Rig for a programmer?

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USMC_Grunt

Gawd
Joined
Nov 9, 2000
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I asked a while ago about a new system, and I've always built AMD systems before. Now that I'm in a Programmer/Analyst (btw I love it, I think I'm #1 in all of my classes, which actually is pathetic lol), I was thinking of gearing the new system towards programming. If you were wondering, my current class schedule looks like this:

Computer Concepts: good god this class is by FAR the most difficult course I have ever taken in my entire life (extreme sarcasm)

Microcomputer Operation System: This one is actually cool. I'm just learning little shit about XP so far that I didn't know. Towards the end we are gonna touch Linux a bit, which I am very excited about.

AS/400 Concepts: Ok this shit is completely new to me, but its VERY interesting. So far we are just using the text interface to learn the base of the system. Then we'll move to the GUI.

ANYWAYS before I went off on a tangent, I was thinking that maybe I should gear towards a P4 system with Hyperthreading. Now I actually have no idea what hyperthreading is, I think I get the notion that it is good for multitasking and such.

What do you programmers here think I should do?

Later on I will be moving to C++ and VB and other stuff. I'll probably do Cobol, CLP and RPG on the AS/400. As well as other stuff that I can't think of right now.

Well any thoughts? Not just the processor but the entire system I suppose.
 
Originally posted by USMC_Grunt
Later on I will be moving to C++ and VB and other stuff. I'll probably do Cobol, CLP and RPG on the AS/400. As well as other stuff that I can't think of right now.

Well any thoughts? Not just the processor but the entire system I suppose.
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P2 300MHz :p

dude, you don't need a lot of horse power to code. And give a price range too, that always helps.
 
LOL ok well then I stand corrected. Hey I just started :D Well besides High School, but that sort of thing didn't concern me. Maybe I asked the question in a wrong way. Hmmm.... I don't know wtf I'm talking about now that I think about it. I have no clue what I'm trying to ask. Shit. lol

Well I have NO money atm, but am getting a job VERY soon. I will probably be buying the system in pieces, the largest piece being the CPU, MB, RAM, cooling and case. I'm not entirely sure though.
 
dual 512 sticks of pc 3500 ram on a P4 2.6C @ 3ghz on air is my suggestion for Intel.

AMD however is the beautiful 2500+ @ 3000+ w/ or w/out dual channel 512 sticks (not much of a difference I hear, maybe 4% boost) of pc 3500.

9700 pro @ 9800 pro speeds.. lol.. mmm or a 9800 pro @ XT speeds.

You could compile HL1 on either of those pretty quickly I'd bet.

You know if you are going to toss together a new rig and spend lots of money, why not buy a motehrboard that can do dual processors... I mean it might cost like $20 more, but you could upgrade two dual 2500+'s @ 3000+... now that's pwnage.

~Adam
 
I read somewhere here (I guess some guy swears by it) that Hyperthreading is better that dual processors.
 
non-sense. If hypter-threading was better than dual processors, you'd be seeing the P4's way out class the AMD, which doesn't happen, at all.

~Adam
 
Hyperthreading sucks, me no likey. to each his own i guess though...


Anyways, a 500mhz system with 128 megs of ram and windows 98 will run Visual Studio 6.0 perfectly.

and it doesn't take to much more then that to run Visual Studio 7.0 (or.. as it's more commonly called, .NET)

as for your classes on lower level languages... well, to put it into perspective, i carry my assembly Compiler, Debugger, and all my code on one floppy disk. and it has alooooooooot of free space on it.
 
I'd get a relatively lowend processor...A Tbred 2100 would work fine. Get plenty of ram, at least 512 mb, a dual head graphics card, and two monitors. I think having that extra workspace would add to your productivity more than and hardware upgrade. And a raptor HD would be nice to speed up application load times, but as stated earlier, a ton of ram and two monitors is your best bet.
 
Even the considered low-end system today will have no problem with all the tools you've listed ... I suggest just ramping up your RAM, and invest on a back-up solution. Believe me ... you would not want to lose your code after you've spent a week or more on it.

An external drive (firewire/USB), CD-Writer, and a USB Pen Drive ... make mulitple copies of everything ... and if you can setup an FTP server the better ... that way you can download your codes when you forgot to bring it with you.

A two monitor setup will be beneficial ....
 
I agree with everything primea said:

1) Any half-way modern system will have no problem with what you're doing.
2) RAM is cheap and you can't have too much.
3) RAID 1 would be a good backup solution.
4) USB pen or some portable media so you can take your data with you (I just e-mail it to myself, goto school and download).
5) Dual monitors, so you can write code on one, and have your program running on the other.
 
A good computer wont make you a good programmer.

You dont need a specific computer because youre going to a programming course.
 
As far as I'm concerned Dual monitors is a must. Having Dual 19's make's it so much easier to code. I can't stand coding on just one monitor anymore.
 
Depending on the program you very well could use/need a good computer. I get sick of waiting for 7 to 10 minute compiles very quick. Sure you could use a 100MHz cpu but the times would be horrendous. Get a decent cpu but you don't need to go all out.

