It's 2014: Minimum developer laptop requirements for ASP.NET and WPF/Windows Store App work with Visual Studio 2013

Pretty often, developers ask me what kind of a development machine I would get for myself. Laptops are probably the most often-used types of devices because of their ability to travel light (though I personally prefer traditional desktop PCs because of their superior keyboards and bigger screens), so it's probably good to give guidance for this form-factor.

So, what would the specs be? For general-purpose, day-to-day Visual Studio, C# and ASP.NET/WPF work, I would say you need at least:

• Processor: Core i5, or better yet, i7
• Memory: 8 GB minimum, 16 GB would be better
• Disk: a SSD without doubt, 256 GB at least (128 GB is the bare minimum)
• Display: Full HD or better, touch if you at all can
• Keyboard: get one with backlighting (I like it dim)
• USB ports: get a device with at least two or three (one isn’t enough)
• SDHC card: personally, I install a large-enough (say 32 GB) SD card to all of my laptops, and encrypt them with BitLocker To Go. Useful for many things, including quick local backups when you cannot use the cloud or are not connected.
• Optional but recommended: integrated 3G/4G modem, DVD drive (or even a Blu-ray) if you need one, and a strong chassis (I prefer metal over plastic).

As for the software then? The latest, of course. :-) Remember BitLocker, too, and not only for the external memory card!