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Well, its about that time! I need a new desktop computer and i kinda want to build it myself, but since its primary function is going to be development i thought i should seek some advise from the best place i know of (and i have never built my own before) ! I am a computer science and engineering major at OSU majoring specifically in software development (ultimately want to work at Google if i ever get the opportunity, doing my best to try and set myself up for it) . I am still really early in my studies so i am not sure the best equipment to get.
That being said i am looking for some advise! I have about a $1500 budget to build my dream machine (including monitor and accessories)
1. what would you build and why?
2. what hardware/features would you include and why?
3. how would you have it set up and why?
4. if you feel so inclined build your dream machine and tell me why you chose what you chose?
If this thread is out of place i apologize but its primary use is going to be development (mostly android) with a lil bit of school and gaming in on the side. Considering its primary function, i figured this community would be the best place to ask for advise
Thanks everyone!
makes me sad that no one responded to this... i was really looking forward to a little actual developers advise on the new system.... oh well
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T using Tapatalk 2
You are asking the wrong question.
A developer machine need no performance whatsoever. A large screen and a really good keyboard (mechanical, expensive, but better than sex), and you'll be happy forever. The only stuff you'll need performance for is the gaming, and this is the wrong forum for that question.
kuisma said:
You are asking the wrong question.
A developer machine need no performance whatsoever. A large screen and a really good keyboard (mechanical, expensive, but better than sex), and you'll be happy forever. The only stuff you'll need performance for is the gaming, and this is the wrong forum for that question.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats not right, imho. I am deving in Java and C, C# and more other languages for many years now and I agree that you need much space to raise your productivity, but I would advice you to get at least 8GB RAM. Exspecially when you are programming you will open many programs at a time, and this may be too much for computers with lower RAM (I speak from experience, I got 3GB)
Edit: and don't forget to hit thanks if I helped you
To answer your questions:
1. I would build a computer that runs both Windows 7 (Pro 64 bit) and Ubuntu Linux (11.10 64 bit for now because this will be used Android development, and 12.04 LTS has a lot of problems still left to be worked out regarding Android development). I would use Windows 7 to maximize program compatibility (Some programs used for Android development only run on windows) and because you said you wanted to play some games.
2. Hardware wise I would include a 23" 1080p Asus monitor that is great performance for the money, along with a Razar DeathAdder mouse and Razar BlackWidow keyboard both are high quality and the keyboard is mechanical meaning it should be a pleasure to use and last a long time.
3. Similar to my answer to question 1 I would have it set up to dual boot Windows 7 Pro 64 bit and Ubuntu Linux 11.10 64 bit, to maximize program compatibility while allowing you to easily compile Android from source code and do Android development best suited to Linux.
4. What I would build for the money:
PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dmh7
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dmh7/by_merchant/
Benchmarks: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/dmh7/benchmarks/
CPU: Intel Core i5-2500K 3.3GHz Quad-Core Processor ($219.99 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus P8B75-M LE Micro ATX LGA1155 Motherboard ($97.55 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1333 Memory ($87.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 1.5TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($109.99 @ Newegg)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 6870 1GB Video Card ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Case: Cooler Master HAF 912 ATX Mid Tower Case ($64.98 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair 800W ATX12V Power Supply ($99.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer ($16.99 @ Newegg)
Monitor: Asus VH236H 23.0" Monitor ($149.99 @ Newegg)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Professional SP1 (64-bit) ($139.99 @ Newegg)
Keyboard: Razer BlackWidow Ultimate Battlefield 3 Edition Wired Gaming Keyboard ($144.98 @ Newegg)
Mouse: Razer DeathAdder Wired Laser Mouse ($64.98 @ Newegg)
Total: $1457.40
(Prices include shipping and discounts when available.)
The configuration focus's on a solid development platform (16GB RAM, Core i5 2500K), while allowing you to install Ubuntu on one of the 1.5TB hard drives and Windows 7 on the other 1.5TB hard drive. The Radeon HD 6870 should be perfect for when you want to game, and don't be fooled by the Cooler Master Case's price it is a very nice case for the money. The 800W Corsair power-supply should be more then enough power for this setup and should allow you to add another GPU in the future if you wanted to. Hopefully this will guide you in the right direction.
turn your life savings over these people:
http://www.falcon-nw.com/
I just ordered a new desktop for development, and went specifically for computing power, memory and hard drive space (those sources and temporary files are huge). On the other hand I didn't want to spend too much money, so I ordered an Intel i5 3570K with 8 GB memory and a SSD for the operating system and whatnot. As for the rest I'll use the parts from my old desktop.
