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Originally Posted by Narue
Finally, the one piece of hardware that everyone forgets: a super comfortable chair. Don't screw around with your butt rest, you'd be shocked at how much of a difference it can make to your morale, which in turn makes a difference in your productivity.
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QFT. My previous chair was one of those wooden 'Windsor back' chairs; it was fine for a while, but murder to use for long periods. My current one is a padded leather one that I find quite comfortable, and it wasn't expensive either (about a hundred bucks at Office Depot).
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Originally Posted by redfiretruck
As an extra note, how bad are laptops with programming? I mean, from what your saying the speed can actually have a huge burst (which i understand since when I run [even a small program] with Vb it takes 6-7 seconds to compile and an extra 3-4 to actually show it xD.
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I use a laptop. If you're going to school, the ability to bring your work to class and home without having to fuss about with copying between your machine and the school computers cannot be overstated. It's so convenient, and this helps productivity. It also means you can configure your machine to your liking, which is often not possible on school machines (these often have many configuration options restricted for security, and sometimes don't even save your settings beyond the current session). Lastly, you can go somewhere else if you need a change of scenery while you're working, which is nice. Don't knock the ability to do your work in the library, cafeteria, or even outside.
Don't worry about a laptop not being powerful enough, at least not at this stage in the game. Mine is a couple years old, and it's never been a problem. It's a Sempron (the AMD answer to Celeron, but unlike Celeron, it doesn't suck) running at 2GHz with one gig of RAM, and an 80-gig HD (kinda small, but like I said, it's a couple of years old). Power might become an issue if you're using a lot of tools simultaneously, or compiling massive amounts of code; neither of these is likely to be true for you for quite a while, as you're just starting out. Even still, laptops have come a long way, and the benefits more than outweigh any drawbacks in most cases.
As an added benefit, a laptop often offers a cheap and easy way to get the dual-monitor experience. Most modern laptops allow you to connect a monitor, and use it as a second display rather than a clone of the primary. In other words, each screen can display different stuff. This kind of setup is handy for debugging, especially when the application in question uses a lot of screen real estate (any fullscreen app fits the bill here).
[edit] I almost forgot. If you do get a laptop, invest in a quality case for it too. Even if the case is a little expensive, it's worth it to protect your laptop. I recommend one of those hard-sided briefcase-like cases, as it offers more protection than a laptop bag. Make sure it's large enough to fit the computer, power supply, mouse, mousepad, and other accessories you might need. If it can hold books as well, then that's a definite plus. My only regret regarding my case is that it's kind of a tight fit, and I can't fit any texts inside of it; this made transit to and from class a bit more awkward than it needed to be. [/edit]