Hey everyone! I've been thinking about diving into coding, but I need a plan. I've decided to sell my current PC since it's a major distraction for me. In the meantime, I have an old PC collection with plenty of parts to set up a computer and install Linux on it for learning purposes.
My concern is figuring out the system requirements for coding languages. How old can my parts be? I can build something from the early to late 2000s, with options like Pentium 4s and Core 2 Duos on the Intel side, and a few Athlon CPUs on the AMD side.
I want to know how much RAM I should have and whether a graphics card is necessary for coding. I have up to 2GB DDR RAM to work with, and I'm trying to decide on the best Linux distro to use since older Windows versions are off the table. My current thought is to use an old motherboard with a Pentium 4 (3.2 extreme edition) or a Core 2 Duo (E8500) paired with 4GB DDR2 RAM. I'm just looking for something reliable for learning and practice. Any advice?
1 Answer
Honestly, if you're not planning on doing mobile development or anything super resource-heavy, an old computer like a 10-year-old Dell should be just fine. You definitely don’t need to rush into buying a fancy new rig yet—you might want to see if coding is really for you first. As for your OS choice, whether you go with Windows, Linux, or MacOS, you should be good to go! Just consider WSL if you go Windows, to keep things tidy.
That makes sense! If he’s aiming for the least distractions, maybe Mac would be better, but Linux is still a solid pick if you’re not too into configuration hassles.