing I will say about this laptop is that the screen colors kind of have an extra bluish tint I couldn't even get rid of on Windows 10 via Intel's display adjustment tools. It's not nearly as easy to adjust on Kubuntu either, but it's bearable. Just don't try to do professional design work on the built-in monitor and you'll be good.
Oh, I'll also add that I've never been able to get my laptop's build-in HD sound to work correctly on Linux (it's Beats Audio, from I think before Apple bought them). The sound is just standard, which definitely does stink.
I've tried playing with the pin settings via some software recommended on multiple forums, but it would always result in the sound not working at all until reboot (which, really, caused the changes I was playing with to revert anyway). And even then for a little while after, my speakers would pop occasionally, especially when I was switching between Kubuntu and Windows 10 while dual-booting up until months ago.
If anyone here happens to have any suggestions, I'm willing to at least look into them.
I agree with others here bringing up RAM and SSD as the specs to look for.
Anything that keeps these apps from eating up all the memory and I/O resources!
Home:
Thinkpad T410 (2011)
i5-520m (2-core) @ 2.4GHz
8GB RAM
240GB SSD
Arch Linux
I recently upgraded to this from a roughly-equivalent Vaio, because that had a hardware fault on the USB controller and a 15" plastic laptop is just too creaky and cumbersome to use on the sofa. I used its RAM and SSD to upgrade the T410 and bought a new battery on ebay for £10.
What's important to me?
The SSD, because it lets any old machine perform responsively.
The keyboard light lets me work in the dark - it's not as good as a backlit keyboard, but it's still much better than nothing.
If I was made of money I'd buy something with a non-integrated GPU and more CPU cores so I could use tools like Blender, I guess, but to be honest I'd probably do that on a desktop machine anyway. I have a gaming PC running Windows that I could probably make into something but I can't be bothered to get off the aforementioned sofa.
Dell precision 5530. I wrote a detailed post with config here
My beautiful Linux development environment
Deepu K Sasidharan ・ Jun 16 ・ 6 min read
It's the best config I could find for the budget offered by my company, Macs were more expensive then this but wouldn't match this config in power. So far my second precision and would keep buying them without thinking twice.
Dell precision's are great computers, mine is from 2012 and runs like new.
i7 3rd Gen
16gb ram
1tb SSD
The most important to me is the SSD, followed by the RAM.
p.s. the most useless of my machine spec is the 820m Nvidia GeForce VGA. I even have it turned of.
I have a PC and a Laptop. The laptop is a mid 2015 MBP but I plan to replace it with a Dell Latitude.
My PC specs are as follows:
Lenovo Desktop Tower - 740 eur
Dell P2416D Monitor - 220 eur
Razer Kraken Headphones - 80 eur
Razer Blackwidow ultimate - 100
Razer Deathadder 2013 - 70 eur
Razer Mouse Mat - 20 eur
HP LaserJet P1102 - 35 eur
XP-Pen Artist 15.6 Pro - 440 eur
A4Tech AS-6 speakers - 5 eur (My dad got them when I got my first PC, I was around 6yo back then, they're still working)
D-Link Router - 85 eur
Total 1990 eur. My PC got a huge speed-up when I moved the Windows SO from the HDD to SSD.
A SSD and at least 16GB of RAM that's all I ask (and about 1kg or less if a laptop)
I use mainly windows today mainly cause WSL, but i still have dual boot with fedora. My specs are an Lenovo Ideapad 320 with i5, MX150,500GB SSD, 8gb RAM, not too much but enough to work and play some games. Going 16gb ram soon.
i9, 16gb DDR4, 4gb GDDR5, 512gb ssd
Memory is important, I swap desktops and apps frequently. The less local lag the better!
Hard drive space is important to a point. There has to be enough that the system doesn't run out of room, but I don't need it to be overwhelming. External media is cheap.
Surface Book 2 is my current daily driver.
I've had Surface devices since the Pro1 came out (only missing the 6th gen from my collection!).
I must have a touch screen, don't know how anyone works without one these days. Behind that battery life and portability are super important. I'm on the road a lot so I need something that is easy to carry around and can last the distance if I need it.
I must say that an SSD for development is 100% needed, and with our IDE's taking more Ram I would say that 8GB or ram is the minimum needed, 12 to be kinda nice and 16 is just good.
Any CPU with 4 cores and a decent speed is good. As well as any external GPU's these days even in laptops.
