I usually work on a home-built Linux machine (which handily dual-boots to Windows 10 for gaming). Most of the hardware is around 6 years old, though the graphics card is recent. It looks like this:
6-core (12 with hyperthreading) Haswell i7.
64G RAM
A bunch of SSDs, plus a spinning metal oxide storage device for nearline storage.
An nVidia 2060 (and, confusingly, also a 660 Ti).
Three 2.5K screens, one in portrait format.
Roccat keyboard and mouse.
The most important thing? Memory. 64G is a ridiculous amount of memory, but I find I can sacrifice everything but memory on a workstation.
I was an early adopter on multiple CPUs - had a pair of Opterons when they came out, for instance - but everyone has several cores these days. The graphics card is just for fun - originally the machine had a pair of 660 Tis, mostly because I thought one wouldn't let me plug in the three screens I had at the time, but actually not only did the 660 Ti drive three on its own, but it did so even when I upgraded to three 2.5K screens. The 2060 really is for gaming (and I let PhysX use the other 660 Ti).
I switched to SSDs early as well, but I could handle running on just one small cheap one easily enough. The others are just... well, nice.
But memory? I do a lot of heavyweight data processing and server development. I've never come close to running out of memory on 64G, but I've gone over 32G several times over the past few weeks alone. Twenty years ago, when most machines had perhaps 4M, mine had 40M, so merely having 64G is quite restrained for me (although it was less so when I built the machine).
When I'm on the road - and as a remote worker just starting on a new job, that's often - I switch platform to a Dell XPS 2-in-1.
Dell effectively give you a choice between a traditional laptop form factor and 32G, or a 2-in-1 with 16G. Given my addiction to memory, you'd think I'd go for the traditional form factor, but actually I find the 2-in-1 useful particularly when travelling - it handles plugging in an additional 4K screen perfectly well, and folding it into tent mode with an external keyboard suits the desktop space excellently.
This machine, too, is dual boot between Windows and Linux - but increasingly I do the bulk of my work when on the road in Windows. Yes, there's WSL 2, which helps me enormously, but mostly I find the machine performs more reliably, and in some cases better, when it's running Windows. A decade ago that'd be unthinkable - and more so to admit. But there we are. Loosely, Windows handles the laptop and tablet form factors better, and also appears to handle low-memory situations slightly more efficiently.
In any case, I found the 2-in-1 so good that my son now has one as well for his 18th.
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I usually work on a home-built Linux machine (which handily dual-boots to Windows 10 for gaming). Most of the hardware is around 6 years old, though the graphics card is recent. It looks like this:
6-core (12 with hyperthreading) Haswell i7.
64G RAM
A bunch of SSDs, plus a spinning metal oxide storage device for nearline storage.
An nVidia 2060 (and, confusingly, also a 660 Ti).
Three 2.5K screens, one in portrait format.
Roccat keyboard and mouse.
The most important thing? Memory. 64G is a ridiculous amount of memory, but I find I can sacrifice everything but memory on a workstation.
I was an early adopter on multiple CPUs - had a pair of Opterons when they came out, for instance - but everyone has several cores these days. The graphics card is just for fun - originally the machine had a pair of 660 Tis, mostly because I thought one wouldn't let me plug in the three screens I had at the time, but actually not only did the 660 Ti drive three on its own, but it did so even when I upgraded to three 2.5K screens. The 2060 really is for gaming (and I let PhysX use the other 660 Ti).
I switched to SSDs early as well, but I could handle running on just one small cheap one easily enough. The others are just... well, nice.
But memory? I do a lot of heavyweight data processing and server development. I've never come close to running out of memory on 64G, but I've gone over 32G several times over the past few weeks alone. Twenty years ago, when most machines had perhaps 4M, mine had 40M, so merely having 64G is quite restrained for me (although it was less so when I built the machine).
When I'm on the road - and as a remote worker just starting on a new job, that's often - I switch platform to a Dell XPS 2-in-1.
Dell effectively give you a choice between a traditional laptop form factor and 32G, or a 2-in-1 with 16G. Given my addiction to memory, you'd think I'd go for the traditional form factor, but actually I find the 2-in-1 useful particularly when travelling - it handles plugging in an additional 4K screen perfectly well, and folding it into tent mode with an external keyboard suits the desktop space excellently.
This machine, too, is dual boot between Windows and Linux - but increasingly I do the bulk of my work when on the road in Windows. Yes, there's WSL 2, which helps me enormously, but mostly I find the machine performs more reliably, and in some cases better, when it's running Windows. A decade ago that'd be unthinkable - and more so to admit. But there we are. Loosely, Windows handles the laptop and tablet form factors better, and also appears to handle low-memory situations slightly more efficiently.
In any case, I found the 2-in-1 so good that my son now has one as well for his 18th.