Ben Halpern

Posted on Jul 27, 2019

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

#discuss

Latest comments (66)

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

Nucu Labs • Aug 3 '19

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
- 8 GB RAM DDR4
- i5-7400
- 1 TB HDD5400 RPM
- Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti
- added extra 16 GB RAM DDR4 - 75 eur
- extra Samsung 970 EVO SSD - 120 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.

André Jacques • Jul 31 '19

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!

Miloslav 🏳️‍🌈 🦋 Voloskov • Jul 29 '19

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 • Jul 31 '19

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 • Jul 31 '19

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 • Jul 31 '19

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 • Jul 31 '19

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”

Douglas R Andreani • Jul 29 '19 • Edited

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?

Mehmood • Jul 29 '19

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.

Ynoa Pedro • Jul 29 '19 • Edited

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.

Mahendra Choudhary • Jul 29 '19

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?

Aswath KNM • Jul 29 '19

Processor speed and cores, RAM size, HDD or SSD speed , GPU performance

ENDEESA • Jul 28 '19

RAM

vladimir.dev • Jul 28 '19

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

David J Eddy • Jul 28 '19 • Edited

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.

Matthew Daly • Jul 28 '19 • Edited

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.

Joe Zack • Jul 28 '19

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.