And the 2+ monitors/widescreen. Where 1 monitor for the project/front-end and the other for code. Any extra screen is only better.
I am using lenovo G-500 , with intel pentium quad core , 4GB ram .Though its preety old ,but still serving me good with ubuntu .Good for web development projects . Thinking of upgrading it with some SSD's and more ram . Any suggestions,like to hear?
Intel i5-5350U 1.8GHz
8GB DDR3
128GB SSD
Only real issue for me is space on the hard drive. And sometimes if Gradle throws in some larger build process RAM is an issue here. The rest of the time it works like a charme.
I actually use two computers on a regular basis, my laptop (which I'm typing this from), and a home-server system.
The laptop is a System76 Oryx Pro (third-generation) with the following specs:
I rarely use the laptop with more than one display, but it's typically hooked up to an external display (also a Full HD IPS display, but 23 inches). Biggest thing for me with it is raw performance, as I use it for gaming just as much as for coding. It's configured to dual boot Windows 10 (for gaming) and Gentoo (for coding, using the ~amd64 keyword).
The home server, OTOH, is a custom build in a mini-fridge sized case (when I bought the case, I needed something that could handle 8 3.5 inch hard drives and didn't need to be rack mounted):
This one I mostly care about memory bandwidth and storage space. 95% of the workloads are memory bound, and I have a lot of data I need to store on it. The system itself is also running Gentoo Linux, though it's got a dozen other Linux distros running in QEMU VM's as well that I use as reference systems for cross-platform testing. As mentioned above, I've got the CPU under-clocked by about 400MHz to save power, which for my usage translates to it running at about 20-25W below the designed TDP most of the time, which is nice given that it's on 24/7.
Planning on updating this at some point in the next two years or so since I'm getting sick and tired of the quirks of the MSI motherboard I'm using right now (won't POST without a display connected, on-board sensor chip isn't supported by Linux because MSI are idiots, LED's on the board can't be turned off at all, etc).
I also, technically, use a pair of VPS nodes hosted on Vultr on a regular basis, though they're pretty boring infrastructure systems (I mean, they're participating in the ntp.org pool, but that's not all that exciting, and other than that they're just used for file sharing and as VPN reflectors). Obviously care about network performance above all else for those.
I have several, primary desktop - Ryzen 2700X (8 cores, 16 threads), 32GB overclocked RAM, Intel Optane SSD, nvidia 1080 ti (don't have games but at least google hangouts aren't lagging :D).
Secondary build server is intel NUC with i5, 16GB RAM and 500GB SSD, it's mostly used as a drone.io server + agent (I also run agent on my desktop), does most of the testing/builds.
When I need to go out, I have 2015 MBP with i7 and 16GB RAM, it does the job as well, although I always miss my desktop when I am using it :)
Ryzen 7, 128Gb of ram, RX 580 graphics on a strix ROG Mobo. I'm about to upgrade the hard drive to a M.2 nvme for OS and Software and a 4tb SSD for everything else. I just got into graphics and animation so I'll be upgrading my graphics soon. My biggest problem is ram and hard drive speed. I run a lot of heavy programs at the same time so I need a PC that can handle multi tasking.
Currently at 2 monitors. Most important spec is number of monitors, and additional ports and graphical capability to plug in more monitors.
I would like to updgrade my monitor.
I am hesitating between those scenarios:
What do you think?
Personally I'm not a fan of the extra-large curved screens, something about them just seems a bit "off" to my eye. I will very readily admit to that being personal preference and not an objective fact. I also like to have one monitor in portrait mode for code. Multi-monitor setups also tend to be more efficient in terms of "pixel-area per dollar", but this is obviously dependent on which exact monitors you're looking at.
If any of these are a consideration for you, you might want to pick "more smaller monitors", but I will say that there is a certain coolness factor in the battlestations with gigantic high-resolution screens. It also depends on what will fit on your specific desk - investing in a new desk is an entirely separate ordeal.
The portrait mode for code is a brillant idea.
I think it is the way to got for me!
Ryzen 7 2700x
32Gb of system memory
1tb + 256gb ssd
Rx 580 8gb
Das keyboard (cherry mx brown)
Logitech mx master 2s
Audio technica m50x
For laptops
I run a thinkpad X220 and a t470
For me. The ability to run multiple virtual machines with all sorts of OSS at the same time is critical.
Ps. By the way, have I told you that I run arch Linux?