Only thing I'm worried about is wether the PSU works and if Intel HD4000 graphics are supported in GNU/Linux (I didn't buy a GPU ).
XYunknown said:
Thats not right, imho. I am deving in Java and C, C# and more other languages for many years now and I agree that you need much space to raise your productivity, but I would advice you to get at least 8GB RAM. Exspecially when you are programming you will open many programs at a time, and this may be too much for computers with lower RAM (I speak from experience, I got 3GB)
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Click to collapse
Slow with 3GB? You must be running Windows!
But yes, you are of course right. Memory is good, and today it's so cheep, there's no point in anything less than 8GB. If running lots of bloated tools such as fancy IDEs, using virtualization for your test environments etc, it will consume memory. Still, compared with a gaming rig, the requirements for development are very modest - most of the time developing is about writing code, and then Notepad will be sufficient, but maybe not optimal. My own development machine is the one machine I most infrequent replace/upgrade, because I'm lazy and values not having to do that extra work more than the extra performance I don't need. But I'm also old school, writing most of my code in emacs, compiling command line using make etc.
rlmaers said:
I just ordered a new desktop for development, and went specifically for computing power, memory and hard drive space (those sources and temporary files are huge). On the other hand I didn't want to spend too much money, so I ordered an Intel i5 3570K with 8 GB memory and a SSD for the operating system and whatnot. As for the rest I'll use the parts from my old desktop.
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Click to collapse
I believe an SSD is the best spent money regarding the bang per bucks ratio, and if it's something development will benefit of, it's good I/O performance. But it must be your work disk of course, not only the operating system, unless it's only the boot time you want to accelerate. It also makes the machine more silent.
kuisma said:
I believe an SSD is the best spent money regarding the bang per bucks ratio, and if it's something development will benefit of, it's good I/O performance. But it must be your working disk of course, not only the operating system, unless it's only the boot time you want to accelerate. It also makes the machine more silent.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the feedback. Too bad I didn't order a bigger SSD, but with 60GB I should still have enough room for /, /home and /temp and place all my miscellaneous files on regular drives. Might get a bit cramped, but I reckon it should work if my memory serves me right and things haven't changed too much in the years of my absence from a desktop computer.
I need a laptop to program on at school (Java this year, C++ next)
For a while I thought I HAD to get a laptop, and I was thinking a used Mac Book pro 13", around $900 or so.
I recently found AIDE (Android IDE) which allows for Java, C, C++ (and a few other languages I believe...) and also Eclipse project integration.
Does anyone use AIDE on an N10, or in general at all? Would this be a good or adequate move for me to make? Is AIDE able to compare with an IDE like Eclipse, or any others you can think of? (we use Eclipse in the class I'm taking now. Submissions are done on school Linux computers with Eclipse).
I would be buying a keyboard dock to use with the N10
Here's my current pro/con list
N10 Pros:
$400 cheaper at least
It's all I need in a computing device; internet, media, programming
Super portable
Android + Android Market
Matches my Nexus 4 :3
N10 Cons:
Um...perhaps might not be a pleasant programming experience? Whole point of this thread lol
_________
Laptop Pros:
Portable
Will do what I need it to, and more if something comes up in the future
I definitely know I can program on it, and is fully compatible with classes I take.
Apple product: it will work, and it will work nicely.
Laptop Cons:
More expensive than N10
Not quite as portable (larger than 10")
It would probably be an Apple product (cloud 'ecosystem' disjoint)
To be quite honest, money is the biggest factor here.
But on a final note, I'm mostly looking for personal experiences from you guys. What have you done with AIDE, what's your experience, what do you like/dislike.
I'll appreciate suggestions on what to buy, but it's almost meaningless without reasons to back it up.
I don't think a tablet can ever fully replace a laptop, especially for programming. Decent keyboard would be a major reason.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
Yeah, you don't want to be programming on a tablet without a dedicated keyboard, those typos will be nasty. I doubt you could compile in a reasonable amount of time either.
