What's your software development hardware setup?

D

Dylan_G

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I will be starting a new job soon... and that job requires I provide my own laptop. So on the hunt and looking for ideas.

That lead me to wonder... what is everyone else running? I'll start:

Personal laptop: 15.6" Dell XPS 9560. i7 7700HQ. 16GB RAM. 512GB SSD. Nvidia GTX 1050.
(Outgoing) work laptop: 15.6" Dell Latitude 5520. i7 1185G7. 16GB RAM. 512GB SSD.
Monitors: 3x 27" Xceed monitors. 1080P (yes, I know).
Keyboard: Coolermaster QuickFire XT. Cherry MX Brown switches.
Mouse: Logitech MX Master 3.
Headphones: Samson SR850.
Dock: RCT Thunderbolt 3 docking station
 
I have a Dell XPS i7-1185G7 3ghz with 32GB ram, 1 TB NVMe. Logitech G903 mouse, Microsoft Natural Keyboard and Logitech camera . I only have built in Intel graphics.

Probably the most notable thing is that I have two Dell 43” 4K monitors (U4320Q), which are awesome.
 
Macbook pro with two external Dell 32" 4k USB-C monitors.
Mac mouse and keyboard
KRK Rokit 6" monitors for sound
 
Last edited:
Current job provided me with
A Dell Latitude 5511 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10850H CPU @ 2.70GHz, 32gb of ram.
And a Dell docking station with a 24 inch Dell monitor. I also have a Dell 27 inch 1440p monitor and a Filco mx brown TKL mechanical keyboard. Currently using a corsair katar pro mouse as I didn't want to go logitech again.

Work laptops tend to need to be very tied down/secure. So is this some sort of international remote work thing or are you contracting? Or are you going to be doing something like remoting into a dev machine on their side? That would mean you'd not need as powerful a laptop too.

Very odd for a dev job these days to not supply/pay and or instruct what you should be using. I'd consider this a red flag unless there's a very good reason.
 
Think you should take into account what kind of environment you need to run. I need a min of 32GB for my one job because I need to be able to run a whole bunch of dockerized microservices, databases and other containers. Also have two JetBrains IDEs (WebStorm and Rider).

I would personally recommend a 1440p curved ultrawide monitor! Such a pleasant experience.
 
Ryzen 5900x
32GB memory
1TB nvme Linux drive, partitioned appropriately
1TB nvme Windows drive, partitioned appropriately
32” 4K

Dell Precision 5510 with some skylake i7, 32GB that I use about twice a month
 
32" Asus 1440p monitor
Nuphy Air75 wireless mechanical keyboard
Magic Trackpad 2
Logitech MX Master 3
2x HomePods
AirPods Pro 2
HyperDrive 12-in-1 dock
16" MacBook Pro (M1 Pro, 32GB, 1TB)

Zoom gear:
Razer Seiren Mini mic
Logitech C922 Pro webcam
Some cheap ring light

The ring light makes a world of difference in looking good in video calls. My setup is miles from a pro streamer thing, but even as basic as that, it looks good and the audio quality for others is incredible. A webcam positioned quite high (on top of my 32" monitor) also makes a difference vs. a default laptop height. If I'm taking calls on laptop I'll use a stand to get the webcam higher up.

Ejeckt said:
Think you should take into account what kind of environment you need to run. I need a min of 32GB for my one job because I need to be able to run a whole bunch of dockerized microservices, databases and other containers. Also have two JetBrains IDEs (WebStorm and Rider).

I would personally recommend a 1440p curved ultrawide monitor! Such a pleasant experience.
Click to expand...
I'm considering a new monitor purchase.

Rather liking the look of the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9. As wide as two monitors side-by-side, supports two inputs for each half, good for gaming as well, 10-bit colour, colour accurate with calibration, excellent contrast etc.

radicalRaspberry said:
Real programmers use Linux and only arch, unless you are a pu&&y, then mint os will do.
Click to expand...
The Linux devs I know are slumming it with their desktop apps. No thanks.
 
axsis said:
So is this some sort of international remote work thing or are you contracting? Or are you going to be doing something like remoting into a dev machine on their side? That would mean you'd not need as powerful a laptop too.

