

Ask HN: Perfect budget PC for software developers - Murkin

Its that time of the year. I need to buy a new PC for my programming needs. And the same questions pop up again, what is the perfect setup.<p>Trying to push it all into 500$, what would you suggest ?<p>Quad CPU / Dual ?
SSD for caching ? 
SSD for system volume ?
Amount of RAM ?
etc'
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riobard
I guess that depends on what kind of programming you are planning to do on the
machine -- coding some web apps has quite different requirements than coding
some 3D games.

But in any case, GET AS MUCH SCREEN ASSETS AS YOU CAN AFFORD! :)

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jacquesm
24" is very affordable right now, E 199 a piece, not sure what they go for in
the states, but I'd expect comparable or lower.

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aw3c2
You need to be more specific. What OS, what programming, what other hobbies?

If you want to use virtualisation make sure to get a CPU that supports Intel
VT-x or AMD-V.

I would suggest an Athlon II X2 240. It is very cheap and has a lot of power.

If you want to go into CUDA or OpenCL get an NVIDIA GTS or GTX.

SSD is overkill in my opinion. Rather get 4GB RAM and use a ramdisk when you
need fast IO (is that IO, I have no idea).

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Murkin
I am mainly developing in C for embedded platforms (i.e. use different
compilers). So compilation speed is crucial.

And the PC is used for references, so lots of open PDFs/Webpages.

Virtualization is a good point, Ill keep that in mind. Thanks !

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TeHCrAzY
Essentially, you want a dev machine set up so you never break your
flow/mindset/focus because you're waiting for the PC to respond.

Lots of RAM. Once you go 4GB++, you wont go back. The amount of time you spent
waiting for a pc with 2gb of ram when developing is more significant that it
seems. ON that note, grab two of the best gb per $ drives, raid mirror them,
and enjoy similar speed enhancements.

Re. The CPU, a Quad core might be a good investment for the future, as it
seems muti-core programming is going to become more and more important as time
goes on. I don't know if your compiler can use multiple cores, so assess that
benefit there. If not, dual core may be a better option, as they tend to have
higher performance for each single core compared to the quad cores (IE. Core1
on a dual vs Core1 on the quad, the dual will tend to be faster given similar
clock speeds).

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gtani
Laptops: you can find plastic case Macbooks for $600 or so on craiglist.
Generally, we're talking 2G RAM, no option to purchase additional 2 years of
appleCare.

I would try to get one that's expandable to 4G RAM and was purchased new last
year, or this year. If i were going to buy a used laptop, I would insist that
the seller be the original buyer and give you a copy of their purchase
receipt, so you know it's legit.

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matttah
we picked up Dell Poweredge 840 boxes earlier this year for around $600. we're
running 2.4ghz quad core xeons, 4gb of ram, and two 150gb seagate drives. I
think the only thing I would change is maybe drop in a SSD or a 15k drive to
make the system a bit more snappy.

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yan
Whatever you end up getting, make sure to maximize your RAM and your display
real estate.