I'm not gona do specs because they are out of date. Honestly what matters is that I don't have dial-up internet and everything runs smoothly. I have been considering Chromebooks lately as they are pretty disposable, and with codesandbox I could have almost vscode.
Thinkpad E590
CPU: 1.8GHz i7-8565U, Turbo Boost up to ~2GHz ⬅️ (not that it's extremely powerful)
RAM: 32 GB DDR4 2400MHz ⬅️
GPU: Intel UHD Graphics 620
Disk: 512 GB SSD ⬅️
OS: dual boot Windows 10 and Manjaro Linux
Battery: lasts about 5-6 hours ⬅️
It's a solid laptop for its price, but not a gaming machine by any means. While it's more of a low-end one it does the job and doesn't overheat too much (expect perhaps when IntelliJ is doing its "indexing").
I've been deciding between this one and some other gaming laptop, but have choosen the Thinkpad (not just because I'm not a gamer but my first laptop was a Thinkpad T40 and so far I've never had any bad experience with Thinkpads).
By the way, 32 gigabytes of RAM get used up pretty quickly if you run some virtual machines and/or IDEs.
Desktop:
Laptop (Dell XPS 15 9570):
As I use a lot of containers and container-based solutions I need a lot of CPU cores and a fair amount of RAM. I really don't need any GPU power, that's why I turned off my laptop's graphics card (I use the desktop for gaming and VR, so that's what the 1070 Ti is for)
Most important specs to me:
My current setup:
By the way guys, I am thinking about upgrading my screen.
What would you recommend?
Are those new curved extra-large screens workable?
Sennheiser are the best! Never been so satisfied as I am w/ my cans from them.
I usually work on a home-built Linux machine (which handily dual-boots to Windows 10 for gaming). Most of the hardware is around 6 years old, though the graphics card is recent. It looks like this:
6-core (12 with hyperthreading) Haswell i7.
64G RAM
A bunch of SSDs, plus a spinning metal oxide storage device for nearline storage.
An nVidia 2060 (and, confusingly, also a 660 Ti).
Three 2.5K screens, one in portrait format.
Roccat keyboard and mouse.
The most important thing? Memory. 64G is a ridiculous amount of memory, but I find I can sacrifice everything but memory on a workstation.
I was an early adopter on multiple CPUs - had a pair of Opterons when they came out, for instance - but everyone has several cores these days. The graphics card is just for fun - originally the machine had a pair of 660 Tis, mostly because I thought one wouldn't let me plug in the three screens I had at the time, but actually not only did the 660 Ti drive three on its own, but it did so even when I upgraded to three 2.5K screens. The 2060 really is for gaming (and I let PhysX use the other 660 Ti).
I switched to SSDs early as well, but I could handle running on just one small cheap one easily enough. The others are just... well, nice.
But memory? I do a lot of heavyweight data processing and server development. I've never come close to running out of memory on 64G, but I've gone over 32G several times over the past few weeks alone. Twenty years ago, when most machines had perhaps 4M, mine had 40M, so merely having 64G is quite restrained for me (although it was less so when I built the machine).
When I'm on the road - and as a remote worker just starting on a new job, that's often - I switch platform to a Dell XPS 2-in-1.
Dell effectively give you a choice between a traditional laptop form factor and 32G, or a 2-in-1 with 16G. Given my addiction to memory, you'd think I'd go for the traditional form factor, but actually I find the 2-in-1 useful particularly when travelling - it handles plugging in an additional 4K screen perfectly well, and folding it into tent mode with an external keyboard suits the desktop space excellently.
This machine, too, is dual boot between Windows and Linux - but increasingly I do the bulk of my work when on the road in Windows. Yes, there's WSL 2, which helps me enormously, but mostly I find the machine performs more reliably, and in some cases better, when it's running Windows. A decade ago that'd be unthinkable - and more so to admit. But there we are. Loosely, Windows handles the laptop and tablet form factors better, and also appears to handle low-memory situations slightly more efficiently.
In any case, I found the 2-in-1 so good that my son now has one as well for his 18th.
Ryzen 1700
16GB Kingstone HyperX Predator
M.2 KC1000 480GB and Crucial MX 500GB
RX 590 8GB Nitro
Asus Prime x370-pro
I mainly focus on CPU because of multitasking thus non gaming Ryzen. It's important to have SSD as HDDs are too slow for me hehe. Also good board is very important in terms it needs to have good enough network and audio thingies. Ram is just important in terms of quantity. Other stuff is just good enough not to create bottlenecks. And of course some graphics so I can play sometimes but not expensive ones.