Very odd for a dev job these days to not supply/pay and or instruct what you should be using. I'd consider this a red flag unless there's a very good reason.
Click to expand...

Correct, its contracting. Theres a good reason for not providing a laptop.

I'd want a powerful dev machine either way. And I think I'd hate working remotely on a dev server.
 
Ejeckt said:
Think you should take into account what kind of environment you need to run. I need a min of 32GB for my one job because I need to be able to run a whole bunch of dockerized microservices, databases and other containers. Also have two JetBrains IDEs (WebStorm and Rider).

I would personally recommend a 1440p curved ultrawide monitor! Such a pleasant experience.
Click to expand...
32GB of RAM is the only thing I'm sure of. Couple Chrome tabs, Intellij IDEA, MySQL workbench a docker container or two and suddenly 16GB RAM isn't enough.
 
axsis said:
Current job provided me with
A Dell Latitude 5511 Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10850H CPU @ 2.70GHz, 32gb of ram.
And a Dell docking station with a 24 inch Dell monitor. I also have a Dell 27 inch 1440p monitor and a Filco mx brown TKL mechanical keyboard. Currently using a corsair katar pro mouse as I didn't want to go logitech again.

Work laptops tend to need to be very tied down/secure. So is this some sort of international remote work thing or are you contracting? Or are you going to be doing something like remoting into a dev machine on their side? That would mean you'd not need as powerful a laptop too.

Very odd for a dev job these days to not supply/pay and or instruct what you should be using. I'd consider this a red flag unless there's a very good reason.
Click to expand...
My last employer locked my machine down so hard I could not open task manager to kill programs that had crashed. From boot, my machine ran at 25% CPU util constantly due to the multiple endpoint security apps, antivirus, anti-malware, disk encryption and other bloatware the admins installed. Access to Gmail, social media sites, and any sites that fell within their restricted word list were blocked, this included legitimate sites. They even blocked github :X3: I had no ability to install applications on my machine at all, in fact I couldn't update existing applications without logging a ticket with support. When I was first hired, I had the ability to print but that was removed when POPIA was put in place for the fear that I would print client information. Unsurprisingly there were very few productive employees at this org.
 
NUC8 i3 8GB + Samsung 28" 4K
...which I use to RDP into an i7 32GB machine (I break them, my third one in just under two years).

Works pretty well. The biggest con over having everything local is that you are totally dependent on your internet connection for working anywhere but in the office.

Commuting is easy as there is no need to carry a laptop around. Setup is stupidly easy - download company VPN client, connect and RDP to your machine.
 
Some not so new Dell i7 work issued laptop, a screen, not sure the size and a Microsoft mouse. I have never felt the need for elaborate setups. I also listen to music sometimes on my sonos behind the screen
 
phil77 said:
Some not so new Dell i7 work issued laptop, a screen, not sure the size and a Microsoft mouse. I have never felt the need for elaborate setups. I also listen to music sometimes on my sonos behind the screen
Click to expand...

I agree with this. I've tried a more elaborate multi screen and device setup. Doesn't work for me.

Best "setup" I ever had was a MacBook :D
 
Dylan_G said:
I will be starting a new job soon... and that job requires I provide my own laptop. So on the hunt and looking for ideas.

That lead me to wonder... what is everyone else running? I'll start:

Personal laptop: 15.6" Dell XPS 9560. i7 7700HQ. 16GB RAM. 512GB SSD. Nvidia GTX 1050.
(Outgoing) work laptop: 15.6" Dell Latitude 5520. i7 1185G7. 16GB RAM. 512GB SSD.
Monitors: 3x 27" Xceed monitors. 1080P (yes, I know).
Keyboard: Coolermaster QuickFire XT. Cherry MX Brown switches.
Mouse: Logitech MX Master 3.
Headphones: Samson SR850.
Dock: RCT Thunderbolt 3 docking station
Click to expand...
3x 27" monitors isn't enough. The minimum is 5 27" or 4 34".
 
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