Sent from my A100 using xda app-developers app
Ydoow said:
I need a laptop to program on at school (Java this year, C++ next)
For a while I thought I HAD to get a laptop, and I was thinking a used Mac Book pro 13", around $900 or so.
I recently found AIDE (Android IDE) which allows for Java, C, C++ (and a few other languages I believe...) and also Eclipse project integration.
Does anyone use AIDE on an N10, or in general at all? Would this be a good or adequate move for me to make? Is AIDE able to compare with an IDE like Eclipse, or any others you can think of? (we use Eclipse in the class I'm taking now. Submissions are done on school Linux computers with Eclipse).
I would be buying a keyboard dock to use with the N10
Here's my current pro/con list
N10 Pros:
$400 cheaper at least
It's all I need in a computing device; internet, media, programming
Super portable
Android + Android Market
Matches my Nexus 4 :3
N10 Cons:
Um...perhaps might not be a pleasant programming experience? Whole point of this thread lol
_________
Laptop Pros:
Portable
Will do what I need it to, and more if something comes up in the future
I definitely know I can program on it, and is fully compatible with classes I take.
Apple product: it will work, and it will work nicely.
Laptop Cons:
More expensive than N10
Not quite as portable (larger than 10")
It would probably be an Apple product (cloud 'ecosystem' disjoint)
To be quite honest, money is the biggest factor here.
But on a final note, I'm mostly looking for personal experiences from you guys. What have you done with AIDE, what's your experience, what do you like/dislike.
I'll appreciate suggestions on what to buy, but it's almost meaningless without reasons to back it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I often program on my Nexus 10 but always over SSH with a hardware keyboard. Its something that's nice to have as an auxiliary device but if you don't have at least a decent desktop then buy a laptop first.
It also depends on what you want to program. If you want to make a Linux or Windows desktop application then the Nexus 10 won't be ideal. When I'm doing application programming I usually work on a desktop or laptop.
I use N10 to access remote dev machines and code (VS2010) from there using a bluetooth keyboard/mouse. These are all Windows machines. I would never run an IDE locally on the device itself, for one I code .NET mainly, and two, compiling would probably hella slow.
I would say it depends on what you are programming. These days, I primarily do Android development. So AIDE + the N10 was my main choice. I bought a Logitech keyboard at a low price, and my tablet has become very productive.
I have also been trying to learn other programming though. I put a lot of time into C++, which the N10 also fairly suits. I chrooted Ubuntu on my N10 and I use the terminal (not VNC) to write and compile C++ applications. It can get a bit tedious, but it works for basic, console based applications. Also for Perl, Ruby, Python and PHP, I use sl4a. I can write my programs in DroidEdit and it lets you compile with sl4a.
I bought the N10 as sort of a development machine. I know that more complex applications, like a Windows program, will not be entirely possibly. However, if I am working on a piece of my application (for example, maybe some database access or other kinds of general I/O), I can easily just copy that source code over to my N10 and test it with a test class, then integrate it into my main application when I have access to a desktop or Internet for a remote connection.
Absolutely not. You really don't want to be programming on something that small and relatively slow, especially for two years of school. Get a decent laptop with a 15"+ screen as you're gonna need all the screen real estate you can get. A MacBook Pro would be a waste of money for your purposes.
wireroid said:
Absolutely not. You really don't want to be programming on something that small and relatively slow, especially for two years of school. Get a decent laptop with a 15"+ screen as you're gonna need all the screen real estate you can get. A MacBook Pro would be a waste of money for your purposes.
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Click to collapse
I could not agree more. And what is his obsession with Apple laptops? They're overpriced for what they are nice though they might look. Why don't people realize that there are so many better alternatives out there where you can get such a cheap laptop for 500 dollars and you can just slap a Linux distro on it. Heck I bought my wife a Sony Ultrabook for 600 dollars 13 inch screen 4 gb ram hybrid ssd drive/hdd and it's more powerful than a MacBook Air. Oh and it can dual boot with Ubuntu.
Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD
Hello XDA, I don't often venture out of the branded device forums so here goes nothing.
I have chronic nerve damage in both of my arms (primarily right arm which is my writing hand). I am going back to school this year and the pain seems to be getting worse. The most painful thing for my arm is without a doubt writing, and I am filing for a 504 plan to allow me to use some other method of typing besides writing.
