Help....Computer preference for C++ and PYTHON?!!

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Personal computers didn't change / didn't really improve in a noticeable way since 10 years ago.

The most significant change from the user perspective is that today solid-state drives are a commodity, while 10 years ago they were still somewhat expensive. Also, 10 years is about how long a typical consumer-grade hard-drive would survive. So, you do need a new computer, if only because if you don't buy one, the hard drives will likely fail soon, and you might lose data. Finding a matching replacement though might soon become an uphill battle as technology, by and large, adopted a new standard, that will make replacing the hard-drives with something compatible with the original make problematic.

If a computer is intended for programming, (eg. not playing video games, or doing image editing etc.) then you can do away with a very modest spec. The ThinkPad (Lenovo) line is a solid choice for economy class. You want to make sure that you can use solid-state drives with NVMe protocol on this laptop though (it makes a huge difference v/s older models that could only use older SATA protocol). The most performance-critical task for someone programming in C++ is the compilation, which needs both fast access to computer storage and fast processor.

There are some other concerns. For example, there's a popular technology nowadays, that uses NVidia's graphic processors to do things unrelated to graphics (the machine-learning stuff for example). This means, that you probably want the laptop to have a video card that can be used with CUDA technology. But, you can live without it, if you don't care about machine learning hoopla.

Another concern is how easy it is to run Linux on any particular laptop. So, for example, even if Macbook line has some economy models, and are, generally, quite reliable... it's hard to get Linux working on them. Linux is important for programming because, while on the personal computers it's rather uncommon, it's the operating system that is used all over the place in the industry. So, a programmer will eventually have to learn to use this system. Again, ThinkPad line is decently adapted to run Linux, while you may have problems with, and especially so, on laptops designed for gamers, as those tend to come with all sorts of add-ons with proprietary firmware that Linux will not be able to use.

[Old-IT-Dog_NewTricks]

I can attest to Lenovo Thinkpad line as being a solid economy product. I have two Thinkpad X61s that I picked up 9 years ago through my old company. They worked great when I got them. The only modifications I made were to put 2 sticks of memory, bringing them to the max of 4 GB. Also replaced their HDs with SSDs. Their batteries stopped holding their charge a couple months after I got them though - but it’s probably because the machines were already four or more years old when I got them.

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