Coding is so much more pleasurable on my 24 inch IPS dell monitor than it ever was the laptop. I also know some developers who swear by their 28 inch screen monitors.<p>I was using a Thinkpad for about 8 years before I got myself an Intel NUC (i7 processor, 128GB SSD and 16GB RAM) for a total cost of under $800 (if I recall correctly). The Intel NUC is literally half the size of the Macbook mini and was a breeze to put together.