Note: If you plan on sticking with programming and getting into more advanced stuff then I would get a decent computer to keep compiling times down. However, if you just plan to do it for a year or so as a small hobby than I something much less powerful would be in order. I would reccomend a Duron or T-Bred.
 
display, display, display. As a programmer, I can't stress enough the importance of a good display. When I got my current job, I started working on a 17" crt at 1280x1024. After complaining enough about the headaches, my boss sprung for dual 19" lcds. Trust me, your eyes and head will thank you for having a high quality display. I'd sacrifice MHz in favour of getting good displays. And since $1000/pop (CAD) lcds are probably out of your price range... spring for a good 19" flat crt that does 1600x1200 at a nice high refresh rate.
 
As others have said. You do not need much of a machine to code on. However you do want to use a machine that is close to the target system your app will run on. So you can test it.

The big thing with coding and the machine is the compile time. If this is for a hobby compile times are not that big a deal, if this is for work well how much do you get paid an hour and how much of a difference in time does it take to compile.

Several years ago I worked on a C++ project, our dev machines where Dual P3 with 512MB RAM which was top-end then. I have a laptop that was a P1 - 166 w/80MB RAM. To compile the entire program on the duallys took about 15-20 minutes. To compile the entire program on my laptop took ~2 hours. After waiting 2 hours you really do not want to find a run time error in your latest change!
 
Oh, and as mentioned before, spring for a good monitor. It'll pay off when you have to sit countless consecutive nights staring at your monitor trying to figure out why your stupid program is giving you segmentation faults when all you needed was to allocate more memory space to one of your arrays.


Not a true story, I swear. :p
 
P1 133, that was my compiling machine for 5 years of writing C, C++, an upgrade from the 486 66 Mhz I used to compile C in high school (like 150 lines per second...).

You don't need a screaming fast system for just coding, but if you game and do other stuff (graphics, video), then get a P4 or Ath64 3000+.
 
Originally posted by m1abram
As others have said. You do not need much of a machine to code on. However you do want to use a machine that is close to the target system your app will run on. So you can test it.

The big thing with coding and the machine is the compile time. If this is for a hobby compile times are not that big a deal, if this is for work well how much do you get paid an hour and how much of a difference in time does it take to compile.

Several years ago I worked on a C++ project, our dev machines where Dual P3 with 512MB RAM which was top-end then. I have a laptop that was a P1 - 166 w/80MB RAM. To compile the entire program on the duallys took about 15-20 minutes. To compile the entire program on my laptop took ~2 hours. After waiting 2 hours you really do not want to find a run time error in your latest change!
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The poster is still a student, so I don't think he'll be programming any consumer-level products any time in the near future. :p
 
Might have been said already (ddin't read the thread) but for your work, screw the pc..... look at your displays...

I would go something with enough juice to run xp smooth, mainly cause you dont want 98 bsod in the middle of your work..

Then put the rest on a dual or triple monitor setup.... screen real estate is your friend...
 
Just a word of wisdom for you.

Before you get all entrenched in programming, and drop a lot of $ on books/software/etc., talk to some other, more senior students, especially in the non-programming classes. Ask around of who started down the programming road of education/employment, then switched, and why.

I'm not pooping on your dreams man, just informing you that many individuals that get all googlie about programming at first, tend to alter their field of study/work later on. Not all, but many.
 
Yeah, I realize that I shouldn't get too gung ho into it. All I know is that I liked the 4 years I took in high school, and I'm still liking it now that it is SLIGHTLY more real world oriented. And I'm doing alright too. :D I started doing html when I was 12 or so, in notepad. I doubt I'll have a huge problem with it. However, I have heard stories so I'm not saying that it can't happen.

I guess its going to be more of an all around system. I should have just asked, what should I look at if I am going to be programming on the system as well, not what kind of system I should build.

So far I'm seeing that displays happen to be the biggest thing. I currently have a very shitty dual display, with a 19" and an old CTX 15" sitting next to it. I thought it was really neat at first, but then I couldn't find much use for it. My friend is in his 3rd year of software engineering, and he said that the multi displays help. But I never had the chance to talk to him much about it.
 
Dude, you need to just relax. Anyone can do good in intro computing classes. You shouldnt worry about what you need to program until you start programming. And even then you wont need quad monitors with dual pentium xenon processors. The program needs to run on the computer your professors will be testing it on, not yours. Use the computer labs.
 
Your first mistake. If you think coding HTML means you have an aptitude for programming think again.

I can code HTML all day no worries. You know why I can? Its easy.

I can't programme for shit. I spent years trying, yet I can still write clean HTML, CSS no worries.

I always thought I'd love programming. I bloody hated it. I would love to be good at it though as I find a problem with every piece of software I use. Just give it a shot before you set your mind on it.
 
I'd spend less on power and get two falt panels. That is the best thing you could do. Or you could go to a better school.
 
faster the better obviously, but have plenty of ram and harddrive space, and your computer should at least be more than suited for what you are programming as well, so you can at least test it half-decently.
 
Originally posted by SKiTLz
Your first mistake. If you think coding HTML means you have an aptitude for programming think again.

