Hello and welcome back to another Coding Tricks video. In today’s video we are going to be answering a question that is, quite commonly asked. “Does Programming Require a Powerful Computer”.
Basic Answer
So, for a basic answer, the answer is no. You do not really need a powerful computer.
When you are programming you are constantly going between your project, the projects code and you are constantly having to switch screens. But the nice thing about programming is that it is super simple and all you are doing is switching between text files. This means that in all reality, your computer, would not be doing a whole lot and so if you bought a powerful computer, then it would be more of a waste of money than anything. Heck, you can even use a laptop if you want.
My Computer’s
If you have been following me for a while now, you would know that I do a lot of programming. And so, a lot of people would expect that I have a good computer, but to be honest, my computer that I have is a simple computer that is running off an old i5-3450s processor.
In fact, this is the computer that I started programming on. Its literally an old laptop that is running Windows Vista on it. So that just goes to show that with some things, you don’t need anything super powerful.
What You Really Need (instead of all that expensive stuff)
So, with specs I would say to have an i5 5th gen or higher processor, about 8gb of ram and running either the latest Windows, MacOS, or if you really need to Linux (preferred Debian or Ubuntu).
So instead of spending a whole ton of money on a computer, I’d say the most important thing would be to have a big, high resolution screen, or two. And I would try to have the most comfortable keyboard that you can get. You are going to be typing a lot and so you are going to want something that your hands are comfortable on. And with the screen you are going to want to be able to see all your code and your project and a lot of times people will have a vertical screen so they can see their code easier.
However, some things require better computers
Now, this isn’t always the case. There are some things that you are going to want a decently powerful computer on. Such as, if you are making games, kind of how Minecraft is running off of Java, or if you are controlling entire servers and API’s. Then you probably want something that will have good ram and be able to handle all the output at the same time. But overall, even then, you don’t really need a very powerful computer.
In The End
So, in the end, I would say that you don’t really need a powerful computer, just have a good screen and keyboard and that should work pretty good for you. But just as a side note, it might be worth it for you to have a good SSD and dual boot Ubuntu and Windows (unless you are developing for iOS). This is just because a lot of developers use Linux because they use the scripts and command lines, so, just enjoy the code and if you have any questions, let me know in the comments.
Thanks
Thanks for reading my blog. It means a lot to me. If you have any questions put them in the comments please. Please be sure to watch the video that this script goes alongside with, it is below. Once again, thanks.