So there's the back story, now here's my question.
I need a device (not necessarily android, but a tablet is one of the main contenders) that can give me a solid writing experience (keyboard or bust, a keyboard cover/accessory will suffice, but NO on screen typing), offer an all day battery life, is portable and easy to store, and can also double as a media device. I am sort of on a budget, but am already in the market for a tablet so I'm willing to spend some extra $ on this. 600$- maybe $800, preferably less obviously.
Note, I probably won't have internet access during school, so DRM is out of the question.
So here are the candidates.
Chromebook - don't know what the stance on DRM is for these nowadays, but I would love a Chromebook as they are cheap, have nice typing experiences, and have great battery life. Again, if anybody can pitch in on DRM for the Chromebook that would be great. All I need for school is a writing supplement so a word editing software will work fine. I'm also aware that you can install Ubuntu on a Chromebook and Ubuntu has the libro office.
Android tablet - I love android, and was very close to buying the new shield tablet a few weeks ago. I'm glad I didn't because that device doesn't have many solid accessories currently, but a device like the nexus 7 probably does. However, the writing programs on android are really lackluster and don't offer the precision of a real laptop
Surface tablet - this one is kind of a long shot, but if for some reason the school requires a windows os (which could be possibly) I would choose this over a standard laptop because it doubles as a tablet.
Cheap windows laptop - this one is self explanatory, a cheap run of the mill windows laptop would type fine, but would be dead useless to me outside of school and I already have a laptop (a Toshiba satellite that is massive and has a terrible battery life) for home. Also the tablet would probably be slow and have a terrible battery... and yeah, windows.
So there you go. Thank you for reading this, this is very important for me right now as starting school again has out me in a tremendous amount of pain from writing, and I would love to find a solid supplement that meats all of my goals.
Thanks,
William
Does anybody here have a keyboard accessory for an android tablet that they could recommend?
Bump :/
Hi,
I'm sorry I don't have any answer to your question, but since you're on the topic of typing and nerve damage, I thought I'll let you know about the Typematrix keyboards (http://www.typematrix.com/) that offer physical, ergonomic-layout keyboards such as Dvorak, Colemak and BÉPO, which are all designed to ease the pain (and up the speed) of typing. Learning to (touch-)type efficiently takes 4-8 weeks depending on the layout and the keyboards themselves aren't cheap (= in the $100-120 range), but if you value your health, I think it's worth it. Plus, the washable silicon skins are über soft and silent as well ! ^^
(I'm not affiliated with Typematrix in any way, but I give kudos when deserved )
wtoj34 said:
Hello XDA, I don't often venture out of the branded device forums so here goes nothing.
I have chronic nerve damage in both of my arms (primarily right arm which is my writing hand). I am going back to school this year and the pain seems to be getting worse. The most painful thing for my arm is without a doubt writing, and I am filing for a 504 plan to allow me to use some other method of typing besides writing.
So there's the back story, now here's my question.
I need a device (not necessarily android, but a tablet is one of the main contenders) that can give me a solid writing experience (keyboard or bust, a keyboard cover/accessory will suffice, but NO on screen typing), offer an all day battery life, is portable and easy to store, and can also double as a media device. I am sort of on a budget, but am already in the market for a tablet so I'm willing to spend some extra $ on this. 600$- maybe $800, preferably less obviously.
Note, I probably won't have internet access during school, so DRM is out of the question.
So here are the candidates.
Chromebook - don't know what the stance on DRM is for these nowadays, but I would love a Chromebook as they are cheap, have nice typing experiences, and have great battery life. Again, if anybody can pitch in on DRM for the Chromebook that would be great. All I need for school is a writing supplement so a word editing software will work fine. I'm also aware that you can install Ubuntu on a Chromebook and Ubuntu has the libro office.
Android tablet - I love android, and was very close to buying the new shield tablet a few weeks ago. I'm glad I didn't because that device doesn't have many solid accessories currently, but a device like the nexus 7 probably does. However, the writing programs on android are really lackluster and don't offer the precision of a real laptop
Surface tablet - this one is kind of a long shot, but if for some reason the school requires a windows os (which could be possibly) I would choose this over a standard laptop because it doubles as a tablet.