I can code HTML all day no worries. You know why I can? Its easy.
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Settle the fuck down dude. I was 12 YEARS OLD when I was doing html. I didn't say that because of that I could be a good programmer. Hell, I had no idea what programming was when I was 12. Cut me some fucking slack and relax.
 
dont invest alot at first because programming takes a huge amount of time and patience, and can easily be more than you expected. It's a lot of time and work before you make something even remotely spiffy.

Originally posted by USMC_Grunt
Thats probably the best idea. lol
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Yeah, I'd have to say the spiffiest thing I made in high school was a neat Tic Tac Toe game in VB lol. That was fun, but tedious, and I doubt it will help any major companies with their databases.
 
Originally posted by USMC_Grunt
Yeah, I'd have to say the spiffiest thing I made in high school was a neat Tic Tac Toe game in VB lol. That was fun, but tedious, and I doubt it will help any major companies with their databases.
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the best in this is you enjoy it ... not a lot of people enjoy programming ... that's half of the battle ... seems you have the temperament to be a programmer ... goodluck to you ...
 
I wouldnt be so sure about that. People show their true colors in the face of some strange data type mismatch or freaker linker error and get all pissed off.

Originally posted by primea
the best in this is you enjoy it ... not a lot of people enjoy programming ... that's half of the battle ... seems you have the temperament to be a programmer ... goodluck to you ...
Click to expand...
 
From my current knowledge, you can basically flip a coin and see if they will do good or not. My instructor was saying that this MBA could recite just about anything about programming, yet he couldn't program shit. He almost destroyed my instructors system.

All I care about is that so far I like it and I'm doing very good, so down with all of the nay-sayers. :D (well, unless I fail miserably, which I WON'T, but it can happen) ;)
 
BTW thanx for those who stayed on topic and answered my original question and didn't say how badly I might fail. I appreciate it.
 
Go for an FX 51 proc with a gig of high speed ECC memory and a 9600XT video card. Go SCSI drives. Run a 64 bit flavor of unix and dual boot to a 32 bit flavor also. This way when you compile for the AS/400 you can compile 64bit code.

Plus if you don't run 64 bit you arn't a cool programmer.

j/k
 
Let me give you my experience as a CS major (about to graduate):

I started with the introductory non-major programming course. We learned C and it was one of the easiest classes I had taken. I got an A in the class almost blindfolded. Where it took other kids days to code a simple program, it took me a mere 30 minutes. I thought I was a CS hotshot.

So, with the two As in the introductory classes I had, I went into the CS honors track. And holy shit.. I always thought myself an adept programmer, but even then I'd stay up until 5 AM for three consecutive nights trying to figure out how pointers worked and how exactly I can pass function pointers and general other C++ stuff. I thought to myself, "Wow, maybe this is pretty hard..".

And that was just the first two classes. After that, the CS courses got extremely theoretical (which, luckily, I like). There was lots of math involved (again, luckily, I'm a math double major) and lots of proofs and other theoretical stuff.

And now, my 4th and final year, I realized one thing: Just because you enjoy computers, can program HTML, or did some high school programming doesn't necessarily mean you'll do well or even enjoy CS. Luckily, I did, and I'm sure you will. Just remember, it's a long hard road up.

Oh, and the CS students, hands down, have the most amount of work of any major.

Good luck. :)
 
Helps to have a ton of memory if you need a bunch of stuff open at once: IDEs, MSDN, etc.

In the past, I had a 900MHz Athlon at home that was worlds better to develop on than the 1 GHz PIII I had at work. The main differences were 1.5 GB RAM vs. 0.5 GB and multiple fast drives vs. one slow one.

I currently have 2.66GHz P4 with 0.5 GB of RAM and a mediocre hard drive (snagged from another computer since the one originally in it was pathetic) here at work and it doesn't seem like much of an improvement over the PIII I had... still not enough memory and I had to drop from dual monitors to single. I'm half tempted to drag in a spare computer from home and use it instead...
 
Originally posted by USMC_Grunt
Settle the fuck down dude. I was 12 YEARS OLD when I was doing html. I didn't say that because of that I could be a good programmer. Hell, I had no idea what programming was when I was 12. Cut me some fucking slack and relax.
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Yea.. Re read it mate... I was simply saying.. I wasn't trying to harp.. I was giving you advice because I thought the same thing and ended up hating programming..

If you cant even inturpt my post how the hell are you going to programme... even if it was constructive critiscism (which it wasnt) you need to learn to deal with it...

I wont bother offering any more help if u wanna act like a kid.
 
You're right, it wasn't constructive. And don't think that because I apparently misinterpreted what you said, that means that I won't be able to program.

However, its done, whatever. I don't want you to not say anything. The more input the better off I'll be, in a way I value what you had to say. But just because you didn't want to do it anymore doesn't mean that I won't. Hell I may do horrible eventually........... but I sure as hell won't count on it. I'll do the best I can right now, and if its too much later, then I'll do even better, then if I just don't have the capacity to do it, I'll stop. Until then, I'm paying for my schooling, and I like it. So I'm going to have fun doing it.
 
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