Stack Overflow Developer Desktop Build - 2019

One of the things we're big on at Stack Exchange is hardware - we love it. More importantly, we love not waiting on it. With that in mind, we upgrade our developer machines every 2 years. In case it helps anyone else, I'm posting our current parts list here. This isn't set in stone, we review and update it to the latest tech every time we build a machine. We also customize the build for each developer if needed - for example those needing extra space or specific display connections, etc. I'll try and keep this page updated as we make changes.

If you're wondering about laptops: yes, we use those too. You can buy what you want to work with. Most prefer a beefy desktop and a laptop to remote in, or switch their desktop and laptop refreshes every 2 years (alternating what they spend most on). I'd strongly advise waiting on a laptop right now. While the Dell XPS 9570 is a great machine (and my curent recommendation), a new XPS 15 with OLED screen and upgraded components will be released in March 2019. I suggest waiting a few months before purchasing a laptop!

Monitors are not on here because they're usually a separate purchase rarely made at the same time. Most of our developers started with 2-3x 30" Dell UP3017s (whatever the current 30" model is), but what they use today varies widely. Some prefer the LG 34" 21:9 UM95 widescreens for example. Lately, 4K and 5K are becoming more common. We're hoping some single-cable 5K monitors (DisplayPort 1.3+) start arriving, then they'll be practical too - right now they're a connectivity issue. Keyboards & mice are much more varied - the CODE keyboard quite a few devs use (yeah, we all have various switches) but everything is very much personal choice for looks, ergonomics, etc.

Make special note of the memory here. DDR4 is still changing, and it's shifting with every build we do. For the big memory users (VMs, SQL, redis clusters, machine learning, etc.), we are going with a 64GB setup. Why do we get 64GB? Because if you need more than 32GB it's relatively cheap compared to anything else to increase productivity. It's likely we'll see a bump to 128GB in a 4 DIMM setup possible in 2019, and hopefully our setup below will BIOS update to accomodate it. Regardless, the simpler config of the LGA 1151 platform is the choice this year. It's far cheaper and easier for us to support.

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