Is My Computer Good Enough for Programming?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Icaraeus

Icaraeus

Honorable
Oct 9, 2013
2,566
0
13,460
I'm starting a programming course at my college (when I return in 1 week from semester break) and I was wondering if my PC is good enough for coding and stuff. Would I benefit from adding something like an extra 8GB of RAM (4x4GB - 16GB total) or is my 8GB good enough?

Next year as part of the course I'm apparently game programming with C# or something so I was wondering if my PC is good enough for that as well.
 
Solution
wildfire707
For a programming course it will be fine. If you plan on doing heavy duty development with large projects in the future, I would recommend using the normal hard drive or an SSD that you feel can take the amount of writes that will occur.

I am a conservative sort on that front, so (as I mentioned before) I am using my TLC SSD (Samsung EVO) for my operating system and an MLC based SSD (Crucial) for my projects.
Sort by date Sort by votes
wildfire707

wildfire707

Distinguished
Dec 29, 2011
759
1
19,660
Welcome to the world of programming! I do this for a living :)

For this kind of development, memory size, processor speed and disk speed are the main issues. 8GB should be fine for school projects and small group projects, but tough for game development using game engines.

Your CPU is an excellent choice, as it is both quad core and fast.

The larger the project (and number of files), the more disk speed plays a factor. My main concern for your development is the size and type of your SSD. I run an 840 EVO for my operating system, but I have my projects on a higher endurance (MLC rather than the 840 EVO's TLC) SSD as I am worried about wearing it out.

Personally, I think that if you keep your projects on the normal hard drive, you should probably upgrade to a Caviar Black drive (if you keep doing this). They last a long time and are some of the fastest non-SSD drives out there. If you plan on making this your career, an MLC or SLC based SSD is a good choice.

Good luck!
 
Upvote 1 Downvote
Icaraeus

Icaraeus

Honorable
Oct 9, 2013
2,566
0
13,460
I'll probably upgrade to 16GB RAM next year anyways so as long as 8GB of RAM is enough for now I think it should be good.

I mainly use my SSD as a boot drive. Is there much benefit over using an SSD to store project files over the mechanical 7200RPM HDD? If ever I think I'll get another HDD anyways over an SSD as SSD's are quite expensive and I live in Australia so everything here is even more expensive, unless there is a big benefit over programming with an SSD? What would be sufficient storage space for it assuming I get another HDD, 1 or 2TB? I don't really use much space at all on my computer. Assuming I get another HDD (or SSD) would I be better keeping them separate or putting them in some sort of RAID? I don't know too much about RAID so idk.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
wildfire707

wildfire707

Distinguished
Dec 29, 2011
759
1
19,660
The benefit to having your storage drive be an SSD is speed, speed, and speed. I converted from a Western Digital 1TB Caviar Black to a Crucial 512GB SSD (not the fastest SSD) and my project rebuilds on a 600 file project (work project) went down from 15 minutes to 35 seconds!

Keep in mind that you usually only have to do a complete project rebuild when you first get the source or change compiler settings. Most of the time you can do an incremental build (only a few files).

Like I mentioned before, this only makes a noticeable difference on large projects. Anything with only a few source files would show an improvement, but not a huge one.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
wildfire707

wildfire707

Distinguished
Dec 29, 2011
759
1
19,660
For a programming course it will be fine. If you plan on doing heavy duty development with large projects in the future, I would recommend using the normal hard drive or an SSD that you feel can take the amount of writes that will occur.

I am a conservative sort on that front, so (as I mentioned before) I am using my TLC SSD (Samsung EVO) for my operating system and an MLC based SSD (Crucial) for my projects.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom