What computer should I get if I'm going to be a game programmer using C++?

I'm going to college in the fall and am taking game programming classes and working on side projects. I am kinda new to the programming stuff and need all the help I can get.

What computer should I get if I'm going to be a game programmer using C++?
Logical programming itself doesn't need much resource.


Any decent computer will do, and most of the college will provide lab computers where you can develop your projects. If you are going for graphical programming, then you'll need a much faster one with a high end graphic card, depending on how much 3D stuffs you are going to include in your project.


Also, remember that if you are in a college, most of your projects will more likely to run on school's server, so you don't even need a powerful computer, just a strong Internet connection to the server.





Here's a basic spec for normal programmer,


Pentium 4 3.2GHz or higher (Core 2 Duo, Quad Core, etc)


1GB RAM


80GB (or 40GB if you are not into downloading music. More if you want movies)


128MB GeForce 7800? (or higher) or Graphic card or some other equivalent of Radeon.


Any other add ons you want.
Reply:Well this is a very interesting question. All OS's have thier percs. If your sticking to just coding C++ for a game i would stick with Linux or Windows. If your going to do not only the C++ coding but the Design as well(3d animations, skins, ect...) I would look into purchasing a MAC. MAC's are the most powerfull multimedia OS out there, its what its built for. All proffesionals use MAC's for 3d/2d designing.
Reply:An hi end Apple 2GB RAM- with the newest osX - and a game development software package. - lots of options with the linux based OS
Reply:C++ is universally known, and there are compilers for every OS I can think of. I prefer Xcode on Macs.





Well, a desktop and a laptop are basically the same except for hardware and price. If you're programming, the hardware shouldn't matter, so you just have to decide how much you can spend
Reply:Any computer is fine just get a computer that is at least 1BG RAM, and 2GHz processor or higher. THat would be good for running processes and programs.