My PC is used for gaming about as much as it's used for work so these specs are a bit overkill.
CPU: Intel Core i9 9900k @ 3.6Ghz
GFX: EVGA 2070 RTX
RAM: DDR4 3000MHz 16GB
Storage: Samsung 970 PRO 512 GB M.2 (and 2 more SSDs and 2 more HDDs)
MOBO: ASUS TUF Z390M-PRO
CPU and GFX are obviously most important for me from a gaming perspective, but the M.2 drive is my favorite thing about this build. I'm also running 4 monitors (one 4k, one 1080p, one 144hz 1080p, one ultrawide 3440x1440), a DAS Keyboard Pro 4, a Logitech G403 and a Logitech Z906. I spend about 12 hours a day behind this PC so I've really gone all out on it and I'm about to upgrade the screens again.
Dell XPS 15 (9560)
CPU: Core i7-7700HQ
GPU GTX 1550
RAM: 16GB
SSD: 500GB
Most important specs for me are the CPU and GPU. CPU because I like a fast experience and GPU because I do a bit of gaming in my spare time.
RAM is important, but not as important. I could do with 8GB, but I don't like to restrict my usage if I don't have to.
I also have a beefier desktop PC for more intense gaming, but the XPS is my primary development machine for personal stuff (I use a Mac for work).
HP zBook
64 GB RAM is enough
i7(6c,12t)
256 GB ssd + 2tb hdd
Nvidia Quattro graphics
Full Adobe RGB and sRGB panel
Plus two LG external displays.
RAM. Good RAM reduces hdd writes to page file.
Running chrome with 500 tabs is smooth as butter.
I used to game and stream for a while so my PC is mostly overkill for what I'm doing now... So I justify it with "it's future-proof" :)
Here it is:
PSU: Seasonic SS-620GM
MB: ASUS Z170 PRO GAMING
CPU: i7-6700K
RAM: G.SKILL 16GB Ripjaws V DDR4
GC: Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1060 G1 Gaming 6G
SSD: Samsung SSD 250GB 850 EVO
HDD: Seagate Barracuda ST31000524AS
System76 Oryx Pro 15"
32GB of RAM
500GB of NVMe Drive
NVidia RTX 2060 (1920 Cuda Core) 6GB
Pop_Os! 18.04 LTS with Encrypted Drive
3 years warranty
I was hesitating between this computer and a MacBook Pro 15". But even with the $ CAD to $ USD rates, shipping cost and duties, it was $ 1000 CAD less for the same (RAM, Drive, Warranty). Furthermore, Apple is still using ATI graphic cards and since I am going to do some AI next semester, I wanted an NVidia chip.
I wish System76 opens a store in Canada!
Hello, I work in machine learning, which means that I juggle SQL, python and frameworks all the time. I am also DevOps by necessity and I must admit it by taste. I was going to forget, I am in hidden startup mode, for another reason.
I have to deliver my innovative solutions (and they are) in the next four years, hopefully. So much for the context. This means that I cannot settle for just one computer to train the algorithms. So I turn to cluster computing and the joys that go with (TensorFlow parallel, MPI) so my CPUs necessarily Ryzen 5, SDD and HDD with good capacity between 8 to 16 GB of RAM for the nodes and a day after day I dither between GTX 1660 super and simple RTX 2060, knowing that what I save with GTX, this potentially allows me a "free" node, dilemma, dilemma
Dell precision T-3600
with:
Intel Xeon E5 2637
32 GB of DDR3 RAM
500 gig crucial SSD and a 1TB WD enterprise drive
Nvidia Quadro k600
Most important is RAM and storage speed
I'm loving the 2019 Craver/StackOverflow build. It's overkill for a lot of dev work but if you are running multiple services then it's nice to have the extra cores and ram.
I have HP Notebook 2019.
Intel i5 8th Gen
8GB RAM
1TB HDD.
It's slow and I am saving money to buy a new one, most probably Lenovo having SSD.
Don't use chrome 😁. That'll do!
Ryzen 1800x
32gb 2400mhz RAM
34" ultrawide 4k display.
The ultrawide is super nice but the threads on the Ryzen are great for programming workloads. I think I value it the most.
Mid 2009 MacBook Pro, replaced HDD by 256GB SSD and 32GB RAM. Still a great computer. 😎
RAM
Processor speed and cores, RAM size, HDD or SSD speed , GPU performance
RAM, SSD, CPU, Screen Quality