I wish to acquire a new computer that is specially designed for programming.
I would like to build it myself for the learning experience, but am willing to purchase it made as well.
Basically I have downloaded so many files dedicated to programming that are so large that a) my computer is near capacity and b) my 4 year old computer is extremely slow.
Specifically, I am into databases (Oracle/PostGreSQL, Mongo, Hadoop) and java, but love learning all possible languages.
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I would say build a computer that has decent amount of power. The reason for this is that some languages have useful IDEs (ex: Visual Studios for .NET), and some of those IDEs require a powerful machine (ex: Eclipse for Java).
Also, we computer people should have powerful and interesting computers. 🙂
CPU, RAM, and storage (HDD or SSD) are probably most important for a programmer. Some specs that would be ideal for such a computer (in my view) are:
Intel i5 CPU (3.0+ GHz)
8+ GB RAM
~500GB Harddrive
(Optional) An SSD for OS and big programs such as Eclipse
These specs will suffice for a programmers use, but you may go for better specs if you so desire. The rest of the parts won’t really matter much and are based more on preference than specs.
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Subjective Question but here’s my answer:
Whatever you do, include a SSD, at least big enough to install the OS (64-128GB). sacrifice some CPU power to get it if you have to. Also the more RAM the better.
My current ‘Basic’ Davelopment system (I have built 2 this year and they are good for my programming needs):
Pentium G630. (entry level, socket compatible with i3 i5 i7 etc)
4GB RAM DDR3
500GB 7200RPM hard drive
128GB SSD (I used Kingston SSDNow which is cheaper but there are better ones)
350w Power supply
Cheapest Gigabyte motherboard
24-inch 1920x1080 monitor. (This is just big enough to display two documents side by side - of course dual screen would be nicer!)
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