Cheap windows laptop - this one is self explanatory, a cheap run of the mill windows laptop would type fine, but would be dead useless to me outside of school and I already have a laptop (a Toshiba satellite that is massive and has a terrible battery life) for home. Also the tablet would probably be slow and have a terrible battery... and yeah, windows.
So there you go. Thank you for reading this, this is very important for me right now as starting school again has out me in a tremendous amount of pain from writing, and I would love to find a solid supplement that meats all of my goals.
Thanks,
William
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Dude
i guess there is many options to choose since the market is huge
i would suggest something like this : 10.1 Inch Tablet Pc Intel Atom Baytrail-T Z3735D 1.33Ghz Quad Core DDR3 2GB SSD 32GB Dual Cameras Ultrabook Win8 it comes as a tablet that you can attach to a base (proper qwerty keyboard and stand) 32gb storeage about $400
or this : samsung XE500T1C windows 8 Quad-core is equipped with a keyboard Bluetooth/WIFI *same kind of a deal but 64gb storage and more slick and "known" device about $600
and if you feel that you might need more than that here : Intel Core I5 + 4G DDR3 + 128GB SSD+ Bluetooth+3G * this one is about $730
also since u have one m8 you can have look at the app i use for documents WPS Office: PPT, DOC, XLS, PDF
and here u have a solution in case you would like to get any other tablet SEARCH FOR TABLET CASES WITH KEYBOARD
all these links work but i mainly gave them as examples since you might be able to get them devices locally/cheaper
Specifically, I'm curious about the RAM since there isn't much info about the minimum requirements about ram.
A little background info:
I have bought myself a second hand laptop, a Thinkpad R61. I plan to use it as a portable workstation (sort of) since i can't carry my desktop anywhere I want, obviously.
The CPU is a Core2 duo t7700 2.4 GHz, and i plan to keep it. The hard drive is a 5400rpm 160gb hdd, which is going to be replaced with an ssd. The ram is difficult to decide, though. I have 2 gb ddr2 right now, and I can shove in 8 gb max but that's expensive. I'm planning to go for 2+2 kit, but i don't know if that's enough.
I don't care if the compilation will take a long time, i just need to know whether 4 gb total is enough.
Oh, and keep in mind that budget is tight. Thanks.
A T7700 is probably going to take a very long time. Even building a kernel on a Q9500 was over an hour in 2013.
Get the RAM if it's very cheap or free, but I'd honestly save the money and put away to buy a newer laptop.
In the long term you'll get a far better result.
You may honestly be better off looking at building on a remote machine. Several places (such as Amazon) will let you create a VM that you can connect to and run remotely. As long as you don't go crazy on that you may even be able to get that for free. If you can get that, far better to go that route and saving your hard earned cash for a new laptop.
garwynn said:
A T7700 is probably going to take a very long time. Even building a kernel on a Q9500 was over an hour in 2013.
Get the RAM if it's very cheap or free, but I'd honestly save the money and put away to buy a newer laptop.
In the long term you'll get a far better result.
You may honestly be better off looking at building on a remote machine. Several places (such as Amazon) will let you create a VM that you can connect to and run remotely. As long as you don't go crazy on that you may even be able to get that for free. If you can get that, far better to go that route and saving your hard earned cash for a new laptop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, using a cloud service is what I am thinking lately. I think I might benefit from the uni's agreement on Azure, if there is such thing.
The laptop is fine actually despite it's age, the classic thinkpad keyboard is great, the whole thing is usable with win8.1 x86.
Sent from my Sony Xperia Z1 using XDA Labs
Howdy ya'll.
I have a month old Duet 5. The screen broke because its dumbass owner is a clutz.
I'm currently living in Cambodia, and finding a new display at a reasonable price is not as easy as I hoped.
I had originally planned for this to be a mobile consumption device that I would use to remote into a more advanced machine when needed while on the go. *sad trombone*
Anyways, I'm trying to repurpose this as a sedentary device, but finding its limitations are making this nearly impossible. Even though it has a 64 chip, Google saw fit to bestow it with 32 bit CHROMEOS.
I want to use Linux containers, but can't get 64bit. I'm trying to find a tutorial to dump CHROMEOS, and replace it with Linux, but nothing I have found works with the Arm processor.
Should anybody have any knowledge of anything that could help adjust this situation so that it is less calamitous for me, I would forever be in your debt, or at least a beer should you come to Phnom Phen.