Hi, My current job will be ending and I need to purchase my own computer. What should I get?

[abqdiane]

HI,  My current programming job will be ending.  The company is closing down. I may be doing some freelance work, but I've always had a work computer, so I'm not sure what I should look for in a new computer.  Any suggestions?

thanks,

Diane

[PaigeMiller]

Is this a question about SAS?

[abqdiane]

Yes. Sorry I should have been more specific. I hope to do some freelance
SAS projects so I will need to be able to connect to a data warehouse and
to access their base SAS or other SAS environment m

[Kurt_Bremser]

If it is only for use as a client, any current laptop will do. Having a SSD as the main storage device is convenient, especially for fast startup.

If you prefer Apple Macs, use Chrome to access SAS Studio. Safari does not support all features of Studio.

If you see the need to use Enterprise Guide in the future, Windows (at least in a partition) is needed.

[abqdiane]

Thanks

[abqdiane]

Thanks - every answer has helped me in my decision.

[Reeza]

You'll be remoting in so your network speed is more important. No work will really be happening on your laptop/desktop so those resources are less important.

For myself, I recommend, 16/32 GB RAM, 500GB SSD minimum and best processor I can afford in that budget.

GPU is not really important.  

[AhmedAl_Attar · Accepted solution]

Hi @abqdiane 

If you are asking about what's a suitable desktop/laptop specification to learn/run SAS programs, then you have to evaluate your options based on

• Running SAS for free (https://welcome.oda.sas.com/) : Focus on your Internet provider and your bandwidth rather than computer spec.
• Running SAS locally on your computer: Focus on SAS license Fees and check this SAS link https://support.sas.com/en/documentation/system-requirements.html

Hope this helps

[abqdiane]

Thanks for your help. Everyone has been helpful.